$20 Fancy Indian Buffet Food, For Under $10 at Utsav

In Midtown there is no shortage of fancy Indian all you can eat Buffets.  I’d love to try them, but I can’t justify shelling out $13, $15 or $18 for all you can eat Indian food when there’s Sukhadia for $10.95 and my new favorite Spice Fusion for $9.95 available.  Sure, the quality of the food at some of these super expensive *may* be better (that is not totally confirmed), but it’s just not worth the extra money.

Utsav, a fancy Indian buffet on 47th btw. 6+7th, solves that problem with a little take out section in the bar area of their $17.95 all you can eat buffet.  For $7.95 or $9.95 you get a lunch size sampling of what the fat cats upstairs are shelling out $18 for- and it’s pretty damn good.

What you get, and a +/- after the jump…

Utsav is actually one of those restaurants that resides “underneath” a Midtown building, accessible through an outdoor tunnel that runs through the ground floor.  The Utsav tunnel is accessible from 47th or 46th St. and you’ll see signs on both sides pointing you in towards the restaurant.  The buffet is on the second floor, but the “take out” area is actually just to the left of the bar when you first walk in.

They only have two vegetable items and two meat items on the steam table each day, and there are only two combo choices.  Two vegetables with rice, lentils, salad and naan for $7.95, or One Vegetable & One Meat with rice, lentils, salad and naan for $9.95.  $10 is alot for Indian lunch, especially with the $9.95 Spice Fusion Buffet two avenues away, and Minareven closer- but after the trying the food I was surprised not only by the quality, but how much food you get for your money… and if you work nearby maybe you don’t want to walk all the way to the buffet, or deal with the pandemonium of Minar.

I went with the one meat, one vegetable lunch deal- and chose the lamb, and the saag (spinach).  Both were incredibly flavorful, and a much higher quality then you find at many cheaper Indian places in Midtown.  We were lucky enough to be the only people at the steam table when we walked in, but with only one guy spooning out the food, and taking the money, a line quickly grew while he served us.  I can definitely see this becoming a problem, depending on what time you show up.

The naan was also delicious, with a beautiful oily sheen (you might say the secret ingredient is fat).  When they first spooned the food into the tray, I was thinking “this really isn’t a lot of food for $10”, but 2/3 of the way through eating the meal I realized my eyes were way bigger than my stomach.  They really fit a lot of lamb into that little square of the tray, and after the thick, and creamy saag and the whole piece of naan, I was stuffed.  I had a small bit of the lentils, but it was just all too much.  Embarrassingly, I gave up, even leaving two piece of lamb behind (the big money item!!!).   It shames me to do it, but in the interest of full disclosure, here’s what was left over from my meal…

Utsav is a good choice if you’re looking for “quality” Indian food to-go, in a less hectic environment than Minar (which is total pandemonium).  I’m not sure who gives you more food (Minar obviously has more choice), but I was more than satisfied with my lunch.  At $9.95, it seems more expensive- but Minar forces you to choose between rice and bread, so if you want both, you end up paying almost $10 anyway.  For variety, value, and a place to sit, nothing really beats Minar- but for quality, it’s nice every once in awhile to get to eat some food from a place where the fancy pants people eat.

THE +

  • Take out Indian, for under $10, from an expensive Indian Restaurant
  • The food is very high quality
  • You get naan and bread (plus a little couple of lentils)
  • It doesn’t look like it (to a fat guy like me), but it’s a lot of food

THE –

  • Spice Fusion is $9.95, all you can eat, and only a few avenues away
  • Minar is a Midtown Lunch standard, and only half a block away
  • There’s not alot of variety.  Only two vegetable choices, and two meat choices each day.
  • They don’t give you raita (yogurt sauce)
  • You are not allowed to sit in their bar area (even though there are empty seats).  It’s take out only
  • There’s only one guy working the steam table, and taking money- so if a line forms, it may take awhile (maybe he calls for reinforcements???)

Utsav, 1185 Ave. of the Americas (btw. 6+7th Ave., btw. 46+47th St., 212-575-2525

24 Comments

  • thanks again! This is across the street so a quick option today. Just what I needed with the chemical explosion in our building on the 45th floor delaying building entry today at lunchtime.
    It was delicious. I got the veggie option. It was a lot of food for $8-something including tax.

    This is a wonderful little secret. Noone was at the lunch-to-go counter. Same food as the pricey restaurant upstairs, but quicker, cheaper. Cool.

  • Someone start something like this for the Bay area please. The closest I came to food reviews is this place called http://www.e4d5.com/
    Don’t go by the interface which looks like a child of three doodled, and did not do good.
    And now I am hungry..

  • A note to those who eat late lunches, like me: the downstairs buffet is only open until 2pm. I showed up at 2:15 – the nice gentleman took pity on me and brought me the goods from upstairs, but I wouldn’t count on him to do it again.

    I was looking especially pathetic – besides the cold wet day, Minar was closed! for the day due to a gas problem. I couldn’t decide whether to go on a Godzilla-style rampage or curl up on the sidewalk and die. I wasn’t the only one either – when I was walking back from Utsav I counted three more hollow-eyed paneer junkies lingering around the sign in a stunned trance. The sign said something about their other location on 53rd (54th?), but that is not good enough. They need multiple redundant backups, on-site, or there will be naan riots.

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    Based on this site’s tip, I went for the takeout lunch at Utsav. Since the write-up 7.5 years ago, the take-out price has gone up to $11.95. This includes rice, naan, salad, dal, and two entrees. I had the paneer makhani and some chicken dish which was too dry to be edible. The paneer, dal and naan were all very good.

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