3063 Woodman Drive
Kettering, OH 45420
937.296.9200
website
A restaurant that serves the south Dayton suburb of Kettering, Ajanta India Restaurant is the local eatery if you’re craving Indian cuisine. Offering a wide variety of dishes from across numerous styles of Indian cooking, this spot is best known for its buffet for lunch and dinner, as well as the full-service high-quality dishes. This place serves only Indian food, and a good many of the dishes you try here can’t be found anywhere else. This spot is a memorable one.
The restaurant features a wide variety of Indian dishes and cooking techniques, many of which can’t be found anywhere else. Some of these are available at lunch and dinner for when you’ve got a serious craving. Otherwise plenty of other dishes to be had for a full-service meal.
- Chicken Jalfrezi: Marinated chicken fried in oil and spices and with a thick and spicy sauce. This one is significantly more savory and has a higher spice factor, but the big chunks of white chicken are good.
- Chicken Matar: A chicken dish stir-fried in a tomato-based sauce and served up with lots of peas. This is a sweeter dish in the end, the spiciness is a bit lighter. Still good, though.
- Garlic Naan: A flatbread topped with spinach and a ton of great minced garlic. This one is easy to dip in countless sauces. Great.
- Aloo Bhindi: This dish features okra and potatoes cooked with onions, curry and spices producing a very sharp flavor. A strong and filling vegetarian dish. But it does dry out in the buffet.
- Saag paneer: A dish that features fresh cheese cubes and spinach. Cooked with cream and spices until the cheese is soft and the veggies wilted. Another good veggie side dish, but get it fresh if you can, because if it over-cooks (or sits in the buffet too long) it gets a bit soggy.
- Chicken tikka masala: Of course a long-time favorite in the West. The Ajanta version is great when it’s spicy.
The restaurant offers a very comfortable experience; its buffet service lets you go up and grab food at your own pace with about 15 or so dishes offered at any one time. It also offers full-service on nights the buffet isn’t open. Price points are about on par with other kinds of meals you can find in town, which isn’t bad when we’re talking about foods made with spices that are often hard to find.
All told, Ajanta can be hard to spot, but it’s a dive worth a visit, and that food is a really quality introduction to Indian cuisine. Give it a try!
Recommendations
- The buffet is the best choice for a meal on a budget, but it isn’t always open. Check times on that one and go when they are busier and replacing food quickly.
- The website features coupons if you are dining for meals. Consider using them.
- Bring adventurous friends! This cuisine is exclusively Indian.
Another Food Critic 