Malgudi Edison Review

Address:

Malgudi

Edison, NJ 08820

Other Oak Tree Road Restaurants

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Malgudi Edison: Very Good Food

Malgudi is shaping up to offer stiff competition to Oak Tree Road Indian buffet kings Moghul and Rasoi.

Malgudi Edison - Good Lunch Buffet

Located behind Dunkin Donuts on Oak Tree Road, this Indian restaurant offers an excellent lunch buffet on week days for $9.95.

Malgudi serves an extensive array of South Indian and North Indian dishes that span both vegetarian and meat items.

We counted 13 items on the main buffet table, excluding the Rasam soup, appetizers (Alu Tikki & Onion Bhajias), salads and dessert.

The Salad table featured Rajma and Channa salads. We heartily recommend the Channa salad.

Hungry as we were, our attention quickly wandered to the main Buffet table.

The Buffet Table was a cornucopia of dishes including Chappa Pulusu, Chicken Tikka, Tandoori Chicken, Chicken Makhani, Chicken Biryani, Rasam, Saag Paneer, Baingan Masala, Pancharangni Dal, Chennai Vegetable Stew, Munda Mandi Pappu Koora, Upma and Channa Masala.

We tasted all the items on the main course except the Chappa Pulusu.

While we found the Chennai Vegetable Stew tasty, it was a bit lukewarm.

Rasam, Alu Tikki and Pancharangni Dal were above par but Upma was so-so with small mounds of uncooked rava here and there.

Seriously, we think the folks at Malgudi ought to patent their recipe for Rasam. It's that good.

Chicken Makhani and Tandoori Chicken seemed to have been prepared with care and were absolutely divine as were the vegetarian dishes Saag Paneer and Baingan Masala.
Chicken Biryani, an old favorite of ours, gave no cause for complaint. We dug into each chicken piece buried in the rice with gusto.

Malgudi Edison - Masala Tea, Mango Lassi

Masala Tea ($2.50) was good but Mango Lassi ($3.00) lacked flavor and tasted more like Mango juice than a lassi. Both Masala Tea and Mango Lassi are not part of the buffet and we ordered them separately.

Malgudi Edison - Disappointing Rice Kheer

The other disappointment was the Rice Kheer. The Kheer was barely sweet but the Gulab Jamun amply compensated for the Kheer's failings. With just the right hardness, the Jamuns floated in sweet syrup that tasted out of this world. We returned to the dessert table for a second helping of the heavenly Jamuns.

Malgudi Edison Rating

Our few grievances notwithstanding, Malgudi serves one of the tastiest Indian lunch buffets we have had in a long while. No surprise then that the place was crowded for lunch on a weekday.

We were surprised however when our waiter told us to that Indian style Coffee was not available at Malgudi. Come on, an Indian restaurant that does not serve Indian-style Coffee. This is ridiculous.

When we asked for the menu, our waiter looked like a deer caught in the headlights of a car and mumbled that we couldn't order a la carte. But when we mentioned Lassi, he said that's okay and quickly got us the menu cards.

When we asked for Take-Out Menus cards, our waiter said the restaurant had run out of them! Strange, indeed.

Tired as we were of the same old, bland buffets at most Indian restaurants, Malgudi revived our faith in Indian buffets.

Including the Mango Lassi, Masala Tea and two lunch buffets, our total bill came to $27.18.

Since we went in for a buffet, our exposure to service was limited but reasonable.

The year-old Malgudi is owned by the Savera Hotels Group of Chennai.

All in all, we were happy with Malgudi's food and left the restaurant in the certainty that we would return soon.- © OakTreeRoad.us