India Cafe, Honolulu

When you have a birthday coming up, how far ahead to you start thinking about where you want to have your birthday dinner? For me, I start thinking about it maybe 3 to 4 weeks prior to the day. And in the case of my younger brother, he also had his sights set for quite a while on somewhere in particular…India Cafe.

It’s nothing compared to a birthday dinner at let’s say Le Bistro, but he did choose wisely. His goal, to introduce the rest of us to one of his favorite lunch places.

You see, whenever he had suggested India Cafe for past dinners, everyone would basically shoot the idea down and we’d end up eating somewhere else. But he knew for his birthday, whatever he chose we pretty much had to agree with. Very smart. And I’m glad he chose this restaurant because for some reason, I guess fear of the unknown, I would’ve never gone there on my own.

Okay, on to the evening. We ordered a lot of food that night because we were there with a fairly large group. In addition to our family we also invited our Tokyo friends (the ones that made the shabu shabu the other night) and also two new friends from Tokyo, another couple visiting from Japan. So we had four Tokyoites, my parents, the two of us, and my younger brother.

And here again is what we ordered…

Going clockwise from the upper left we had Naan (North Indian flatbread), Chicken Curry (whole pieces of chicken thighs in a mild red curry sauce), Spinach Tofu Korma (tofu in a creamy spinach sauce), Jasmine Rice, Lamb Masala (slow cooked lamb in a mild South Indian curry sauce), and Potato Masala (slow cooked with cloves and cinnamon).

My brother’s favorites: Chicken Curry, Spinach Tofu Korma, and Potato Masala.
My favorites: Lamb Masala, Chicken Curry, Naan, Potato Masala

So now that the unknown is now known…what do I think? A little pricey but the food was tasty. I’m definitely glad we tried it out.

India Cafe
Address: 1016 Kapahulu Ave., Honolulu, Hawaii 96816
Located in Kilohana Square
Phone: (808) 737-4600