Bukhara Indian Bistro – Wayzata, MN

 

I’ve been in the mood for Indian food for a few weeks now and I finally managed to buckle down a day to have lunch with M. and Trash Giant. I had read about Bukhara on the internet and didn’t see a lot of reviews. It was close enough to hit during the lunch hour, so I made them meet me there.

It’s got a lunch buffet, and that’s what we needed. They’ve got a pretty good sized buffet with many options for vegetarians (like Trash). We all loaded up our plates and headed back to gorge ourselves. The servers had brought a basket of naan to our table for us, so you really don’t need to get any from the buffet, but you can if you want. I did, only because I was unsure if my dining companions had ordered a special kind of naan and weren’t sharing.

There are a lot of things to choose from. Chickpea battered fried cheese, fish pakora, Matar Paneer, Paneer Makhani, Beef in a curry sauce, Chicken Tikka Masala, Tandori Chicken, yellow lentils, tofu masala, biryani rice, and a few other things I can’t remember off the top of my head.

I started with the deep fried cheese, but I was immediately disappointed with the lack of salt in the cheese. I really love chickpea batter, but if whatever it’s coating isn’t delicious too, it’s a waste. There wasn’t much flavor in the cheese, sadly. The paneers were both just a little bland. Im not sure if they’ve been sitting there a while, or just not seasoned enough for my palate, but I couldn’t tell the difference between many of the dishes. In fact, even the vegetarian couldn't tell the difference betwen the tofu and the cheese. The curry beef was one of the better tasting dishes, as were the yellow lentils (and those generally don’t have much flavor at most places). The naan was fine, but I think that’s difficult to mess up – it’s basically a mechanism for me to scoop things, and sop up juices on my plate afterwards anyway.

I tried a few different things when I went up the second time, but it was pretty much the same result (you can see the missing spot where I dove into my beef curry before remembering to take a photo – hahahaha). The second plate was also pretty lack luster.

I finished the meal with some kheer (which thankfully, they had). It was fine – nothing special, but it isn’t a hugely flavorful dessert anyway. I liked it just fine though (both bowls that I ate…).

I’m not planning any trips back here to Bukhara anytime soon. It wasn’t the best showing, even for a buffet. There are other Indian buffets I need to try!

Top 5 things about Bukhara

1. Beef Curry

2. Yellow Lentils

3. Kheer

4. Super-fast service

5. Many items to try

Bottom 5 things

1. Chickpea battered cheese – paneer pakora
2. Matar Paneer
3. Paneer Makhani
4. Tandori Chicken
5. It’s kind of a pain to get to

www.bukharamn.com