Best Indian Restaurants in Ann Arbor

Ann Arbor has fourteen Indian kitchens and one real trap. Decades of University of Michigan demand built a deep bench here, split cleanly between fast South Indian dosa counters, sit-down North Indian rooms with a bar, and a Himalayan wing that most roundups skip. But the thing every other list still gets wrong is the buffet: the one everybody recommends is not currently running. Here is the whole picture, with hours checked on 28 September 2026, and the buffet question answered first, because that is what people are actually searching for.

The Ann Arbor Indian buffet situation, September 2026

The lunch buffet is the most-asked question about Indian food in this town, and the answer has changed. Take these in order.

Taste of India Suvai is the reliable sit-down buffet. It runs seven days a week at 217 South State Street, which no one else on this list does. Lunch service is Monday through Friday 11:30am to 3pm and Saturday and Sunday noon to 3:30pm, then the kitchen switches to the full menu at 5pm. The restaurant advertises the buffet on its own site and the weekday price is published at $14.99, with weekends higher. The weekend figure is quoted inconsistently across listing sites, so confirm it at the door rather than trusting a screenshot.

Earthen Jar is the buffet if you want to control the bill. At 311 South Fifth Avenue it is a vegetarian and vegan spread sold by weight, $10.99 a pound per the restaurant’s own site, dine-in or takeout. You take what you want and pay for exactly that, which makes it the cheapest way to eat Indian downtown on a light appetite and the most expensive on a big one. Read the hours note below carefully – this is the one place here whose posted hours contradict themselves.

Madras Masala has suspended its lunch buffet. This is the correction that matters. The Packard Street flagship ran the buffet most locals still think of as the default, and it is not currently serving it – the restaurant said so on its own Facebook page, its current online menu lists no buffet, and a September 2026 answer on its Yelp page confirms there is no buffet at this time. The dosas and the thali are very much still there. The buffet is not. Drive to Packard at noon expecting a steam table and you will be ordering off a menu instead.

Shalimar now publishes a lunch thali, not a buffet. Third-party listings still quote a Shalimar buffet around $13, but the restaurant’s own lunch page is an a la carte Lunch Specialties menu: vegetarian thali $11, chicken or lamb thali $12, individual entrees $9 to $12. Its specials page does still mention 15% off the lunch buffet Sunday through Thursday for seniors with ID, so some buffet service may run. Ask when you book. The $11 vegetarian thali is a good deal either way.

Short version: for a guaranteed buffet go to State Street, for cheap vegetarian by the pound go to Fifth Avenue, and do not plan your week around the Packard buffet.

Hours at a glance

Every row below was checked on 28 September 2026 against the business’s own website or, where noted, the Ann Arbor Observer’s listing. The column that matters most is the closed day, because five of these kitchens go dark on a weekday.

Three things fall out of that table that are worth saying plainly.

Monday is the thin day. Cardamom, Everest Sherpa, Base Camp, Desi Ruchulu and India Cafe are all closed, which takes out both Himalayan rooms, the upscale option and the newest Packard kitchen in one stroke. On a Monday your reliable set is State Street, Main Street, Division Street, Packard and Broadway.

Sunday is the opposite. Almost everything is open Sunday – Curry On is the one that closes, not the sit-down rooms. If you are searching for Indian food on a Sunday afternoon, Taste of India Suvai is mid-buffet, Shalimar is mid-lunch and both Himalayan rooms are serving.

Only one of these is a late option. Twelve of the fourteen are locked by 10:30pm. Once Upon A Grill on Packard runs to 11pm every night it opens, which makes it the latest Indian or Pakistani kitchen in Ann Arbor, with Spice Palace in Ypsilanti matching it on Friday and Saturday. For everything else late in this city, see our guide to late-night eats in Ann Arbor.

Packard Street is Ann Arbor’s Indian corridor

No guide says this out loud, and it is the most useful piece of geography for eating Indian here. Four addresses on this page sit on one stretch of Packard: Madras Masala at 2016, Bombay Grocers at 3010, Desi Ruchulu at 3022 and Once Upon A Grill at 3148. Bombay Grocers and Desi Ruchulu are next-door neighbours.

One trip out Packard gets you a dosa house, a newer full-menu kitchen, a Pakistani grill open to 11pm and the grocery where you buy the spices to cook it yourself – all with parking lots instead of a downtown structure. If you are new here and want to understand Indian food in this town quickly, drive Packard out past Stadium and you have seen most of it.

Madras Masala

Madras Masala at 2016 Packard Street is the South Indian anchor of the whole scene. It moved to Packard after a fire took out the old Maynard Street location in early 2023 and the crowds followed without missing a beat. A 4.2 on Google across more than 1,700 reviews is a lot of consensus for a room this unpretentious.

The dosas are the reason to come – crisp, wide, and cheaper than almost anything comparable downtown. With the buffet suspended, the thali is now the way to graze the kitchen in one order: $16.95 vegetarian or $17.95 with meat, a full plate with appetizers, soup, specialty rice, vegetables and dessert. The Indo-Chinese dishes and halal meats give it more range than a straight dosa house.

Madras Masala’s own site now publishes a simpler schedule than it used to: every day 11am to 2:45pm and 4:30pm to 9pm. That is a tighter afternoon break and an earlier close than the hours that circulated last year, so a 9:15pm arrival no longer works.

Taste of India Suvai

Taste of India Suvai at 217 South State Street is the most-searched Indian restaurant in Ann Arbor and the one that best rewards the search. It puts good South Indian right in the State Street district, and it is the only kitchen here serving a buffet every day of the week.

The weekday buffet is the move: 30-odd items, South Indian standards plus North Indian dishes, ideal between classes or errands. Lunch runs Monday through Friday 11:30am to 3pm and Saturday and Sunday noon to 3:30pm; dinner starts at 5pm and runs to 10pm on weekdays and 10:30pm at weekends. Its own online ordering page showed a 9:30pm Sunday cutoff when we checked, so treat the late weeknight hour as the outside edge rather than a promise.

State Street parking is tight. The Maynard structure a block over is the play.

Shalimar

Shalimar at 307 South Main Street is the downtown standby and it has held that spot for a long time. It sits on Main between Liberty and William, so when you are already downtown for shopping or a show and someone wants Indian, this is the close call that doesn’t make you drive.

The menu is North Indian, tandoori and Mughlai. The lunch thali is the value play at $11 vegetarian or $12 with chicken or lamb, and the kitchen changes what goes on the tray daily – the restaurant’s own line is to ask your server what is on it today. At dinner the room settles into a proper sit-down pace, on the same 11:30am and 5pm rhythm every day of the week.

Shalimar is open Monday through Thursday and Sunday 11:30am to 2:45pm and 5pm to 9:30pm, and Friday and Saturday 11:30am to 2:45pm and 5pm to 10:30pm. Treat parking as a downtown problem – Maynard or Liberty Square. If you are making an afternoon of it, our guide to the best shops on Main Street covers the same three blocks.

Cardamom

Cardamom at 1739 Plymouth Road is the dress-up option and the one to book when the meal is the event. It roasts its own spices, cooks from scratch and runs a full cocktail bar, which puts it in a different tier than the counter spots here. Reviewers back it up with a 4.4 across more than 1,600 ratings.

This is where you take parents, or go for a date when you want Indian food but also want to linger over a drink. The menu is North Indian and the kitchen treats it seriously – the char on the tandoori, the depth in the curries, nothing tasting like it came off a steam line. It is dinner-only, so it cannot solve a lunch problem.

Cardamom is open Wednesday through Sunday from 5pm, to 10pm most nights and 10:30pm Friday and Saturday, closed Monday and Tuesday. It also closes Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Day and 4 July. The Plymouth Road strip has easy parking, a real advantage over downtown. If this is the kind of night you are planning, our date night restaurants in Ann Arbor and where to take parents in Ann Arbor guides cover the rest of the field.

Namaste Flavours

Namaste Flavours at 400 South Division Street is the closest full Indian menu to Central Campus, an easy walk from the Diag. It is also the broadest menu here: vegetarian and non-vegetarian appetizers, tandoori specials, a dosa section, curries, seafood, biryani and breads.

One correction is worth making, because it is repeated everywhere including in an earlier version of this guide. Namaste Flavours is not a vegetarian restaurant. Its menu carries chicken, lamb, goat and fish. The vegetarian selection is genuinely large and clearly labelled, which is why the confusion persists, but if you want an all-vegetarian Indian kitchen in Ann Arbor, that is Earthen Jar, not this one. Come here for the dosas, the chaat, and a menu that can feed a mixed table without argument.

Namaste Flavours is open Monday through Friday 11:30am to 3pm and 5pm to 10pm, Saturday 11:30am to 10pm and Sunday 11:30am to 9pm, per its own site. Some aggregators list it as closed Tuesday; the restaurant’s own posted hours do not, and we have gone with the restaurant. If Tuesday is your only option, call first.

Desi Ruchulu

Desi Ruchulu at 3022 Packard Street is the name most Ann Arbor Indian lists have not caught up with, and people are searching for it directly. It is the third location for an ownership group that already runs restaurants in Farmington Hills and Canton.

The kitchen describes its own range as spanning the fiery spices of the south, the aromatic curries of the north and the sweet dishes of the east, which is a fair description of a menu that does not pick a lane. Several listing sites advertise a buffet here; the restaurant’s own site does not, so ask before you plan around it. What is reliable is the long midday service, the parking lot, and Bombay Grocers literally next door if you want dinner and the week’s shopping in one trip.

Desi Ruchulu is open Tuesday through Saturday 11am to 3pm and 5:30pm to 10pm and Sunday 11am to 3pm and 5:30pm to 9pm, closed Monday.

Earthen Jar

Earthen Jar at 311 South Fifth Avenue is the all-vegetarian option downtown and it has fed this town by the pound for years. The model is simple: a spread of vegetarian and vegan Indian dishes plus salad, sold at $10.99 a pound according to the restaurant’s own site, eat in or take away. There is a second location at 406 West Michigan Avenue in Ypsilanti.

This answers three different searches at once – cheap Indian food, vegan Indian food, and Indian food you can be in and out of in fifteen minutes. It is a block off the Kerrytown side of downtown, so it slots neatly into a Kerrytown morning.

The hours need a warning. Earthen Jar’s own locations page publishes two lines for Ann Arbor that contradict each other: “Tues – Sat 12-7pm” and “Closed Sun – Wed”. Read together, the only window both lines agree on is Thursday through Saturday, noon to 7pm. To go Tuesday or Wednesday, call 734-327-9464 first. The Ypsilanti location posts a cleaner Monday through Saturday noon to 7pm, closed Sunday. Older write-ups still quote $4.99 a pound; that figure is long gone.

Once Upon A Grill

Once Upon A Grill at 3148 Packard Street is the Pakistani and Indian grill at the far end of the Packard corridor, and it is the one restaurant on this page that solves a late night. It runs to 11pm.

Biryani and kati rolls are the reason to come. The kati roll is the South Asian answer to a gyro – griddle-cooked flatbread wrapped around spiced meat or vegetables – and the Ann Arbor Observer’s listing counts ten vegetarian versions and around sixteen with meat, a deeper kati menu than anywhere else in town. Nihari is the other signature. There are salads, fries and burgers on the board too, which makes it the rare Indian-adjacent kitchen you can bring a reluctant eater to.

Hours per the Observer’s listing are Monday through Thursday, Saturday and Sunday 11am to 11pm, and Friday 4pm to 11pm. That Friday open is the trap: it is the only kitchen on this page that skips Friday lunch entirely.

Curry On

Curry On at 2711 Plymouth Road is the fast, takeout-first pick on the northeast side – Indian street food built for speed rather than a room to settle into. Kati rolls, biryani and quick curries, deep veg and vegan options, honest portions. If you live or work near the Plymouth Road corridor it is the weekday call.

Two things have changed here and we would rather say so than leave old hours up. Current listings show Curry On closed Sunday, and closing at 8pm Monday through Thursday and Saturday and 9pm Friday – earlier, and one day shorter, than the daily 11am to 9pm this guide previously published. Recent reviews also report the phone and the restaurant’s own ordering page not going through reliably. Order through its Square ordering site or in person, and if Sunday is your only window, pick something else on this page.

Madras Masala Express

Madras Masala Express at 1143 Broadway Street is the north-side counter offshoot of the Packard flagship, bringing those same dosas to the Broadway and Lowertown side of town. Smaller, faster, same kitchen DNA, and a 4.5 rating from the neighbourhood.

This is the pick if you live near the Broadway bridges or work on North Campus and want a quick South Indian lunch without crossing town. The dosas and the lunch specials are the smart order and the counter format keeps it moving.

Per Madras Masala’s own site the Broadway hours are Monday through Friday 11am to 2:30pm and 4:30pm to 9:30pm, and Saturday and Sunday 11:30am to 3:30pm and 4:30pm to 9pm. Note that this is seven days – the Monday closure this guide previously listed is no longer what the restaurant publishes.

Everest Sherpa

Everest Sherpa at 2803 Oak Valley Drive widens the map into Himalayan and Nepali cooking alongside the Indian standards. If you have only ever ordered tikka masala, this is where you branch out.

Get the momos – the Nepali dumplings that are the house signature – the Sherpa stew, and a thali if you want the full range on one plate. Chef Lama and his wife Louisa bought the restaurant in March 2022 after three years running Momo Cha in a Detroit food hall, and he brought 25 years of Nepalese and Indian cooking with him. The vegan labelling on the menu is unusually thorough. It sits on the south side off Ann Arbor-Saline Road, away from the downtown crush, with parking that isn’t a fight.

Everest Sherpa is open Tuesday through Sunday 11am to 2:15pm and 4:30pm to 8:45pm, closed Monday. It closes earlier than anything else here, so do not plan a late arrival.

Base Camp

Base Camp at 5060 Jackson Road, Suite A, is the west-side Himalayan and Nepalese room and the highest-rated kitchen on this page – a 4.8 on Google across more than 500 reviews. The vegan items are labelled outright: curries, lentil soup, pakora, samosas.

This is worth the drive out Jackson Road if you want something beyond the usual North Indian menu. The thali and the curries deliver the comfort, the momos deliver the reason to come back. It runs a midday break, so time it.

Base Camp is open Tuesday through Sunday 11am to 2:30pm and 5pm to 9pm, closed Monday. It sits in the Jackson Road commercial strip with a full parking lot, an easy in-and-out on the west side.

Spice Palace, Ypsilanti

Spice Palace at 2874 Washtenaw Avenue in Ypsilanti is why east-side and Ypsi residents don’t have to drive into Ann Arbor for a full Indian menu. It covers both North and South Indian, dine-in and delivery, and it keeps the latest weekend hours of any Indian kitchen in the county.

If you are already out toward Washtenaw Avenue or over in Ypsilanti, this beats fighting for a downtown table. The menu is broad enough to please a mixed group and the 11pm Friday and Saturday close makes it a real option after a movie or a game.

Spice Palace is open Monday through Thursday and Sunday 11am to 3pm and 5pm to 10pm, and Friday and Saturday 11am to 3pm and 5pm to 11pm. Easy parking on the Washtenaw strip seals it. For the rest of that side of the county, see our Depot Town, Ypsilanti guide.

India Cafe, Ypsilanti

India Cafe at 1797 Washtenaw Avenue in Ypsilanti has been going since 1994, which makes it the oldest Indian business in this guide. It is a restaurant and an Indian grocery in the same building, and it moved to the Washtenaw Avenue address at the end of 2023.

The combination is the point. You can eat and then buy the spices, lentils and frozen breads on the way out, which no other Indian restaurant in Washtenaw County lets you do under one roof.

Call before you drive. India Cafe’s own site publishes an incomplete week – it lists Tuesday through Thursday and Sunday, says Monday it is closed, omits Friday and Saturday entirely, and the Tuesday-to-Thursday evening window it prints reads as a typo. Aggregators fill the gaps with Tuesday to Thursday 11am to 9pm, Friday 11am to 10pm, Saturday noon to 10pm and Sunday 12:30pm to 8pm. Monday closed is the only thing every source agrees on. The number is (734) 622-0115.

What to order, by dish

If you know the dish but not the room, start here.

Dosa. Madras Masala on Packard is the dosa house, with Madras Masala Express on Broadway for the north side and Namaste Flavours on Division for the campus walk. All three run a dedicated dosa section.

Thali. A full tray in one order. Madras Masala at $16.95 vegetarian and $17.95 with meat, or Shalimar at lunch for $11 and $12, the cheapest full thali downtown. Both Himalayan rooms run one too.

Momos. Nepali dumplings, and only two kitchens here take them seriously: Everest Sherpa on Oak Valley and Base Camp on Jackson. Both are closed Monday, worth knowing before the craving hits.

Kati rolls, biryani and nihari. Once Upon A Grill on Packard for the deepest kati menu in town, Curry On on Plymouth if you want it faster and earlier in the day.

Tandoori and a cocktail. Cardamom on Plymouth Road, the only one here with a full bar worth ordering from. For the wider drinks map, see our best happy hour in Ann Arbor guide.

Vegan and vegetarian. Earthen Jar downtown is entirely vegetarian and priced by weight. Base Camp and Everest Sherpa both label vegan items. If vegetarian is the whole trip rather than one meal, our best vegetarian restaurants in Ann Arbor guide is the wider list.

Where to buy Indian groceries

Two places, serving different purposes. Bombay Grocers at 3010 Packard Street is the dedicated shop – spices, grains, lentils, packaged goods, condiments and fresh produce, open daily 11am to 8pm, a wider window than any restaurant on this page. India Cafe in Ypsilanti is a grocery attached to a kitchen, useful if you want to eat and shop in one stop, but closed Mondays.

Bombay Grocers sits next door to Desi Ruchulu and a short way down from Once Upon A Grill, so one Packard trip covers dinner and the shopping list together.

Two names that have changed

Search results in this category are full of restaurants that no longer exist under the name you remember, so two notes.

Raja Rani is gone and Namaste Flavours is in its space. The long-running Raja Rani at 400 South Division closed and reopened on 1 March as Namaste Flavours, under an ownership group that also runs Farmington Hills and Canton locations. If you are searching for Raja Rani in Ann Arbor, Namaste Flavours is the address you want.

Shrimp Flavours and Spice Palace are the same Washtenaw Avenue address. Our own directory still carries an older Shrimp Flavours entry pointing at the same website and street number as Spice Palace in Ypsilanti. Spice Palace is the current name, and we are cleaning up the duplicate.

Where to start

Want the buffet? Taste of India Suvai on State Street, seven days a week. Want the dosa? Madras Masala on Packard, and skip the buffet plan. Dressing up or hosting parents? Cardamom on Plymouth, Wednesday through Sunday only. Downtown on foot and undecided? Shalimar for the $11 thali or Namaste Flavours for the widest menu. Eating late? Once Upon A Grill on Packard to 11pm, and nothing else in Ann Arbor. Cheap or vegan? Earthen Jar by the pound, Thursday to Saturday for certain. Branching out? Momos at Everest Sherpa or Base Camp, both closed Monday.

Still deciding what kind of night this is? Our best Mediterranean food in Ann Arbor and best Thai restaurants in Ann Arbor guides cover the neighbouring aisles, cheap eats for college students covers the budget end, best burgers in Ann Arbor covers the opposite craving, and if you have one night to eat in Ann Arbor, start there.

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