Top 2 Restaurants in Atlanta for Indian Dining

✨ HighlightWent here for the first time with my family, and even with all the well-deserved accolades this place has received, it exceeded all expectations. This is one of the few places around Atlanta worth traveling out of your way for. I'll be honest, my experience with Indian restaurants has been either hit-or-miss suburban strip mall places, or city ones that are either fantastic or overpriced. Chai Pani is simply neither and in a class of its own. The food, service, and atmosphere are so unique and well-executed it's hard to describe or categorize. Sure, you could go to an Indian street food place not far from here, deeper into the Atlanta suburbs, or find another "trendy" restaurant in the city, but this is hands down the must-visit place. On top of that, I have a unique allergy to chick peas, green peas, and certain lentils, which often makes it difficult to enjoy Indian restaurants. This may have been the best place which catered to my needs. The server patiently and cheerfully went to the kitchen to confirm not just the offending ingredients, but even if they were fried in the same oil. This saved us a ton of potential heartache. All the food we had was amazing. We had the pani puri at the front, with just the puri and water for me, and even that simple combination was perfect. Just about all the (vegetarian) appetizers have chick peas, which the rest of my family really enjoyed, but I did split the tomato-and-cheese uttapam with my son. We normally just get waters when eating out, but the beverages here are top notch, including the mango lassi, salty lassi, and especially the hot chai. My father-in-law who makes chai in the house, totally approved. It reminded me of the streetside dhabas and tea stalls in India. For entrees I had a bit of two: saag paneer with basmati rice, and desi salad with grilled paneer, minus the chick pea noodles (sev). Finally for dessert we had gulab jamun and falooda (rose syrup, vermicelli noodles, falooda "seeds", and ice cream), both well-known delicacies but done even better than normal here. A small detail I liked was that I could keep the rice and saag paneer curry separate in the two-compartment to-go container. It was almost perfectly sized. The atmosphere is a loving tribute to 1960s-70s Bollywood, tiger and street-scape inspired artwork, with tons of marigold garlands. You have to look hard to remember this used to be an auto repair business years ago. Finally the service was extremely attentive despite the increasing volume of people throughout our visit. Highly efficient and ever-present but also very friendly. We will of course visit again!→