Indian Delhi Palace: What’s Vegetarian Editorial Review

Indian Delhi Palace has served Phoenix’s Camelback East corridor since 1985, when it opened as Arizona’s first Indian restaurant. It’s still family owned, four decades in. Four decades later, it’s still a full meat-and-dairy menu. Tandoori chicken, lamb pasanda, and a mixed grill sit right next to the vegetarian dishes, on the same page. Nothing is marked. You’re reading ingredient lists, not icons.

That’s fine, because the vegetarian half of the menu holds up as actual meals, not sides. Chana masala, daal maharani, and aloo matar are real entrees built around chickpeas, lentils, and peas. Malai kofta is fried vegetable-and-paneer dumplings in a cream sauce. Bengan bharta is smoky roasted eggplant. Both read as dishes you’d order even if meat weren’t on the table. Starters lean on paneer too, with paneer pakoras, chili paneer, and a paneer naan alongside the standard vegetable pakoras and onion bhaji. Bread rounds things out with naan, roti, fire naan, bhutara, and a paratha lineup that includes gobhi and aloo stuffed versions. Pair any of them with the daal maharani and you have a full plate without a single non-vegetarian ingredient in it. Finish with gulab jamun, kulfi, or kheer, all standard milk-based Indian desserts and all meat-free by default.

Start with the lunch buffet, priced at $8.95. It covers meat dishes like chicken tikka masala, tandoori chicken, and lamb curry. Vegetable curries and garlic naan fill out the rest, enough to build a full vegetarian plate without asking staff to check anything. A dinner buffet runs too. Order a la carte instead, and the menu supports that just as well. Vegetarian dishes aren’t an afterthought tacked onto a meat-forward menu. They’re a comparable share of it.

Reviews are mixed on service. Regulars praise the buffet variety and portion sizes, while some reviews call out slow or inattentive service on busy nights. Tripadvisor has it at 3.7 out of 5 across 78 reviews, solid but not a standout. A running Groupon deal, priced around $54, is further evidence this is a place that’s actively operating and courting regulars, not coasting. Reservations are available through OpenTable if you’d rather not risk a wait, which is worth doing on weekend evenings.

There’s no labeled vegan section here, no green dot on the menu, nothing that flags a dish as safe at a glance. What there is: a kitchen that’s cooked vegetable curries as a real half of an Indian menu for forty years. This is the state where that restaurant showed up first. Order the chana masala and the malai kofta, split a garlic naan. You’ll leave full without touching meat, even if the person across the table ordered lamb.

Hours run 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day. Find it at 5104 E McDowell Rd, a few blocks from Kare Ethiopian on the same stretch of road. Checking both in one trip is easy. Expect a casual, family-style dining room, built for groups working through a spread of shared plates rather than plated entrees. That matches the buffet-first identity of the place.