I was invited to come to this place on the spur of the moment.  I probably should have declined, but I do like Indian food and I figured I could order off the menu.  Yes, they do have a buffet here, but I hate buffets.\n\nAllow me to digress about buffets briefly.  The first problem with them is that they encourage me to eat too much.  I always want to get my money's worth, so I stuff myself.  Not great.  Second problem is a bit more gross.  Any idea how many people wash their hands after going to the bathroom?  Maybe half?  And here is a row of food trays with utensils being handled by literally dozens of people, half of whom did not wash their hands recently.  And that doesn't include those who may be sick, or recently coughed/sneezed into their hands (without washing afterwards).  And those serving utensils are touching my food??  Uhhh...no.\n\nSo I order from the menu (more about the menu in a moment).  I'm not very hungry, so I just order a lentil soup with mixed vegetables in it (Sambar).  The waitress proceeds to the buffet line, grabs a bowl, and ladles the soup from the buffet into the bowl.  There's my sambar.  Served with one of those potentially toxic utensils I just mentioned.  Ugggh!  I wanted it from the kitchen where only one or two people who haven't washed their hands will handle it!!!!  Not cool.\n\nThe service itself was inattentive.  They seemed a bit understaffed.  Maybe someone missed work so they were short-handed?  Dunno.  But it was inattentive.  What interaction we did have with the servers was friendly.  The soup was very flavorful, but very lacking in lentils.  I expected to see lentils.  It was mostly broth with a few pieces of vegetable in it.  Disappointing.\n\nAnd now for the menu...it featured a large variety of dishes.  That bit was good.  But every section that involved meat indicated the meat was halal.  Some argue that halal meat is more humane, but I do not believe that is true.  There are a few brief religious ceremonies/utterances that must be done before slaughtering the animal, but basically they hang it upside down and slit its throat while it's still conscious.  It then bleeds-out (probably at least 20-30 seconds before it passes out).  I do not see how that is more humane than the typical western method of stunning the animal first, then stringing it up and cutting the throat.  There is no suffering in the latter (if it's done properly).  I'm not squeamish about slaughtering an animal for food, and I do know where meat comes from.  The only reason to do it halal is religious, and I have a problem with inducing suffering without very good reason.  Ancient traditions that aren't really relevant to modern hygiene do not qualify in my opinion.  I'm not criticizing others' beliefs, but I do not share them and don't think I should have to partake in them.\n\nThey have plenty of vegan dishes, and that's fine.  My soup I believe was vegan.  I do wish she had brought me a fresh one from the kitchen instead of one from the buffet line.  Prices seemed a tad high to me, too.  But the place was busy, and clearly very popular with Indian people (most patrons appeared to be Indian).