My friend Kait and I were craving Indian food but didn’t feel like driving all the way to Ballard for India Bistro, which is my favorite Indian restaurant in Seattle. I looked online and found a few favorable reviews for India Express, so I placed an order of malai kofta ($8.95) and chicken vindaloo ($7.95) with a medium level of spice, plus an order of naan ($1.75) and raita ($1.25).

The vindaloo was not very good and I couldn’t make out any flavor except for hot, hot and hot. The malai kofta consisted of veggie and cheese balls in a tomato butter sauce. The sauce was incredible, but again too hot, so I had to scrape most of it off. Luckily, the cheese balls were moist and flavorful even without the sauce. The naan was just okay, which is weird because I love naan so much that I rarely ever question the quality of it. Maybe it was overcooked? It was dry like I imagine newspaper would taste. The raita turned out to be a green-colored yogurt with no discernable cucumber flavor, but it did help to cool down the heat of the main dishes a little.

So with the exception of the malai kofta, I found the meal disappointing and too hot to eat. I don’t think I’ll be ordering from India Express again, which is sad because I’d like to find a decent and reasonably priced Indian restaurant on Capitol Hill.