Jungdae and I went to Minerva for dinner on our way back from Shenandoah. We were hungry from a long day of hiking and some tasty Indian was sounding good. Minerva was a find (one of many) from Tyler Cowens’ excellent site. We had been there twice before, once for dinner and once for a lunch buffet.

Atmosphere: Minerva is located in a strip mall on Route 50 in Fairfax, a couple of blocks away from the Super H Mart. The decor is unpretentious - a large and airy space, with a flatscreen TV playing Indian music videos on one wall and the buffet tables towards the far corner. Each time we’ve been here it’s always been bustling and most of the customers were Indian - some large families, as well as groups of young people. The smells of tasty food rising from each table add to the anticipation of getting your own.

Service: This is not a fine dining establishment, so my only real expectations for a place like this are that someone comes to take my order fairly quickly, and that my water gets refilled regularly - the latter a particular must at an Indian place where the spicy things I am sure to order will require frequent dousing of the palate. Minerva delivered on both counts.

Food: What originally drew us to this place is that Minerva is so far as I know the only Indian restaurant in the DC area that serves northern Indian food (the usual stuff like lamb vindaloo and chicken tikka masala) but also has Iddly Sambar - a southern specialty that is Jungdae’s favorite Indian dish. Typically you have to go the vegetarian southern Indian places to get Iddly Sambar. Since I am a carnivore, this always presented us with a dilemma if we wanted to do Indian - so when I found Minerva, I was psyched.

I was not disappointed - in our three trips it has become our favorite Indian restaurant around DC and well worth the half an hour drive from the city. Every dish is just more spicy, more flavorful, more interesting than elsewhere. This time was no different.

There are two ways to go with dinner entrees here - you can either get it a la carte (with rice and Naan), or for just $3 more, you can get it as a set meal, which comes with an array of side dishes - a soup, dal makhani, another vegetarian curry, and a dessert. The first time we were here we went the a la carte route, but this time we opted for the set meal option, and it was well worth it. The dal makhani was superb - more tangy than usual and the best I’ve ever had. The vegetarian curry was chana masala - a dish I’ve had many times before, but the first mouthful I took made me realize that those other times I was eating a pale imitation of the real thing. I would have gladly eaten a full-entree portion of either. The dessert was Gulab Jamoon - a sort of deep fried dough ball dipped in condensed milk. Neither of us generally like Indian deserts, so we only ate this because it came with the meal (an attitude that is not helpful to our efforts in keeping a healthful and trim appearance).

The main entree I got this time was Minerva special mutton. I followed a suggestion from the signal vs. noise blog of all places to pick the dish which has the restaurant’s name in it. It was very good, but actually slightly disappointing simply because it was not a curry and so I had nothing to mix with the rice - and I’m not a fan of just eating plain rice. So I think I’ll stick with curry entrees from now on. But that’s no knock on the dish itself - the lamb was perfectly cooked. As a side note, the previous time here I had gotten Hyderabadi Kheema Mutter, which I had never seen at a restaurant before and which was spectacular.

Jungdae only got an order of Iddly Sambar. The portions here, as at many Indian places, are quite large so this together with the set meal was plenty for both of us. The Iddly Sambar is very good here - Jungdae still likes the version at Amma’s in Georgetown the best, but this is very close.

I need to also quickly mention of the lunch buffet, which we had on a previous trip - it’s awesome. It’s large (there’s maybe 15-20 different things, with vegetarian options, chicken and lamb dishes, the aforementioned iddly sambar. and even a couple of chinese-indian dishes, which were surprisingly tasty), the quality is on par with what you get at dinner, and it’s only $12/person.

Summary: This is quite simply the best Indian food in the area. And it’s cheap! I think our meal was only $25 after tip and tax. I do like the upscale fancy new Indian places that have been springing up in DC in the last couple years (Passage to India, Indique Heights, have yet to try Rasika). But if I had to pick a place where I would want to eat 3 times a week, regardless of cost, this would be it.

Restaurant Information

• Website: http://www.minervacuisine.com/
• Address: 10364 Lee Hwy, Fairfax VA (I think there are other locations as well)
• Phone: 1-877-2 MINERVA
• Price Range: Appetizers $4-8, Entrees $10-12 (plus $3 for the set meal option). You can definitely have a full meal for two for $30 or less, tip and tax included