Sagaar Indian Restaurant

Sagaar Indian Restaurant
4248 Martingale Way
Newport Beach, CA 92660
949-955-1904

Wednesday Lunch

Finding an Indian buffet in Orange County, CA is not all that difficult. In Irvine alone I can think of four that I drive by in a five mile radius. I choose Sagaar because of its convenient location in the Irvine business center and nice atmosphere. The lunch time attire is mixed, with diners in everything from shorts to suits. Keep in mind that this restaurant is located just off Macarthur Blvd, not far from Jamboree. This is an area surrounded by businesses, therefore, lunch hour is particularly busy at most restaurants. I went for lunch at 2:00pm, when there was almost no one there. If you want to miss the crowd, keep in mind that the buffet runs only from 11AM to 3PM. When 3PM rolls around, they advise you to get your last plate, because they will be closing the buffet.

Like most Indian buffets in the surrounding area, at Sagaar you will find 10 main dishes. This buffet consisted of vegetable samosas, a type of fried chicken nugget, tasty tandoori chicken, red chiecken curry, an eggplant stew of some sort, a mushroom dish, and a salad bar with a few options. The soup of the day always seems to be mulligatawny. The salad bar has only a few options beyond lettuce and onions, but most importantly, it includes a few Indian sauces, including yogurt sauce and a chutney.

For those who have never had Indian food, this is a great place to start because you can sample the various dishes to see what you like. The nahn bread that they bring you with your meal has a hint of garlic, which certainly adds to flavor of the ever-so-soft bread. This traditional Indian bread varies from place to place, and usually the garlic variety costs extra, but fortunately here there is no extra charge.

I still consider India Cook House the best Indian restaurant in the area (located in Irvine by Culver and the 5 freeway exit), but this comes in as a close second.

Friday, look for my review of Taco Mesa for Thursday's lunch.

Until then, dine on...