• 4
• South Indian

Madras Palace is an exclusively vegetarian South Indian restaurant. The location is right near the 270 Gaithersburg exits, though it's a bit tucked away. It's quite large, with a separate dining room for parties. A large portion of the clientele are Indian, which is usually a good sign. They have a buffet for lunch and on weekends, which is not cheap but is worth it if you're hungry. Some of their staff seems to struggle with English, and occasionally we have had a dish lost (we haven't been charged for that). The menu offers a good selection of dosai (crepes) and utthapam (pancakes) and a variety of curries. Their buffet is quite substantial, and Indian food seems to be very well suited to buffet-style eating. The vadai (lentil donuts) are frequently at the buffet and are fantastic; I probably eat more than I should. The mulligatawny soup is delicious and sometimes quite spicy. The chana batura (huge fried puffy bread with chickpea curry on the side) is my favorite dish. As is often the case with Indian food, I find the food is very heavy, a lot of fried stuff. That said, if you want something lighter/healthier, there are options. It's very nice to have a vegetarian Indian place in Gaithersburg; it's the only one of its kind in the area. Updated from previous review on Wednesday July 06, 2011