Chennai Masala

By Martin Cizmar

2088 NW Stucki Ave., Hillsboro, 531-9500, chennaimasala.net. Lunch and dinner Tuesday-Sunday.

You can get more expensive dinnertime dishes, but the lunchtime buffet's row of steaming chafing dishes is the ideal way to experience the metro area's undisputed best Indian. Show up on weekends, when this plaza-bound eatery is overrun with families from the subcontinent and the spices are dialed up to their tastes. You'll be hard-pressed to find a dud among the offerings, but you may discover that mushroom vindaloo is maybe the best vindaloo and that carrot uthtappam is maybe the best of dosas. Everything on offer is tasty, up to and including the tandoori chicken with slightly blackened edges, which give a hint of smoke to the tangy red yogurt sauce. You'll want more, and you are welcome to it.

Check out Willamette Week's 2016 Cheap Eats guide here.

Willamette Week

Willamette Week’s reporting has concrete impacts that change laws, force action from civic leaders, and drive compromised politicians from public office. Support WW's journalism today.