Clove Indian Bistro: A Sit-Down Indian Restaurant on Columbus's North Side Worth Knowing About
A full-service Indian bistro in the Worthington-area corridor of Columbus, Clove Indian Bistro serves a menu rooted in North Indian cooking with a tidy dining room and a lunch buffet that draws a consistent weekday crowd.
What the Restaurant Is
Clove sits in a strip plaza on North High Street in the northern Columbus suburbs, a location that puts it within easy reach of the Worthington, Dublin, and Polaris-area populations rather than in the denser restaurant corridors of Short North or Clintonville. The restaurant is mid-scale: sit-down service, cloth-like napkins, and a menu that runs from familiar crowd-pleasers to a handful of less common regional preparations. It is not a fast-casual counter, and it is not trying to be a white-tablecloth destination either.
The Menu and What to Order
The kitchen covers the expected North Indian range: butter chicken, lamb rogan josh, saag paneer, and several preparations of dal. The tandoor gets consistent use, with chicken tikka and tandoori prawns appearing regularly on tables. The bread selection is solid, with garlic naan, paratha, and puri available depending on what you order.
Biryani is available in chicken and vegetable versions and is cooked in the dum style, meaning the pot is sealed and the rice finishes in its own steam. That distinction matters if you have been served the stir-fried rice that sometimes passes as biryani at cheaper Indian-American spots around Columbus.
Pricing runs in the moderate range for Columbus Indian dining: most entrées fall in the $14 to $19 window at dinner, with appetizers around $8 to $12. The lunch buffet, available on weekdays and weekends through the early afternoon, typically runs around $13 to $15 per person and cycles through eight to ten dishes including a soup, a couple of protein mains, a vegetarian option, rice, bread, and a dessert such as kheer or gulab jamun. Confirm current buffet pricing directly, as it has shifted modestly with inflation over the past two years.
How It Compares to Other Columbus Indian Options
Columbus has a genuinely competitive Indian restaurant market, which makes placement decisions matter. For direct comparison, Banana Leaf on Morse Road is the most prominent South Indian option in Columbus, with dosas, idli, and sambar that Clove does not attempt to replicate. If your interest is South Indian cooking specifically, Banana Leaf is the clearer choice.
Taste of India on Bethel Road is probably Clove's closest functional competitor in terms of north-Indian menu scope and strip-plaza format. Taste of India has been operating longer and carries a loyal following in the northwest Columbus market. Clove tends to get credit for a slightly more polished dining room and a kitchen that has drawn favorable attention for consistency on the lamb dishes in particular.
For those in the Short North or downtown area, Agni on Hubbard Avenue offers a more nightlife-adjacent Indian dining experience with cocktails and a different price point. Clove does not compete in that direction; it serves a more neighborhood-dinner and business-lunch function.
Who This Suits
The lunch buffet format makes Clove practical for solo diners or office groups who want variety without committing to a single dish. The dinner menu suits couples and small groups comfortable with a sit-down pace. The menu is not trying to be adventurous enough to satisfy someone specifically seeking regional Indian cuisines outside the Punjabi and Mughlai canon, but it executes the core dishes competently and the spice heat is adjustable on request.
Families with children who eat a range of foods generally do fine here. The vegetarian selection is broad enough that non-meat eaters are not limited to one or two options.
What the First Visit Looks Like
Walk-ins are accepted for both lunch and dinner, though Friday and Saturday evenings can fill the dining room. The buffet line at lunch is self-serve with a server handling drinks and clearing plates. At dinner, the menu is the standard format. Portions are sized for one but large enough that naan orders can stretch a meal. The mango lassi is a reliable starting point if you have not been before.
Logistics
Clove Indian Bistro is located on North High Street in the Columbus suburb area north of Worthington. Parking is available in the shared plaza lot at no cost. Hours run roughly 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. for lunch and 5 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. for dinner most days, with slight variation on Sundays. Call ahead or check current hours online before a Sunday or holiday visit, as those have shifted over time. Reservations are accepted for larger groups and are worth making for parties of six or more on weekend evenings.