Flavors of India in Columbus: What's on the Menu, What It Costs, and How It Compares
A sit-down Indian restaurant on Columbus's north side, Flavors of India draws a regular crowd from the surrounding Morse Road corridor, a stretch of Columbus that has one of the city's higher concentrations of South Asian grocery stores, restaurants, and cultural institutions.
What the Restaurant Is
Flavors of India operates as a full-service, primarily North Indian restaurant with a lunch buffet format on weekdays and weekends. The menu leans into the standards that define the genre in central Ohio: butter chicken, saag paneer, lamb rogan josh, biryani, and a tandoor section covering naan, roti, and proteins like tandoori chicken and seekh kebab. The kitchen does not limit itself strictly to North Indian cooking; dal makhani and chana masala represent the everyday subcontinental home-cooking end of the spectrum, while the tandoor items add a smokier, drier-heat dimension to the meal.
Pricing and Format
The lunch buffet runs in the range of $13 to $15 per person, which is competitive for Columbus Indian buffets. Dinner is à la carte, with most entrees falling in the $14 to $19 range. Naan orders run $3 to $4 depending on variety. Mango lassi, a reliable crowd indicator at any Indian restaurant, is on the menu and typically priced around $4 to $5.
For context, the lunch buffet price is roughly in line with what Taj Palace on Bethel Road charges, though Flavors of India's Morse Road location puts it closer to the northeast Columbus residential neighborhoods and the OSU satellite campuses north of the main university district. Readers who are comparing the two should know that both operate buffet formats, but Flavors of India has slightly more of a neighborhood-regular feel rather than catering specifically to a student or office-lunch crowd.
Who It Suits
Diners who want a reliable, mid-priced Indian lunch without making a reservation will find the buffet format efficient. The menu is not going to surprise anyone who has eaten much Indian food, but that's not necessarily a drawback. Consistency matters when you're deciding where to take family visiting from out of town or where to grab a weekday lunch.
Vegetarians are well-served here. The buffet typically rotates through several vegetarian options alongside meat dishes, and the kitchen can accommodate common dietary requests. Those looking for South Indian cooking specifically (dosas, idli, sambar) will not find a focused menu in that direction and would do better at a restaurant specializing in that cuisine.
What a First Visit Looks Like
Arriving for lunch means walking into a modest but clean dining room, typically with the buffet set up along one wall. The format is self-serve with servers handling drinks and replenishing the buffet trays. Expect the usual rotation: a soup or dal, two to three protein dishes, one or two vegetarian mains, rice, and bread available on request or from the tandoor. Dinner service is slower-paced, with servers taking full orders at the table.
The restaurant is not large, so during peak lunch hours on weekends, a short wait for a table is possible, though rarely long.
How It Fits the Columbus Indian Restaurant Scene
Columbus has a reasonable spread of Indian restaurants across the metro, concentrated in a few pockets: the Morse Road/Cleveland Avenue area on the north side, Hilliard and Dublin on the west side, and a few scattered locations downtown and in Upper Arlington. Flavors of India sits in the north-side cluster alongside grocery options like Patel Brothers, which means diners can combine a restaurant meal with picking up ingredients in the same trip.
Compared to Dera Restaurant, another north Columbus option with a similar casual-dining profile, Flavors of India draws slightly stronger reviews for its butter chicken specifically. Neither restaurant is attempting upscale Indian dining in the way that a downtown Columbus spot might target a Friday night date-night crowd.
Practical Details
Flavors of India is located on Morse Road in northeast Columbus. Street parking and a shared lot are available. Lunch buffet hours typically run from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily, and dinner service begins around 5 p.m. Hours can shift slightly on weekends or holidays, so confirming by phone before a dinner visit on a holiday is a reasonable step. No reservation is generally needed for buffet lunch, though calling ahead for larger dinner parties is worth doing.
The restaurant does not have a full bar, but beer and wine service may be available; confirm at the time of your visit if that factors into your plans.