Suvai Palace

Okay, I’ll put this on the table right up front: I’m not fond of restaurant buffets. The whole concept is off-putting to me–more food than you really want to eat, usually sitting too long at temperatures too high or too low to maintain appeal. And who wants to keep getting up once you’ve sat down?

But buffets are easy and economical for the restaurant owner, who needs fewer cooks and servers to manage the meal, and patrons love the perceived value and choice. Although I had intended to concentrate on Suvai Palace’s regular menu, the restaurant’s website and staff so vigorously promote the restaurant’s lunchtime buffet, that I finally decided it demanded a visit. By our second lunch, though, I required no cajoling.

Suvai Palace is on Division at William, the mansard-roofed former house that for more than thirty years housed Raja Rani, the restaurant that first brought Indian food to Ann Arbor. New owners Laxman and Kalynasundpari Sudalaimuthu, who already owned Taste of India Suvai on S. State, leased it nearly two years ago. I hadn’t visited Raja Rani in more than twenty years, and months passed before I noticed the name change, since the building remained exactly the same.

To justify the new moniker, the “palace” could use some serious rehab. The white Second Empire house and its grounds have grown shabby, with the tired exterior leading into an exhausted interior, like a ghostly remnant of the British Raj. However, though appearances might tip the scales in deciding an evening’s dinner spot–that, and the absence of alcohol–they shouldn’t deter those seeking a fine lunch.

And at a fine value too. The weekday lunch buffet is $9.95–$11.45 on the weekends–for a copious spread. Arrayed alongside mango juice, chai, soup, and a couple of desserts, the choices on our initial visit included salad, chutneys and relishes, four chicken dishes, a dal, a flat bread, several hot vegetable dishes, and a couple of rice alternatives. Too many options, right? But each dish was fresh-tasting, flavorful, and unique, not simply a new star in the same saucy costume. Meats remained moist, rice fluffy, fried foods light and greaseless. Neither my husband nor I had a complaint except for the inadequate size of our stomachs.

After learning that we had visited south India, Prabhu and Vincent, Suvai Palace’s friendly staffers, suggested we come back for the Friday/Saturday lunch buffet, which includes southern specialties like idly (steamed rice flour cakes), eaten with sambar (thin vegetable soup); medu vada (doughnut-shaped black lentil fritters flavored with cumin seeds); and chicken chettinad (a bold spicy curry made with ground coconut and poppy seeds). We also enjoyed simple but nicely seasoned slices of fried fish and a really scrumptious goat curry that left us gnawing for meat among the crannies and crevices of numerous bones. Both days we treated ourselves to a mango lassi; the version made at Suvai Palace is exceptionally smooth and silky, accented with a touch of cardamom.

We did experience Suvai Palace’s regular menu as well, inviting four friends to join us one late summer evening. The menu is large and ranges north and south over territory familiar from the other local Indian restaurants that followed Raja Rani. The spicy vegetable biryani was surprisingly flavorful. Our other choices–shrimp vindaloo, butter chicken, goat curry, aloo gobi (potato and cauliflower curry), and bagara baingan (eggplant stuffed with peanut and sesame seed paste in a curry sauce)–may have been a little redundant, with sauces heavily built on tomatoes. Too, the goat curry, so succulent on the buffet, needed longer cooking that night. But again, each dish was carefully prepared, fresh and tasty. You could see–with the faint sheen of sweat on the reddening faces, the serving spoons dipping up second and third helpings–the exhilarating, cumulative effects of chilis and spices, and the building pleasure, as we emptied the plates of food.

Served or self-served, we liked the food at Suvai Palace, and maybe, someday, they’ll get around to turning this old house into the titular palace. But even if they don’t, we’re not worried. Lunch will still be good.

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suvaipalace.com

Lunch buffet: Mon.-Sat. 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Dinner buffet: Mon. 5:30-9:30 p.m. A la carte dinner: Tue.-Sat. 5-10 p.m. Closed Sun.

Buffets $9.95-11.45, a la carte appetizers and salads $2.50-$6.95, a la carte entrees $8.95-$15.99.

Wheelchair friendly