Why is Indian food always expensive?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why shouldn't Indian food be expensive?

I’ll bite. With the exception of a very few innovative chefs in places like New York. You don’t have fine dining or high end Indian food. Same is true for Ethiopian food my favorite and other ethnic cuisines. The few top level chefs doing stewy ethnic cuisines are usually also trained in French techniques, doing some fusion, and upgrading the usual quality of the proteins.

Until Indian restaurants upgrade beyond what every other Indian restaurant serves at lower price points ,it’s just overpriced.

Give me a break. This smacks of disgusting racism. As if the only way ever to cook good food and finer foods is only if you have a background in French style techniques and culinary arts. What a joke. A throughly mediocre Italian restaurant has no problem charging $25-35 for chicken or veal parm (as of those are such innovative dishes). Or $20+ for a pizza. And people will pay. Meanwhile, the same consumer will complain that Indian food like lamb biryani is ‘expensive’ if it starts approaching the $25 mark even though it is way more labor intensive to make. They’ll demand biryani always cost less than $20.


It’s just an asinine, subliminal mental block based on ethnocentric stratification BS of what is perceived as ‘finer’ cuisine vs ‘cheaper’ foods. How come you never, ever find Italian, French, Spanish, and other western cuisines always on the list of ‘top cheap eats!’ lists? It’s always gotta be other ethnic cuisines.

[Anonymous]

It's a cash grab, most of the stuff is indian street food trying to be passed off as expensive

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why shouldn't Indian food be expensive?

Again, vegetarian based ingredients. It’s understandable why a seafood restaurant would be expensive due to the cost and short shelf life of fish. My go to Indian order is usually a samosa (pastry, peas, potato and spices) garlic naan (flour, oil and spices) and a palak paneer (spinach, paneer, oil/butter and spices). It has nothing to do with the food being Indian. I usually end up spending close to what I would spend on sushi at an Indian restaurant and to me based on ingredients it never made sense and portions are usually on the smaller side.

Garbage argument. Many pizza places charge almost $20 per pizza now. And you need one per person. All pizza is is flour, water, yeast, salt, some tomatoes, and cheese. Even a veggie pie will be $20+ these days.

Yet people pay it with a smiley face while simultaneously complaining that $17 for a veggie Indian dish is ‘too expensive!’.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's a cash grab, most of the stuff is indian street food trying to be passed off as expensive

And yet French peasant dishes are delicacies: boeuf bourguignon, ratatouille (vegetables!!!), foie gras. Sneaky racism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have never, in my entire life, paid $5usd for one piece of naan.

Doordash? Those places have a markup over the restaurant's price of course.

I believe the restaurant sets the prices on the apps, but they do increase the price because of whatever fees they have to pay. But still, no lol. Maybe $5 for a pack of 2 or 3, but never for one piece.

I have never seen a restaurant that has sold 2-3 pieces of Naan for $5. Would love to know where you’re eating.

Here are 3 places I like. 1 piece of Naan is $4.
https://www.saffronva.com/
https://www.haandi.com/menu.php
https://pindindianrestaurant.com/menu

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because it requires a ton of ingredients and prep. It requires sooooooo much more work than say Italian food. I bet you have no problems paying $25 for a pasta dish, yet you sneer at $22 for an Indian dish that requires 2x the work.

Are you an Indian restaurant owner LOL? Most places keep all the master mixes frozen in bulk and throw dishes together quickly.

No, I just recognize the ethnocentric bias in cuisine costs. People expect stuff like Indian, Thai, Chinese, etc. to be cheap and delicious while they have no problems paying 2x more for something like Italian food or French food that is half the labor and 1/4 the number of ingredients. Ha, as if Italian places don’t have premade sauces often times they simply heat up and throw in the boxed pasta they boiled.

The expectations for ethnic cuisines are twice as high compared to such mediocre Italian food, yet consumers demand cheap costs. It’s ridiculous.

False equivalent here. Nobody wants to pay $$ for some cheese ravioli or alfredo noodles either. Handmade ragu with beef sausage, etc. should be more expensive. Veg indian food doesn't have expensive ingredients and things that are hand rolled out or assembled. It just doesn't. As others have already pointed out, the labor is grinding spices, chopping veg, and we should be able to do that in bulk. I know I can.

You’re wrong. Look at this place for example:

https://fontinagrille.com/menus/#menu

Almost $19 for just penne with vodka sauce.

Angel hair pasta with just tomato sauce? $18.

Spaghetti with meatballs? $19

Penne with broccoli and sun dried tomatoes? $18

Linguini with olive oil only? $17


People do pay outrageous prices for thorough mediocre Italian. Even for Italian containing no meats. And yet you’ll complain about veggie Indian dishes costing $18 even though they take much more work than making pasta and adding olive oil (lol $17).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At Indigo some breads go up to $8 a piece and meals start at $19. https://www.indigowdc.com/
At Rasika which is more upscale entrees start at $20 and naan starts at $5. https://www.rasikarestaurant.com/penn-quarter-menu

Is this supposed to be a joke? Keema parantha is bread stuffed with lamb. It's basically it's own meal. That's $8 at indigo. Plain roti is $2.

Rasika has valet parking. It's extremely upscale as you say. Even then, their naan is also "an order" of naan, which is likely multiple pieces.

I'm just struggling to see how people are fretting over this being expensive. If you're paying $15 to valet your car at a restaurant but $2.50 per naan is too expensive because it's made by a brown person, it's looking pretty racist.

It’s not. I see you’ve never been.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have never, in my entire life, paid $5usd for one piece of naan.

Doordash? Those places have a markup over the restaurant's price of course.

I believe the restaurant sets the prices on the apps, but they do increase the price because of whatever fees they have to pay. But still, no lol. Maybe $5 for a pack of 2 or 3, but never for one piece.

I have never seen a restaurant that has sold 2-3 pieces of Naan for $5. Would love to know where you’re eating.

Here are 3 places I like. 1 piece of Naan is $4.
https://www.saffronva.com/
https://www.haandi.com/menu.php
https://pindindianrestaurant.com/menu

I'm not looking up all of them, but I just looked up Saffron, and their pictures clearly show a basket of naan. Not 1 piece.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At Indigo some breads go up to $8 a piece and meals start at $19. https://www.indigowdc.com/
At Rasika which is more upscale entrees start at $20 and naan starts at $5. https://www.rasikarestaurant.com/penn-quarter-menu

Is this supposed to be a joke? Keema parantha is bread stuffed with lamb. It's basically it's own meal. That's $8 at indigo. Plain roti is $2.

Rasika has valet parking. It's extremely upscale as you say. Even then, their naan is also "an order" of naan, which is likely multiple pieces.

I'm just struggling to see how people are fretting over this being expensive. If you're paying $15 to valet your car at a restaurant but $2.50 per naan is too expensive because it's made by a brown person, it's looking pretty racist.

It’s not. I see you’ve never been.

Their pics also show a basket of naan. Or, "an order" of naan. Which is more than 1 piece.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have never, in my entire life, paid $5usd for one piece of naan.

Doordash? Those places have a markup over the restaurant's price of course.

I believe the restaurant sets the prices on the apps, but they do increase the price because of whatever fees they have to pay. But still, no lol. Maybe $5 for a pack of 2 or 3, but never for one piece.

I have never seen a restaurant that has sold 2-3 pieces of Naan for $5. Would love to know where you’re eating.

Here are 3 places I like. 1 piece of Naan is $4.
https://www.saffronva.com/
https://www.haandi.com/menu.php
https://pindindianrestaurant.com/menu

I'm not looking up all of them, but I just looked up Saffron, and their pictures clearly show a basket of naan. Not 1 piece.

I eat at Saffron all the time, you do not get a basket. It’s 1 piece.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At Indigo some breads go up to $8 a piece and meals start at $19. https://www.indigowdc.com/
At Rasika which is more upscale entrees start at $20 and naan starts at $5. https://www.rasikarestaurant.com/penn-quarter-menu

Is this supposed to be a joke? Keema parantha is bread stuffed with lamb. It's basically it's own meal. That's $8 at indigo. Plain roti is $2.

Rasika has valet parking. It's extremely upscale as you say. Even then, their naan is also "an order" of naan, which is likely multiple pieces.

I'm just struggling to see how people are fretting over this being expensive. If you're paying $15 to valet your car at a restaurant but $2.50 per naan is too expensive because it's made by a brown person, it's looking pretty racist.

It’s not. I see you’ve never been.

Their pics also show a basket of naan. Or, "an order" of naan. Which is more than 1 piece.

When did you last eat there?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At Indigo some breads go up to $8 a piece and meals start at $19. https://www.indigowdc.com/
At Rasika which is more upscale entrees start at $20 and naan starts at $5. https://www.rasikarestaurant.com/penn-quarter-menu

Is this supposed to be a joke? Keema parantha is bread stuffed with lamb. It's basically it's own meal. That's $8 at indigo. Plain roti is $2.

Rasika has valet parking. It's extremely upscale as you say. Even then, their naan is also "an order" of naan, which is likely multiple pieces.

I'm just struggling to see how people are fretting over this being expensive. If you're paying $15 to valet your car at a restaurant but $2.50 per naan is too expensive because it's made by a brown person, it's looking pretty racist.

It’s not. I see you’ve never been.

Their pics also show a basket of naan. Or, "an order" of naan. Which is more than 1 piece.

When did you last eat there?

I don't even live in this area, but apparently only one of us knows how to use google?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have never, in my entire life, paid $5usd for one piece of naan.

Doordash? Those places have a markup over the restaurant's price of course.

I believe the restaurant sets the prices on the apps, but they do increase the price because of whatever fees they have to pay. But still, no lol. Maybe $5 for a pack of 2 or 3, but never for one piece.

I have never seen a restaurant that has sold 2-3 pieces of Naan for $5. Would love to know where you’re eating.

Here are 3 places I like. 1 piece of Naan is $4.
https://www.saffronva.com/
https://www.haandi.com/menu.php
https://pindindianrestaurant.com/menu

I LOVE this place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At Indigo some breads go up to $8 a piece and meals start at $19. https://www.indigowdc.com/
At Rasika which is more upscale entrees start at $20 and naan starts at $5. https://www.rasikarestaurant.com/penn-quarter-menu

Is this supposed to be a joke? Keema parantha is bread stuffed with lamb. It's basically it's own meal. That's $8 at indigo. Plain roti is $2.

Rasika has valet parking. It's extremely upscale as you say. Even then, their naan is also "an order" of naan, which is likely multiple pieces.

I'm just struggling to see how people are fretting over this being expensive. If you're paying $15 to valet your car at a restaurant but $2.50 per naan is too expensive because it's made by a brown person, it's looking pretty racist.

It’s not. I see you’ve never been.

Their pics also show a basket of naan. Or, "an order" of naan. Which is more than 1 piece.

When did you last eat there?

I don't even live in this area, but apparently only one of us knows how to use google?

Oh so you’re basing your info on marketing. Ok. Well I ate their last month and you’re wrong. It’s one piece. You can stop pretending you know all “by googling”z

[Anonymous]

I like this place a lot:

https://www.chopathi.com

The prices seem on par with other places nearby and the food is great.