| Location |
| 715 2nd Street |
| Hours |
| 11:00 AM to 10:00 PM, 7 days a week |
| Phone |
| (530)759-2040 |
| Website |
| http://www.preethiindian.com |
| Established |
| 05-01-2012 |
| Payment Methods |
| Cash, Check, Credit Cards, Other |
| Non Food Features |
| Wifi, Outlets available, Study friendly service |
Preethi Indian Cuisine is a recently arrived restaurant that serves south and north Indian food. They provide catering services, providing off-menu things like fresh kulfi if this is done. This is not your standard Davis Indian/Nepalese restaurant. It is mainly Southern Indian, which is a whole new experience. There are great vegetarian fare and non-vegetarian options on the menu.
Preethi has a lunch buffet seven days a week, from 11:00am to 3:00pm on weekdays for $8.99, and 11:00am to 3:30pm on weekends. They are open till midnight on Friday and Saturday. Happy hour is 3:00 P.M. until 5:00 P.M. If you buy a beer or wine, you get a free appetizer. They also do catering.
They occasionally offer dinner buffets for Hindu festivals such as Diwali.
This location was previously occupied by Bombay Dreams Restaurant. They left their wall painting of the Buddha up and incorporated it into the restaurant's decor. It seems the register still prints "Bombay Dreams" on the receipt.
2012-05-20 14:43:17 Best indian food in Davis, hands down! Good for both veg & non-veg options. Pleasant ambience, not too expensive either. —kijacker
2012-05-31 23:47:36 Went here a few weeks ago. I love this place, it has both South and North Indian food (you NEVER see South unless you're like in the Silicon Valley), and is a lot better than places like Zindagi's, which we had just tried the previous week. —chandru
2012-06-06 15:34:34 Just not the same as Bombay Dreams. Sigh... —ellenjoyce
2012-06-07 14:28:31 I just went this week and the the lunch buffet was awesome. There served lasses to everyone automatically, they had delicious butter chicken, they just kept bringing out the naan, and they even served us Masala Dosa, which I had never had before. Really good food and friendly service. —SeanNittner
2012-06-07 20:10:24 Friends and I went here a few weeks ago. The service was very kind and friendly. They serve both North and South Indian food (finally!), and their Southern food is apparently pretty good according to friends who'd know. They start you off with appalam and mint, mango, and coconut chutneys. Their naan is fluffy, the rice is nice and fragrant, and all their food is pretty nicely spiced. I remember in particular liking the bharwan baingan, very soft and delicious. The dining experience was pleasant (very good atmosphere, comfortable too) and the prices were very reasonable for the quality and location. Plenty of veg and non veg stuff here. Definitely coming back here. Along with Raja's, it's my favorite Indian food place in Davis.
Apparently they also cater, and if you have enough people they'll make kulfi! —AlexTK
2012-06-11 17:12:28 I had such high hopes for this place since South Indian food is hard to find. However, when we walked in the door we were greeted with borderline hostility. To be fair, we had a two-year old in tow but we also made a point of coming at a time when there would be few other patrons to disturb. The food was fine, but not good enough to make me want to brave the icy stares of the staff again. —BlytheDurbinJohnson
2012-06-28 19:32:03 Had a bad take-out experience here. Chicken tikka masala - chicken dry and overcooked, cream added when sauce too hot meaning that it split. Very poor. Okra was just okay, goat curry was mediocre, garlic naan was inedible (entire head of raw garlic spread over normal naan). Quite expensive altogether, and highly unlikely that we'll eat the leftovers. Won't be coming back. Sorry. —McBeeves
2012-06-30 08:28:53 Great new restaurant in town! The only place in Davis that we have found to get South Indian dishes—dosas, idli, etc.—and they are excellent. Attentive service, very good (and spicy!) food. We had a great meal. —JeffJudyReynolds
2012-07-09 13:05:00 Finally created an account to proclaim this restaurant from the rooftops. It is a class above Davis' other Indian/Nepalese places (although several are quite good). Ordered a thali dinner and the South Indian combo appetizer for the two of us... which would have been enough for three. Everything was excellent, especially the Chicken Makhani and the okra/peanut veg curry of the day. What's more, the waitress later told us that during happy hour there is a coupon to get half off an entree if you buy one at full price.. she applied this for us without us requesting it and even though we didn't even purchase two entrees! Great food, enough for three, for 20 dollars and change. I'll be back often. —wpear
2012-07-10 21:51:34 This is not your standard Davis Indian/Nepalese restaurant. It is mainly Southern Indian, which is a whole new experience. The dosa was excellent and the southern Indian sampler - amazing. Give this place a try before you think it is like everywhere else - you won't be sorry. —annemeck
2012-07-10 22:07:37 We loved the south Indian specialties - the huge dosas and savory sambar were like being back in Kerala. The owners were very generous and treated our two young children like family, offering extra mango lassis (best in town) and a whole plate of idli on the house. The prices were very reasonable and we left knowing that we will be bringing friends next time. —RyD
2012-07-13 00:49:02 HALLELUJAH! Finally, South Indian cuisine in Davis! After spending 10 weeks in India, I'm picky about the Indian food I eat, and don't care for toned down spices to suit the American palate or fusion Indian food. You won't find either of those here - this place serves up the real deal. Before I even settled into my table, the young woman who greeted me brought over a mango lassi that had a sweet, intense mango flavor - the perfect welcoming ritual! I sampled several dishes, all of them excellent. The veggie pakora were so fresh and perfectly crunchy - my kids couldn't stop eating them. The veggie samosa was just the way I like it - generously packed with potatoes and peas with a unique spice blend. Last, but not least, the dosa. Oh, how I've been craving a good dosa since moving to Davis 7 years ago. This one was bang-on. The pancake was soft on the inside, crispy around the edges and lightly filled with a curry veggie mix. All of the dishes were enhanced with a delicious selection of chutneys - the mint chutney was my favorite; my kids loved the sweet dark brown chutney; my husband liked the blow-your-top-off spicy tomato chutney. I chatted up the young woman working there, who turned out to be the owner's daughter. She said her father and mother do all the cooking in the restaurant, because they want to make sure all the food is prepared correctly according to their tradition, and no customer leaves unsatisfied. Can't wait to go back and try the lunch buffet! —BujhaGee
2012-07-15 18:22:50 OMG — fantastic! I went here for the first time last night, and my friend and I shared palaak paneer (spinach with cheese cubes) and mango chicken. Superb, the best in Davis and Sacramento. So tonight I took my daughter, and the owner immediately started piling our table with delicious new things, of which I know only some of the names: mango lassi, dosa, papadam, chutneys, dal, vegetable curry, mahi mahi tikka, and other unnamed yummies cooked by the gracious owners. And the service was excellent — by the owners' daughter. It was such a wonderful meal experience that my daughter wants to go here to celebrate her 15th birthday! —Chamoudah
2012-07-21 20:36:31 Preethi has excellent food and even better service. I have a nut allergy and the waitress expertly helped me navigate the dishes I wasn't familiar with and conferred with the cooks to make sure there was no contamination. The naan was great too...very fresh! —BSchreier
2012-07-22 17:32:10 I was very surprised and excited to find this delicious Indian food!!! An especially good find since they serve South Indian cuisine, including Masala Dosas and Uttapam, along with coconut sambar and dipping sauces. The closest place to get South Indian food that I've found is at Dosa in SF. I'm thrilled to have this one here, so please patronize this place and keep it around! The staff is very friendly and attentive, and they told me that the owners are from Hyderabad in South India. It is a different experience from the North Indian/Nepalese Kathmandu, which I also like, and it really has its own unique niche. It need not be seen as competition. The Tikka Masala has an excellent South Indian flavor, and the samosas were crisp, delicious and fresh! If you are not familiar with South Indian food, come try it out here. Order an Uttapam with chili and garlic and a Masala Dosa. You won't be sorry! —MichaelGrofe
2012-09-29 10:43:48 Yum. Yum. YUM! Wow, we went in to Preethie for dinner last night and left with happy bellies. SO many vegetarian options to choose from! The korma was the best I've ever tasted; so creamy and flavorful I licked the bowl clean. The lentils, pakora and aloo gobi were super tasty with spices that all blended together into a symphony of deliciousness. The naan was pillowy soft and the perfect sponge to mop up every last drop. We will absolutely be back with our kids. —DebWestergaard
- Did your korma have a coconut flavor to it? I thought I tasted coconut, but my idea of "medium" seems to be equivalent to Indian-restaurant-"mild" and it's difficult to tell sometimes about the underlying seasonings. —JudithTruman
2012-11-26 12:27:01 This is the only restaurant I've felt compelled to write a Davis Wiki review about. The food is fantastic. It may be a buffet, but I feel like the food is above buffet quality for a buffet price. Like SeanNitter mentioned, the service is great as well: they kept bringing out naan, masala dosa, and mango lassi to go with our buffet food. I can't recommend this place enough. —MatthewPorter
2012-12-10 08:27:25 Will Preethi be open on Xmas? (You'd get all of us Davis Jews!) —Chamoudah
2013-01-04 17:34:32 I had heard South Indian food is generally healthier of Indian cuisine, but I ended up ordering vindalu a thali. It was delicious, a lot of food. I went on Christmas, so service was a little slow since I'm assuming it was one of the only places open on Christmas and everyone went. I really enjoyed my food, and I'd be interested in studying here sometime. —HannahToru
2013-05-15 22:11:20 Absolutely best buffet. There are many choices, and they don't compromise quality. In addition to providing chai tea, they serve fresh hot naan, garlic naan, dosa, vada, and mango lassi to your table. They also sometimes have special dinner buffets on Indian holidays, like Diwali and Ugadi. I went to the one for Diwali last year because they advertised having over 50 items or something, but many of them were missing, probably because it's a very difficult task to coordinate. Anyways, the takeaway here is the lunch buffet. The other Indian restaurants have a lot of work to do... —TheShah
2014-04-27 16:43:57 I rarely write reviews on the Wiki, but I've been so impressed by Preethi that I want to comment! I've gone here several times for buffet and dinner, both a la carte and thali. I've always been impressed by the kindness of all staff members, the quality of the food, their cheerfulness to provide certain off-menu items, attentiveness to special food needs/choices, the ambiance - absolutely everything. I love that they provide mango lassi, hot chai, and fresh naan to the table during the lunch buffet for the same price as other Indian restaurants in town...I think that extra effort really shows the care everyone puts into the restaurant. I always leave this place feeling happily full, but not like I just consumed anything unhealthy. —AllisonBarnard
2014-07-30 12:17:08 Best lunch buffet in town! A million times better than Raja's and totally worth the extra $3. —ToddKaiser
2014-10-25 17:22:47 Portions here have shrunk. The sambar (soup) came in a shot glass. The dessert in a tiny condiment dish. —NoelBruening
2015-04-11 22:41:01 We just ate there- wow was it amazing!!! Rich flavors, spicy (if you ask for that) but not shockingly so, and huge plates full of food. There were some different flavors than you get at the "regular" places, very sweet servers, and just a fantastic experience for a reasonable price. —JaneBF
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