A new restaurant has quietly opened in the Ashburn Village Shopping Center and the name may sound familiar to longtime residents of the area.
It’s called Banjara and it’s in the same spot that a previous incarnation of Banjara once called home.
Banjara Flavors of India has taken over the space that was most recently Persis Biryani, which was previously the Indian Taverna, and before that was Banjara Indian Cuisine. (It was also once the Royal Taj Indian restaurant as well, but at this point, we’ve lost all track.)
We’re told that Banjara has a whole new management team operating the establishment, but the menu still focuses on the cuisine of northern India, which is where the nomadic Banjara people originally came from.
The sign out front still says Persis, but that will be changing in the next few weeks.
Meanwhile, the new Banjara menu includes both vegetarian and non-vegetarian entrees, as well as appetizers, biryanis and tandoori. They also have a large selection of different Indian breads including various naans, kulchas, rotis and more.
Banjara also has a selection of small bites known as chaat, which are based on traditional Indian street food. The restaurant is holding “Chit Chaat” hours with reduced prices on chaat from 5 to 7 p.m. on weekdays (M, T, Th, F). You can see the full Banjara menu below.
(Image at top courtesy of Banjara)
I’ll give it a year before it changes again. All these renames must be awful for search engine optimization though.
I’m just glad Chicken Korma is still on the menu.
This has been my favorite Indian restaurant since 2002. The original menu and quality that Banjara’s delivered was amazing. The ovens must still be the same because the naan hasn’t changed over the years and it’s the best I’ve ever eaten. The mango lassi recipe also seems to be the same as the original restaurant, which again is the best I’ve ever had. TBH, this new menu does nothing for me. What would get me going back here 2x/month at $100+ per visit would be to bring back the original menu and recipes if at all possible.
The current menu does not have lamb saag or lamb biryani. Double negative. The lamb biryani was one of the highlights when it was Persis and def way better than any of the “biryani” joints in Ashburn. The main dish Banjara’s needs to bring back is the chef specialty called Lamb Banjara. That was the absolute bomb!
Also, the Chicken 65 recipe that the original Banjara’s used was the best I’ve ever had. Persis was close, but it still wasn’t the same. Every other Chicken 65 dish I’ve had at the Indian restaurants around NOVA suck and are way overpriced. Anyway, I’m really glad to see the same location resurrected as Banjara’s because there’s no other good Indian food around here right now.
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