Those looking to sample a variety of traditional Indian cuisine needn’t look any further than the lunch buffets at neighboring restaurants – Bombay Cafe and Taste of India.

Both restaurants regularly rotate buffet items but promise a wide selection of meat and vegetarian dishes along with naan, rice, salad and desserts.

Both also feature the use of the traditional tandoor oven – a clay oven used to cook tandoori-style entrees and breads, like the unleavened flatbread, naan.

At the Bombay Cafe, owner Ahmed Khawaja described the cafe’s food as unique, flavorful and healthy, with a little Pakistani influence.

Khawaja recommended any chicken dish on the menu and always has a chicken curry and a dry chicken dish, like tandoori wings on the $6.99 buffet.

The buffet also has a chutney condiment bar.

However, Khawaja leaves the selection and preparation of the buffet dishes to his Indian chefs who, along with the staff, he calls “the nucleus of the restaurant.”

The majority of the cafe’s customers are regulars, and Khawaja estimated about 50 percent are University students.

The cafe is committed to customer service, he said, which is why the once vegetarian restaurant now serves meat. If diners like the food and service, they can ring a bell signifying their satisfaction on their way out.

Khawaja said to expect changes from the cafe in the future. He is introducing a new menu at the end of the month that will feature two new sections: health food and seafood.

A few doors down from the Cafe is Taste of India.

Khawaja said there is a healthy competition between the two places.

Taste of India owner Veena Chhabra, however, said both restaurants have such unique styles that there is not a competition.

She said she and her husband, Ashok Kumar, selected the location because of the closeness to the University, and they wanted to draw a student crowd.

The family-owned and run fine-dining restaurant focuses on Northern Indian food, which is more savory and includes more meat than Southern Indian food, Chhabra said.

The buffet usually includes three meat dishes, two chicken and one beef, lamb or goat. The restaurant also has vegetarian options.

The buffet is $6.95 on the weekdays, $8.95 on the weekends and $4.25 per pound for takeout. Students can get a free soft drink with their student IDs.

Chhabra recommended the chicken tikka masala, which is cooked in the tandoor and served in a creamy tomato sauce.

She also recommended the kashmiri naan, which is traditional naan stuffed with cherries and coconut.

Chhabra and the cooks said they place a big emphasis on freshness and health by using a lot of fresh vegetables and no excess oil. For example, naan bread is made to order by sticking the dough directly to the sides of the tandoor oven.

“There’s no grease on that,” said Chef Gulshan Arora.

Chhabra said diners can request how spicy they want their food – mild, medium, hot or “Indian hot.” But Arora warns people about the Indian hot.

“Indian hot – that’s 911!” he said.