Why are the dishes often so small in Indian restaurants? For the same price at a Chinese restaurant I can get a huge plate of meat and vegetables, while in an Indian restaurant all I get are a few chunks of meat in sauce. Are the spices expensive, and that’s why I’m paying $10 for a bowl of lentils?
Are they small? I’ve never gone hungry at an Indian restaurant. I think part of that is that the food can be quite heavy, and most places include a number of freebies.
I’ve always been served good sized portions in Indian restaurants. When we order takeout, there’s always enough for lunch the next day.
Look at how the meat is portioned. Chances are, you’re getting roughly similar amounts of meat in the Indian restaurant as you are in the Chinese place. You’re just not getting the volume padded out by all the vegetables.
I think you’re going to the wrong restaurants. The more expensive a restaurant is, the less food they will put on your plate. You’re in Fairfax, Virginia? Try the lunch buffet at Minerva.
I’ve experienced the situation the OP is describing. I choose my Indian restaurants carefully, because I’ve been very disappointed by the small portion sizes and high prices in some. For example, a small plate of chicken masala might cost $12, while a saag or paneer dish might be $10. Compared to a similar chicken or tofu dish at a Chinese restaurant, the Indian prices seem to be about 1/3 higher for half the amount of food. I do realize that some Indian dishes do require longer preparation or specialized ingredients, but I’m also puzzled by the price discrepancy.
jacquilynne, I see your point, but Indian restaurants also charge (IMHO) overly-high prices for vegetarian dishes. Lentils and veggies are cheap, yet they’ll be on the menu as separate dishes for almost the price of meat-based ones. Compare this to the Chinese restaurants where rice and vegetables are a given part of most meals.
(Added for clarification: I’m aware that, to have a successful restaurant, food cost should be only about 30% of the final meal cost. I just don’t see how or why Indian restaurants justify dropping their percentage to much lower than that of comparable Chinese restaurants.)
Chinese dishes come with rice, as do Indian dishes. I’ve never seen a Chinese restaurant in the United States where you get vegetables as a “given part” of any order
No, but the Chinese dishes, by and large, include vegetables in them: Chicken and Broccoli, Shrimp and Chinese Vegetables, Mongolian Beef (with onions and green peppers), etc. Indian dishes are often meat (or legumes) and gravy.
My only guess is that they’re trying to make up their losses from that lunch buffet with the prices on their dinner entrees.
ETA: Oh, and all the Indian places around here charge extra for rice. Bastards.
I’ve heard they’re good, but do they have the buffet on weekends? I’m in DC during the week.
Because this has my brain going, and because it’s a slow day at work, here’s a comparison to show what I mean:
Here’s two dishes I consider typical of what I’ve seen at Indian and Chinese restaurants here in Montreal: Chicken Masala and Mongolian Chicken.
Here’s a Chicken Masala recipe.
Here’s a Mongolian Chicken recipe.
Both dishes include chicken, dry spices, and spice preparations. The Indian dish includes yogurt, while the Chinese dish includes cooking wine and broth. To me, the most significant difference is that the Chinese dish includes mushrooms, bell peppers, and scallions, while the Indian dish has only a few chillies as vegetable matter. Despite this, in my experience, a typical dish of Chicken Masala will cost two to four dollars more than the typical dish of Mongolian Chicken, and will be smaller overall. The amount of meat may be comparable, but the Indian dish does not include the vegetables.
I’m not considering buffets in my figuring, because that’s just another steam kettle of fish entirely.
I can’t say I know much about the economics of running ethnic restaurants. Perhaps the main reason they can charge the way they do is because the market will bear it.
But regarding the absence of vegetables as part of a meat dish … this is derived from Indian cuisine itself. Each item is featured in a separate preparation.
10-12 bucks for four or five chunks of chicken or lamb in a curry sauce is what I see as well, which is why I always stick to the buffet at Indian places.
Freebies? Not in the restaurants I’ve been to. Sure, rice usually comes with the meal, but that’s it. Big deal. Rice is cheap; a few cents a pound. Every Indian restaurant I’ve been to charges a fortune for naan bread; like $2.50 to $3.50. Italian restaurants give away bread, as do Middle Eastern restaurants with pita, but Indian restaurants charge for it like it’s a full-blown appetizer.
It is, but it’s part of the same restaurant, and needs to be factored into pricing decisions just as much as electricity and heating costs. If, as I speculate, the $7 lunch buffet is a loss leader to get people in the door, the owner might inflate the menu entrees to make up for it.
I can think of a few other differences that might affect costs. The Indian restaurants around here tend to hire men, and middle aged to older men, instead of the Chinese’s restaurants young girls for their wait staff. They also tend to hire Indian/Pakistani cooks, instead of Mexican immigrants. Perhaps work at an Indian restaurant is more highly paid - to the extend of being something you can raise a family on. Of course, paying your staff more means you have to charge more.
The Indian restaurants tend to use things like tablecloths and cloth napkins, with nice glass glasses and heavy silverware and fresh cut flowers on each table. The Chinese places have cheap flatware and paper napkins. Those things cost less. The condiments at an Indian place are scooped more-or-less fresh and brought in metal relish trays, instead of being plastic bottles left on the table at all times.
The number of light bulbs in most Indian restaurants is rather astounding, as is the artwork, the nearly constant renovations. In contrast, most of the Chinese places specialize in take-out and delivery - the tables and chairs are an afterthought, cheap and ugly. The lights are invariably fluorescents, instead of the incandescents in the Indian place.
I also notice that the business at most Chinese places in my area is very brisk - most of the tables full and half a dozen takeout orders and countless delivery ones filled in the few minutes I’m there picking up my grub. The Indian places always have tables open, and none of them around here deliver (grr.) and while take out is technically available, I’ve never seen it happen. Perhaps the Chinese dinners are sold at less of a markup because they make up for it in volume.
ETA: In short, an average Indian restaurant has nothing in common with an average Chinese restaurant except that they’re both “ethnic”. The Indian restaurant is there to provide a full dining experience, and is better compared to a nice Italian joint or an upscale sushi place. The average Chinese restaurant is there to provide copious amounts of food for cheap - it’s actually better compared to a fast food joint.
I don’t know if it’s just how we eat Indian food vs. Chinese food, but in my social group if we go out to eat Indian at a nice place we order a much wider variety of things–everyone might order some sort of starch or meat in sauce type thing, but then we will order an appetizer and a vegetable entree or two for the table. It ends up costing what a nice dinner would cost anywhere else.
We do have more casual Indian places around here that are basically like a Chinese take-out place, and in those I would agree that the portions are smaller than what they are at a typical Chinese take-out place. However, their clientele is almost entirely Indian, IME, so they may simply have portion sizes set to whatever is more typical in that culture. As Indian food becomes more mainstream (as I hope it will!), that may shift.
As an aside: I am SO ANNOYED. An IndoPak Chinese Mexican American Buffet opened up down the street from me about a month ago and I finally got around to going yesterday and they were already out of business. How would that have been for a once-in-a-lifetime experience?
Mmmmm…Lentils and octopus covered in cheese, sesame seeds, chilis and sausage gravy topped off with ham and some chocolate mousse. :eek:
WhyNot, you bring up many interesting points.
The prices I’ve mentioned are actually for Indian and Chinese restaurants that don’t have buffets. In and around Montreal, there’s a few Indian buffets (including the excellent Bombay Palace) that do sit-down meals as well, but many more Indian restaurants that don’t serve buffet style. There’s also a few good (and many bad) Chinese buffets, but again, far more sit-down restaurants.
We don’t have the Mexican staffing issue here, though I have observed the age differential you mention. Some Chinese restaurants will hire older people than others, but it’s true that I’ve never seen very young people working in an Indian restaurants. It’s entirely possible that Indian restaurant salaries are higher: I did know an Indian gentleman who raised a two-child family on his waiter’s salary, but I believe his wife worked part-time as well.
I’ve often observed this to be true. Some Chinese restaurants manage to have quite nice decor and still maintain low prices, but in general the Indian restaurants around here are more lavishly equipped.
I wonder if this isn’t a chicken-and-egg situation here. If Indian restaurants were cheaper, I’d eat there more often. There’s one vegetarian place I eat at that’s constantly busy. There, you can get a full, varied set meal for $8. Other Indian restaurants are as you’ve described, with plenty of open tables.
I think the Indian to Chinese comparison is still valid, in that many of the ingredients and some cooking methods are comparable. It’s true that nothing can replace a tandoor oven, but some Indian dishes are prepared in methods similar to wok/steamer cooking. It’s true that there’s many “fast food” level Chinese restaurants, but even in better ones, I find that the food is consistently less expensive than at Indian restaurants. I also find that Indian food, per meal, is more expensive than comparable plates at Italian restaurants and even some decent sushi places. I’ve walked away hungry from Indian restaurants after paying $20 for my share of a group meal, something that has never happened to me at an Italian place or the moderately-priced Japanese places I frequent.
Hmm. That has never been my experience, in any part of this country or in the UK. As others have said, there are probably more veggies to bulk out Chinese food.
OTOH, you want more Chinese food an hour later, whereas you have good reason to REMEMBER Indian food for a day or two, if you get my drift.
I don’t think this is a significant method in Indian cooking. Most things are stewed in spiced gravy or deep fried.
Never, ever, have I had such wind. And I go for the mildest, chilli-less, dishes.