India Curry House, Arlington, Va.

Robert came over in the snow to go to lunch with me today. We walked around just a little bit since he wasn't familiar with the Clarendon neighborhood and landed at India Curry House, where they were advertising an $8.99 lunch buffet. The buffet was actually decent. The only thing I didn't like was the appetizer, a potato-vegetable fritter, that I thought was "eh." I was particularly impressed with the barbecued chicken from the tandoor that was tender and juicy, instead of the usually overcooked, dry stuff often found on buffets. There was a nice beef rogan josh and a chicken curry, several different types of dal (lentils), a nice mixed vegetable jalfrazie dish, and some type of paneer (traditional homemade cheese) in a tomato cream sauce. Instead of having bread out on the buffet line, our waitress brought us a basket of fresh, hot naan that was quite fluffy and good. For dessert, they had a kheer (rice pudding) that was thin and sweet and very, very bright, saffron yellow and a bunch of fresh orange quarters. Overall, I thought the food was very good for the money.