Indian butter chicken or, murgh makhani is a recipe that is far from set in stone. Supposedly it was created in a restaurant in Delhi by a cook in search for a use for leftover tandoori chicken.
He simmered the spiced chicken pieces in a creamy, tomato curry sauce with a little butter and thus, better chicken was born. Or at least, so the story goes. India’s most popular culinary export (second only to chicken tikka masala) butter chicken recipes come in many shapes and forms.
But, they all result in a tomato-red, mild, creamy curry-like sauce just begging to be served with a steaming bowl of basmati rice and warm naan.
Based on 155 reviews, the restaurant has received a rating of 4.2 stars. Price $
✔️ Dine-in ✔️ Takeout ✔️ No-contact delivery
Address:
1717 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20006
Phone: (202) 331-4175
Hours
| Saturday | 11 AM–7 PM |
| Sunday | 11 AM–7 PM |
| Monday
(Labor Day)
|
11 AM–7 PM
Hours might differ
|
| Tuesday | 11 AM–7 PM |
| Wednesday | 11 AM–7 PM |
| Thursday | 11 AM–7 PM |
| Friday | 11 AM–7 PM |
Menu
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Photo Gallery
Reviews
Sergio Hernandez
On a day visiting museums in DC with relatives we ended up in this place and we were pleasantly surprised with the quality of the food. Place is small and they carry just two main dishes: Butter Chicken and Chicken Tikka Masala, with some good side dishes Saag Paneer (Spinach and Cheese) and Chana Masala (Chickpeas). The butter chicken was well seasoned, the tomato base was rich and flavorful. The Chicken Masala is spicy, though (and so are the chickpeas), with the right amount of spice but if you don’t like spices or are sensitive to spicy food, this is not for you. Mango Lassi was delicious too. They have a motto “300 and we are done”, which means they only serve 300 people a day and then food is gone and the restaurant is closed. Don’t be surprised then if you come late and they are not open (I suggest to go there for lunch then).
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A. H. M. Rezaul Karim
A great place to grab good indian cuisines at an affordable price in the heart of DC. The staffs are great.
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Pramod Kanal
Stopped by at this restaurant for a late lunch as well as one of my favorite dishes – ‘Butter Chicken’.
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Ludovic Lalo
The chicken tikka only had one small piece of chicken. Otherwise, it was just sauce. Cost too much for one 3/4″ x 1/4″ piece of chicken . The saag paneer was coarsely chopped and not finely pureed like the photos on their website and had only one piece of cheese. The chicken was nicely spiced. Outdoor seating was nice. $18.70 for basically seasoned veggies and rice. The naan was almost rock hard too. Nope.
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Shannon Howard
1st time eating Butter Chicken. It was very good. They offer some free sauces. Not sure exactly what any of them were but the green one had cilantro in it. It was so good on my meal.
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Ieesha_with an i
Being new at the time to indian cuisine this place was absolutely amazing. We ordered alot and every dish was just the right about of spice. The service was a 10 as we had no issues with our waiter. The problem we did have…. the baby roach walking along the chair above my head…. We pointed it out to our waiter and you could see the embarrassment in his face as he killed it…. Welp, that changed everything as we couldn’t bring ourselves to eat the leftovers . But it was amazing while it lasted. Maybe it was just a fluke as this is D.C
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Eric Kim
$14 for this much food is extremely hard to find in DC and not only that, everything tastes amazing. I always go half and half with the butter chicken and tikka masala along with paneer and chickpeas as my sides. I love the concept of keeping it simple and making sure the few dishes are done well. Staff is kind and always say hello. Definitely recommend!
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Hilda Kroll
There are two choices – butter chicken and chicken tikka masala, both simmered in big vats with tasty sauces. I only like white meat, so I was out of luck, although I did find a few pieces. Lots of rice and spinach , so I didn’t leave hungry. Reasonably priced but limited menu.
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Caroline !
Not good. Chicken tikka masala was greasy, temperature of food was maybe lukewarm … spinach paneer same: almost cold, And there was one paneer cube in the two big spoonfuls he splattered in my takeout tray! Gee thanks!. Naan was ok. “Looks” good but ehhh there’s gotta be better Indian in DC. Plus they said it was closing soon, but the gooogle hours showed still one hour til closing. Not sure what’s up w that.
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Sadhana G
One day, we checked off our DC local things to do by visiting the Butter chicken company which is open only on hours between 12-3pm everyday and closed on weekends. They had a very limited menu with more meat options and a few vegetarian options. We got the famous butter chicken meal and a chicken tikka meal which came along with rice and two sides of saag panneer and veg biriyani. We also got a sampler of chole. Overall, the food was good but we learnt that the odd timing of the restaurant which limits to only 300 orders per day was primarily intended to target the IT crowd which lived in the area. But for the decent pricing of 14$ in a beautiful microwaveable container and a big proper portion of the meal were the highlights of this place.
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