There is no end to the ethnic restaurants in Dallas. Many of the best and most affordable are small family run places that seem to come and go with the same frequency and suddenness of a Texas thunderstorm. And just as you have a craving for that really great food at that little place you discovered last month, you arrive and it’s gone.

Not so with Taj Express. For the last 10 years this Lemmon Avenue eatery has been serving up some of the best Indian food in town at prices that will let you buy those concert tickets too. It is family owned and ethnically correct in the kitchen, which means you get authentic food prepared with quality ingredients.

If you are looking for the latest twist on fusion cuisine, or cutting edge food with unusual combinations Taj Express is not for you. If you want honest Indian cooking that tastes authentic, including the occasional “Oh my God that is Hot”, then you have come to the right place.

The daily lunch buffet at $5.95 features Indian mainstays and varies little in content. There is the obligatory Tandori chicken, vegetable and chicken curry dishes, Indian flat bread, Nan, dipping sauces, a non-curried vegetable offering, salad bar, fruit, and two traditional Indian deserts a mango lassi and a rice pudding, both delicious. It is a great meal for less than fast food. The 8.95 dinner buffet expands a bit on the lunch offerings adding various chicken and vegetable dishes.

What most miss, is the extensive ala cart menu that boasts a full range of Indian dishes spanning the entire cooking genre of the Indian sub-continent. Every imaginable curry is offered, from mild and delicate to smoking hot and rich. Exotic and standard vegetable dishes satisfy vegetarian palettes and provide variety to the meat dishes.

You can specify how much heat you would like to see in the spicing of curries, but beware. You can get to far out there and incapacitate your taste buds (read that, burn them off). I personally like to glow mildly, but I leave the heavy duty sweating to other diners.

The ambiance is early fast food diner style, which could do with a bit of updating, but then we are not paying for that, just for the food. After the first bite, you don’t notice the surroundings anyway, you are paying to much attention to the song being played in your mouth.

Standouts include;

So, how do we like it? Well, Taj Express has been around a long time, because they have got it right. Food is , Service is , Ambiance is , Price is $-$$, wine and beer. Takeout is available.