Khana Peena

This is not about the food. It was about wasting our time. Drove out of our way to give this restaurant our business, but upon arriving at 6:50, they were closed. Lights out, not a soul, no message on Yelp, no message anywhere. Don't waste your time. Try somewhere else.

This place continues to be so consistent with food and service. We are happy every time we come here! Always easy to get in without a reservation. Honestly the best Indian food! We have never been to their other location because we are so happy with the Solano one.

Quality, presentation & service is great and the food is good. However, a great meal (especially the Indian cuisine) isn't just about sustenance. The Ingredients and Spices are the magical tools, adding depth, warmth, and complexity to every dish transforming ordinary meal into extraordinary experiences. So with that in mind, I recommend the sizzling dishes, we had fish and prawns which were good & tasty. I was not impressed by the Chicken Tikka Masala which is my favorite dish, it was too ordinary and just dull. The Fish curry was ok. The rice is too ordinary and not what I expect for an Indian Basmati rice. Nan/Garlic-Nun are good as well as the Samosas. 3.1/2 Starts for Food.(3= Good, 4= Great, 5= Exceptional.) (Kaz - March 2024)

We were returning from out of town and were thankful to find a place which was open late. The menu is typical, the usual naan bread, biryani, tandoori items and some curries. We got a couple of naans, tandoori chicken, chicken karahi and chicken biryani. I would say the flavors across the board were relatively decent though not authentic. But, the chicken tandoori which came on a sizzler plate with some veggies was charred very badly. Half the veggies were charred as well. The karahi chicken on the other hand was just a sorry watery mess without any flavor to speak of. The chicken biryani was decent but it felt more like curry plus rice mixed together rather than an actual biryani. The ambiance was lovely though, it's eclectic with brick walls, lots of wood, Indian motifs, with a mini fountain in the middle of the dining room and several tiny Indian umbrellas decorating the roof.

Amazing food and great service!!! This place is never super busy and I find that hard to believe since this is some of the best chicken tikka masala I've had especially in this area. Food is pretty inexpensive; about $14 per meat entree. Plain naan is $4 and so is plain basmati rice.I cannot recommend this place enough! I have to stop here every time I'm in the area!!

I'm confused by the name Venus and Khana Peena for some unknown reason this restaurant had two names.I gave Venus a 5-star rating for breakfast and Indian food for dinner before the pandemic.Sadly, the food did not make it through the name change.The 4 dishes we ordered came out lukewarm and watery,and the naan resembled a Chinese scallion pancake, but the frozen kind you buy at Ranch 99.I'm sorry to say I won't be coming back, but I do hope that things will improve because I really used to like this place.BB

THE most perfect basmati rice I have ever had at a restaurant! If they just did everything else like they did basmati rice, I would give them five stars. Just cooked absolutely perfectly, every grain separated and fully formed and moist. Rest of the food is greasy and pedestrian and heavy on the night I tried this restaurant. I tried the pakoras, which tasted like they had been fried, left out for a day, and then fried again - they were a bit soggy. flavor profile was decent on the other food, if you need something quick and there's no other place to go, it's there but it's nothing great. But the basmati rice? Perfection! And my chicken dish was spiced well! I'll give them another try and post an update, I might've caught them on a bad night.

** The following review reflects my delivery experience DURING the shelter-in-place order currently in effect. **I think it was gone and became a pizza spot, then it turned into a second location for Venus, and then the original Indian concept came back recently by popular demand. Man, I'm confused but probably not the constant owner Deepak Aggarwal who owned the space as he kept reinventing the menu. All of that became a moot point during COVID-19 because I became aware of the restaurant solely through the Caviar app, and four months into this pandemic, Jamie W. and I were finally in the mood for some Indian food.The two of us made a pretty robust order starting with the $16.95 Tandoori Chicken, an all-dark meat option (my personal preference) that featured three plump thighs and a drumstick over grilled vegetables (photo: https://bit.ly/3kgKxtM). What should have been poultry nirvana was slightly overcooked and a tad dried out. The $13.95 Karahi Lamb was definitely a lot wetter as it cane stew-like in a plastic container with lamb chunks swimming in a thick broth filled with ginger, garlic, green peppers, and onion (photo: https://bit.ly/33G5J6q).We defrosted a bag of cauliflower rice so we had something to sop it all up. The most pleasant surprise was the $16 Veggie Option of the Warm Kale Salad, a box packed with golden beets, delicata squash, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, pumpkin seeds, and balsamic dressing complemented by avocado, manchego cheese, and shredded radish replacing the salmon that would normally be there (photo: https://bit.ly/31szkhe). That was easily the most delicious part of our meal. Yeah, it was good to get our Indian fix and go with the healthier option so we felt less guilty.FOOD - 4 stars...solid Indian flavors, hearty portionsAMBIANCE - n/a...I know it shares a space with Venus, but mine was a delivery experience onlySERVICE - 4 stars...pretty fast, well packaged TOTAL - 4 stars...viable Indian option during this pandemicRELATED - Strolling on Solano? Here's a collection of places I've tried and reviewed: https://bit.ly/2HvcTQH

This was one of my favorite restaurants years ago but seems to have fallen victim to COVID decay; ornery to hostile service, one person working, cold food and undercooked naan. Hope to see it recover this place used to be incredible.

Khana Peena has the best Tandoori Chicken we have had in Berkeley - and we've tried many. Certainly better than the other Indian restaurants on Solano, and we have tried all those. Khana Peena marinates the chicken perfectly and doesn't overcook it.Other things good, but the Tqndoori Chicken was special. This restaurant is underappreciated and worth a try.