Masala Art - SW Waterfront

Masala Art is my favorite neighborhood restaurant. The staff is always friendly and helpful and the Indian food excellent.

We went to Masala Art before we went to Arena Stage. The food was great, the people friendly and he atmosphere is great. Highly recommend.

The service was slow. The Sarson Wali Fish Curry uninteresting. The Murg Sag Wala and Mutton ki Nazami…. were tasty but hotter than we were told. The plain Nan was fine. Chutney platter bland. Water was not cold. Not great but limited options for dinner in the neighborhood. A disappointment compared with the lunch buffet in Tenleytown.

Nice server. Quite attentive. Great food.

Excellent service and generous portions.

As always, an excellent dinner at Masala Art before heading to Arena stage. Tandoor Paneer Shashlik and Chick pea biryani were exceptionally tasty!

We arrived late to celebrate a birthday before going to the nearby Arena Stage - the good time as excellent but what really stood out was how hard the management and wait staff worked to help us with a massively truncated time schedule. Our thanks to all at Marsala Art who worked so hard to rescue our evening.

Great food. Very pleasant server. Some confusion at check-in, as they couldn’t find our Open Table reservation. We showed them our e-mail confirmation, and that worked.

I’ve always enjoyed Masala Art at the Tenleytown location but this experience at the location in SW was disappointing. The food was really mediocre, lacking flavor and finesse. Especially disappointing as it was our anniversary. We won’t be back,

Great service. Very kind and patient with a large group.

Food was good but service was slow and staff was not knowledgeable of menu.

We had an absolutely lovely dinner at Masala Art before going to the Arena Stage.
The food was fantastic (among the best Indian food we have had in the city). The service was rapid and excellent. The restaurant was not crowded and quiet enough for a wonderful conversation at our table. I recommend it highly.

Food was mediocre. Everything was on the salty side. The shrimp we ordered was not fresh. It was mushy and tasted off. The goat dish was good.

Very good food, excellent service.

Wonderful food, paired exactly to how we explained to Sandeep that we would enjoy it. Staff took super care of us and completely exceeded our expectations. Thanks to Sandeep and the staff at Masala Art for making our dining experience so awesome!

Excellent food and service. Menu has lots of interesting regional dishes. The paneer in spicy tomato sauce is outstanding!

We enjoy coming here for special occasions. The management is so much fun and so nice. The restaurant is spacious and we love the art. Our server had a good sense of humor and was very patient when a few people in our party showed up a bit late. It was great to spend my 50th birthday at such a nice restaurant! Thank you Masala Art!

Sandeep was an amazing host. Enjoyed the meal tremendously.

The menu was slightly abbreviated to accommodate the impacts of the pandemic, there were plenty of suggestions for substitutes. Our food was impeccably prepared and delicious. We enjoyed the service and found the Covid protocols adequately in place. We would love to go back again soon!

Great! Totally good time and delicious food! The service was excellent and they aided in having a surprise dessert presented for my partner.😁

I’ve had better Indian food…this wasn’t the best but it was pretty good!! The staff was great!

Father’s Day

Fantastic food - the channa masala was rich and tasty, and the butter chicken was so good too. My parents had not had Indian food before, and while trepidatious at first, they loved everything that they tried, and in fact want to go back tomorrow! I particularly like the laal maans (very spicy goat curry).

The owner was very attentive and accommodating.He was really nice. The food was outstanding and prices were great for a DC restaurant.

Great tasting food, good service, and good price.

Food is always great with large portions!

For excellent Indian food in Southwest, Masala Art has never disappointed. I've enjoyed takeout during the pandemic, and this was the first time to dine in with a couple of friends post-vaccination. Cocktails were unique and a great start, along with a very tasty appetizer of the broccoli and pea patties. Each of our vegetarian entrees was excellent, served with a generous side of rice. The roti was also exactly what you'd expect from a good Indian restaurant. The only challenge was for the single server who was staffing both the dining room and take-out service, so service was on the slow side. But I expect this will be back to normal as things continue to open up. No, Masala Art doesn't have the views (or the prices) of the Wharf restaurants, but the food is excellent and that's what it's about. The restaurant is close to Metro and Arena Stage, and it's an easy walk to the Wharf, Nationals Park, and the Mall, so what's not to like?

The food was great and decently priced. They were also very generous in allowing us to move to a bigger table. There was some miscommunication in our order, but the waiter was very happy to accommodate us with what we wanted to eat.

Highly recommend Masala Art - SW. All around great dining experience.

Food was excellent, and service without a halt! It's always a good place to go before a show at Arena.

Good food . Great service. Live music from the bar area was a little loud. Other than that, a great evening.

Truly some of the tastiest and refreshing Indian food I have ever had. And the naan was to dies for!

Second time in a row that we couldn’t get food in time to eat it and wrong food item brought to us. In the past we never had trouble here so we’re confused as to what’s happening. We didn’t recognize the staff. Has there been a turnover in personnel or ownership?

We having been coming to Marsala Art ever since they opened the 4th Street location. We go before plays at Arena Stage on Sunday night. This time we had tickets for Saturday night. Made a reservation for 6:30. When we arrived it was very busy. Did not get seated for 12 minutes. We quickly made our food decision and orders around 6:50. At 7:20 no food. Spoke to our waiter and he said he would check. At 7:30 with still no food and waiter not getting back to us we left. What I don't understand is a restaurant allowing itself getting so overwhelmed you cannot handle customer's orders. Don't allow reservations to be made after as many as the kitchen can handle. We will not let this one incident stop us from going back but if it happens again will have to rethink.

It was very busy at dinner time. Our server was so overwhelmed, he forgot to order one dish. Another dish came out without the main ingredient, the shrimp.

Pre-theater (Arena Stage) lunch buffet on Saturday. Perfect! And Masala Art discounts by 10% for Arena patrons!

Food was mediocre and the server was in a hurry.

Contrary to other visits, entrees took over 30 minutes to arrive though the restaurant and the waiter had been told that we were going to Arena Stage. The food when it arrived was good and all enjoyed what they had ordered. We had to hurry to get to Arena Stage to meet the 4th person in our group and to pick up our tickets.

Although the food is delightful in a neighborhood short on tasty options, this restaurant continues to be challenged by service issues. On this particular night, our appetizer arrived before the drinks. After we flagged down our server, he went to check with the bar and returned with our drinks. My entree came promptly, but apparently the server never "heard" my companions entree order. Additionally, he noted that the bread was delayed. My companion's belated entree came within 5 minutes, but the bread continued to be awol, requiring another inquiry of and by the server.

Our waitress paid no attention to us. Wine came after the food and we had to remind her. We told her we were sharing the food and we got no serving spoons, etc. The food however, was as great as ever.