Namaste - Indian restaurant in Belo Horizonte

An excellent option for Indian food in Belo Horizonte, Brazil

On a long business trip to Belo Horizonte last year, Namaste was the first of the Indian restaurants I got a chance to visit. Considering the duration of the stay, it was relieving to know Belo has a few Indian restaurants. 

Restaurant Location

Namaste is located on the main road in the Prado area and is rather easy to find. Situated about 2 km away from Mercado Central, Namaste is an ideal place to go for Indian food lovers after shopping spree in Mercado.

Namaste Entrance

Ambience

Starting with the restaurant itself, there's isn't much to write home about the place or ambience. It is rather small and almost full capacity both times I visited. They did have a TV though that ran videos of Bollywood dance songs non-stop. While there was nothing new for me in it, some of the locals including my office colleagues there did kinda enjoy watching the dance moves while having their food.

Brazilian Weigh & Pay System

Before going to the food itself, I wanted to write about my experience with the the Brazil style weigh and pay system. The weigh and pay system was a bit surprising when I first visited a restaurant for Brazil but eventually warmed up to it to the extent that I hoped such a system could be brought to India as well. It goes something like this. You pick up a plate and put in all the food you want to eat like a in a buffet. But before going back to your seat, you go to a counter to get it weighed and the weighing machine flashes the amount you'll have to pay for it. The staff write it down on a receipt and hand it over to you. If you'd like to get a second serving, you get your plate weighed again after picking up your food and the staff make another entry in your receipt. When you're done and ready to leave, you head to the counter where they add up your amount and ask you to pay the total. The system makes good sense especially for office going people who often visit small restaurants near office everyday for lunch. We obviously went with this system at Namaste rather than the traditional a la carte as it was much cheaper than ordering food there and gave us more choice.

The food weighing machine at the counter

Food

The buffet food options weren't much to be honest but they still covered everything you'd expect to find on the table in an Indian household during lunch. From salads, Indian breads, curries, rice and dal. I didn't find any sweets there to my surprise. I had the Indian bread and the mutter paneer to start off. While the bread was hot and tasted good, the paneer was average at best. It was unexpected as the owners were Punjabis and you'd expect the place to have great tasting paneer. The rice and dal did have that distinctive Indian taste. The only downside was the service which was slow and the staff seemed disinterested a bit.

Buffet options

Overall Review

In summary, Namaste is a really good to choice if you're in Belo and looking for Indian food especially if you're going for lunch during the work week and opt for the weigh and pay system as it is much cheaper than other options around.

Rating - 4/5