BEWARE: They automatically added 18% gratuity for just TWO of us. There is no mention of this on the menu or from the staff regarding this beforehand. And the merchant bill had recommended tip amount calculated for us to easily add (duh!) which was on total amount ( including 18% initial gratuity). This feels like a rip off. Coming to the food, we had a good experience until the end. The staff were good & very friendly. Food tasted great & authentic. We would have tipped 20% ourselves if we hadn’t feel like they are trying to con us in the end. We won’t be coming back here again just because they lost our trust.

This used to be a good restaurant and we had a lot of good dinner & lunch thalis. Anyways all that is in the past. This is my 5th time I ordered food and had to wait for 20-30 minutes to get it after the due time. I tried calling the restaurant this time to place the order however placed the order from their website after trying for 15 minutes. I am not sure what the issue is. Staffing problem should have been resolved after more than 2 years in pandemic. Last time the same bad service was provided when we were there for dinner. I am done with this restaurant now!!!

Great thali. I always got goat biryanis. The service is a bit slow but not too bad.

A hidden gem for sure! Not many places that have genuinely authentic South Indian food. Was really impressed with the taste of the food and the service. The ambience was pleasing and our waitress, Ruby did an amazing job of taking care of all our requests. She was very patient and attentive. Definitely will be coming back for more! We had the pepper shrimp and the Vijayawada Chicken Biryani and both were amazing. They even have specials on most of the days so be sure to check those out.

After been to so many places I am very impressed with Agni. Though it’s small these guys know how to construct an ambiance that’s pleasant and quaint. And the food is 10 times better than a to b or any other in this region. It’s clean, service is at par to none and most important they know how to make some best dishes and even before I park I’m mouth watering!!

We had an awesome experience with our entire team . The food was so nice & exceptional service. Owners are too good to host any event . Chefs experience in washingtons post

If you are a South Indian food lover, then you should try this place. I am from Kerala and I love strong tea and filter coffee. All the tea and filter coffees I have tried here have been just average, but here it was excellent. The masala dosa, sambar idli and the kothu parotta were superb. Apart from food the place is also pleasing to the eye. The service is also very good. Must try place

Went for dinner on a Friday. All the appetizers we ordered were really delicious - Chicken 65, chilli baby corn, chilli paneer and mutton sukka. Curries and kothu parathas were bland and almost no flavor. Dosa was delicious. The interior was okay and the service was good. Interior is kind of in between take out and fine dining. Overall, delicious appetizers and tiffins.

Not your standard Indian fare. Excellent authentic traditional South Indian food served in a modern clean cut ambience decorated tastefully (no pun intended) with traditional South Indian miniatures. The menu is carefully curated from the lands south of the Vindhyas handpicked across the four South Indian states. Each and everything we ordered was made with a lot of care and presented with a matching amount of attention to detail. The propreitor took personal care and interacted with her undiminished passion even as her kitchen continued to generate culinary magic that transported me mentally to a place I had left behind a couple of decades back. Highly recommended.

Came here to try a few dishes before placing our catering order. Found amazing, authentic South Indian dishes spiced perfectly prepared by a talented chef. They offer North Indian dishes as well, but I suggest you steer towards their traditional offering. Chicken 555 is their unique dish and a spin on the traditional Chicken 65; the fried chicken is coated with a savory sauce that kicks it up several notches. It was by far my favorite dish and a must try. The onion pakoda was different from what I'm used to but good nonetheless. The chili baby corn was a lip smacking dish with one of the best sauces I've had on such a "chili" appetizer. Another must try. Malli chicken and Mangalorean chicken were similar slightly thicker coconut curry based dishes. Both were spicy but the Mangalorean was definitely spicier; enjoy as is if you like things hot or ask for it to be toned down. Skip the naan and order the Parotta instead; it's a delicious, flaky and perfect pairing. The north Indian dishes tend to be the typical offering but very rich; like I said go with their traditional South Indian dishes. Excellent, friendly service. One of the best Indian restaurants in the area. If I could I would give this place 6 stars! Highly recommended; give it a try. If you haven't tried South Indian (Kerala) dishes, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Some of the best Indian food I’ve had the pleasure of eating. The atmosphere of the restaurant is relaxing and inviting. Ruby was great she made sure that everything was to our liking. Will definitely return..

Worst service. I wonder why she was looking everywhere except us when we were ordering food. Literally grimacing in our faces from the moment we entered. Food was just another topic, inedible. I came here in good hopes as I usually come here all the time. But today was the worst experience ever. I saw a mom entering to eat with her young daughter, no older than 10. They sat to be received. But no response. After 20 minutes of wait and no food they just got up and left the restaurant. Such poor service. We asked for a refill of just rice for our order of Thalli and the first thing they said was we could only get one serving more, even though we were told it was unlimited.Rice was 5 spoons that was served Full Makeup no smile. Until they accused us of wanting free food. Gave the bussers 20$ each. Even the employees were telling us about how many complains they’ve gotten already. Wasted my beautiful Saturday afternoon. Horrible experience.

Consistantly Excellent Quality Indian Food. They retain Excellent Authentic South Indian Flavors . Nice Music and Pleasing Ambience. The Cooks and Servers are very friendly. Very Clean and Fine. MUST TRY AND VISIT REGILARLY.

I went with my family today to try out this restaurant and was taken aback as soon as we entered. The lady there looked at us in a strange manner. Also the service charge of 15% irrespective of the number of people there, is just nonsense and seems like a way to draw as much money from the customer as possible. When I enquired about the charge the lady responded in a strange manner with an unpleasant attitude. She started laughing with the other customers. Remove that lady from there or just change the attitude and remove the unreasonable 15% charge. I was so taken aback with such an attitude and unreasonable charges. We decided to leave the place and went to another restaurant. It was just close to spoiling the evening. But we moved out and went somewhere else. We are never going to this restaurant again and would not recommend anyone to go there as well.

Very small aloo portion inside the Masala Dosa and small portion size of sambhar 4 ounce and 2 ounce chutneys for the price of $12.99

The food was just average here. And they served too late . And the quantity was very less for the price. Papa we roast was very thick and the dough was not fresh enough. Not satisfied

We decided to go for lunch based on a magazine’s article. We were not impressed, we were the only ones there for lunch which should have been my first clue. We ordered the Chicken 65 appetizer which came out fairly quickly. Chicken was good but the chutney sauce was watered down. We ordered the Mysore Dosa for me and the Masala Mysore Dosa for my wife because she prefers spicy. Three bites into my Dosa I realized they gave me hers by accident, the food runner didn’t speak English so we had no clue until the waitress said it was my entree. Overall there was no taste in the Dosa or potato filling. The Sambar was good I’ll say that. The music was a bit loud for our taste. For me not worth the price we paid. Won’t be returning here, if we do we will try other entrees.

Absolutely terrible, I ordered because I saw the name on the Washingtonian 100 list, but they are nowhere near some of the restaurants on there. I ordered online and some of the items were missing (an appetizer and the bread) everything wise was salty, and watered down. The biryani was mashed together. And the portions were tiny. Definitely would not recommend. (Picture shown is a 20$ entrée)

Masala omelette, parrotta, dosa n sambar…. Awesome taste… good service by Raja

Wanted to give a shout out to Agni for amazing South Indian cuisine. We catered food for a big 100 person event this weekend from Agni - Raja and Chef Ari were wonderful to work with, gave us a much better price than any other restaurant I called in NoVA and everyone commented on how great the food was, not your run of the mill party food and well spiced! The chicken 555 was a huge hit as was the Kerala parotta, mangalorean chicken, veg korma, and chilli gobi! They even provided us with a list of allergens to post for those with food allergies as well as catering trays and serving utensils. Did I mention that the food was delivered promptly at 11am for the event - very timely and well done. Some places I called refused to cater so early. Can’t recommend them enough for your next large party for catering. #catering #food #southindianfood #events

This place has good south Indian thali, they were kind enough to customize my non veg thaali as requested. Overall good place to stop by for a hearty meal. :) :)

We’ve been to this restaurant, probably about 4-5 times. Three times when the previous management owned it, and this is the second time under the new management. The previous time under the new management, and the most recent time as well, the service is abysmal. Very very slow, I cannot emphasize how slow the service is. This most recent time (a couple of weeks ago) it was so bad, that every single guest at the restaurant is was visually irate. One couple walked out after almost two hrs of waiting. Many families, including two tables that has young kids, didn’t get served for almost two hrs. My party of four adults & three kids (7, 6, 4) didn’t get served for almost two hrs. To add to the misery, they forgot to bring one appetizer. And, we learnt later that they billed for an additional entree, where we received only one. Two bits of positive feedback though, some of the entrées tasted fine, not all dishes though. The waiting staff were cordial, but they hardly have any control on the happenings inside the kitchen. Now, the kicker. The best morning after our meal, our 7-yr old started throwing up. We wondered what the cause was, and provided the care we needed to. We also reviewed what she ate the previous 24 hrs. She just ate our regular home cooked meals, and there was no experimentation in the kitchen, and we too ate the same food. The throwing up didn’t stop until almost the afternoon. We worried if it was something to do with the food. Early afternoon our friends called us to inform that their 6-yr old was throwing up. And, inquired our child’s situation. Both the kids are the same dish (Poori). Their 4-yr old didn’t eat the poori. We understood that their family also had regular home cooked meals that previous day, so they were also worried that it was something to do with the food at the restaurant. I reached out to the restaurant that evening, and had a conversation with the owner. I first provided the feedback of the service, followed by the wrong billing, and finally about the throwing up to that specific dish. The owner came up with some lame excuse for the delay. The excuse was that they had new wait staff. That was laughable. 😁 Wonder what control the wait staff will have on the preparation of the food, except for delivery of it. About the billing, she said she would do the refund, but we discovered that the wrong billing was not for the appetizer that wasn’t delivered, but for an extra entrée that was never provided. They never gave me a call back or refund, despite my follow up. About the possible case of bad food - The moment I brought it to her attention that both my child & our friend’s had the same Poori dish & developed an upset stomach + throwing up continuously, the owner so vehemently denied delivering any bad food & became rude. She is such a bad listener, no empathy whatsoever. I’m not saying they have to take the blame, since it isn’t easy to prove. But, at least be a good listener & show some empathy 🤷🏽‍♂️ Certainly never going back to this place again.

Update: Filtered coffee is fabulous!!! First review: Tasty food but quantity is very less compared to other Indian restaurants. We had to explicitly chase for mint chutney.

Had a lovely lunch. The waiter was very kind and helpful. I wasn’t sure what I wanted on the menu but I described to him what I like and he had my ideal meal cooked to order. It was perfect. Not even sure if it’s on the menu or not but they made me goat with a spinach sauce. They also brought me out a sweet dessert. Also, the restaurant was very clean.

Really good dosa & idly. I especially loved their sambar & chutney. The masala in the dosa & the filter coffee were very disappointing.