Hate to say this but it seem like the Akbar restaurant I went to was nothing like the description in glowing reviews by other users. First, it was Friday evening and there were hardly 4 tables that were occupied. In my experience that says a lot. Ordered Chicken Chili -Spicy but it came out sweet. It had no resemblance to a dish by that name. Tamatar Shorba tasted like watered down ketchup. Chicken biryani - Meh. read more

My family and I love to try ethnic food, especially Indian. So we tried Akbar our first time tonight to celebrate my parents' anniversary. The gated entrance and building facade are quite impressive, but it sort of ends there. The interior is spacious, but is in serious need of updating. At first glance it looks lovely, but within 5 minutes you realize it looks closer to the inside of a 1980's hotel lobby. All that aside, I was quite happy to see that we were the only white people there - a sign that the food is probably pretty good if Indians are frequenting the place. However, we were not thrilled with our meals. I ordered the shrimp curry and my shrimp were really overcooked and very tough. The sauce though was quite nice, as was our basmati rice, which was complimentary. My mother ordered a tandoori seafood dish with chunks of fish and whole shrimp. The fish was nasty - it was insanely salty and didn't taste like any fish I ever had. My dad ordered tandoori minced lamb, but it looked more like sliced sausage. It tasted fine, but a little on the dry side. He asked for a sauce to go with it which they sent right over, also complimentary. We also asked if we could get some naan - apparently, that was not complimentary as it is in many Indian restaurants, and got charged nearly 10 bucks for only two pieces. Yikes. As far as service, it was pretty good, but I think that's because the waiters are constantly on the floor, practically hovering over your shoulder every minute. We couldn't really do anything without them looking at us - it was overkill. We would have appreciated it more if we had a little breathing room. I think at this place, you're paying more for the atmosphere than you are the food, which could be a lot better considering the prices. Next time we'll just head somewhere that's more authentic and affordable, which isn't hard to do in central Jersey. read more

Went for a party, and sat there like I was sitting in a burning oven....The AC WASNT WORKING, And they didn't bother to bring in the fans until a good half hour later. I heard they messed up the decor that was originally requested....The food ran out as people were on line waiting for someone to refill the trays. That is one complaint I have heard about Having parties at Akbar, the food somehow always runs out. I mean there should be somewhere there managing all this. read more

If you are huge fan of Indian food,, then this place is worth a try. But I was uetterly disappointed when they served me Biryani which was as dry as uncooked rice. When I confronted, they said, tats how the biryani for the day was! I didnot expect a better answer from them. So, I wasn't shocked. Their fruit punch is good and some dishes like chana pindi, paneer butter masala are worth every penny. Good for parties and groups. Definitely ano for romantic dinner. read more

I catered food from Akbar for a Birthday party. They charged me more than what was verbally negotiated. Food came more than 1 hr late. Servers were just some random guys and were not professional. Food quality was substandard. Would not hire them again! read more

Very indian :) we loved the decor and the food - there are some excellent vegan and vegetarian options!

Was looking for Indian food and stopped in for the lunch buffet. The nondescript location hides a really nice place. It's a banquet hall, but the restaurant is welcoming and comfortable. The food was great, the service was excellent. Pretty reasonably priced, too. read more

The food at Akbar's is really delicious. The service has been variable over several visits from okay to excellent, but never unacceptable. The atmosphere is very pleasant and the decorations are top notch. read more

I'm always hesitant eating at Indian restaurants in the Edison area as majority are very ethnocentric and can make someone who is not of Indian decent very intimidated....but not that case with Akbar. The wait staff treats everyone with a smile and always eager to answer questions and/or provide recommendations based on one's preference. I'm a vegetarian and I was very excited to have options! I recommend - very easy to get to, great staff, and nice decor. read more

This restaurant is better Han I expected! Good was amazing, the place is amazing! Very classy place over all.

We went there on a Friday for the lunch buffet($10). There were hardly any starters, just a chaat , potato salad and pasta salad. Starters were so so. Main course-chicken, lamb gravy, paneer gravy, dal makhani and 2 more veg gravy, pulao, nan. The gravies were bland, lot of artificial color. None of the items were great . All in all the food is disappointing! read more

I've only been here for the lunch buffet and so far the service has been spot on.The palak paneer and tandoori chicken are my favorite. The ambience is nice and there's always been a good selection on the buffet table. read more

The staff is very polite! Very testy appetizer and paneer varieties! Good interior decoration and the view, very good for the big events, and very good services!! read more

(sorry, i don't usually capitalize.) you may have trouble finding this place. the rte. 1 highway sign is hidden behind shrubbery and i overlooked the sign at the hotel and drove around the hotel til i found the obvious indian style architectural front. i would have mistaken it for a temple! for several years on late afternoons I would be driving past this area and smell indian spices. i would be in a heavenly swoon and wonder where the smell came from. i thought surely there was a shop selling very fresh spices nearby. i never found it on my map, though. i had seen the akbar sign a long time ago, but, duh, had not made the connection. 2 weeks ago, i said to myself, i gotta find the source of this aroma! and sure enough there was akbar on google maps. my beau loves the all you can eat buffets, and when we found out this place had one i said, we gotta check it out! i didn't even ask what the price was. we came in on a weekday. first i was impressed by the decor. stained glass windows, a beautiful colored carpet. a fountain! i don't recall hearing any music playing, and if there was, it only enhanced my experience (by at least not annoying me!). the clientele was mixed, business, families, and people dressed down as i was. when i got my plate and went to the open chafing dishes the first thing i noticed was that there were recipes i had never seen before. i put a tiny spoonful of each entree onto my dish surrounding a scoop of rice. (there are no open containers of bread! they bring fresh naan to your table! ) they did not have the usual samosas and papadum, mulligatawny or coconut soups when i got my first taste (of the soup!), i was delighted! it was spicy but not overwhelming, clear and full of vegetables. then there was a chicken and sausage dish, lightly spiced almost like tandoori style. a red curry chicken, small potato pancakes with cumin seeds that delightfully burst in my mouth! there were flavors i could not identify, among distinct familiar tastes, ... the rice really tasted like saffron! an okra dish, a lentil dish. the food was very fresh. there was an interesting eggplant in a cream sauce, that tasted more like sweetened condensed milk than cream, (I liked it a lot!) i found out later that this restaurant specializes in NORTHERN indian cuisine, which is not so familiar to me. all i can say is while i was eating and did not know how much the cost per person was, and i did not care! i considered that if they gave me a check that said it was $25 per person, it was well worth it. also they have a full bar, wines by the bottle, and banquet facilities. I am sorry if you come from india and know of better food, but for this american gal, this was my favorite dining experience in a very long time. THE PRICE??? a mere $8.95 per person!!!! exquisite!!! and we didn't get sick which gets this place 5 stars!!! and please tip your wait staff at least 20% of your bill. Minimum wage for wait staff is still only $2.13, which is abominable but legal in the USA. this is a slave wage and should not be tolerated! Until then, it is up to us to help people have a decent life by tipping them for serving us. Even if it is a buffet, the staff were friendly and filled our glasses with fresh water, and were there to make sure we enjoyed our dining experience. read more

Most hopeless place. We recently visited this restaurant during lunch time buffet was hopeless, incomplete, old food. It was Tasteless, very poor preparation and presentation sucks! In chicken tray it had old left over kababs were mixed with roasted chicken to just complete the dish. Kadi was old frozen you can make it water was separate and besan was separate. Old chicken curry with smell. Kheer as dessert you can see oil is flowing in the kheer who put oil in the kheer. Never waste your money going to this place-Akbar. We had bad very bad experience. read more

Large and roomy. Good ambience, music and good service. The portions are large and would be wise to order prudently. The food was tasty although the lassi was watered down. Very unlike what I am used to. Overall a good restaurant and will surely visit again. read more

Went there for my dad's birthday. They told us there are plenty of dishes for dinner when we got there we only got 2 meat and 3 veggie dishes for Dinner Buffett. They charged $4.50 per drink and charged $50 service charge for Buffett. Food was horrible and the service was sub par. SAVE YOUR MONEY FOLKS. We will never go back. When I complained abt the service charge for Buffett, shockingly got the insulting response. Completely and utterly unprofessional place. Save your money. read more

Overpriced. Food is a hit or miss, depending on day of the week. Compared to the Indian food places on Oak Tree Rd., this place can be a disappointment. The quantity of what was served was smallest of the Indian places visited. For example, butter chicken had 3 big chunks and was not sufficient for two adults. The taste may have played a role here as well. read more

I have given one star only for their ambience. Reasons for low rating. 1. Even when we had already parked we were told that it is exclusively valet parking only with lot of parking space being still empty. And no sign of exclusive valet parking. 2. Though there are plenty of options and large portions you will not get the authentic Indian dishes. The ratio of ingredients and spices is so inappropriate that in cream based dishes you will end up eating only salty cream as curry without any spices. 3.And last of all they have guts to pursue for tip for valet parking which you never needed . So people who enjoy ambience and unwanted valet parking without authentic Indian taste , Akbar can surely be tried. read more

Food was ok nothing to brag about. Service was good, we did the buffet but found the selections very limited.

Food quality is bad.Strange part was that i ordered butter chicken, the cheque says Murg lawabdaar or something and he gave me chicken tikka masala.And at the end he said, all are same sir. Not recommended. Biryani is worst. read more

A great dining experience. The wait staff was courteous and attentive. The food was done excellently. The butter chicken and goat Marsala, the lamb naan and garlic naan, plus the basmati rice were cooked to perfection - tender and delicate with just enough spice. Definitely will be coming again! read more

Excellent quality food good portion sizes. I had the lollipop chicken wings as appetizer, very good but a little on the sweet side. Lamb Rogan Josh was on point, best thing I had there. Also the chicken kadai was good. Would love to go back again! Negative part.. The walkway to get to the rest rooms was freeeeeezzziiinngggg read more

Food was excellent, waiter suggested a couple of different items I've never tried before and they tasted great. Can't wait to go back.

Go for the lunch buffet. You will not be disappointed but you will be in a food coma!!!! You'll get to try all of the best items at a great rate, and of course, the setting is gorgeous! read more

Excellent service. The waiters are very professional and kind. They understand hospitality. I would definitely return here if in Edison. The food is nice even though the selections are fewer than you'd find in similar buffets. A plus is that you can have a dosa free along with your buffet and that's really nice. The restaurant is really beautiful inside. They have so window space and yet the yard is a mess. I can't say it bothered me because my company was fabulous and the interior and service were lovely. If they landscaped the outside, wow this would be an even more amazing place to come. Anyway, the service is fab. The food is good. Thumbs up for this place read more

Decent Indian restaurant. I typically go for the buffet and pig out on tandoori chicken and kababs. Naans are decent. The rest of the stuff is a bit bland but whatever, I only go for the meat! :) read more

The menu at this place is pretty misleading and the food that actually comes to the table is something totally different than what is described!! The main vegetable dishes were hardly palatable...something that you would expect from an amateur chef! The naans and rotis are ridiculously priced at $5 a piece!! Overall very poor food and highly priced!!! If you want good indian food try Rasoi instead on oak tree road, nj. Awesome food and value for money read more

I feel like this restaurant targets american people more...the food is very bland and has no taste. I went with my fiance and we had poor service topped off with cold naan. I ordered saag chaana and asked them to make it spicy...instead I got some sort of steamed spinach with no taste. it might have just been a one off thing but i def did not have a good first experience. read more

Luncheon buffet at $8.95 is fabulous. Fresh entrees that vary daily that are augmented by delicious soups (if the lemon-coriander soup is there on your visit, you've hit the jackpot). Ice cream desserts also out of this world (papaya and pistachio/cherry, 2 faves). Worth a drive up and down the Parkway- easily bests all the Indian eateries in Essex County. read more

This by far is the worse Indian food I have ever eaten the service was horrible and the food was flavorless and disgusting please avoid this restaurant at all cost try anything besides this place it gives Indian food a bad name read more

We loved dining at Akbar! The food is a little bit pricey but definitely worth it and we'll be back again. We dined with a restaurant.com coupon so it was afford for us and everything was tasty. We had both the tikka paneer and chicken. The service was also wonderful and we were taken care of promptly. What a great date location with yummy food :) read more

Being a huge fan of fine Indian cuisine and having travelled to India many times on photographic assignments I was particularly interested in visiting Akbar because I had received so much positive word of mouth. I am always impressed going into an Indian restaurant to see it populated largely by Indians. It is a unanimous prediction of the quality and authenticity of the food. In the end the chicken was tender and deliciously spiced, the vegetables also spiced to perfection as was the raita and the perfectly open fire grilled Nan. Thinking of this place, makes me want to go back. read more

We went there on a recent Sunday for lunch buffett. We have been to many different places in the past for buffett and enjoy the variety in vegetarian section. However, it wasn't the case here. There was a very limited variety of appetizers (alu papdi chaat and dosa). They noodle soup as well. The main entrees were also limited in choice - Mutter Paneer, cabbage, palak-Mushroom, yellow daal and rice.\ To make it worse, even the desserts had only Sevviya and ice cream. Except for the Noodle soup and ice cream, everything tasted average or poor. I don't consider my family picky about food at all but this wasn't a good experience. The Nepalese waiter was very friendly and the manager on duty seemed to care when I gave this feedback to him but I don't know if they would change anything about it. I have had Akbar's food at the parties on their premises and it was enjoyable but it appears they do not pay that level of attention to the buffet. And one more thing, the bill had 18% Service charge automatically added for the buffet (party of 4). Did not appreciate that. read more

Bad Experience Staff here is not cordial. Service is very slow. Food is not worth its price.These guyz modify the bill as per their convenience.They gave me the final bill and then I told them I have corporate coupon they took the bill and gave lame reasons. I will not go here in future. read more

Good place for receptions, weddings and functions but very expensive. The lady is nice and talkative but she knows her deal she knows how to get people into business by her way of talking. I wouldn't recommend this place if your budget is tight for a wedding. Just make sure you tell her if you want the food to be HALAL. read more

Used to love the place, but over the years their food has become more creamy and buttery, making for a bad overall aftertaste. The first fee bites can be rich in flavor, but eat a little but more and you might be left with an upset stomach or nasty aftertaste. read more

Staff great, ambience great, food is simply AWESOME!!! Very nice place for a date as well!

My family and I have had 3 parties here so far and planning my engagement party here now. This place is amazing. Sangev is an amazing planner to work with, he's very diligent and understanding our needs. The food is also amazling prepared. Plus the valet parking guys are kind. They have not let us down. read more

Its a banquet hall first, and a restaurant second In truth the restaurant is an after thought We went on a weekend in June The Good: great decor and ambiance were spot on. Service is above average for an Indian resturant The Bad: The buffet had only 10 stations - only two were non-vegetarian All the items were cold to warm, only the Naan was fresh and hot. The taste bordered on mild to tasteless - as if they were left over from the banquets in progress or designed to not offend anyone. Truly a let down The Ugly: Washrooms were terribly maintained. The A/C barely kept the dining area cool as - probably because the kitchen is next to dining hall Advice: Akbar needs to update its buffet OR scrap it for an a la carte system. read more