Reviewing this spot again after nearly 4 years!…read more In my eyes, this spot has withstood the test of time. Maharaja still holds a dear place in my heart. The food is always exactly what I'm hoping for, and the service is always quick. I don't have to wait very long to get my food, and I always leave happy. My go-to is the Chicken Vindaloo. I have a pretty solid heat tolerance, and I don't recommend this to anyone that can't handle a bit of heat... I sometimes find myself sweating after this dish, but it is so worth it. My wife orders the Chicken Tikka Masala and it's also very delicious. I've tried a few chicken tikka masala dishes in the area (by extension of my wife) and this is my favorite. The sauce is a rich, buttery sauce that tastes amazing, and the chicken is always so tender. We share a helping of rice for the chicken tikka masala and vindaloo. It is plenty of food and we typically leave with leftovers (which reheat nicely). I do also love the copper-wear. Some of the appliances are getting a bit dented, and unfortunately the window in the front is cracked and I notice these small things, but the food is good enough for me to look past that.

Took my daughter out for a good old-fashioned dad & kid Christmas shopping refuel and let me tell…read moreyou--we chose wisely. Service came out of the gate a little slow (hey, it happens), but once it got rolling, it ROLLED. Food hit the table and suddenly nobody cared about the wait anymore. The portions? Huge. Like "are we feeding the table next to us too?" huge. Everything was super flavorful, fresh, and clearly made by people who know what they're doing. We ordered the sampler app and a sampler dinner and shared--10/10 dad move. Now listen closely: DO. NOT. SKIP. THE. MANGO. LASSI. Absolute must. Cool, smooth, and borderline dangerous because you'll want another. And the everything naan... outrageous. Ridiculous. Should be illegal. I'd go back just for that. Place was clean, folks were friendly, plenty of parking (thank you), and even some private seating if you don't feel like sharing your life story with strangers. Long story short: great food, solid vibes, happy kid, full dad. We'll definitely be back.

I come to this restaurant regularly, and over time, I've seen the lunch buffet improve…read moreconsiderably. Today, I came on a Saturday for the first time, to try their weekend buffet. It's a bit more, currently at $21.50, but it's definitely worth it. The entire buffet area is filled with numerous meat and vegetable dishes, including several types of chicken (including the all-important tikka masala (really good)), fish, and goat. A small side table contained a cold drink and hot masala chai. There were FOUR desserts available today, one of which was one I'd not seen there before, a coconut mousse. Service and friendliness remains top-notch here too. The commitment they've made to the quality of food you get here shows.

Pretty solid Indian takeaway. The chicken itself was cut into strips which wasn't the best form…read morefactor but the Makhani was delicious. The naan was okay, I had gotten the cheese naan which didn't have much cheese and wasn't melted at all so that was a bit of a letdown. All in all a good place for scratching the itch of wanting some Indian cuisine in the area. Would definitely like to check out the restaurant proper as opposed to ordering it delivered.

I frequent this place regularly and they are still five star in my book…read more They consistently deliver on fresh authentic flavors along with great service and the ambiance here is just so zen. Go here to satisfy your craving for Indian food, whether you like mild to spicy flavors!

Lovely restaurant, very attentive waiters and everyone was extremely helpful. When they say hot,…read morethey DO mean "hot" as in Indian hot, not American hot. Forewarned is forearmed! The shrimp dish we had was excellent. Vegetable biryani had a nice mix of vegetables and rice - and if you judge an Indian restaurant in part by its rice, theirs is outstanding. We shared two lamb dishes and were disappointed in one. We'd hoped the lamb would be "falling apart", so soft it would melt in the mouth. Unfortunately, the small lamb pieces in the rogan josh were pretty chewy and somewhat unpleasant. The lamb kebabs however were nice and almost sweet, and we'd order them again. The dosa was marvelous and the chapati tasted fresh. The lassis are extremely sweet. Extremely. They can't be made less sweet, because they're made from a mix -- so if you're looking for authentic lassi, with fruit, yogurt, cardamom, etc, this is not your place. That was very disappointing since part of the restaurant's claim to fame is its authenticity. Our real quibble was when we were trying to decide on an extra appetizer, someone (perhaps the manager?) came over and asked about what we wanted. We asked about a few things and he said "Let me bring you something to taste - if you don't like it you don't have to pay for it." It was very large for an appetizer, and we each had a bite, but left most of it. Nevertheless, we were charged for it. Perhaps we needed to say "We didn't like it" but it was good - it was just much more expensive than we'd have chosen for an extra appetizer. The garlic naan by the way was good but a bit greasy. Still, good!

Ordered this as a delivery so I can't comment on the service or ambiance of the restaurant. The…read morefood however was alright, as someone who eats Indian food pretty regularly this was one of the less flavorful chicken tikki masala dishes I've tried. It had no spice (which is fine although there was no option to make it spicy), but the sauce itself was a little lacking. The portion was solid, overall not the best nor the worst Indian food I've tried

I've always liked Indian food and Shalimar is among the best. The buffet lunches are consistently…read moredelicious. I was really hungry and on my way to do some grocery shopping at Hannaford Plaza in Delmar. You know that saying about not shopping for groceries on an empty stomach? I decided not to give into that. So I took myself to lunch at Shalimar at the opposite end of the plaza. The restaurant looks very much as I remember it. Clean and comfortable.I haven't been there in a couple of years. I was greeted by a host. It is a buffet so I grabbed a plate and helped myself. There were a lot of great spicy vegan dishes. It wasn't until I reached the end that I realized there were a number of chicken dishes, including tandoori, which I love. I took one piece of chicken from each. A drumstick or a wing. My plate looked quite full. I ate almost everything except I couldn't finish the tandoori drumstick nor the piece of chicken korma. I also had bit of leftover flatbread known as naan. I didn't know you weren't supposed to take leftovers with you at Shalimar but the host said he would give me a container for my food just this once. I certainly didn't want to waste food. The buffet came out to just over $14 and I left a tip. Then, I went to go grocery shopping after a very satisfying meal.

Last night my spouse bit into a samosa and found a piece of steel wool, basically a piece of metal…read more We called to let them and they said they buy them from the restaurant depot.

It has to be better than Jewel of America, who sang such standards as "Standing Still" and "Foolish…read moreGames" and don't forget "You Were Meant For Curry." This is always my favourite Indian place in Albany, but that isn't saying much because there's not a lot of good Indian food outside New York City, within New York state that is. Having said that, it's not bad. I've been here on two occasions, both of them for dine-in. We always enjoyed everything, and while prices aren't cheap, they're about in line with other Indian places in Upstate New York. If they had a bit of a more British-Indian menu I would probably go to 5 - or if they were little cheaper. As for the bug incident, I have tremendous solidarity with the woman who got lied to and misled and I think the restaurant should do a much better job handling that, and I feel bad for her in the way they treated her. About being lied to, not about the bug. But I also see it from the other side. My opinion is quite different. Bugs are everywhere. They massively outnumber every human. They're in everything, they're on everything. Eating bugs is really not going to do much harm. There's no place that's truly clean, and the cleaner we try to make it clean with is more dangerous than bugs and dirt by miles, because it's the chemicals we use to clean that cause infinitely more diseases than the stuff we're cleaning up. I travel to countries with amazing food around the world that don't have anywhere near these supposed cleanliness standards of America and it does us no harm, believe me. We really need to just get over it and if we find a bug or hair or whatever, just shrug and throw it out and maybe throw that portion out if you must, give it to animals or something, a homeless person, and get on with our lives. Because cooking in our own kitchens, there is every chance there's been bugs in our food too, at home. In fact I've seen it happen in many places. A lot of cultures even eat bugs and it's a delicacy so it really shouldn't be that big of a deal. So it might be gross but don't go ape on a place and change it to 1 star over a damn bug. Bad service, maybe, sure, but I'm not sure what more they should be expected to do than offering free replacements an extra sides. And posting pictures of bugs to the listing of a family restaurant for me is ethically wrong but each their own. The ethical problem is that Yelp will often make this the top picture. No idea why because this is bordering on bringing down a little local business and a livelihood, because a bug ended up in their food. I guarantee a bug has ended up in every dish at every restaurant across the world on several occasions, so whatever. First world problems are what make me puke.

This is one of the best Shalimar locations in the area and the closest to my house. The food is…read morealways hot, quick, and tastes great. The chicken tikka masala is nice and creamy and doesn't have a strong tomato taste like some places, which I appreciate. Everyone that works there is super nice. I think the portions seem a little smaller than full serve places but the size is still adequate and the prices are relative.

For what is essentially an enhanced food court experience, you get a pretty tasty meal here,…read moreeverything comes out quickly, and the owner takes very good care of you. The menu is pretty extensive for the seemingly small kitchen space you can see behind the counter. My vegetable samosas (2) were piping hot and had a decent amount of "not potato" in them, accompanied by 2 sauces. The Chicken Tikka Masala Bowl includes a generous amount of well-prepared rice. Normally I pass on rice except as a vehicle for sauce, but I finished this. The sauce had a reasonably deep red color and an enjoyable spicy flavor, maybe a little less tomato flavor than I've had elsewhere, but still quite good. Naan, wrapped in foil, is fresh and hot, but not necessarily crisp. Flavored naans will have the flavors as a stuffing. My mango lassi was excellent - I almost wanted to steal a larger milkshake cup from nearby Herbie's and ask for that to be filled up instead. All in all, if you are looking for an Indian meal while at Galleria 7, you will be very satisfied here.

Honestly my favorite Indian food around. It's awesome every time! Way better than anyone else in…read morethe area. Great food!

Just ordered a take out for a small order. We got roti and rice as we had left over gravy from…read moreanother Indian restaurant we had eaten at. We called in the store to order, but the lady who took the order didn't communicate effectively and hung up in between. We didn't even realize that she had hung up on us before we could complete our conversation. I normally would have switched restaurants but since I had to visit the store in the same plaza, I ended up ordering at chatpata. Instead of calling, I went online, surprisingly the prices online were lower than the price if ordered over the phone. You literally can't mess up rice and roti. I have eaten here in the past too and the food is good.

Ok there's from this place again after few years. Food was not close to what Pakistani food is. I…read moregot shami kebabs that were huge and dry and smelled like they were fried in older oil. Oil that was used for few weeks. Service was a take out order. So good and fast. Some people were sitting for lunch buffet. Naans were dry and rubbery. Poori looked and tasted like white tortilla flat bread fried. I don't know what to get couple good authentic Pakistani dishes around. Sheesh kebab was okay, it was that $2 chicken kebab chopped with some onions n green peppers and lemon and they charged me $15 for it. $45 down the hole. Raita was too sweet and carroty. It's basically American version of Desi food. They just took the Desi out of it. Kashmiri naan was just the most unappetizing orange colored thing with coconut shreds in the folds. What happened to almond shreds and raisins on Kashmiri naan. Post Covid times, food is just super expensive and the quality is gone. I am done. I want to really post a great food review, that will make my taste buds sizzle with flavors.

Back after about seven years. $8.99 Lunch Buffet is now $16.99…read more Variety of food on buffet is typical of mid level Indian buffet places. Impressed that they received a 100% compliance score from Health Department. No violations. Bravo! One complaint: Buffet starts at 11:00, yet Naan was not put out until 11:50. However, the Plain Naan was warm and very good! I was selective about what I put on my plate. Again, Tandoori Chicken was overdone--dry and tough even the thigh piece I tried to eat. Not okay. Chili Chicken is good. It is similar to Chinese Sesame Chicken. Tikka Masala was very good with tender chicken. Spinach with chickpeas was good. The two rice choices were nice and hot. The Mulligatawny Soup was lukewarm and thin and spicy as expected. Cabbage is excellent! Nice flavor and cooked well. Dessert was their regular rice dish that I did not want to eat. No Goat dishes offered today. They are usually good.. Restaurant seating is booths and tables.