My experience last time here didn't meet all the hype I heard, so I'm glad I had another excuse to revisit. This is a great place if you have a large group (10 or more). They have a basement that you holds over 30 guests. This is a good place to keep in mind for your larger events. The food was ok. The portions area plenty. I left full, but my curry tastebud wasn't satisfied. The service is hit or miss. The servers rotate around throughout the night. One moment we had a pleasant gentleman, the next impolite. read more

I have been to Namskar twice, and I have to say I'm a fan! The first time we went here was for a staff lunch so we did the buffet. The staff were super friendly, answered all of our questions and when we asked about dishes they weren't offering in the buffet that day - but were on their menu - they said we could phone ahead next time and they could try to add some different items in to try. Um, amazing service, non!? This was over the top, in my opinion. The buffet was perfect for us, lots of choices for everyone and the dishes were yum. Their pakora's are a bit different than I am used to, but delicious none the less. As we were leaving they also gave us each a buffet punch card, where you buy a few (I forget how many) and get one free. If we worked closer I could see people in my office taking advantage of this. The second time I tried this place was for takeout. We specifically wanted a goat dish and chose one off the menu (I forget which one!?) and some garlic naan. It takes a little while to get the food, but after digging in - I have no problems waiting for quality eats! Our food was amazing, the naan was hot and fluffy even as take out. We didn't even have a single left over and I will admit there was some plate licking going on (the joys of take out). In my opinion the take out or ordering individual dishes is the way to go with Namskar. Review #6 of Yelp's 30 Day Challenge 2012 read more

This place is delicious. Best Indian in Calgary for sure and we have tried basically every place in town. Get the daal tarka & vegetarian korma. read more

I'm Indian and I do know how a decent Paneer Butter Masala tastes. What they gave me today was just a sauce made of half cooked chopped onions and chopped tomatoes and chunks of paneer. Nothing about this dish connected with the name. Expected something great for the price and the reviews. Can't believe I paid $16 for something I could have made at home in less than 10 minutes. And, oh yeah the garlic spinach rice!!! Don't ger me started on that! Only relief, tandoori roti was nice. Yep, consolation. One big parting Namaskar to this place! read more

Horrid stuff pretending to be good Indian food. Not unlike at Rajdoot on 4th St. SW in Mission, the biggest rub is that these guys know what they are doing! But they also know their market: the bland insipid tastebuds of ignorant caucasians who haven't a clue about what is good food from any segment of the Indian sub-continent. Perhaps the naan bread if hot would be okay, but by the time I got up to make another stab at this stuff, I became so disgusted at being ripped off that I quickly paid half-full, and almost ran out, never to return! Trust me, this stuff not only sucks, but they are deceiving the public into thinking their deception is okay. Do you want REALLY good Indian food from owners and chefs who love their craft, and staff who will flex to accommodate any reasonable request? Let me make some suggestions...? 1. Research the good Indian restos in the city online via Google, Yelp here, Zomato, and Trip Advisor, and go to the restos with 4.5 stars or higher overall. 2. Ask your server to accent the spices without making it more hot? They will then understand that you won't settle with what they are used to serving caucasians, and will diligently work to satisfy you with flavour. 3. Please take a risk, skip the butter chicken, and dive into wonderfully-accented aromas and flavours that will more than just tease your palate. Trust me, good vindaloos, curries, biryanis, dosas and tandoori dishes made from scratch will kickstart a new relationship with this style of cuisine. 4. In general, it's quite possible to pay little more for great individual dishes that often are larger than your appetite, which means take-out for a couple lunches the next day averages down to about $12-15 per meal! Don't let inferior 'lunch buffet specials' trick you! In general, they are not inexpensive or special, and will more than likely represent short-cuts that incorporate food colouring and starches, fake flavours and fillers, cheap oils, sugars and MSG rather than what the kitchen produces on a dish-by-dish basis. In the end skip these types of restaurants and their buffets, and order the cheaper and more nutritious single dishes! 5. In any ethnic restaurant, before sitting down, check out how many suitable 'ethnic' faces are in the place: too many whites could mean bad news. 6. The nutritional and flavour goodness in any resto meal is all about the chef: if an excellent and creative chef is in charge, that MAKES the restaurant. If he or she leaves, often it's 'goodbye' to excellence! Hard to replace a person who has the touch... 7. Good indian food requires that they use 'pre-prepared' seasoned oil (spiced ghee), a special in-house base gravy, and marinated meats. All this takes time and only the best kitchens do this. Test-drive any 'new' resto by ordering any vindaloo! Please keep in mind that in general these principles apply to good Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean, Thai, Greek, Italian, and middle east cuisines. Want balance in quality, quantity and price...? 1. Check out any Raj Palace for good Tamil cooking from the southern India region where many of the best spices are grown: there are three Raj Palaces in the city: Harvest Hills area, Midnapore in the south, 112th Ave. in Royal Oaks. We favoured one cos the chef was superb, but sadly (!), he returned to India... Or try the similarly-good venues Madras Cafe on Memorial east, La Jawad up at McKnight & 56th, or Supreme Dosa along International Avenue SE. After asking for full flavours, no MSG, any curry, chicken tikka, fish dish, vindaloo, and garlic naan or paratha should impress. 2. Northwestern Punjabi? Try Mehtab in Cochrane for excellence. As with most dishes there, their vindaloos are delicious. Again, ask for full flavours. 3. North-central cuisine? Jaipur in Cochrane is good and also highly-recommended. 4. Wonderful Gujarati? 'Eat at Will' off Memorial at 28th Street. 5. Northern Indian/Himalayan? Try Himalayan on far-western 17th Ave. SW. Their lighter spices provide diversity. With your meal go with a quality basmati rice and an order or two of garlic naan, paratha, roti or chappati, and likely be pleased... As well, all of these are more than good representations of their regions, and while getting to know the front and kitchen staff even by name may further confirm some of the hands-down best Indian cuisine in western Canada (AB in general is not great food country). But steer clear of Namskar, and Rajdoot! Even the 'butter chicken' in their buffet - sth I seldom eat - tasted overly-sweet. And they can only continue to trot this bad to poor stuff out if ignorant people continue to buy it! I hate to see people waste money, time and energy on what they erroneously think is good Indian food... Like I said, try Mehtab in Cochrane, La Jawab in the NE, or any Raj Palace are: talk to the owner/servers, and insist on their best? Following the above suggestions, marvel at what good Indian cuisine is really like? read more

My first time going to this restaurant was back in 2005. I wasn't very familiar with Indian food and I was immediately in love with their butter chicken. After growing up a bit and being a little more experienced with critiquing food, I must say this is still my favourite place for Butter Chicken. The servers and owners are very pleasant and delightful to speak with. Not to mention, their lunch buffet is a steal of a deal. Thank you Namskar for your countless years of delivering excellent food!!! :) read more

If you want to try some authentic Indian food, this is the place. We went here for a causal dinner on a Saturday evening and ordered the lamb vindaloo, nan, tandoori chicken and saffron rice. The Lamb vindaloo was phenomenal and it is the most authentic vindaloo I have ever tried in Calgary. Even though it's spicy my boyfriend (Who is Canadian) absolutely loved it. We again went there for a lunch buffet, it was really good and well-priced for two people. I think it is 15 or 17$ per head and the place was crowded for the buffet. My favorite from buffet was the lamb curry, it was delicious. They are super friendly, all their food is amazing. Definitely a place to check out if you are an avid fan of Indian food. read more

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We traveled as a team of 20 people to Calgary and were fortunate enough to select Namskar as one of our meal options while there. It was a very good experience for the entire team. We were able to secure a private section of the restaurant for our group to boot. Now onto the food. It was GREAT. We ordered it as a buffet style and everything was top notch. Typically the team eats at an Indian restaurant each time we travel, and the food at Namskar was one of our favorites we've experienced. The Naan is fantastic as was the butter chicken. Namskar is a place we'll be sure to visit when we return to Calgary next year. Thank you so much! read more

Soooo disappointing. Considering the price is much higher than my normal Indian takeout, I expected MUCH better. Naan - greasy (but large) Butter chicken - flavorless and terribly disappointing. Vegetable korma - bland, lacked variety of vegetables. Beef vindaloo - not spicy at all, tasted like mom's beef stew. I felt SO let down, becuase it's rated so highly. Even if it were cheaper, I wouldn't order it again, but every item was a few $$ more than any other place I've ever ordered from. read more

I thought the food was great. I thought the price was reasonable. However, my service was not up to the standard I would have wanted. There was one main waiter and a couple of folks bringing out food, but the server was dramatically out-numbered. My advice, anticipate your needs a bit further in advance than you normally would - unless they have an adequate staff on hand. read more

I Was extremely disappointed. I got butter chicken, rice, and garlic naan. The butter chicken tasted like tomato soup with boiled chicken plopped in it. The rice was rice (hard to screw up). The naan was undercooked, pretty much still dough which was sad. The delivery guys (2 of them) were polite and the guy on the phone was nice, but that was the only good thing going for them. read more

Decent food, but their delivery service is quite poor. Ordered online and received an email shortly afterwards detailing my order and giving me a grand total. Shortly after receiving the email I received a confirmation call (??) asking how I would like to pay, I suggested paying with a card and was told they do not offer that payment option and it needed to be cash. Fortunately I had enough cash on me so I agreed, an hour or so later their delivery guy shows up and it was then that I was informed that their was a additional $6 delivery charge ! I felt extremely ripped off, but grudgingly paid the extra charge. Lesson here..... dine in or pickup only for this place. read more

We were recommended this place from our Airbnb and I'm sure glad we tried it .What a lovely experience! Lovely kind people and excellent food in a pleasant atmosphere. We ordered chicken vindaloo, 2 orders of garlic naan, Raita, and rice. The vindaloo had some heat but was complex in flavor. The naan and raita were both so delicious. The raita was also complex in flavour. We had rice pudding for desert..which was a fun treat. Very rich in saffron flavour..so delicious, so intriguing. My son has a huge appetite (teen) and this was certainly enough for two people..The kind of Indian food that makes me want to cry...it's so good I'm already sad it will end.. read more

Went here for the lunch buffet and everything tasted much the same. Extremely mild spicing across the board, very heavy on cream and oil. Being a lover of Indian food and having travelled to India I couldn't be more unimpressed. read more

We ordered in last night for our New Year's Eve dinner (Indian food for this special night is our 5 year tradition). Previous restaurants we used are no longer in business or changed owners. This was our first time trying Namskar and it was absolutely AMAZING! Every dish was perfection and we all thought the portions we were given were bigger than previous restaurants. We feasted until we crawled away and have enough for another lunch today! This is our new go-to for Indian food for sure! Items ordered (for 6 ppl): papadum, vegetable pakora, onion bhajia, Aloo Gobhi, Mix Veg Korma, Butter Chicken, Beef Roganjosh, Prawn Masala, Green Peas Rice, Garlic Palak Rice, Plain naan, Garlic Naan, Raita. read more

So at the end of our meal tonight, we had left overs and let the waiter know that we would like the rest of it to go. So I use the rest room to wash my hands, only to come back to a table with packing supplies left on the table. Hmm..a little bit confused I ask my parents if he expects us to pack the food ourselves (as a joke). My parents said he took the plates and left these here and didn't say anything. So I ask the waiter and he says.."Yes. For hygienic purposes."..umm WHAT?...So are you telling me that you are not hygienic enough to pack my left overs? Because you've been serving me this whole evening and now I feel like gagging if that's really your excuse.. Mind you I'm not from Calgary and am only in town for a visit but never have I ever seen this before anywhere I've been. None the less, I did pack the food myself and inquired about it right before I paid my bill. Waiter said he was new and wasn't sure. I asked if he had confirmed with a senior co-worker. He said no and invited a co-worker to join the conversation in which I was rudely confronted about the dilemma...So I decided to turn the other cheek, pay the bill (with $0 tip of course), politely said goodbye, and decided that I will never come back here ever again.. read more

We had our first dining experience at Namskar today. We opted for the lunch buffet which always seems to offer the best bang for the buck. The selection was pretty much your standard Indian buffet cuisine, nothing exceptional but tasty even though it was lukewarm at best. The service was actually very good and made up for the ho-hum food. However, despite the okay food and the better than okay service, this ended up being a very negative dining experience for us. After dining, we returned to the parking lot only to discover my car was missing! The first thing that came to mind was that someone had stolen it as I was legally and properly parked in Namskar's private parking lot. It turned out that a staff member had in fact had my car towed not realizing the car, in fact, belonged to a patron even though several chefs were standing outside in the parking lot taking a break when we pulled up and parked. The end result was that I had to have a dining companion drive me down to the impound lot in SE Calgary to retrieve my car. I also had to pay the tow bill etc to recover my car and was also presented with a parking ticket. This was over an hour long process .. not including the drive time. Then I had to return to Namskar where they did refund both the cost of the tow bill and the ticket albeit somewhat grudgingly. All in all, a distressing and inconvenient experience. Retrieving the car, retrieving my money from Namskar, cashing the check and paying the parking ticket took close to 4 hours. What an incredible waste of an afternoon off :( I understand that we are all human and all make mistakes but jeepers after all that, I felt the least that the Namskar management team could have done was offer to pick up the tab for my lunch or offer me a gift certificate for a future lunch, neither of which was offered. That's where they lost my business and any chance of a return visit. read more

Best Indian food in north Calgary. Outstanding food, outstanding service, nice decor. Highly recommended.

We went here for family dinner on a Saturday. We ordered their Shahi Paneer and Namaskar mixed Veg. Both items were very flat with very little flavor. Service was also average. Their prices although are one of the highest in the city. Our overall experience was much below our expectation. read more

3.5 stars, but i always round up :) we ordered the bite sized samosa appetizer (very good!), a spinach potato dish (forgot the name - sorry i was a little drunk), a diced chicken breast in spicy red sauce dish (forgot the name again - okay so i was pretty drunk), and the lamb curry (this was the best dish we had). obviously we got a few orders of garlic naan bread and some saffron rice. overall i was impressed with the quality of the food for a neighborhood indian food joint. full disclosure, as i'm sure you've already figured out by now, my senses may have been slightly distorted by the amount of alcohol consumed prior and during dinner (the girl in our group ordered an "indian martini" to drink - basically a martini with mango juice in it). they offered a couple different kinds of beer and some wine - all in all a sparse booze collection , but it still did the trick quite nicely. by the time we had finished eating (we had to eat early in order to make our ice skating reservations - no joke, that's what canada's like!) the place has gotten pretty lively and full of customers (some indian) - always a good sign! three of us came here and ordered a combined: 3 main dishes, one appetizer, 2 naan, 2 rice, and 3 drinks. we left completely full for $90 (plus tip). i'm not sure what the indian food is like in the rest of calgary, but by san francisco standards, i wouldn't go out of my way for this place. read more

Good indian food. I had the shirmp korma and some delicious naan. I would definitely come back for more.

Sunil! That's how this review has to start. He brought the flavours, the humour and the celebration even with our picky, confused and probably frustrating tribe. The menu is diverse enough to please even the most uncertain Indian food newbie and traditional enough to appeal to the true foodie (self defined of course). We had to wait - the restaurant lacks sufficient parking and speed. Perhaps due to the demand of the patrons and the desire for REAL food rather than fast food? I wish we had slowed our dive into our delightfully presented edibles because had we you would be viewing colourful choice dishes of vegetarian curry, butter chicken, scrumptious paneer, prawn korma, and garlic naan - served up classically in copper (?) dishes so beautifully you could practically smell the spices through the photos. Oh and I must not soon forget the triple heat of the chicken entree one of our party enjoyed. A jug of water unsolicited (but definitely wanted) and an unexpected birthday treat complete with song made this a special night and a special place. I recommend you visit, soon, and I further recommend you make reservations and say "hi" to Sunil. He is worth the drive - even from the SE! read more

I often visit this great restaurant where we generally get great service and delicious food. We have guests from out of town that have this as a mandatory dinner spot whenever they come to visit. As a vegetarian, they have a lot of great options but my favorites are the Dahl Makhani and the Vegetable Jalfrezi. The naan is always fresh and the chai is spicy and inviting. read more

Namskar used to be one of the best Indian restaurant for buffet. They used to brag about 19 items and quality used to be excellent. I have been coming to this place for over 15 years. While I cannot comment on their dinner menu, the buffet has become extremely bad. The quality of food has become subpar. There was very limited choice. Even the Naan did not have the same freshness taste. At $17 for the buffet, it is one of the priciest Indian buffet in Calgary. Now that there are many more Indian restaurants in every corner of calgary, it does not make any sense as to why this old Calgary restaurant would let their quality slip. The food was bad enough for me to never go back to this place. That is unfortunate considering it is still owned by the same family. read more

Onion Bhaji's..nom, nom. This is my go to Indian and they never disappoint. Butter chicken is flavourful, creamy and with chicken that just seems to melt in your mouth it's hard to eat Indian anywhere else. read more

Food is way overpriced especially for the quantity and quality they offer. We ordered the garlic naan, butter chicken, veggie samosas, veggie curry, and steamed rice. And it came out to $50 for everything. The service was decent. Nothing stood out. Everything lacked flavour compared to other East Indian restaurants. The garlic naan had big chunks of garlic which is weird because I couldn't taste any garlic. The outside was crispy but the inside was tough. Veggie samosas were decent the outside shell was nice and crispy flavour was ok. I am most disappointed about the butter chicken. It lacked flavour, had zero spice in it, and the chicken was dry. I would not come here again and I would not recommend it to anybody I know. read more

I love this restaurant - I never dine there, but I get take-out a couple of times a year. Their kadhai paneer (chilies, green pepper, tomatoes, onions and paneer) is the most AMAZING dish I've ever had. All I can say is that the quality of food is always consistently high and the food is generally wonderful... if you aren't too keen on sitting in the restaurant, call ahead and get take-out and enjoy their lovely menu at home! read more

A customer of ours is located in Calgary -- whenever we visit, this is a required stop for us now -- the coconut rice is FANTASTIC!

I checked out a few Indian buffets in Calgary. While Namskar does not have the greatest variety, they do have the highest quality. Best butter chicken in town! read more

This is hands down the best indian food in the city!. The service is prompt and the food is delicious!!

Absolutely love this place. Their butter chicken is incredible. One of my favorite places to eat in the city!

Food is usually good but the last time the service was horribly slow! It would be a solid 4 star for every visit prior to the latest visit Food and service was lacking. read more

Enjoyed some beautiful take out from Namskar. Vegetarian Dal is excellent. Had some curry coconut prawns that were to die for. The butter chicken was superb and the lamb Lorna was savoury but a little too spicy for my liking. Recommend the saffron rice as well. Delicious. Generous helpings. The service for take out was very attentive. I recommend Namskar. read more

Best Indian I've had in Calgary. Their buffet was good but a bit pricey for the selection. I wish they had Chicken Tika Masala on the buffet but the Butter Chicken was great and satisfied my craving. read more

I love eating here, the food is so good. can't tell how many times I've been here. The service, food and prices are all great. They have really good prawns, naan, and other dishes. read more

Consistently excellent food and service with a great atmosphere. Best butter chicken I've had in a long while, and the malai kofta is great too. We always order one dish per diner plus naan (the garlic is excellent if you want to spring for it) and saffron rice. We've tried the pakora too and it's delicious. I've brought people here for their first time eating Indian, as well as people who are curry experts, and we always have a great time. This will always be my go-to place for Indian! read more

tandoori chicken was meh and |MEH meh meh. The bad parts of the chicken served heaping with bones. I imagine they use the good for butter chicken. Veg Kora looked like store bought frozen pees and carrots in babyfood. The mango Kafli and Lychi drink were meh. 2 mehs. I WILL NOT BE BACK EVAR read more

Fabulous food - The seating could be expanded a bit to accomodate larger parties and the parking area could use an expansion as well.

If you like Indian cuisine, definitely put Namskar on your list. I've been here several times for their lunch buffet, and I've been consistently impressed. As others have noted, food quality is beyond reproach, but parking is a challenge: their lot is tiny and neighbourhood restrictions can make finding a nearby spot iffy. Clean, bright, and moderately upscale. read more

Namskar is the cream of the crop of Indian cuisine in Calgary. The combination of delicious food and terrific service in a friendly casual atmosphere makes this my favorite stop for Indian cuisine in calgary read more