This is the second time they messed up my order.The ladies in the front seem like they don't care.I I ordered chicken curry and okra and both are taseless.I clearly told them all wheat roti and it was naan.Hopeless and not worth it. read more

$1 vegetable samosas that you cannot beat! They are delicious and huge, by I wish they weren't so greasy and oily. I guess you can expect much less on something that's deep fried. I hear the desserts and sweet sugar balls are delicious, but I've never tried! Worth a stop for samosas if you're in the area! read more

Dear Niralla, Thank you for having the best bang-for-your-buck lunch buffet on the planet. You never have the same buffet twice and no matter what the dishes are - they are always scrumptious. (did I really type the word scrumptious??) Not to mention the fact that your buffet is all you can eat for $7.50 (including tax). And to think that people would rather spend their hard earned money on steroid and sodium filled chicken fast foodstuffs ---- I am truly nonplussed at 21st century America. Over the past few years, I can safely assume that I have eaten at your restaurant 50 times. You have never let me down (well, maybe one or two times), so lets keep this relationship going and DO NOT change!! I have no idea who it is that makes all the beautiful and intoxicating (always spicy, but never searing) masalas for your dishes, but I would like to kiss 'em ~ they are that good. Oh, and the dahl..... daal..... dal..... lentil variations are always awesome!!! Lovingly yours, Mic read more

Out in Springfield, VA, there's a Indian/Pakistani restaurant that is frequented by the local South Asian community. This is certainly one of those places where you'd easily feel out of place if you weren't the same skin color. I had no idea what the sign "Niralla Sweet" meant except that I simply had to check it out. Inside is probably one of my most amazing discoveries around the DMV, except that I don't know just exactly what it is I found. In addition to being a restaurant (most non-vegetarian and vegetarian entrees range from $5.99 to $8.99) Niralla Sweets sells snacks and South Asian confectionaries. It's like walking into a candy store expect you don't know what anything is. All I know is that I walked away with a mango lassi ($2.99), a bagful of chats (snacks) and mithaee (sweets) for less than $11. The prices were simply amazing. Dal Kachori (crisp, flaky deep fried pasty stuffed with lentils) was $1.00. Chicken samosa (similar to an deep-fried empanada) was $1.25. And Aaloo Tikki (similar to potato pancake) was $1.00. And any combination of mithaee (Indian sweets) for $5.99/lb. A preliminary internet search reveals Mithaee to be South Asian confections that rely heavily on sugar, milk, condensed milk. They're often very sweet. Some are soaked in honey. Others are doughy. Many are deep fried. There are words like: Laddo, Rasgulla, Golab Jamun, Burffee, Pista Burffee, Kala Kand, Pateisa, Jalebi, Gajar Halwa, Imirti, Balushai, Rasmalai, and Petha ... but I don't know what any of these things are. Fortunately, everything is so cheap that I can afford to pick 6 or 7 small items to figure out what I do and do not enjoy. There are tiny colored flour shells (think of small rice puffs) that are fried, crispy, and sweet. There are pureed carrot cubes mixed with honey and almonds. There's a white ball of floury paste that has intense concentrations of sugar. Again, there are no labels so everything ends up being a blind tasting. Ultimately, there is so much to be discovered at Niralla that I'm an immediate fan. I have no idea whether the food is any good - most of of it is much too sweet for my palate. But it's all so new that I'm simply mesmerized. [Original Visit: June 21, 2009] read more

If I were rating this place just based on the samosa chaat, I would give it 5 stars. But alas, they also have other products which are just a-ok. The samosa chaat is amazing and cheap. My husband craves it, and he is not into Indian food at all. I've gotten lots of other dishes here and sampled their sweets and lassis. It's good. I will continue to visit again and again. If you are the sort of person that is put off by lack of decor and possibly a little shadiness then save your money for somewhere else. I don't mind appearances if the food is great and service good. I'm happy that a place like this is so close to my house. A welcome neighborhood store! read more

The first time I went, the atmosphere seemed OK. the staff was could not be bothered to be attentive and I did not get serviced at all - was there for takout. I left without any food after waiting 15 minutes. The second time I went there, i went there to buy sweets. They were unfriendly, could not be bothered to really service me yet again, and when they did, they had a bad attitude and were rather unfriendly, and finally after I brought the set of sweets home, i found hair embedded in a couple of sweets. I think the board of health needs to give this one a once over... and if restaurants get a rating card as they do in Manhattan - this one deserves a BIG FAT F. My suggestion... for the price... walk down the strip mall and eat at the Thai place that is out of this world instead....you get a clean place, the most devine Thai food I have had in my life, and the staff is completely friendly. i would make a special trip over to the Thai place - not Niralla....ever again. read more

I've been coming to this restaurant for about 7 years and boy oh boy! This place hits the spot E.V.E.R.Y. time!!! How could food in life be this damn good!? My wife and I were craving Indian food yesterday and we ordered 2 butter chickens, 2 chicken simosas, and the aloo gobi all for $36.00. Party in my mouth all the way through. The portions here are of decent size, enough to where one entree could serve as two meals. I must note, if you are coming here for 5 star service - don't bother and do not leave this place bad reviews for not providing such service. It's a small kinda mom & pop owned restaurant with very simple decor (literally... just tables and chairs) to eat-in. Me personally, it's everything I need it to be. Decently priced with amazing food. If you're not local and want some damn good local food, come here!! Til next time Niralla! read more

My husband and I stopped by today to have some mithai and faluda. We had our dinner at dera next door and were not hungry but just craving some meetha. I ended up getting some jalebi which was average but edible. Faluda was horrible ! My husband especially asked me to write this review and let others know that this is a disgrace to the real deal. Instead of the thick icecream-y stuff in faluda they had literally put milk. We threw this in the dustbin . If you know what real faluda tastes like , trust me you will not like this. read more

I must say. It's an ugly strip mall. And the store inside is pretty empty and not really decorated. I think if they changed it up, it'd probably bring in more business. They've been known around NoVa for having good sweets and my family loves them and says they're delicious. I stopped by for a samosa chaat. I think that's what it's called...They have a bowl, place two samosas, sauces, potatoes, onions etc Delicious!! I go back there just for that But I really wish they were friendlier, they don't really acknowledge you or smile too much lol read more

This place gets to the point.... Pick a table Get your food Sit n eat!!! O... If your thirsty you have a self serve cooler for water! Then you pay n go! Good quality grub, simple place... Your native "indi" ppl are all in here w their kids! I love this place! I go 2-3 a month! read more

Best south asian desserts and food. Been coming here forever, best chicken samosa in the area by far

Good variety of sweets. Faluda was decent. The milk cake was reallllllllllllly good. They have a big variety and prices aren't too bad. Just be careful, many deserts are VERY high in sugar just like any mithai on the planet. I would eat just a few pieces if possible ;) Milk cake. Get the milk cake. =) read more

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The food was delicious. I liked the naan which was fresh, chicken curry and the goat was on point. The chicken curry tasted just like my mother so that made me happy. The falooda was not bad. I enjoyed falooda as a child in Burma and while growing up California all the time.....that was long time ago. Boondhi laddhu was too sugary as in eating a spoon full of granulated sugar and lacked flavors....chick peas flour, ghee, saffron? I love boondhi laddhu and have been enjoying this sweet all my life so my search continues in this area. read more

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As I mentioned in my check-in, the decor is pretty generic and the wait is longer than it should be. The kabobs were well seasoned and tasty. I ordered the chicken kabob and beef kabob to go and they let me put the sides on my own. I was disappointed the buffet didn't having rice. The chickpeas were slightly sweet and spicy, which I liked. The lentils were spicy and delish. The buffet could use some refreshing periodically, but I didn't get a sense that service was a big concern here. Food is good. Eat here if you don't mind a basic selection of Indian/Pakistani options. Blah ambiance for dining in. Recommend to go, or a quick lunch buffet. read more

I come here all the time! It doesn't matter who you come with - family, friends, significant other - this place is great. I really enjoy the casual atmosphere. Yes, it doesn't have fancy decor. Yes, it looks somewhat drab from the outside. BUT the food is great and the prices are right. That's all you need to know. This place offers a variety of traditional Indian street food, entrees, drinks, and sweets. Some of my favorites are the chole bhature (huge bread served with chick peas - utterly delicious and my all-time favorite dish), pani puri (small fried bowls of dough that you fill with potatoes/chick peas/sauces), and chaat (a combo of chick peas, potatoes, onions, yogurt, chutnies, fried crunchies, etc.). Niralla has been doing these three dishes well for years. I also like the smoothies and mango lassi. They're a nice complement to the spicy food. The desserts are also tasty, and there are so many to choose from! I personally enjoy the gulab jamun and jalebi. Both are fried and super sweet. Slight cons: some of the other desserts aren't that great. Also, there are better lunch buffets elsewhere. I think they could also afford to add more tables to sit at. Bottom line: if you're looking for a casual place to grab Indian food, this is it. There is also the Indian grocery store (Shri Krishna) across the street! read more

I have been going to Niralla for a long time and it's really a good and sweet place to be. The food is ultimate amazing and customer services is amazing. Very well trained and very professional . I must say there is another place that opened next to Niralla and I kind of got distracted but Nirlalla never-ever made me feel unwelcomed and never ever made me uncomfortable . They always gave me respect and the employees are just sweet and caring. I will for this point on will be going back to my roots when it comes sweets and snacks and food that is just my type and staff just have a great heart and yet very professional! Thank you. read more

We loved their food! Huge servings for a great price. One of us got the butter chicken: excellent. Our new favorite place for butter chicken. And I got the dinner buffet. Not the largest selection, but what they offered was tasty! It's counter serve and don't expect anything fancy, but the food is more important to us than decor. We will definitely return! read more

This was a go-to fave for me and my friends back in college because of its indian/paki street food availability but not any more. Many reasons for that. Except for the chaat papdi and samosa i would not get anything from here ANYMORE (even the samosas are kinda dry, kills me how an indian places gets a samosa wrong!) Pan is dry and olddd, gathering dust somwhere along with the mithayee (sweetmeats) which look crappy to begin with. If you are a sucker for gulab jamun go to SHINEYS, they have awesome gulus nomnom...anyhow my advice to them, PLEASEEE PLEASEEEE DO SOMETHING ABOUT YOUR FOOD, ITS GETTING WORSE! read more

The goat curry here is BOMB! It's super good! The rest of the dishes were alright, not the hugest fan. I loved the naan bread, it was warm when it came out. There are not a lot of dishes, but the price for each person in the buffet is very cheap. It's certainly not the best buffet ever but it's convenient for a quick meal. read more

Went back again this past weekend with the boyfriend and dad cuz his dad really likes this place. It was nice to see they changed the dishes being offered. Curry chicken, curry goat seem to be a staple. They were still offered but they definitely change up the veggie dishes. Unfortunately the eggplant was gone :( I loved that! They had a flavorful chickpea channa dish and an interesting breaded creamy cheese ball dish this time. read more

Was feeling hungry so decided to try Nirala sweet, since new owner took over they changed almost everything and raised prices too but you know it's worth because food taste is v good much better than before. Only thing they need customer service because no one comes to you to ask you about if any thing else need or how is food etc etc. and for people like me who only eat Halal and like goat curry this spot is good for them. Noise level is pretty good, clean everything. But some people don't like to eat in foam plates it's lot more better if they do ceramic plates and get more business. Anyway its good. read more

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This is the worst place ever i found hair in my food. The taste was nasty to begin with and the damn Chinese lady inside has stink to her like she hasn't showered in a week read more

A solid contender in the battle for the best halwa-puri (traditional brunch item only served on weekends). We came for halwa-puri. Well, truthfully my kind and faithful husband watched as I scarfed down halwa-puri in my famished pregnant state. It was very good, and pretty cheap. The portion was decent, and I walked away very satisfied. Seating isn't great here, so I wouldn't recommend coming with a large group. read more

I ordered lunch for pickup for the first time today and the food was delicious. I ordered the tarka dal and it came with rice that tasted very fragrant with a hint of butter. It also came with naan and a salad for no extra charge. Their selection of sweets is very rare for the area! I asked to try the cashier's favorite and he game me some kaju barfee to try for free. They were delicious! Sweet and creamy cashew flavor with some delicate fruit and spices. I will come back soon. read more

I'm a big fan of Desi food...I was hesitant to try out this place because it was so small and I didn't know whether or not it would be sanitary. I decided to try the buffet on a busy Sunday afternoon. The place is very small and had very few options. The food was alright, but I disliked two things about it: 1) they only give you one naan 2) they only make their chicken kabobs once during their buffet, so if you're late you won't get any... I would consider coming here again, but maybe earlier in the afternoon and during the week. read more

I went with a friend to buy some mithai and ended up totally loving this place. They have a great mithai (sweetmeats) selection and we tasted a few. I ended up buying barfis - they had regular, pistachio and almonds, all for $5.99/pound. I got a box of this and I've been steadily chipping away at these barfis ever since I brought them home. I can't really make out the difference between the three varieties, except for the small bits of pistachios or almonds in them... but ooooh the flavor is simply awesome. The texture is very creamy, unlike the usual barfis which are a bit grainier. I've been taking tiny bites and just letting them melt in my mouth.... ummm.... I think I'm addicted to these for life! We also bought boondis.... this wasn't such a hit. It seems that they've taken the jalebi batter and just fried it into little rounds. They taste fine.... but they are just not boondis. I wish I had tasted these before I bought them. Lastly we grabbed a samosa chat and a papri chat. The samosa chat was pretty close to what I usually enjoy in India - 2 crushed samosas, with cholle (chichpea curry), dahi (yoghurt), imli chutney (tamarind) and the usual toppings. The papri chat was a downer - it was essentially the same as the samosa chat, but with diamond-shaped bits of papri. Perhaps this is how they do it in other parts of India, but for me, they are supposed to look like this - http://cdn.sailusfood.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/papdi-chaat.jpg Anywhoo... I am sold. I will be definitely back for the barfis and samosa chat. Also would like to try the buffet some weekend. PS: This is an Indian owned/Indian-style cooking place. They ofcourse are smart and will not turn away Pakistanis and Bangladeshi customers and hence offer halal meat and other dishes that would be more of the mughlai school of cooking. read more

Had their samosas the other day for iftar, their samosa size was just weird like some of them are huge and some were just tiny little samosa, i mean im paying a dollar per samosa, atleast i should get the even sized samosas. Lets talk about the taste , we bought the vegetable samosas and it had peas and potatoes in it, the mixture was good, but the samosa was not cooked from the inside. read more

This restaurant is the one I always prefer. I ate in a lot of restaurants but to this restaurant I keep coming back again and again when ever I come in DC area. Originally I am from CA my family lives here in Va they always recommend me going to Niralla. The team is very chummy and the food they place on your table is so good. We always happy to have a nice buffet . My favorite is bhindi (okra) and chicken karahi. I always have good service and complimentary chai at the end. I recommend this place with pleasure . keep it up good service. read more

The samosas, chat and mithai (Indian deaerts) were better than any place in the D.C. metro area. This is original Indian street food - feels like you are in new Delhi. read more

This place is the real deal. If you are looking for real Pakistani sweets, this place is the BEST in this area (perhaps in the US). The sweets are always fresh and every Pakistani knows that this place has the best quality sweets. I appreciate this place because it makes you feel like you're in a local market in the homeland. read more

Today is the first day of Ramadan, as family tradition, we always go and buy sweets, samosas and pap chaatri for iftaar. Today I was handled with NASTY customer service. I kindly asked for onions on the side and was denied...why? I have no idea! Apparently you can only have "one" item on the side including sauce. Iftaar isn't I'll after 8pm...of course it will get soggy! Then she had the audacity to start slamming things around. Very rude! Will not come back or recommend. She didn't even prepare correctly out of spite. read more

My friend keeps hyping this place up but every time that I've been here I've found it to be just okay. We usually just come here for snacks and order the samosa chaat which is just okay. I've had much better elsewhere. Last time I ordered the chicken wrap and it was pretty bad. I took a few bites and gave it to my friend to eat. They might do some of the other stuff better but I've been let down by the few things that I've tried. read more

The restaurant lacks ambiance. The food itself, was mediocre. The customer service was subpar. I wouldn't recommend dining here. The menu items, are expensive. Beware, of the buffet. read more

Brought their methi (sweets) and they are all stale and smell like they have been sitting in the fridge. None of their sweets were fresh except for their milk cake sweet. I will not be coming back read more

I've always really enjoyed Niralla. It's not in the best part of Springfield, but in general the shopping center seems a lot safer and cleaner than it has in years past. The food here is top notch, and I'm really surprised by some of the negative reviews! I'm Indian and I recognize top-tier chat papdi and dahi bhalla when I eat them. Niralla does an excellent job with both. The samosas, pakoras, and dal kachoris are excellent, too, if you want tasty and filling appetizers. They're primarily known for their mithai, or sweets. The dessert here is really well made, and I've never known it to be anything but fresh. Try the milk cake and badam barfi (almond and milk cake) if you want something that's sweet but not overwhelming. They also serve tasty vegetarian entrees. Finally, the customer service here is also great. It's a family-owned establishment and the people who man the counter are all very friendly and polite. They even help me to my car when I have a bunch of bags. Also, this is indeed an Indian restaurant, and not Pakistani as some have alluded below. read more

Every time I go the food is always so good and consistent. I highly recommend the goat curry, chole bature and chaat. This restaurant is more of a self serve type place. If you are unfamiliar with the cuisine it can be difficult to order here. I love to eat here, the food is good and it is reasonably priced. Highly recommend! read more

I put in a catered order for goat karahi for a small gathering at my house. When I served the goat, the meat was tough and chewy. We were eating it with the bread we had also ordered and the meat was not cooked enough to eat with the bread. I just called Niralla sweets to complain that I had specified that they make the goat karahi medium spice and tender but it was not. A few of my guests could not eat it because it was too tough for them. I'm really disappointed that this establishment lacks any customer service skills and they also do not do a quality check of the food they prepare. I paid over $100 for the order that was not edible for my guests. Very unsatisfied and would not recommend this place. read more

The chaat papri, chai, and kulfi is what I have tried here. Good place for quick Pakistani food read more

Sadly the quality of the papdi chat has gone downhill over the years. Not sure why they continue to serve old chutney. My plastic chutney container literally exploded due to the pressure inside (usually happens when the chutney is old) The papdi chat used to be off the chizzain. And now unfortunately it's not. Sad to see a favorite place fail to maintain its integrity with the quality of food. Hope this review will inspire Niralla to address this issue and fix this problem. read more

Papri Chaat is watery and pretty bad!!! Took my parents out for Chaat and halwa puri and was really disappointed!!!