Minar Palace

I wish I could give this restaurant a few more stars. My husband and I are Indian and he is from a part of India where food is pride, we have established that the only decent food we can get around Philly is at indeblu or in New Jersey.
We still decided to give Minar Palace a try.
The biryani is anything but biryani, please do not let it represent the rich flavored meat and rice that it actually is.
Nan was good but the chicken curry was stale and reheated.
I would rather go to Chinese place than this Indian misrepresentation.

Most of the food is reheated when ordered from the menu. The Biriyani is not authentic and should be passed. The buffet selection is solid, but most of the food is cold. The waiter really doesn’t speak much. I like the samosas and the daal tadka so I don’t mind most of these things. However, if it wasn’t for convince to yu job, and home I would be at Sitar India.

Took my mom here for her birthday lunch since she loves Indian food. The mango Lassi tasted nothing like a Lassi. There was no taste of yogurt in there. Tasted like it was poured out of a box. The chicken Biryani was not the traditional made Biryani, more like rice tossed in chicken curry. There were literally white rice balls that weren’t mashed well into this «chicken fried rice» which they call a Biryani. The goat curry and chicken tikka masala were good. Customer service was good as well.

What a disaster! Served us food that was old and rotten (we are Indian so we know) and when we brought it up to them– the guy basically told us that since we aren’t white, to go pound sand. So if you’re white, or any other race, just be mindful, you will be served super old food under the pretext of it being hot and a curry. Also just be advised, old food can be re-​fried to be hot but is still old. You wouldn’t eat a chicken wing that’s been deep fried multiple times would you? STAY AWAY!
Incredibly rude owners to my entire family, disgraceful behavior! Terrible food!

Solid Buffet at lunch. Good veggie options. A cut above basic Indian. They take the time to check spices rather than phoning it in. (at least based on my one experience) The service was also quick at lunch which was perfect for our needs.

This is serious Indian food ! Delicious! Major drawback is service is absolutely terrible and rude. No beer or wine served, but a wine store is 2 blocks away and may be consumed at restaurant. Very cheap prices for authentic food.

Could not decide whether to give one or two stars. Three friends and I went here because all the restaurants on 13^th St had an hour or more wait. This place had no wait; in fact, very few table were taken. That should have told us something! We arrived at 805pm on a balmy Wednesday night during the week of the Flower Show. The waiter was incredibly rude the entire time we were there. The food was decent but nothing to rave about. The shrimp was rubbery; the chicken, lamb and saag paneer were good. Small amount of rice for 4 people ordering 4 dishes. The biggest impression that all of us got was that the waiter was SO RUDE we will never go back. And we were kicked out very firmly at 9pm. Rude, rude, rude.

I used to be a loyal customer but not anymore! I usually go there with a group of friends because the food is delicious. However, once I was waiting for someone to give me the menus for almost 20 minutes then I realized that I’m not welcome! Then, I decided to leave! Since that I have never went there! It is disgrace! Oh by the way I’m not White American so probably that’s why they have been rude to us!

Our food (chicken makhana and chicken tikka masala) were pretty good. Just standard Indian food but still good and tasty, and the spices were good. Naan bread was amazing though — VERY fresh. Interior was pretty small and dim. Fancy looking but not actually fancy; straightforward dishes and decent prices. Not many people here. It was the Friday of the Valentine’s day weekend, and all the other places were packed and their waiting times were too long, but this place was pretty empty. Server seemed a bit impatient to get us to order something.

I thought we were out of luck when El Vez had over an hour wait on a Friday evening, but we were seated immediately at this traditional, Zagat-​rated Indian restaurant in center city. It’s been open since 1991 and at this location since 2008. The new location is apparently more elegant, as I didn’t see any of the paper plates that some reviews mention. They have a menu and a buffet, even in the evening. It’s BYOB, and there’s no corkage fee. The buffet was great.

If your English go here. AMAZING have not even had any Indian food remotely close to this quality, in this city.
Yes yes yes thank you.

Decided to stop by being that I was craving indian food, went in they had a very small buffet definitely not a lot of options, the togo buffet was $ 13.99 price was high if you ask me. Buut the food was good, I gave a three star because the food was good, took away a star because the price was too high and toom away another star because very limited buffet option.

Definitely solid Indian. The atmosphere is as traditional as an American Indian restaurant can be. Dim lighting, Indian music and Chicken Tikka Masala, what more could any ask for? The dinner buffet offers 6 dishes, and I was truly surprised due to the fact, you usually only are given 3 – 4 options. You won’t be disappointed dinning here.

If I need to satisfy a craving and can’t trek to W. Philly, I come here for proximity’s sake. I would definitely recommend ordering a la carte if you’re with someone. All the goat and lamb dishes are good. The saag dishes definitely taste like they use frozen spinach– although they aren’t necessarily bad. I would just skip it.
It’s a totally decent BYO, don’t come here expecting 5 star service. They are not open late and will rush you out (this has happened to me multiple times). They’re not particularly pleasant, either. So, when we eat here we just expect it and laugh when it inevitably happens.

Average indian dinner buffet. Good for a convenient quickie dinner with a large group of friends.

Meh. Totally meh. Honestly, not real Indian food. I mean, they didn’t even use Basmati rice to make their biriyani! That’s unbelievable! I’ll never order biriyani from there again. They should be ashamed of their biriyani. In fact, as Indians they should know better than to call THAT biriyani. Sorry, try again Minar Palace.
Eat biriyani somewhere else.

We love Indian food, and have eaten at least ten Philadelphia Indian restaurants. I like several equally, but my wife insists that this is by far her favorite, so we get carryout from Minar frequently and eat on site from time to time.
The buffet is skimpier than the West Philly places, but still ample for us. As long as there’s a Korma dish and Chicken Tikka Masala, (which Minar excels at) we’re happy.
Minus one star for the limited buffet, but plus one star since this is always where we come.

WEEKEND LUNCH BUFFET
The good:
Food was very well flavored, and extremely spicy. I love spicy!
The bad:
–Lack of options. This place had 3 vegetarian entrees: daal, saag channa, and another vegetable medley one. REALLY disappointed there wasn’t a paneer option like wtf I was cravinggg some paneer. Most places will have saag paneer AND channa, both of which are Indian staples, instead of copping out and mixing them. At least the rice, raita, and naan were all good. Wanted some garlic naan but it was $ 3.50. for a piece of bread? Hell naww.
–Service was WACK. I mean it’s buffet, but he didn’t fill our waters, was kinda rude, and kept trying to steal the menu back from me.
-$ 13 for a lunch buffet is definitely on the pricey side for Indian lunch buffets.
Next time, I will for sure opt for ordering off the menu! **tip** The entrees were $ 9 and if you have a couple people in your group and can each order an item, this would definitely be the route to go.

The food here is really great — all of the meat dishes are amazing and some of the best Indian meat dishes in Philly. Nice atmosphere and location.
3 starts though because they should be open later and the staff isn’t particularly pleasant. Good food, but not a good dining experience.

Good prices, and huge portions! We chose Minar Palace for the price and the fact that they deliver.
We were happy with our lamb masala and a lentil dish, which were tasty and spicy. Don’t order extra rice since EACH entrée comes with its own plate of rice. The samosas were amazing, and very spicy in my opinion. I’m glad I got raita, but wish I had ordered a larger portion to temper the spiciness. The mango lassi was also quite good.
Solid delivery place — cheap, good quality, wide variety and healthy portions!