Shalimar

Beware CA tourists: this is not the same Shalimar. Food was bland and barely Indian. Way overpriced and small portions. Highly discourage this tourist trap!

Really bad experience. We ordered two dishes and the quantity was lesser than a soup bowl and the prices are exorbitantly high for a usual Indian restaurant and for the quantity they provided, it wasn’t fair at all. This is the place if you want to have the so called «Indian food» for a high price and lousy service. Oh and they present tomato sauce as chutney.

Definitely isn’t Indian food as they claim. Not even close. The food is simply over over priced and you get quantity worth quarter of the cost!

I wish I took poetry in college so I could find the words to describe how lousy this place is. But having the articulation of a regular person, words fail me. I’ve been to bad restaurants before, but this is a whole new class of bad. Congratulations go to the owners for finding the perfect formula to exploit unsuspecting tourists. I’m a little a shamed for this place to represent my state to tourists. To the owners: karma is a B.

I wish I could award negative stars. Shalimar was a total disappointment. First, the menu information on the restaurant’s website grossly misrepresented prices, by abut 30% to 40%: vegetarian dishes that we wanted to order were listed on the website at $ 9.95 but in the restaurant they were priced at $ 14 to 15 $. The lassie tasted like thinned sour milk without even a hint of rose water or other flavors. Nevertheless, we were hopeful, given the restaurant’s glowing Zagat review that was prominently placed all over the restaurant, that the rest of the meal would be adequate. We were the only customers present during the peak dinner hour on Saturday night and we were expecting a modicum of attentiveness. However, the waiter, who was dressed in a soccer jersey and looked like a punk, was brusque and bent out of shape when we asked him for a clean plate. He plunked the dishes on the table with a grace of a bull in china shop, hovered uncomfortably over us when we paid the check with the credit card, and had the audacity to ask how we were planning to pay his tip.
The food, like the service, was the worst we have ever experienced in Orlando. The three dishes that we ordered represented a mixture of ketchup and sriracha sauce and all tasted the same: salty and tasteless. Even plain basmati rice served with the entrees was limp, stale and cold. Orlando has many outstanding Indian restaurants — Shalimar, regrettably, failed on all parameters: taste, price, and service. Cannot get any worse than that.

That’s not fair. Unilocal should assign negative stars as well. I been there about more than 2 years ago. And that was last time. I live 10 minutes away from this place but ain’t going back there. Extremely overpriced considering quality and quantity. Stay far away.

we loved our dinner here. the whole family was able to sit down and actually eat real food. will definitely go back.

Food was not at all great. Service was pathetic. Just go to some other indian restaurant.

Eating here was an awful experience. I came here with my family and the service was so bad, it was painful! It took us almost 45 minutes to get water and the restaurant had barely any people in it. The food could be described as only ok, so there was nothing redeemable about this place.

I read plenty of negative reviews for this place as my wife and I were sitting in the only occupied table on what should have been a busy night. We decided to just have a couple appetizers and see where things went…
By my rating, you can tell it went well. The lone server, while quiet and a bit hard to understand because of it, was very friendly and gave us very good service. He provided recommendations, some clarification regarding the dishes, brought us all the sauces we asked for, and even offered some hot chili peppers because we enjoy the heat. Altogether a very pleasing service.
Our appetizers were vegetable pakoras and the garlic naan. Both were delicious. It’s pretty amazing what cooks trained in the Indian-​style can do with vegetables and flour! We really enjoyed the pakoras dipped in any one or a mixture of the three sauces. There was a hot and sweet sauce, a green chutney, and really hot tomato-​based sauce. We were both very pleased with the service and the food. I would go back to try the dinner items if I am ever in the area again.
If I could make a couple suggestions, they would be 1) the bathroom needs a makeover. Nothing major, but an update would do wonders for the overall feel of the restaurant. 2) I can’t imagine sitting outside on their deck in the middle of summer with no canvas or umbrella blocking the sun. I visited during an evening in January, but it was still 80 degrees during the day.

It was late at night and this seemed to be the only Indian restaurant that was open. Such an unclean place. The restrooms were dirty and the window blinds had months of dust. The people taking the orders were dirty. We should have walked out after that. But we made the mistake of placing an order. It took them about an hour to bring us our butter naans that didn’t have any butter on them. When we asked why it was taking so late, the reply was they have a table of 14 people and that was a huge order for them. For goodness sake, this is supposed to be a restaurant. People who came in about 45 mins after us were served before us. These people shouldn’t be running a restaurant. When we were ready to pay our bill, it took another 15 minutes for them and they had already messed up the bill of someone who was paying before us.
If you don’t have a choice, visit one of the nearby fast food restaurants but don’t ever eat in here.

Horrible Experience!
First of all, when I went there the first time their advertisement said that they were open for lunch but they were closed we I got there.
When I actually went for lunch there another day, I waited a long time just to be seated. The lunch buffet wasn’t that good excess of oil and greasiness, the silverware was very dirty and to make things even worse the AC was not working especially in the Florida heat !

The food was great. I had the nihari curry, and mango chutney with tandoori naan. Delicious. Not the best I ever had, but delicious none the less. Plus, they had outdoor seating so I was able to bring my little dog along for dinner. Always a plus in my book. I will go back for sure, probably tonight for lack of dog-​friendly outdoor seating in the area (I’m not in Miami Beach anymore).

We decided to give this place a try after driving by and seeing the sign. I should have checked the Unilocal reviews before we were seated.
I thought the service was decent. I really liked our waiter, he was courteous and prompt. The food was bland and the dishes were small for the price. But hey, this is the big tourist-​trap area.
I think this place is really trying hard to improve but it will take a while.

We stopped here briefly the other day just to get a couple appetizers to hold us over until dinner. I was pleased & surprised to see the low rating. Not much to say except for a few things…
Service — excellent! The man who took our order was VERY friendly! We ordered the chicken tikka tandoori appetizer and my husband really wanted rice with it. He requested that it be served with rice and the server said sure, I can give you some rice with it at no charge. He said «anything to see a smile.»
Environment — seemed clean & tidy. Not as dim as your typical Indian restaurant. Lots of windows, brightly lit. Lots of booths.
Food
We had two appetizers: Vegetable Samosa and Chicken Tikka Tandoori.
I ordered vegetable pakora but we got vegetable samosa. But, we were happy with it. The samosas were yummy — crispy fried exterior, potatoes and peas and spices on the inside. They were large samosas and were served with a yummy sweet tamarind chutney sauce.
The chicken tikka tandoori was also good. It was chunks of marinated chicken served with green bell peppers and I think onions, if I remember correctly. The chicken was bright orange in color, not smothered in a sauce or anything, but tender and flavorful enough. The rice was perfectly cooked though not as seasoned as I am used to from Indian restaurants — it was plain white, no spices or saffron or anything. Overall I get the impression that this place caters to a more mild American palate, so if you want really bold Indian flavors, I wouldn’t come here. But I only had 2 appetizers.
Prices — as to be expected for the touristy area, the prices of the entrees were a bit high. The appetizers and the lunch buffet seem to be much more worth the money.
That’s about all I can say! Overall I would give it a try if you are in the area and wanting Indian food. If you don’t want to pay ~$ 18+ for an entrée, just get a couple appetizers or go somewhere else, like Sizler (down the street).

Food is pretty good, that too when it was overcrowded with holiday traffic.
Service from at least the one American guy at this joint is awesome!
Ambiance leaves a lot to be desired :-(More of a hole in the wall type spot.
The spicy paneer makhan masala was toooo good!

grrrrrrrrrrrrr… The worst ever… horrible… I will die starving rather than going there…
No option but to give at least one star… that’s very bad from Unilocal!!!
when we were in for the dinner on 8÷26÷2012, we waited for 1.5 hrs to get the food… n when we finally got it, could not even eat enough to feed our hunger… do not know how in the world one can call it «Indian Food»!!!
there was another group who were there to celebrate a birthday… they even were not prepared to pay their bill since the food was very poor. then the hotel guys called the cops to get the money…
all in all a very bad experience… i or my friends/​family will never ever go there… :@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Is there a way to give 0 or negative stars. As an indian myself, I will not consider this an indian restaurant. Food was horrible. Me and my friends have stories of how bad this restaurant is.
1. There was hair in the biryani which we ordered. When we complained about the hair, he took the hair with his hand and expected us to keep eating.
2. We asked for Salt lassi, he bought sweet. When we said we needed salt lassi, he took it, mixed salt in the sweet lassi (WHOA!!!) and gave it to us. HORRIBLE Tasting.
3. We ordered something with shrimp, which was priced some 13+ $s. What we got was a plate, 5 shrimps breaded and fried. Have no idea what it was, till date.
4. I am sorry but the waiter was stinking, horribly. And was not at all attentive.
No No No, dont go to this place.

We just decided to visit here since it was nearby and we found a
certificate. Even with the $ 25 certificate it wasn’t worth the money.
We started with veggie samosas and mine was still cold inside. Then we had Chicken vindaloo and chicken korma. We also had a side of garlic naan which was made with garlic powder and not fresh garlic. I had to ask 3 times for a side of raita. The waiter was at our table at least 3 times while my water was empty before I finally had to ask for more water.
There seemed to be a serious communication gap with our waiter. After we were done with our meal we had to ask for the check after waiting for a while because he spent all of his time cleaning off another table. He didn’t come over for our payment until we got up to walk over to a manager.
On top of all the poor service we got, this place was loud. There were only 2 other groups in the restaurant. Once with a screaming child at the front of the restaurant, which I normally wouldn’t complain about, but the place seemed to echo the screams. The other group was about three tables away but I could hear their conversation word for word. I can only imagine how loud this place would be on a busy day!
As many other reviews said, I wish I checked Unilocal first!

Terrible service, really awful food, dirty establishment, and double charged my credit card and not willing to do anything about it. Stay far far away!