Moti Mahal

Went to this place for dinner. Food was good. However, it wasnt authentic Indian food. Was modified to cater to Canadian customers. It needed some spice and good flavours.

Every good Asian knows that value is an important component of your daily diet. Unfortunately, that is a key ingredient (alongside perhaps some more spice) that Moti Mahal is missing.
I had the veggie samosas ($ 5 for 2), and the eggplant bartha ($ 13). The food quality was pretty good — the samosas were decent, and the eggplant tasted fairly fresh with a nice blend of flavours, but definitely could have used more of a kick. However, at $ 13, the quantity of eggplant was shamefully disappointing (not enough to fill your standard 500g cottage cheese container), and not justified by the nothing-​spectacular quality.
Overall, decent food, but rather indecent price vs portions ratio. Might come back for the lunchtime buffet.
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EDIT: returned for lunch buffet, only to find that THERE IS NO LUNCH BUFFET. There’s a lunch special instead now, which includes a small dish with a bit of naan and rice, some veggies, a bit of salad, and a few pieces of fruit; prices range from $ 12 to $ 14 for the set. It’s a bit better value, but still nothing to write home about. On to the next one!

This was our first time we went to this restaurant. I am extremely frustrated with the food that they served. The taste was horrible as their food was smelly. They do not know the difference between biryani and fried rice. I can still smell that stink of food in my mouth and hand after few hours.
I would not recommend anyone to go to this restaurant as its waste of money. The worse think is when we recommend to have better quality food, they are not getting agreed.
When we recommend to improve the food, they mentioned that this is how they have been serving over 25 yrs and will continue in future. I seriously wonder how they survive this restaurant.

The food here is awesome. I would totally recommend it. Flavourful, but not too spicy at all. The naan is huge.

Horrible. Spent $ 80 on takeout and legit couldn’t feed 4 people (2 girls, 2 guys who are all average height and weight).
Prawn tikka was actually tiny shrimp. Served with a side of very burnt onion. Jalfrazie was practically sauce less. Vegetables were mostly onions and were not fresh at all. Chicken Tikka Masala was insanely small — only enough for a very very small portion for two people. Naan was all burnt.
Overpriced. Bad food. Small portions (usually never complain about portions). TERRIBLE SERVICE — guy showed no care when I called in. Don’t support this business. I LOVE Indian food but will never go back.

Quality is decent, but I’ve had better in the city. The size of the portions is rather small, especially considering that the prices are higher than most other Indian restaurants in town. Service tends to be on the slower side as well. The upside is in the ambiance, which is intimate and upscale-​feeling.
I live a few blocks away but don’t come very often as I find this place rather expensive for what it offers. I would usually make the trip to Maharaja on 9^th avenue for my fix of Indian food.

We quite enjoy this place. Their fish dishes are all quite tasty, and their naan is delicious (it’s terrible at a lot of places). Their appetizers (samosas, pakoras, etc.) are also well done. In general, their sauces are pretty flavorful.
I think their lassis have too much ground ice in them, but my wife likes them.
My four star review has an asterisk beside it, though. The last two times we’ve ordered chicken dishes (tandoori chicken and shahi jeera chicken) they’ve been badly overdone, to the point where we didn’t finish the shahi jeera chicken or bother taking it home.
Still, it’s our current go-​to Indian restaurant.

We’re regulars here.
Love their Chicken Korma, of course with Butter Naan and Saffron rice. Consistently good, with a great sauce.
They have a great selection of Indian food.
My wife likes the Lamb Bhuna. Tender and flavourful.
Recommend!

Mediocre food, nice atmosphere. The best food to get is chicken tandori. Considering Calgary’s options, one of the bests!

Not a very personalize service from the server, although the owner Lady seems nice. Ordered Lamb Korma and it was rubber like balls. Dal to die for and great roti

Loved it. Found it on Unilocal and decided to try it for dinner before catching a flight home.
Service was great. I ordered dishes recommended by server — great choice! I had an eggplant dish I wouldn’t have normally ordered but it was delicious! I also really liked that they let you order half portions so you can try a couple different items.
Will definitely go back when I am in town again.

Love this local spot! The food is super über delicious, service is spot on, warm, friendly & totally reasonably priced! If you want authentic traditional Northern Indian food come here there’s nowhere else to go! It’s so tasty and delicious I couldn’t believe it! I live in Brooklyn, New York and every time I come to Calgary I always make a point of stopping by this little Indian GEM ‼

Moti Mahal
Food: 3.5÷5
Service: ⁵⁄₅
Ambiance: ⁵⁄₅
Came here cold and hungry for a late night dinner. Not the best Indian food I’ve had but it was good. Portions were standard but the pricing is more on the higher end/​finer dining. We ordered the butter chicken, fish biryani, paneer and the chili korma with a side of roti and plain basmati rice. Flavours seemed standard, nothing that really stood out for me unfortunately… It hit the spot for the craving and warmed us up but I don’t think I would recommend or come back here.
Shout-​out to the nice menu design and the friendly service!

East Indian Food done right! Love the remodel, love the food, the service, and the felling that I am «at home» when I’m here! Samosas are the best in town!

Yo, this place. THIS PLACE.
I come here multiple times whenever I visit Calgary… I’d estimate I’ve come 10 – 12 times? The vegetarian options here are consistently incredible. Like, I literally have dreams about the matter paneer. Other dishes I have tried and loved include malai kofta, nauratan (tastes very similar to the matter paneer), mumbai alu, vegetable korma, eggplant bartha, punjabi dhal, and dhal maharani. I also get the mango lassi every time, tried lychee juice last night and it was great as well. I CANNOT EXPRESS IN WORDS HOW MUCH I LOVE THE FOOD HERE. I could eat it every day and be perfectly happy.
The location itself is spacious, nice décor, kind of dark – a good place for date night. It’s never too crowded – I usually call an hour before to make a reservation and never have to wait. Service is usually quite fast. The boy thinks meat dishes aren’t quite as good as the vegetarian options (I wouldn’t know), but LET ME JUST SAY THAT YOU SHOULD GO FOR THE VEGETARIAN OPTIONS ALONE.
In conclusion: I seriously wish I could get their food shipped to me or something, it’s that amazing. I eat a lot of Indian food, and this is definitely by far my favorite place. Prices are quite reasonable. Bring your date here. Definitely order the matter paneer.

Love this place! I have tried several Indian restaurants in Calgary, & Moti Mahal wins, hands down. At this point I am considering not wasting my time trying new ones, although I am sure there must be good ones other than Moti Mahal & Raj Palace (NE).
I first visited in 2005, when my partner was moving into town & we arrived close to closing — they stayed open for us, letting us know it might be a bit slow because the staff were getting their dinners. Needless to say, not knowing the town at all & feeling so lucky to have found a great place to eat at 10 pm, we’ve been eternally grateful for their kindness that night.
This place did have a few years of service problems, back when almost everyone in Calgary had service problems due to the low unemployment rate at the time. But Moti Mahal could train most other establishments on how to deal with screwups like lost orders and 1 hour waits. They actually do their best to make it right, whether it is a free beer or an appetizer taken off the bill, PLUS they make their apologies sincere. I never feel like I am the problem when they mess up, & that is a talent that some other restaurants need to learn.
Hmm, 4^th paragraph already; maybe I should mention the food, eh? Moti Mahal serves an excellent selection of North Indian cuisine. My current faves on the menu are palak dal — seriously, the spices are so yummy that I will scrape every last bit off the plate — and the eggplant. We’ve brought numerous out of town guests here & everyone has loved their meals, regardless of what was ordered.
They have recently renovated a bit to add a bench along the whole south wall, giving them more seating capacity. Reservations are still recommended for busy times.
Restaurant is accessible, including a ramp on the left side of the parking lot. The corner of the ramp looks like it makes for a tight turn, but I have been assured by other customers that they had no trouble getting a chair around it.
As other reviewers have mentioned, the parking lot is small & you may need to park in the lot on 16^th Ave or scramble for street parking.

Because I’m not too familiar with Indian cuisine I tend not to venture off the basics (butter chicken and the like). But this place is one of my gf’s favourites so I trusted her to take the lead on ordering.
We got tandoori prawns, chicken masala, veggie korma with a side of sesame naan and coconut rice. As with most Asian places, the food was served family style so it worked out great.
Although I tend to think having too many different spices in food can be overwhelming, Indian spices seems to compliment each other so well! None of the dishes were shy on flavour, I’d have to say my fave dish was the chicken masala — the mixture of curries, tomatoes, onions and peas were perfect.
Would I come back to Moti? Absolutely! Now that I’ve expanded my pallet a bit more with Indian food, I’m looking forward to trying the other delicious sounding items on the menu.

Um… I get that Indian food shouldn’t smell good. I get it.
BUT
This place’s food smells awful! Stunk up my whole house! Plus, the butter chicken was watered down and the rice was too sticky. Vegetable samosas we’re okay though

Lots of good food and great service made this an excellent choice. I’ve had their brunch another time and it was excellent too.
Having said that, I will admit to being distracted by the company I was with.

Review #18 for Unilocal’s 30 Day Challenge 2012
I went here for dinner on Friday with my boyfriend as our first Indian restaurant experience in Calgary together. (We love Indian and had previously had a bunch in Vancouver)
I was very adamant about finding an amazing place to go to. I didn’t want to chance it.
So I decided on here after looking at the menu, they do Kashmiri style Indian so it is slightly different than the typical fare you might find. They also had a lot of veganizable vegetable curries to choose from as everything was not based on paneer or cream so I was happy.
The waitress, although a white girl and no Indian servers to be found, was super friendly, helpful and actually aware of ingredients in menu items. All I had to say was these dishes vegan and she was like no problem. (This sometimes can be an issue as people may not know butter isn’t vegan because it is made from dairy which is praised in India.)
We ordered the Palak (Spinach) Dal $ 11.50, Eggplant Bharta $ 13.50, Mumbai Aloo (Potato Curry) $ 12.50, Saffron Rice $ 5 and Roti $ 1.85 each. So overall very affordable for a lot of food for 2 people.
I always get Eggplant Bharta it’s a curry made from creamy roasted eggplant and tempered with spices, great for dipping. And the Palak Dal and the Mumbai Aloo were new. The Palak Dal was good, no complaints, I might try a regular dal next time. The Mumbai Aloo was great! It had a tomato tamarind sauce that was the die for. Way different than the traditional tomato based curry, so delicious and I wanted to put that sauce on everything. I’ll definitely be looking up the recipe.
The only thing was all the dishes came out mild when I asked for the Mumbai Aloo to be medium spicy for my BF cuz he loves spice. But it was still good anyway.
We made reservations in advance, which was helpful so there was no wait.
Other observations were that it is quite chilly sitting by the window which half of the restaurant does, our feet were freezing the whole time. (Maybe you’re supposed to order spicy food to stay warm? Ha!) and some couples brought their BABIES on a Friday night out for dinner… which was a little uncool as they were crying the whole time.
But the delicious food and the great waitress made it an excellent meal out and we’ll definitely be back to try more of the vegan friendly fare.
For meat eaters they have a ton of chicken, lamb and seafood dishes as well that are around $ 15-​$ 16 each.