Shan Mahal Cuisine

Had their buffet. I only had one plate, that says a lot because I can definitely eat.

Came here a few times in the past planning another visit. Went for the lunch buffet and dinner a few times for lunch I say go with an empty stomach and fill her up! Very tasty you name it my personal favorite was the lamb and on buffet time also great to take a group friends or dinner dates. Spice level as always associated with Pakistani food is quiet moderate.

Shan Mahal Cuisine is the third buffet in the Little India Village on Pioneer in addition to Tangy Tomato and Kabob Corner that we tried for lunch a couple of days ago. It seems to be a similar table cloth setup like the other two buffet’s with a price that is comparable (a little under $ 10 for a weekday lunch) and in-​lines with the other Indian buffet’s on the Pioneer strip. At the peak lunch hour there were only 2 other tables that were taken so they seemed pretty empty.
The spread consisted of many of the standard items that you will find in any Indian buffet like samosa, pakoda, tandori chicken, butter chicken and biryani as well a couple of unique dishes like pav bhaji (a street food dish popular in Mumbai which consists of mashed vegetables cooked in spices served with bread rolls fried in butter) and paya (goat feet soup) which I guess they added to stand out from their immediate competition.
Taste-​wise the samosa was burnt as a result of being over fried. The pakoda was hard and stretchy. The butter chicken and biryani were eatable but absolutely passable. The pav bhaji was borderline good. The vegetables were not mashed but were stir fried (a style known as khada bhaji) and the bread roll was also decent. The paya was very good with the soup having a decent amount of fat diffused from goat feet combined with strong spices. The goat feet themselves were perfectly cooked with the meat effortlessly falling off the bone. However all the dishes had a strong intense taste which was definitely not flavor, that I and my friends could pick up but were unable to put a finger on. Well at-​least not till later that day. Immediately after the meal all of us were extremely thirsty and had to chug down tons of water which continued till late evening. I cannot be sure but it definitely felt like the tell-​tale signs of the after effects of loads of MSG so I guess that was the intense taste that we got from the food. Service was good and our soiled plates were cleared in a jiffy and water constantly refilled so no issues there.
Overall had it not been for the MSG scare (again speculation as I don’t know for sure but feel reasonably confident about it), I would have probably rated Shan Mahal as a 3 stars experience but considering it, I have to push the rating lower. I could possibly return for a meal but only after confirming that they are MSG free.

This place is terrible. My family had a party here a few weeks ago and it was a hot mess. If you are looking for a place to host a dinner, look elsewhere! The owner was completely unresponsive and not someone I would recommend you give your business to.
The outside & entrance to the restaurant was filthy and strewn with trash. Prior to the party, my mom visited the restaurant to discuss the menu and asked the owner to make sure it was cleaned up before the dinner. Despite repeated assurances that it would be cleaned, it never was. He also assured her that she would be able to start setup prior to the party, but then when she and her friends arrived at the restaurant, they weren’t allowed in. They had to sit in the car for over a half hour. When they finally got into the restaurant, they found the tables were still in storage… he wouldn’t get his employees to get the tables out of storage, so we had to drag them out ourselves. At this point, we were running so behind that guests started to arrive and help with the setup.
The bathrooms were DISGUSTING. We told the owner multiple times during the night and he said he’d take care of it, but of course, he didn’t. Instead, he spent the evening mingling with our guests!
The biggest insult came towards the end of the night. Our guests were still serving themselves dinner when the owner and his employees started removing the food. We told him people were still eating and more people were going to come, but that didn’t stop him. We asked for takeaway boxes and he said no — that the food was for eating on the premises, not for takeaway. He had the audacity to snatch a box of food from one of our guests. What kind of restaurant doesn’t allow it’s patrons to take leftover food — my only guess is that he was planning on re-​serving these dishes the next day. Gross!
I will never go to this establishment again and no one else should either!!!

Amazingly delicious food and friendly place don’t miss out the garlic naan omg delicious!!!

Called in for behari kabob price is $ 16.00 nan for 2.5 man oh man never to step in the establishment because they are selling halal meat with haram profit, when you can buy 50 lbs of atta (flour) for less than 10 dollars and you can make 400 nans so you can figure out how much profit same in retail you can buy halal mutton or beef under $ 4/​lbs in any dish if you lucky they will serve you 4oz of meat, it must be a food cost of 10% 20% Labour (illegal aliens)15% miscellaneous over head you can calculate total 45% 55% profit no sales tax reporting no royalty stright in the pocket.

The uncle and aunty who run this place may the most genial and warm restaurant owners in this entire stretch of Pioneer Blvd. Their warmth and hospitality is an additional incentive to go here. Also, their food has improved considerably from when they used to be in the other Pioneer Blvd location. After inconsistent quality at a few other Hyderabadi restaurants, this has become my go to place for an occasional take out and so far the food has been solid.
Their goat qorma is probably the only properly made goat qorma in town — braised for a long time with tender meat. This also means it has a layer of oil on top — this may freak out some (at least in this town) but this is the mark of a well-​made qorma.
The only other thing on the menu I’ve tried is the biryani — I’m from Delhi and grew up eating Delhi style biryani — I have no reference point for what a great Hyderabadi biryani should taste like — but their version tastes fine — added points for splitting up the bones so we could get the yummy bone marrow!

If I could rate Shan Mahal as less than zero stars, I would. There were multiple times during the course of [waiting for] the meal that our group was tempted to just walk away from the place and find food at another restaurant. Unfortunately we decided to to stay.
First red flag. There was a huge party in the banquet hall run by this restaurant, and it appeared as though all the restaurant’s attention had been placed on that group, rather than the rest of the restaurant, which at the time was seating something like 40 people.
Second red flag. It took the server something like 10 – 15 minutes to clear an empty table of the dirty dishware so that we could be seated.
No water for the first 15 minutes or so.
We asked how long the wait would be, and were told about 30 minutes.
A cup of tea ordered at the start of the meal took 90 minutes to arrive.
Our orders were taken by 3 different people. The owner of the restaurant took our food order and missed half of it, as she appeared either to be overly focused on the big banquet group, or just generally not to care.
It took our food about 1 solid hour to arrive, during which time we lost our appetites because I had walked down the street to another restaurant, ordered take out there, and brought it back so that our group would have something to eat.
When the food arrived, it was heavily salted, because the cooks are apparently not very creative, and was dry. The chicken kabobs tasted like they had been soaked in lemon scented urine.
By this point in the evening, the restaurant was essentially empty, and yet most of the people who were dumb enough to stick around (as we were) still hadn’t been served after pretty extensive waits.
I’ve never walked out on a check before, but this place really made me want to. Easily one of my top five worst eating experiences ever. The owners don’t care, the food is nasty, and there are lots of much better places to eat within earshot of this cesspool of managerial apathy.

This place is horrible! Terrible service and the waitress is useless at taking orders. She is absolutely clueless! Do not come here and waste ur time and money!

Great place and food. The owners are very involved with the customers and make it very homey place to come to.
Also nice setting to bring guests.

Stale food, every tray was almost empty.
Not coming back
There are a lot better places to eat nearby and ya their coke was almost flat, how much effort it takes to serve crisp soda?
Not worth spending spending 13 dollars and your weekend noon time here.
Guy at register peeps over your shoulder to see how much u t tipping.

This place has the best biryani you can get in a 50 mile radius! Their tandoori platters and Masala are to die for! I would highly recommend this place to anyone looking for authentic south asian non vegetarian food! Not to mention the venue itself is clean, spacious, and the food is presented in the utmost delicacy! The customer service is outstanding g, the gentleman has a personality which gives the place a homely touch.

We enjoyed the food very much specially the biriyani. The best I have had in some time. The rest of the food was flavourful. we had dinner for the first, normally we come here for their buffet and it is one of the best.

The service was alright. Food was overly spicy. Don’t bring your kids here there’s nothing for them to eat because everything is way too spicy for a child’s pallet. The selection wasn’t too great for it being a 9.99 $ adult buffet & 7.99 $ for kids (on a Friday) they had maybe 10 – 15 dishes maybe less.
I also noticed one of the workers having their child at one of the few tables that they had. She didn’t have time for her customers because she was attending to her child it seemed. It is unprofessional to bring your child to work.
We did not try to order off their menu.
We would not come back here.

The first time I tried the food was at the Pakistani Day Mela in Anaheim. I had some kebab chicken, parathas, raita/​chutney and dessert it was very tasty! Went back to their restaurant in Artesia and had the buffet. They were generous with the naan, the food was good and fresh and my friend got complimentary chai so she was happy lol. Good Pakistani /​Indian food.

2 Stars for Service and a star for food! Could have been more lighting. The place was a bit dark but everything else was okay. We booked this place for a wedding reception and it wasn’t an amazing place but great place considering the fact that we needed something on short notice and for about 50 people. Great Great Service though!