Hyderabadi Biryani Corner

We really, really want to like this restaurant. The previous tenant, Saathi, was our go-​to neighborhood Indian restaurant. Unfortunately, Biryani still hides in the shadow of its predecessor. Today was our first visit to Biryani and we tried the butter chicken as a litmus test.
Butter chicken is the ‘pad Thai’ of Indian cuisine; good butter chicken bodes well for the rest of the menu. However, our chicken was disappointing. It sat in a pool of grease rather than the traditional tomato sauce. The meat was not tender, but tough and stringy. And the overall flavor was bland (a Trader Joes frozen entrée has more spices).
We sincerely hope Biryani improves its basic dish and this new Indian reincarnation can match our much-​missed Saathi.

Either they should remove «Biryani» from their name or quickly get their act together. I drove about 8 miles in the hope of taking home the biryani for my family from a place whose purported flagship dish is Hyderabadi Biryani, and there was none to be had! This was a Sunday and about 2 pm! The lone waiter pointed me to a buffet which I obviously didn’t want at that time. I still looked at it for future reference and found it pathetically inadequate for a $ 13 price tag — dismal quantities of a handful of dishes. There were about 5 – 6 people on two tables who were there, probably also roped in by the restaurant name for their Sunday biryani. I asked if the owner was there and sure enough he wasn’t. This looks like a relatively new place where Saathi used to be. If the owner is not present at the peak lunch hour on Sunday at his new restaurant which does not have his hyped dish, how far will it go? Hope they get their act together.

Not sure about the food but customer service was bad. First the Unilocal business hours are incorrect. It said they open at 11am. Since the website doesn’t show the Arlington location as part of the chain, I called in to this location to validate they were in Arlington and that they were open.
My sister and I got to restaurant at 1140 and walked in. There was a lady cleaning who said that they were not open yet and we would have to come back at noon. I took a photo of window hours and sent into Unilocal to update business hours.
We waited outside in front of the window for 20 minutes and at 1201 I walked back in (there were 5 people now waiting outside confused about open time). I was polite and yelled hello as no one was in main café area. A man appeared whole was frantic saying we are not open yet. I explain the lady had told us 12 noon was open time and the window says it as well. He says 10 to 15 minutes more.
At this point, why would I continue waiting? Your website isn’t updated, your Unilocal hours and Google hours are wrong, you give out incorrect information to potential clients. The best thing that the owner/​worker could have done was invite those waiting outside inside and give them water and maybe a appitizer to entice them to stay…

Our team went there for lunch on weekday. The service was pretty good. Vegetarian menu for buffet was really good. But the Biryani was missing on the day. The owner promised and delivered free Biryani for the entire team.
Biryani is awesome and also like the attitude and service provided.

My team went there on a weekday for the lunch buffet (about 8 of us). All the food was very good, but a couple chicken dishes were a bit cold/​not juicy. Everything else was really good. Service was quick and attentive. Naan was very good and fresh, and they kept bringing more out for us.
One thing we were disappointed about that day, was there was no biryani! Gotta have the dish out that your named after! :(So after we had mentioned this on our way out after paying, the owner offered us FREE samples (FULL SIZE DISHES) the next day delivered at NO charge to our office across the street. He kept his word, and my Indian coworkers were very impressed with how delicious it was. We got veggie and chicken biryani.
Thanks so much, will be back for more!