Nirvana

IF I could give this place, zero stars I would. Most overpriced «POS» Indian food I have ever had in my life. (I am from South India and I am foodie who has been exploring the food scene in Houston for almost 10 years). HEB has a frozen «tandoori chicken with basmati rice». It’s usually around 2 dollars and I can assure you that it tastes better than anything that they serve at this place (Lunch buffet is priced at 16 dollars or so) The saying «you get what you pay for» doesn’t apply to this place. I rarely go online and write reviews because I am too lazy to do that. However, in this case, I feel that I have a strong obligation to let the world know how bad my experience was and hopefully, save a fellow Houstonian from this torture of a restaurant. If I had magical powers, I would make this place which is an insult to Indian cuisine; disappear.
Since I have been a bit acidic, I would like to make a few recommendations on where you can find quality Indian food in the greater Houston area.
1. Annam Indian Cuisine (You can find great mix of north Indian and regional South Indian (Tamilnadu) delicacies that will make you want to come back for more.
2. Yaal Tiffin’s — (Simply amazing mix of south Indian and Srilankan food). The weekend sit-​down buffet (I recommend Sunday) will be a treat for your taste buds.
3. Himalaya Indian Restaurant — Great Pakistani/​Mughlai cuisine. If you are a biriyani lover, you will attain nirvana here (no pun intended)
4. Maharaja Bhoj — Great food from Rajasthan. Again, it’s another sit-​down buffet. The 20 bucks you pay is worth the price)
I found a big strand of hair in my kebab as well. I took a picture. I will post that on Unilocal

I’ve read many reviews and have had this bookmarked for over a year. It’s literally 5 minutes from my office. The thing about Indian food is that I have to crave for it otherwise it wouldn’t be a cuisine I would just pick randomly for lunch. Also, Indian food is pretty heavy so having a food coma after lunch is usually not ideal.
A friend who shares the love for Indian food recently invited me out to lunch so I figured it would be great to check out Nirvana together. They serve lunch buffet style so portion control was really hard to manage but I got a little bit of everything and only went for one serving. Everything tasted amazing as expected. My friend was very happy with his meal as well.
I told my coworkers about Nirvana when I got back to the office that afternoon and I can’t wait to go back with them.

As a vegetarian this place was right up my alley as they have a ton of non– meat options but there is a huge selection of food that will fit anyone’s tastebuds. We went in the later evening so we did not get to experience the Buffett but have heard it’s amazing. I ordered the vegetable kofta and they were delicious. The nan bread they toast before bringing out and it was the most delicious bread I have ever had. Some of our party ordered a lamb and chicken dinner and said they were just as good. I highly recommend this place for people who love Indian food and those who have never tried it. The atmosphere was very welcoming, staff friendly making you feel very comfortable.

The food is good. They have a variety of veg and non veg dishes, worth the $ 15 buffet. The service is alright. The place is clean.

One of the best Indian places in town. The weeknight buffet on Monday/​Tuesday is a nice feature. Great neighborhood atmosphere. I took off one star due to the projection Tv screen in the back of the restaurant which I find slightly distracting.

Since my review last year they have removed the excessive sugar and salt in the food and it is now brilliant again.

So I order carry out and I ask to make it saucy well that didn’t happen. Then the portion was extremely small for what they charge. Definitely disappointed! I should of went to gourmet India

Good service, friendly staff and a great selection of dishes in the dinner buffet. BYOB

If you have some friends that want an introduction to Indian tasting food this is a good place to go.
The buffet that is on the weekdays is perfect. For $ 15 bucks a person you get almost 20 dishes to try including desserts. Everything from dahl to chutney and kheer. While the key flavors are present in the dishes they have definitely taken the heat out of them to make it more palatable to the folks who work in the area. This is perfectly understandable though since they have to cater to the masses and not limit themselves to a certain demographic. Even though they have made the food mild on the heat scale its pretty tasty.
One suggestion, which is true of all good lunch spots, is to get there as early as possible. They have valet, which is a new thing, to ease the hassle of the parking. This is a welcome addition since parking used to be a quite a pain.
The staff is super friendly and cricket is always on the screen. The lassies are smooth and flavorful. Not enough good things to say about this place. The only drawback is that you will most likely eat too much and have a horrible tummy ache for the rest of the day when you go back to work.
Definitely worth a trip if you work in the area especially if you have people who aren’t used to the normal spice of indian cuisine.

Nirvana is one of the best Desi restaurants in town. Great place to take your guests. Food is good, service is good. The owner does a great job at the events when you get the food catered from Nirvana. A very trust worthy guy, once you place an order you don’t have to worry about the food & arrangements at any time. He takes care of his part of the job really well. He will do what he promised for.

Had the dinner buffet at the restaurant on Monday & I would give the place a so so review at best. A little disappointing to be sure with only 1 – 2 dishes in the large buffet worthwhile. The rest were bland and unremarkable. The eggplant was the only thing I really liked with the butter chicken & curry prawns not too bad. Everything else was basically swimming in oil & needed extra seasoning. I did like the cucumber salad & the cricket on the TV but that’s not enough to make the buffet worth $ 16.99 + tax per person.

Love this place! I’ve been going to Nirvana since day 1. Authentic Pakistani Indian food. Make sure to try the Briyani Special, you won’t be disappointed!

The Good: Service is absolutely impeccable. Nice, kind, and thoughtful waitstaff; very similar to the elegant and professional waitstaff experience provided by the Cuisine India just outside of JSC down on the southeast side, which I had the ROTD for back in January 2011. Service elevates everything else and they win hard on service. Giving props where props are due before I take the satin gloves off.
The Bad: No dish at the buffet was remarkable; it was simply edible and unproblematic, like I didn’t find a dead guy and his gently used condom in any of my plates, which is at least a minimal concern at some of the Taco Bells I have passed through back in Filthydelphia. The chicken tikka masala was off-​colour indicating a heavier spice and less cream than oft recommended, and it wasn’t even spicy (hot) spice like I like, it was just a bunch of things that got shaken into the mixture which displaced the ratios for cream and made me a sad panda. The saag paneer was the thickest I have ever received, which baffled me for a split second compared to what I am used to — this is more oatmeal than anything else fam. The naan was likely the standout since it was hot and plentiful, unlike most of the other Indian joints I visit where you either pay by the slice of naan like an asshole or forgo it altogether out of their laziness and inability to get it from the kitchen to your beautiful face sitting there at the table in the dining area. But no problem here, it was hot and omnipresent. To say the buffet is ‘bad’ is an overstatement, but the quality resembles the Korma Sutra («KS») downtown that failed to stay alive at their price point. This is a pricey joint and the quality of the food just does not reflect it, which led KS to close. Nirvana, unlike KS, makes up for the quality of their food with their hella nice waitstaff (in the good column) but they get a severe demerit with the valet only (in the ugly column) which balances them out as a-​ok at best if we are being charitable — which I am trying to be considering how polite the waitstaff was.
The Fugly: Valet only. Strangers touching The Dragon? No thanks, fella and/​or ladykin. Also had I known this fact in advance I actually would have had some small bills on me for the tip, which would be a sensible tip to move my car six feet for me. I could literally see my car (and the Magic the Gathering mana land cards stowed in the glove box) six feet away from my beautiful standing at the front door of Nirvana but they had to move it six feet for me. But instead no, nobody told me valet only so instead of small bills they got wee … uh, book money bills that I usually pay for in cash since the purveyors of «books» do not accept credit cards so I need to pay them in cash for their services. Valet pisses me off. I would über instead of driving and valeting. BUT NOBODY GODDAMN TOLD ME, SUSAN, AND WHY WOULD YOU ASSUME I JUST KNOW THIS PLACE WAS VALET ONLY?
Extra considerations: the doors in the restroom are super heavy and swing shut sharply & loudly. I thought the bro was real angry and slamming around as he exited the crapper where he was doing «mysterious things» whilst I was washing my hands. But as the next gent entered apparently the heavy doors just swing loudly, nobody was slamming around. And the sink in the gent’s restroom had embedded color changing LEDs (see photos) which amazed me and was great fun; about the most fun I have had in a gent’s restroom outside of that sweaty Wendy’s bathroom just outside of Biloxi. But the loud noises I do not like with the heavy doors swinging shut. However, the neato mosquito lights in the sink nearly make up for that.
Apparently the place had a major remodel from a few years ago, leading to the amazing LED sink. If they upgrayedd (with that double dose) the recipes and kitchen, then they will be the go-​to Indian joint in town. As it sits now, their valet makes them a distant 11^th or 12^th choice for Indian in the Greater Houston area basically just replacing the tail end of the spectrum that Korma Sutra had previously occupied.
If I get a rich person pregnant (or get impregnated by a rich person which is totes possible according to that Danny Devito film I saw once in the 90s) and am finally able to move in the Memorial area to raise my kids in, I would come to Nirvana out of convenience for its proximity to my fortress of solitude, not out of preference for the quality of muh dinner foods.
If you want to look fancy (with the valet, the fancy sink, and the good service) and are not the biggest fan of Indian food and spices in the first place, hit this joint up to impress your date. Then hit up the Taco Bell around the corner just across Dairy Ashford for fourthmeal after you enjoy some «books» and obtain the munchies at a respectable 2am or 3am hour.

We’ve ordered from here and enjoyed the food a few times, but no good taste is worth a roach in your food, which is what my husband found in his take out from here a few days ago. He called the restaurant and was told a manager would call him back. Obviously, that never happened. (I almost can’t blame them… after all, there is no scenario in which I can imagine that conversation actually going well.)
Obviously we will not be eating there ever again, and I felt others had the right to decide, as well.

I’m sitting in the restaurant as I write this review. And I have to say, I am ridiculously underwhelmed and disappointed.
I’ve been sitting here for over an hour, and have yet to get the entrees we ordered 30 – 40 minutes ago. On top of that, we had to flag down a waiter, only to be told that we had to get ANOTHER waiter because he wasn’t the one to take our order.
When our waiter DID arrive, he told us that he needed both our appetizers AND entrees, because if we ordered just our appetizers and waited to order the entrée, it would take 30 minutes to bring it out. He was wrong. It apparently takes an hour.
After talking with the manager (who assured us that after getting our appetizers, he would be back promptly to take our order) we waited more. And more. And yet, no food, and no waiter. FINALLY, we get our appetizers, which were tasty, I must say.
Even now, in all the time it’s taken me to write this, I still have no food. Or waiter. Or even a refill on my water.
I understand that, it being New Year’s Eve and all, it must be busy. But the restaurant isn’t that full. And the buffet section isn’t either.
At this point, I’m convinced it’s just bad service and an EXTREMELY low turnover rate in the kitchen.
All in all, regardless of the quality of the food, it will not be worth the wait.

I’ve been to all of the highest rated Indian spots in houston regularly for the past two years. I eat Indian food at least once a week. This place is consistent, clean, the staff is friendly, and the food is in my top 3 of all Indian for Houston. However, I like my Indian food to be spicy so I order everything extra spicy here. If I don’t order it spicy then it’s way too sweet and creamy for my taste.

Nirvana catered an event yesterday for the OPEN Houston event and the food was without a doubt the best catered food I have tasted. The seafood in cream sauce was incredible. More than 24 hours later I keep hearing from other attendees how much they loved the food.
The quality, freshness, and variety was superb. Nirvana outdid themselves and made the organizers look great by extension.

Overall this place is pretty good, buffet style Indian food. Flavors are good, but some items taste like they are buffet food and not made fresh. Rice was good and sauces were all very good.
Nice patio to enjoy the weather.
Nice atmosphere.
Nice staff.
Clean.
BYOB
Worth a visit!

I went to Nirvana on a weekday with some colleagues. When we drove up, we noticed that we had to use their valet service for parking. When we walked in, we were escorted to our table, and we ordered out drinks. We then got up and filled our plates from the lunch buffet. I was impressed with the number of items in the buffet (16 different dishes, including 8 vegetarian ones for you non-​meat eaters). I was a fan of the chicken biryani, tandoori chicken, chicken tikka masala, and the raita. There were two other stations set up as well for salads, as well as dessert. The waiters came by consistently to refill our naan (bread bowl). Overall, I was happy with the lunch, and I would see myself coming back here if I was in the area.
What to order:
–Lunch Buffet — $ 14.50
Pros:
–Variety of different dishes, including vegetarian
–Valet parking (if you don’t mind tipping)
–Value for all-​you-​can-​eat
Cons:
–Indian people, this won’t meet your expectations for spice level, but it’s a good place to go if you’re bringing in a lunch crew from different backgrounds

Overall very good. The have a buffet and it is well worth the price with a drink $ 19. The food was very good, spicy if you like that. Service was good as well. A bit slow on drink refills but not bad. Get there early because parking is a challenge and it does get busy quickly. I visited for lunch

This review is for Nirvana Catering. I don’t see a Unilocal entry for that so I suppose right here is just fine.
Nirvana catered our friends wedding last night. He and his now wife and Indian as in born and raised in India so they know Indian food better than my wife and I. Nirvana is what they picked and it was over the top excellent.
From apps to desert everything was super fresh and hot with excellent table service. Catering can be a difficult task when it comes to serving fresh hot food from a remote location in a different kitchen (they served at NOAH’s Event Venue) but they nailed this one perfectly.
Unfortunately I can not describe the foods as while I have tasted similar I am not an expert at Indian food, I just know fresh hot food that is so excellent that you can’t stop eating it and this is what they did for our friends wedding. AAA+++. 5 Stars ALL THE WAY.

Very nice place. Parking is limited. Good is great. I have only eaten there for lunch but the lunch buffet is very impressive. The food is rich and authentic. It’s a great place for small groups. The prices are fair.

Let’s start with the fact that I don’t like Indian food so I thought.
Nirvana just changed that for me. I’m still not crazy about curry, but their buffet had so many items to choose, I didn’t even bother with the «safety» of tandoori chicken. Chicken & rice. Lamb/​beef & rice. Veggie dishes. Salads. I left stuffed.
Nirvana, in their new location has really stepped up their game. Excellent service, beautiful décor. It’s a bit pricey, but well worth it. Next time someone suggests Nirvana I won’t be so reluctant!

Wow this really is Nirvana at least as far as Indian food is concerned.
My benchmark for Indian food is always: how does it compare to London, the Indian food capital of the world? With Nirvana I can say that it’s at least as good if not better than most places in London.
The restaurant is super clean well decorated with very attentive service.
The lunch buffet had your usual selections of curries as well as Tandoori Chicken, for the vegetarian folks it also offers an good choice of vegetarian curries. The Korma chicken was a little to sweet for my taste and the naan could have been a little fluffier but other than that definitely a winner.