Shahi Biryani & Grill

Small salad, saffron rice and mixed vegetable plate, and a cold strawberry bread pudding to temper the spices for under $ 7. And it’s seriously delicious authentic indian food.

I like it pretty much, the foods are the most classic ones, the meat combo and veg combo are both very good.
It has special meaning to me, remember the first several days in NYC, I was so nervous that I stepped out of this restaurant after I was sure that I didn’t understand what the menu wrote… What if I ordered something that day!

Le restaurant a des airs de fast food mais c’est succulent et copieux! Je vous le conseille vivement si vous avez envie de bien manger sans vous ruiner :)!
I am sure you will enjoy the food in this restaurant, its very yummy for good prices! Ill come back

Under new management about seven months ago and it has gone from great to crap. The staff barely speak english and often get the order wrong. They don’t tell you about the taxes on credit cards until you’re ready to sign. The workers in sum just doesn’t seem to want to be there unlike the previous owners.

Food is hit or miss. Will be tasty sometimes and bad otherwise. Depends on your luck!

It’s a shame to use microwave to warm food… when you go out to eat you are expecting something different from what you can do at home !!!

Solid Pakistani fare. Eat where the Pakistani cab drivers eat.

ordered take-​out from here… NEVER again!!!
a hot dog stand would have outshone this $ 1.50 samosa mess… a sauce would’ve been nice. mango chutney? hello?
Did I say never again? yes, I did

Food is great. Delivery is punctual. Prices can’t be beaten. Décor is standard for an Asian café. Super late hours (4AM each night). Nice service. I’m a white American nad I have problems ordering; yes you have to speak slowly but they will always confirm. If you want rice make sure you state you do and whether you want white or brown. The younger lady that works there is incredibly nice and always has a smile on her face and she’ll remember you! I don’t know her name, I just realized, and that makes me sad. :/

Just ordered delivery from this place. The food tastes good, but we had major issues with the language barrier. We ordered two chicken tikka masala’s and one chicken biryani, two Naan’s, one roti, one mango lassi. We tried to ask for white meat on the tikka masala’s, but no luck, we got dark meat upon delivery. The mango lassi was warm, which is ridiculous. They also botched the delivery by somehow forgetting the rice for the chicken tikka masala’s. Their menu clearly states rice comes with the chicken tikka masala.
So we called and after some back and forth, we asked for the rice and ordered a second mango lassi. Took half an hour to get the second order, and then on top of it, they tried to charge us for the rice lol. I said no to the delivery guy, I told him you forgot the rice and he backed off. The mango lassi looked like it was shaken up, it was spilled all over within the plastic wrapping they use to wrap all of their containers. Grrrrrr!
As other people have mentioned, there is clearly a language barrier which they need to work on. It’s borderline maddening trying to talk to them over the phone. I would recommend avoiding this place, which is unfortunate because the food did taste good.

Stopped by this restaurant attempting to have lunch.
I had passed this restaurant several times and thought I’d stop in. I looked over the short menu and attempted to ask questions several times but the server behind the counter wasn’t very helpful and walked away before I could finish so I walked out.

I work nearby and have been to this place several time and have always enjoyed the food. I really like that it isn’t strictly vegetarian since I love meat. I usually get a combination platter with a meat dish (typically lamb) and a vegetable dish (typically fennel). The meat is sometimes dry but the sauces are always very flavorful. I also order extra bread which is fantastic and you could get one that has garlic in it.
It also comes with a bit of salad and a dessert. I highly recommend the tea with milk, I think they brew it with hot milk instead of water. It’s very good.
The food is microwaved after you order it, but that’s been the case in every place like this one.

I got the lamb combo which was around $ 11 or $ 12 and made by reheating a refrigerated curry in the microwave.
There were very few pieces of lamb and they were mostly just bone. It was pretty ridiculous.
My friend loves this place so I went on her recommendation however she’s vegetarian, so maybe the veggie options are better? In any event, you should skip this place.

This place is INFURIATING. Their food is very good, so I always reluctantly come back… but they are SO SLOW it’s a joke. You are looking at the food on the other side of the glass, so you would think that the process of scooping it on to a plate would be pretty painless, but no… it somehow takes forever. I have never figured out what exactly the complication is, but it always takes forever. And they are also always very confused about what you want or what you are saying, and I get it, I don’t speak their language and I don’t blame them for not speaking mine, but I have successfully ordered plenty of good in other countries where I don’t speak the language and it’s usually pretty painless. Just point. For some reason, that is very difficult here. As I write this review, I am realizing how petty this all sounds, but after 3 years… 3 YEARS of ordering here and always having this infuriating process unfold, I just had to vent.
PS Sometimes there is a young guy who works there, one of their kids I think, and he is a winner. He works very quickly and does a great job. If he could run the place, I would rate it 5 stars. Great good AND great service.

This is close to Barnard/​Columbia campus and I love the food here. My first experience with Shahi was when our MSA (Muslim Students Association) ordered food for an iftar: biryani and samosas. Their service was great. They were really friendly and ordered on time, even though it was particularly hectic time for them to order (iftar time, prayer time). The event was successful, and there were many non Muslim, non South Asian participants who, despite not being used to spicy food, loved it. The biryani was so delicious (plenty of big, chunky pieces of chicken and well spiced rice), that my mouth still waters when I think about it.
My second experience with Shahi was actually at the store. After jummah (Friday prayers), a group of us (7 of us) walked down to the store. It was a small store and not quite meant for a long, languorous, eat-​in experience. It is meant more for take-​out. However, the 7 of us squeezed into a long table near the window and had a good time.
We each ordered different foods, but the waitress kept track of it all. It didn’t take long for the food to arrive and when it it, we were all taken aback by the size of the portions. All 7 of us had difficulty finishing our food, but finish we did, except for some pieces of nan that we took back with us.
At the end, the waitress served all of us complimentary rice pudding, which we were not expecting at all (or had room in our stomachs for). That was a really nice and sweet ending to our meal. It was also a sweet gesture on the part of the restaurant.
Then, when I went to pay (we payed like McDonald’s style, going to the front to the cash register), the waitress told me I can pay her a dollar off the menu price. I had no idea why she was being so nice. I insisted that I pay full price because I really enjoyed the service that much. By the way, Shahi isn’t very expensive. I don’t think any of us spent more than $ 11 on our orders.
My third experience with Shahi was at another MSA event. The MSA had ordered food from a different restaurant, but it ran out, and there were a great number of people (including me) who had not eaten anything but pieces of baklava. So, the MSA leaders actually called Shahi in a emergency request to have them send us food (since they were close and we had worked with them before). Shahi actually managed to send trays of kababs, biryani, haleem, and naan in less than an hour! (There must’ve been more than 30 people still in the room). I was amazed! And the food still tasted amazing, whether or not it was fresh. I think by that time – it was 10:00 PM – and with that fast service, the food probably wasn’t made right then and there, but still, it was delicious! It made me think of home. I think I like their biryani better than my mom’s, which is saying a lot, since I don’t think anyone cooks food better than my mom’s.
By the way, everything is halal.

Absolutely love this place. on the upper west side this is the only place where one can get a decent home cooked meal. of course the décor is not good but I’ve not been to any south Asian restaurant Pakistani or Indian where you’ll be like ‘wow I wanna hang out here’. When you go to such restaurants it’s all about the food and I can for sure say «wow the food tastes like home».The good thing is they don’t use a zillion spices which later give you indigestion which is my problem with most restaurants in curry hill. I go there often and have not been disappointed. good food, cheap and readily available!

Loved the chicken tikka masala, samosas and nann. I see some negative reviews on here about this place but i’d say if you’re considering it, go for it!

Do yourself a favor and avoid this place. And here’s why:
— Biryani tastes like eating oil with rice, where’s the effin flavor?
— Stale food that sits there for like half a day
— Every dish is just reheated
— Painfully slow service

I HAVE NEVER BEEN MORE UPSET AT FOOD!
Every bite of the Chicken Biryani I just ate had bones in it. Full bones, partial bones, sharp bones, at some point I spit a seed out! A SEED… REALLY?!
Way to ruin my 30min lunch break. I know why I don’t try new things now…

Quality and freshness of food here are below par. Everything is premade at one point in time and simply shoved into a microwave and warmed up to order. I’ve had a few times where I ordered food to go and all I remember was biting into cold chicken. This place could have so much more potential if they would attempt to cook food to order. I’m so completely disappointed that I wouldn’t even come here after getting completely trashed from a night out drinking.
It’s just one of those places you completely regret after you take a bite or two out of their food. Would not recommend this place to anyone. So many more better options in UWS

A new Pakistani joint opened up very close to my apartment, a welcome addition to the restaurants around the Morningside Park area. They specialize in chicken biryani and have various meat and vegetable curries to savor with the rice. They’re so new they didn’t even have a menu posted yet, but the owner was very accomodating and hooked me up with a heaping plate of biryani with aloo gobi and mutton on top, plus dessert and a coke, for just $ 8. This is probably not indicative of their final pricing schedule, but the owner told me that $ 7 should get you a meat plate and $ 6 should get you a veggie plate — whatever he determines that to mean.
I’m looking forward to seeing Shahi evolve as a small business and delicious Indo/​Paki lunch spot in my neck of the woods. I hope they stick around as they appear to be making a quality product for a reasonable price! I’ll be back!