Nirvana Indian Cuisine

We recently went for a birthday dinner and absolutely loved it. The food was excellent, the cocktails unique and the service was personal and amazing.
My wife called ahead to say we were coming for a birthday dinner, and was there anything special they could arrange. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any sort of decorations, so what they did was decorate the food. The ornate garnishes on each of the dishes we ordered were beautiful and made our night special.
Oh, and the food was delicious and priced right. Lamb vindaloo, lamb stuffed naan, butter chicken and spinach saag were all wonderful.

Quite pleased with this restaurant. Our food came out hot and quickly and the waiters were very quick to notice if we needed anything. The food was quite good and I was impressed with their variety of vegetarian dishes. I would recommend trying this place out.

The ambience is great! Seating capacity is good. Food tastes good ! Vegetarian options are limited, visited on new years day 2016, only 2 veg masala and one starter in the menu.

We went here for New Year’s Day during their lunch buffet and it was absolutely ridiculous! Waited in long lines three different times to have absolutely no food. Staff was not even apologetic. My husband ordered off their menu and the food was ok. The wait was long, the food was mediocre at best. Will not be going back!

Went on a late Friday night with my party of 4. We wanted to order a triple curry dish but the waiter said they were out, right after he offered the same 3 curries separately making the cost go way up, ok we stayed. We waited an 1 and 15min while waiting for our order before we left. We ordered an appetizer nothing we asked our waiter multiple times and he just blew us off saying it’s coming. Two parties that came after us received their food before us. The restaurant wasn’t even close to full and the other patrons were growing impatient. The staff were rude didn’t apologize even once or gave any reassurance and our waiter didn’t even talk. Maybe it was the night we went but we will never come again.

I’ve never written a Unilocal review before, but this experience was too terrible not to comment.
We had an 8:30 reservation for dinner on Christmas Day. When we got there we were brushed off for asking about our reservation. We were seated at 8:45 and waited another 20 minutes for water and silverware.
The waiter came to take our order about an hour after we had arrived at the restaurant.
We finally got our food at 10:30– two hours after we arrived. In between, there was no one coming to check on us, bring bread or any other holdover despite a two hour wait on food.
A couple tables near us got frustrated and left the restaurant after waiting hours for their food.
And once we got our food it wasn’t even worth it. As my Indian mother said «this is terrible.» She ended up eating the plain rice with yogurt.
After all this– we waited another 20 minutes for the check and got no sort of apology from anyone on the staff. Terrible service, terrible food, would give it negative stars if I could. Do not eat here.

Came to Nirvana about a year ago and was not impressed 2.5 stars at best — a few months ago I guess they got a new chef because it is amazing now. I’ve been going every week and haven’t been disappointed. The buffet is delicious or on days they don’t have that I love the flag of India dish. If you’ve been before and didn’t like it– give it a second chance.

There are not a lot of Indian food options in New Orleans that are good… this place is just ok. If you have a craving it for indian food and you don’t mind mediocre taste, go for it. Their buffet option is a good value.

Good food and a lot. The service was excellent. The food had a bite and some spice to it, but it wasn’t overwhelming.

This was my first time eating Indian cuisine, and now I crave for it all the time. The kind server was friendly and helpful in explaining what each dish contained. I was happy that the menu also contained pictures of each dish… very helpful. We only ordered from the vegetarian section of the menu, and everything we ordered was absolutely amazing. Full of flavor and such generous portions, and enough for our lunch and dinner the following day. The entire experience was phenomenal. I can’t wait to go back there.

All hail Nirvana! I love Indian food, so maybe I’m a bit biased, but Nirvana is hands down one of my favorite places in the city. The staff is always extremely professional and courteous and helpful. The food is delicious, and I have never had a bad experience here. Usually I try to make it for the lunch buffet, all you can eat for 10 $, always includes fresh Naan and mulligatawny stew. I’m a big fan of lamb dishes, and everything I have tried has had tender, juicy flavorful lamb. And the Naan menu itself is pretty extensive. I love this place and will be back!

The service was below expectations. No ice water, unless requested. Chcicken wings were garbage. They basically served reheated wings from lunch service; they came out extremely quick and confirmed my theory. The butter paneer was over powered when eilachi. The chicken in the chicken Tikka Masala was too big. We ended up having to cut the pieces with our knives. Naan was great. Samosas were good too. Avoid the restaurant.

Not at all authentic Indian food, if you are an Indian with craving for Indian food. We came in for a buffet on Sunday afternoon and were very disappointed with the overall food as well as the ambience.
We were a party of 6 people and the waiter made us sit on a table that was made for 4 seatings. Though there were other tables around he was not accommodating to combine it. Since all the naan (bread) are egg washed, we asked if we could order roti which is off the table. But he replied we wont accommodate that as well as was not ready to speak with the cook as well. Oh requesting again and again, he did.
The food options we had were very limited for a buffet. Chicken smelled like it was from past day. Nothing was authentic for Indian taste.

What a pretty place & best the matter paneer & cheese naan i ordered tasted great. The portion was a really good size & it actually had a lot of chunks of paneer in the main dish (hate when you order a dish & they only give you like 3 pieces of cheese in your dish) lol. Next time i have to remember to order it spicy, it was pretty mild but still tasty!

Ver good Indian buffet. We have not eaten off the menu as of yet, but the Sunday buffet is very good.
Service is ok, a little odd actually, but hey I did not go there to make friends, but ha e a good meal, and I got one.

Came here recently for the first time and had the buffet.
Several factors play into my review. First, I love Indian food. I haven’t had any an a very long time. So my delight level was high and needless to say, I was happy.
Like many ethnic or regional restaurants in New Orleans… Due to lack of competition… Their game level isn’t at its peak. This plays out in New Orleans for Brazilian, Arabic, and Mexican restaurants. (Mexican restaurants in NOLA get away serving TexMex).
Needless to say, I’ve had better Indian food in other cities. Despite my observation, I will go back to Nirvana and sample the rest of their offerings.
If this is your first time eating Indian and don’t like it. I suggest not to judge all Indian food by this one place.
I gave it three stars because the food was «ok» and the service was «ok».
I will be back.

It’s ok Indian food. Not bad, but not great. This is a genre not well represented in NOLA, so this may be the best place around for it. I recently tried them again to get my Indian fix, and the mushroom marsala was very good, the dal good, the butter chicken — ok.

Good chai, excellent off-​menu items (if you know what to ask for), and gracious staff.
Interior is decorated with Hindi and Indian iconography, in carvings, statues, paintings, and murals, which contribute to the ambiance.
There is often a lunch or dinner buffet, which is pretty well stocked, offered at a reasonable price. The bar offers local and Indian beers, wines, and liquors.

This place gets 5 stars for lunch. The buffet is excellent featuring a lot of great indian options and all the bread you can eat and their bread is delicious. The only reason for the 3 stars is that its a ripoff for dinner. The portions are small, the price is high and for god sakes don’t ask for bread because you will be charged a premium for it. Come for lunch or don’t come at all.

Get this straight. I’m reviewing the latest visit, not an average experience over the years. This visit gets four stars. Im doing this as some form of vague bargaining with the powers that be at Nirvana, a plea for the future:
Pleasedon’tsuckpleasedon’tsuck…
Alright, so we are hungry and we walk into Nirvana even though by now we know better, right? But we don’t. Tonight I had some of the best Indian buffet of my life.
[Case scenario: this is a Sunday evening, just after the passage of whatever parade. The time is roughly 6:30pm. I include this because it might somehow be a factor in replicating this good food experience]
Real quick, I wanna point out they have this giant painting hanging up of Tornado Jesus Holding Baby Shiva. That’s probably offensive. I’m sorry. I’m super joking.
So look, the food is goddamn delicious at this buffet. Warm, tasty, a touch on the spicy side (yes!), and replenished at a good rate. Ok, the naan was doughy as hell, but that’s…I mean, no, that’s ok. It’s alright it’s fine no big deal.
Let’s see, what’d they have? Um… the pakora, the eggplant thing, the cauliflower thing, butter chicken, tandoori chicken. Rice. A badass cucumber salad.
STUPID OBSERVATIONS OF NOTE: Heavy chairs, automated water-​filler bots, a ceiling fan in the kitchen, vivid colors everywhere, a fantastic ventilation system that wasn’t on, big speakers that weren’t on (we know I like Ethnic Restaurant music stations), $ 12-​something per person, Tornado Jesus, maze-​like seating arrangements, that lousy guy outside who kept playing his flute (poorly), I mean who is that guy?
In summation: Tonight’s food put Taj Mahal to shame. Keep it up, Nirvana. You’re much closer.
UPDATE: A MESSAGE FROM AN EMPLOYEE:
Thank you for your review! Next time you are at Nirvana, please ask one of the «water bots» to meet the owner, he would like to meet you!
Well shit, now I’m intimidated.