Deewan Banquet

I very very rarely take the time out to post a review for a place. This time I feel that I need to warn anyone who is thinking about throwing their party at Deewan Banquet. My wife threw me a surprise birthday party this past weekend where we had guests from all over the US at the party. Despite the worst service ever we had a good time.
Our complaints:
1. Bar: We paid for Premium Bar for 4 hours. After 1 hour they had no red wine, no vodka and they were serving rail whiskey to my guests.
2. The bartender was demanding to put tips in her tip jar before she would serve someone. Not to mention she had a very distasteful attitude. My recommendation, i would not keep someone like that around in a food service business.
3. We paid for a projector screen which was broken
4. We had 2 cakes at the party. We barely finished only 1 cake. When we went to get our left overs they gave us 1 tiny piece of cake.
Overall very disappointed that we picked this place as a venue. I would not recommend this place to anyone celebrating their special day.

big time disappointment. do not use this for any event! food sucks big time and the management does not work with you to make the event any better.
i would rather not have an event than have it here. manger/​partner is super rude, will not co-​operate and always ask for money. very upsetting experience.

As an entertainment vendor, i’m reviewing this place because of the «house DJ’s» that think someone who is not of Hindu descent has no business working with their «kind» of clients., and also said «its not like we go to your kind of parties, actually we do, and take your business». Maybe they were threatened because I called them «two clowns, typical of what I see at parties that only need one person». Actually, there were three of the clowns, the third seemed to want to stay away from me and was busy loading up his decrepit mini-​van. maybe he knows better.
Anyhow, to more relevant material concerning the experience from my point of view as a vendor. Considering I didn’t know the area, and was borderline late to set-​up, I find it perturbing the place was designed to have all the vendors load-​in through the front door. I also experienced the ridiculous amounts of noise that these clowns were bumping their over amplified sound system, disturbing my event considerably (two thin walls and a hallway). The façade of the place itself is modern (I can’t say that about the other indian-​themed halls I have worked at), almost chic, but then again, its a façade to cover up the cold, awful food. There was no bar inside our actual room, just pitchers of soda on a table at the other end of the hall. There was a bar outside as soon as you come in. Almost as if the «Front desk» area before the three rooms. I probably picked up a UTI even stepping into the bathroom, since like I said and I hate to say it, those things weren’t cleaned from the night before, let alone that morning before yo have 200+ people running around that place. Naan was the only thing that they kept warm, and it was quite spongy, probably oversoaked in oil.
The cocktail hour food was cold. I think it made me sick a few days later too, there was some suspect «Chili Chicken» that had definitely been sitting out way too long. I didn’t even bother eating after that, most of the stuff, inculding the deserts, was really disgusting, and I like indian food. I had a much better experience (and load-​in) at this same clients’ other party at Crown of India in Monmouth Junction. Pull into the back, right through a door and ten feet to the set-​up. The Terayaki-​like chicken they had for buffet, I’d go back for that any day at Crown of India, i may have eaten a pound of the stuff. Not this place. I don’t know what their party packages are or prices, but I won’t work there again.

Walked in with a lunch date, waiter looked at us and walked away. We waited for a few minutes, expecting him to return but he never did. We even looked for someone in the back but no one was found. It was a shame because my date was really craving Indian food but we ended up getting Thai. Never going back.

Deewan banquet is large, has tons of parking and pretty affordable for hosting parties and events.
Staff are clueless, the young bartender didn’t even know how to open up a bottle of beer. I don’t even think she was 18 which is already illegal right there. When I asked for salt & pepper, they didn’t know what I meant and ended up getting me the small open bowls that the chefs use for cooking. Noooo thank you! That was disgusting and I sure as hell didn’t use it although, I was desperate for it.
Food was an utter disappointment! The cheese calzone was dry bread with a weird unknown cheap cheese. Chicken satay was drenched in sauce that was flavorless and boring. Cesar salad had soggy croutons, flooded with store bought dressing and partially wilted. Potatoes were just steamed, pasta was cooked and thrown on with peas and horrible tasting Alfredo. The best was the lamb kofta, not only it was an extra charge but was FROZEN! It was like eating mystery meat that was dry and overcooked!
The entire experience was bad. Nothing was remotely edible and I left hungry wondering how there still in business. Besides the beautiful outside exterior, there’s nothing more to say.
** Don’t be followed by the decorations, we hired a professional for that, they only provided the tables and chairs.**

TERRIBLE HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE NEVER GO HERE. I would to love to give it a zero star. This place is horrible in everyway. We made reservations for 5 people and went in. There was nobody at the door to seat us. We took the liberty to sit where we wanted. There were 2 waiters on duty. One filled up waters while the other did the rest. It took 10 minutes to get water and another 5 to get a menu. We didn’t even get any papad or anything. We placed an order of dry veg. manchurian and assorted sizzlers. The manchurian came 30 minutes later with gravy (we sat for more then 30 minutes with no papad or refill of water) The taste was horrible. The sizzler came after another 10 minutes and some of the chicken was raw. They brought out the food another 20 minutes later. The south indian style chicken was good and just about the only good thing. After we received our entrée nobody bothered to check on us. We waited 20 minutes or more just to place another order of naan. Where someone has to get up and look for the waiter. This just unacceptable the service was the worst i have ever experience. On top of that they placed a gratitude charge. I have heard many good things about it. I guess the banquet hall is a better experience and we wanted to have an occasion there but not anymore. Save your money. time, and agony and go elsewhere. Again TERRIBLE HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE NEVER GO HERE.

I was here during a family function for the lunch buffet. I ate the eggplant and bit into something really hard, when I spit it out, it was a small piece of plastic. I was disgusted and immediately brought it to one of the employees’ attention. If he had at least apologized once, maybe I wouldn’t be writing this review. However he proceeded to say «if this plastic was cooked into the food, it would have melted so it probably fell on the food some other way.» Are you kidding me? Either way, never eating here again. No level of professionalism whatsoever.

Been here a couple times before and thought of this place as a hit or miss up in till now. Food quality was terrible the paneer felt as it was weeks old, I don’t even think it was paneer. Rest of the food was the same way. Went for a event and it had snowed the night before and I heard several people falling outside due to the lack of salting outside. Party was large and the buffet area was very messy. I would only suggest this place if your on a very low budget and have to use this place

PASS. Came here for a family birthday dinner. Was here once before and had a mediocre experience. Made a reservation for a party of 17 people. Walked in around 7:30pm on a Friday night and the place was empty. There was some sort of event going on in the banquet hall but nobody in the actual restaurant. The water was lukewarm and tasted stale.gross. They could have put some ice in it.
We ordered a bunch of appetizers, including papdi chaat, samosa, Schezwan aloo tikki chat and dry vegetatable manchurain. Portions were generous and the food was good but took like 45 minutes to come out. No papad in the meantime, either.
Now for the main entrees… which took another hour to come out.
Naan — standard, nothing out of the ordinary.
Paneer Tikka Masala — pretty good, generous with the paneer and the curry was not to oily.
Vegetable Manchurian — I said not too salty because last time I ordered this dish it was bathed in salt. This dish came out so bland… no flavor whatsoever.
Chilly Paneer — all we could taste is salt. Just terrible… the waiter did take this off the bill after we told him though
Malai Kofta — Mediocre. We said medium spicy for this one, still came out sweet
Baingan Bhartha — Eh it was okay… I’ve tasted better.
I was too full and not tempted to taste the other dishes we ordered. I think the main issue with the food was lack of authentic flavor.
The worse part of the experience was the service. Way too slow… we were there for close to 3.5 hours!!! We wanted the leftovers packed and the busboy just took them away without asking. We brought a cake from home and the waiter said the kitchen was closed and they could not cut slices for us. It was pretty obvious towards the end they were trying to get us out of there.
Tried this place for the second time and now I would definitely not recommend this place for dinner.

We were invited to a communion. This vast catering hall is split into multiple rooms so each group has its own room. The ambiance is very nice and suitable for special gatherings (weddings, birthday parties, retirement, etc.). Being non-​Indian, the food was good but some of them are a bit too spicey for my wimpy taste buds.

Great for lunch, banquet hall not too bad. Love the Russian bartenders.

The place itself was really nice, beautiful atmosphere, but I only came for carry out. I ordered the lamb biryani. Which was so delicious but also so unbelievably spicy, and I love spicy food! So just a forewarning, if you are not the biggest fan of spicy foods, be sure to tell them before hand.
Other then that I the service and friendliness I received here was great. I will be ordering from them again.

Came for a party and the food was OK, not spectacular but not terrible. I wouldn’t come here for lunch or dinner on my own, but it was fine for a party. The space is huge and there were multiple parties going on while I was there. Drinks were not too expensive, about $ 8 for hard liquor and $ 5 for wine. The servers were definitely not Indian so I am not sure if the chefs were Indian.

We come all the way out from Staten Island, looking for a myriad of selections for some good Indian buffet offerings. At first the buffet was just OK, but it has been getting better & better (I would like to see a lamb dish, just once.) Is it the best Indian food we have ever had? Well, not compared with a couple of high price dinner places we had gone to in NYC, however, for a weekend buffet, they offer now a really nice selection of fresh tasting, moist, chicken & veggie dishes. My wife is a big chicken lover & when we ate there today, for example, I counted 10 different types of chicken, all in one Sat. buffet, including her 3 favs., tandoori (which melted in the mouth even though it is dry most times when you have it at a buffet) Korma, & tikki,
The salads have become better & everything was served with better presentation & fresh flowers at the buffet tables. We bring our own special teas & they do not mind providing us with tea cups & hot water at no additional cost.
We find the trip out to NJ from SI to be well worth it (just call before you travel here for the weekend buffet, as sometimes they are having so many parties that they can not serve the public the buffet.
The place is big (& could use a little more atmosphere enhancement in the public buffet area, such as some Indian carvings & art on the bear walls & some native music to set the exotic mood.)
The staff is always very friendly & helpful. Whenever we are hitting route 22 to shop, we look forward to making this very tasty buffet on our weekends!

We just had our engagement party here, and it was amazing!
Everything about our party went down absolutely perfectly. The room looked great (although most of the decorations were done by us). The food was AMAZING, both the appetizers and dinner were out of this world good.
The star of the show though (aside from me and my fiancé of course) was the incredible open bar! The liquor choices were excellent, and it kept flowing all night long. Also, great bartenders!
Deewan was definitely a great option for our party. The food, drinks, and service were all excellent we highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good banquet hall for a special occasion.