Biryani Pot

My Bangladeshi colleague and my boyfriend’s bar friend recommended Biyrani Pot to us. The former endorsement gave us confidence to invite our foodie friends to it for dinner even though we noticed it’s a chain restaurant. We arrived around 8 PM on a Saturday. There was a group of young Indian men standing outside. Inside the divinely smelling and VERY brightly lit modern restaurant, all but two of the tables lining the wall were taken. Several of the tables were piled with dishes — they’d be bused very gradually during the hour or so we were there. Indian (?) rap/​pop songs played somewhat loudly. Other than one table of 3 people, we were the only Caucasians in the restaurant.
I ordered the House Special Soup (Goat) and my dining companions all ordered the House Special Chicken Curry (boring, I know! ;) but all 3 were either sick or had spent the day painting the exterior of a house, so I think lack of adventurousness can be forgiven this time). I should have asked that my soup come out with their entrees, but I forgot to do that and it came out about 15 minutes later, about 10 minutes before the entrees. Thankfully it stayed warm-​hot during the 10 minutes it sat on our table. I didn’t know what to expect, but it came with bone on meat in a thick broth. Very rich and warming. I wish there had been more meat on the bone. We all really enjoyed the dishes (very balanced and complex tastes) and I thought they were reasonably portioned (1.5−2 portions/​serving). If some of us hadn’t been sick, we would have (should have!) each ordered a different dish to share.
Although several reviewers have critiqued the service, I thought it was fine, so it might be inconsistent based on staff and/​or busyness. We had to wait a bit for a booth to be bused (busing seems to proceed slowly), but I thought the staff were professional, friendly, and relatively attentive. There was some possible miscommunication with our primary waiter, who did not have perfect English, but we think we eventually worked that out. Our waters were refilled several times during the meal, by different wait staff. And our request to have the bill evenly split on two credit cards was accommodated without comment.
I’m sure this experience varies somewhat, but our friends are sensitive to heat and even after ordering mild spiciness, they both said, «My face is burning off!» while they tried to finish their meals. My boyfriend asked for as hot as possible and he was able to eat with only a feeling of slow burn. The rice that comes with the entrees and multiple orders of naan help offset the heat, though my paleo leaning friends had some problem with this.
Overall, we had a great experience here and will for sure be back when we’re all healthy and ready to really stuff and burn our faces!

Me and my wife have been eating here at least one or 2 times per week for the last 2 years.
Try the butter chicken with naan and a mango lassi yo won’t regret it.
Awesome service, always very prompt with same quality.
Other awesome things are chicken /​goat Bryriani, and chicken 65

My Mouth Sang when I came here. It was very good. I came here with a friend whom was Indian, he ordered but did not make things wimpy for me which I was happy about. We started off with the Samosas, chicken lollypops, and some soup. The Samosas had a kick and were very good, the chicken lollypops were crisp and delicious, I was not a fan of the soup, it was bland and tasted like water. It was the only thing that I did not enjoy that and the service actually. The service was not the best but I still really enjoyed the food and so that is why I am giving it a 4. Now I do not know the names to the dishes that I ate again my friend ordered and I ate lol. I know we had a chicken with red curry and a rice dish with chicken as well. The Naan was also very good. We also ordered dessert and their mango both very good! I would recommend this for any Indian food lover! I can’t wait to go back.

One of the best Indian restaurants in San Antonio. I love the food here. I can’t name a dish alone. Whatever I had it was fantastic. I keep going to this place over and over and over…

I loved the food that we ordered for our team lunch at Rackspace. Arjun from Biryani pot took some serious efforts to pack the food to avoid spillage. Biryani was very tasty as always and our team couldn’t stop eating and asking where the food was from. Ras malai was yum and so was gobi manchurian. I will definitely recommend Biryani Pot to my friends and coworkers at Rackspace!

Yum yum yum! My husband and I, always loved the Biryani here. But this time around tried their chicken 65 and chicken mandhakini (house special) with garlic basil butter naan. It was out of the world! This is a must try for all chicken lovers! It has chopped boiled egg in it which enhances the curry’s taste multi fold! Will be coming back soon! Yummyyyy!

Friendly attentive staff with delicious food. The chickpea battered Chili’s had generous amount of spice and are fantastic.

I ordered the lunch special for $ 8.99 By far the worst Indian food I’ve ever had.
Was served cold food. I bit into my meat and it was cold almost gagged. Yes they fixed it after I told them but I was very disappointed. Also the naan was not fresh the ends were dry and the middle soggy you could tell it was microwaved. The biryani had good flavor but the bones they put at the bottom of the bowl was a joke. They were literally bones with sauce on them no meat on them. The tikka Marsala my husband ordered was by far worst then the cold chicken I was served. The sauce was thick like tomato paste not creamy or flavorful. They did give me a new entrée that was hotter but by then I was no longer interested in the food I just wanted to get out there. Even the rice pudding was terrible how do you screw up rice pudding? It was more like chopped up pasta noodles not real rice. I don’t know how this place has good reviews I’ve had A LOT of Indian food in my days because I love it but this was terrible. I’ve made better tikka Marsala at home before.

After many visits I’m disappointed by their lack of service. no prompt refills on drinks… they stand around and wait to be called on. The table next to us even had to grab their attention for refills.
I ordered half of their chicken byrani and waiter even confirmed half would be good enough for us two and then we got charged for something completely different. Not to mention they brought us the wrong check once. Smh. I will have to look for a new Indian place! Sadly.
My stomach usually is fine after Indian meals but not the last time eating here, not sure what was boiling in the kitchen… but my stomach was not happy. Maybe it was the peppered corn… idk.

Ordered veg manchurian and was very good. Spicy and had perfect crispness. Another appetizer worth trying was pepper cruncy corn.
On weekends it gets crowded by 8:00. Be sure to be here before that.
Good food at decent price !

This is the best restaurant for South Indian food in San Antonio. Goat biryani and pepper chicken are my favorite. It’s a little far from my place but great food. I didn’t had to wait for a long time even I order a TOGO at the last moment. If we arrive early they let the chef know that customer is waiting for his order. You will get a bang out of the buck for the quality and quantity.
Thank you guys, I don’t need to travel to Austin for good food anymore. :)

We ordered the Chicken Tikka Masala and the Tandoori chicken along with some Garlic naan. The food was very delicious and popping with savory flavor. The chicken tikka masala came with a side of rice. The garlic naan came out fresh and hot and was a great pairing with the chicken tikka masala.
One thing that was odd was when the tandoori chicken came out, it was not the tandoori chicken that we had ordered. It turned out to be some kind of kebob. Since we weren’t familiar with the food, we weren’t entirely sure until the check came out. We were charged for the kebobs which was more expensive than the tandoori chicken. Don’t get me wrong the dish was good, just not what we were expecting.
Overall the food was good enough to where I would definitely consider coming back whenever I craved some ethnic food.

Ate here for a business lunch on Thursday, and FINALLY got the Chicken Vindaloo as spicy as I like it. I don’t know why, but every time I tell any Indian restaurant in San Antonio to make the dish as hot/​spicy as possible, a number 10, or whatever, it usually comes out bland. I’ve even had friends with me who are from India who have tried to help me get the level of spice I want, but I sometimes wonder if the cooks just can’t believe anyone wants their food as hot as I want it, so I always end up with a 3 or 4 on a scale of 10… This time I emphasized over and over that I wanted my Chicken Vindaloo extra, extra, extra spicy, and I finally got an 8 on a scale of 10, which was not enough to make my lips burn, but it was so much better than I normally get!
So, for some history, I’ve been to Chennai India four times now for a total of about 5 months of time. Each time I’ve gone, I challenge the natives in India to find me the hottest, spiciest food they can find in Chennai (yes, I know, I need to go to Hyderabad… but that’s another story). Not one time in India has anyone found food at a level of 10 IMHO. I’ve gotten as high as a 9 at the Chola Sheraton in Chennai. Interestingly enough, I actually got a 10 in Thai food at a very nice Thai hotel restaurant in Chennai once… Thai food! I think they think I cannot handle it and I will refuse the food or something… I don’t know.
Anyway, the meal here on Thursday was very good, and the two ladies that were with me also enjoyed their meals (medium and mild), even though they were not completely sure of everything they were eating (nor was I!)
Service here is as good as it gets in Indian restaurants in San Antonio… very much like service at a regular Indian restaurant in India. Attentive, but not very helpful as far as choosing a meal. Also, don’t expect normal drinks at almost any Indian restaurant. Even the tea is usually already sweetened, and does not taste much like iced tea… also usually comes with lemon or lemonade in it… Coke or Pepsi will usually come in a can with some ice in a plastic tumbler (maybe).
But, the food is here probably near the top of Indian food in San Antonio… It’s not Saravana Bhavan level, but it’s really good, and if you haven’t eaten in dozens of places in India, including private homes, you won’t know the difference. This is really close to the real thing in most restaurants in India (at least in Chennai restaurants… I can’t speak for other famous places in India, yet!)

The food itself was excellent but it wasn’t crowded but still took about 15 minutes for anyone to take our order. It was hard to get anyone’s attention for drink refills. That said, the biryani with lamb was superb and the chicken dish we got was also good. Portion size was good for the money too. We will be back but may do Togo in the future.

⁵⁄₅ Great food, when they get your order right, but tonight, ⁰⁄₅ the worst service of any restaurant I can think of in San Antonio. My wife and I will never return or recommend the restaurant after tonight.
We truly felt unwelcome.
I cannot understand it. My wife and I look younger than we are, so perhaps that was it. I don’t know.
If the restaurant were even remotely busy, a lot could be excused.
However, at 5:40 pm on a Saturday, we were the third table seated. There were more waiters than customers. Rather than actually doing their jobs, they were content to have a social hour.
–Our waiter was unpleasant, and spent no more than 15 seconds with us during our visit.
–Our order was messed up, as it always has been when we go here, even though the waiter repeated it back to us perfectly. Chicken 65, Onion naan, Goat Biryani. Not complicated.
The naan bread didn’t come, and there was no acknowledgement from our waiter when I asked about the naan. How difficult is it to say «Sorry, I must have misheard, I’ll bring out some onion naan»?
–Our water glasses were only half-​filled at the beginning of dinner, and not refilled once, by any of the 4 or so staff, who mostly stood around doing nothing.
If you’re going to only half-​fill glasses, please keep an eye on them.
This is a restaurant with spicy food, remember.
As an experiment, I placed the empty cups at the edge of the table to see if that would help spur some water re-​filling action. Nothing.
–After we had arrived and ordered, several other tables were seated. All 3 of those tables received their Biryani 5 – 10 minutes ahead of our table.
–After waiting for far too long at the end of the meal, I went up to pay the bill at the register.
Our waiter finally saw that we were ready for the check, but took another solid 5 minutes to bring the check out.

That one star is for the Onion Naan. Worst restaurant I’ve ever been to. I don’t even think they do know how the restaurant business works.
You won’t even know who is the employee and who’s the customer.
Asked for very mild but got the spiciest biryani ever. No body stopped by to even ask why wasn’t I eating. Basmati rice wasn’t cooked right.
Ruined my night!
I love Indian food and decided to go based on the reviews, but regretted.

Was finally able to test out Biryani Pot during Diwali last weekend. Unfortunately my entire container had big chunks of straight up spices. Seemed like it hadn’t been mixed in correctly/​fully. I wasn’t able to eat mine. However, my boyfriend seemed to have a better container of it because he enjoyed his. Hopefully we’ll be able to give it a shot at their location soon, and i’ll update my rating if it’s better in store.

YUM. (I’m only giving 3 stars because I didn’t actually go to the restaurant) One of the supervisors at my work brought back crispy masala corn and samosas for us to try and they were both really yummy. The samosas have a great kick and have a crisp exterior. And the corn was OMG so good. It’s crispy and sweet and salty and savory all at once. I can’t wait to try this restaurant in person so that I can try more of their food!

Pretty good Hyderabadi dum briyani. Not the style of briyani that I am used to but this is authentic and legit.
Very friendly people/​staff.
Plenty of options on the menu, veg included.
Ample parking.
Good for family and friends.
The take out is clutch.
Reasonable prices and the portions are good.
My favorite dish on the menu is actually, probably, the chicken 65.
Also note, meats are bone-​in in the briyani.
Highly recommend you at check it out. ***note that this style of briyani may be different from what you’re used to if you’re not from India, or even if you are from India, you’ve never had dum briyani.**

Food: Love the chicken 65 and chicken manchurian. The spicy masal pepper corn is my favorite thing here. Absolutely must try! Also love the palak paneer. The jeera rice and naan are also very flavorful. I’ve never had biryani before this, but the hyderabadi chicken dum biryani is delicious too. Lots of different flavors going on here– so aromatic, such depth in flavor, so divine. Heads up, it is very pricey though! There is no rice for most entrees so you have to order those all separately.
Service: Service is a little slow, even when there’s not many customers. Had to ask several times for water refills, which is always a disappointment. The water is served room temp, no ice at default. I personally don’t mind not-​cold water. But I hate when asking for refills is a process. If anything, they should just leave a pitcher out on the table if it’s not cold water.
Ambiance: The restaurant is a medium-​sized shop. Not much in the way of air conditioning. They had pretty thick curtains to help block out some of that Texas sun.
I probably wouldn’t eat in-​shop again and will stick to picking up to-​go. When you live in Texas, the biggest thing a restaurant should invest in is air conditioning. The experience was miserable in that it was sweltering hot in the early evening. And even though the food is damn delicious, I can’t eat hot food, drink warm water, and feel like I’m baking in the oven. Be ready to spend $$, but the food is amazing!