Shahi Indian Restaurant Paphos — Restaurant in Paphos Municipality

Let’s start off with the positives - The staff are very friendly and accommodating. Plus, the interior is very nice and they have a huge image of the classic famous Bollywood movies from each decade. However, as someone who is south Asian and saw south Asians working there, I had high hopes for the food.

I was unfortunately extremely disappointed when I ordered the Jini Dosa which on the menu had the VAGUE description of a dosa with vegetables and cheese. They do not tell you which vegetables which will shock you to find out it is a sweet beetroot jam with a small sprinkling of cheese. Plus vegetableS would imply that more than 1 vegetable is used. I asked the waitress what vegetable it was (as at the time it literally tasted of a fruit so I was confused as to how this was a vegetable prior to asking). I kindly told her jini dosas are NEVER EVER served with beetroot jam inside but she tried to pass it off with ‘well some people like it sweet’ and then it dawned on me that the staff had never had a dosa, much less a jini dosa. They should edit the description on the menu to say that it’s a sweet dosa with beetroot jam so that customers know they are not getting a savoury dosa with traditional vegetables like potatoes and carrots tossed in spices. Also keep in mind that you will be getting a small dosa, not the large ones you get back in India or in England.

I also ordered the palak paneer, only to realise that the dish was mostly sweet due to the yoghurt/cream sauce that it was cooked in - it must’ve been 20-30% spinach. Most of the curry was mainly yellowy with visible bits of green, which looks nothing like how regular palak paneer or saag paneer looks (a darker colour if you use more than 70% spinach to make the curry sauce before adding the paneer). Only a very small amount of yoghurt or cream is needed to thicken the sauce - the majority of the curry sauce will come from the spinach being blended or cooked down over a long time. When we kindly asked for them to take it back to make it more authentic to HOME cooking, it came back simply warmer with chilli flakes added to it. At least they tried to rectify any issues but I realised that they were lacking or skimping on many key ingredients (assuming due to cost) - one of them being green chillis which are absolutely essential in Indian cooking as they provide a separate aroma and taste compared to red chilli flakes which just gives heat.

As someone who grown up on Indian food and whose parents are excellent cooks, I IMPLORE the chef to take up Indian/South Asian cooking classes (which saddens me to say this to someone from my own culture), or shadow a well experienced Indian or Bangladeshi cook. Please type in what a jini dosa consists of on google. There are plenty of videos on YouTube and tiktok that give accurate recipes on how to cook restaurant-style Indian food and even I can cook better food than what I was served here. A part of me wished to meet the chef to just ask him how he learned to cook as clearly, it must’ve not been from a professional. Whilst the curries were a let down, the garlic naan and the biriyani...

Absolutely fantastic!

Found this by accident when our first choice was closed on a Sunday night - so glad we did!

The front of house guy is lovely, really friendly and patiently explained his menu to a couple of customers that don’t seem to eat much Indian food.

We do like Indian food, eat it a lot, and this was genuinely fantastic.

Starters were a spicy lamb puri that was spot on, and fried spicy aubergine slices with dips / sauces which my wife loved. Mains were a chicken Vishaka which was about madras-hot with loads of flavour and a house special ‘Lamb Shahi’ which was not as hot but very tasty. The lamb was meltingly tender, fell apart as you touched it and cooked beautifully.

We both had garlic rice and it was brilliant, perfectly cooked and flavoured just right.

Someone on here said the portions were small - my husband is a big guy that likes to eat and there was plenty for him, ate a bit too much if anything! Service was very good, not too slow or too fast, it was just right.

Combine all that with a couple of local beers and we walked out with a bill less than 50 euros. Fantastic!

The ambience / decor is a little basic but don’t let that put you off, if you like Indian food then the Shahi is brilliant, with many house special dishes and plenty of traditional favourites.

Highly recommend this fantastic restaurant, it’s reasonably priced and the...

This was our second visit to this restaurant, the staff are welcoming, very professional and the food was very good and reasonably priced. We've tried a variety of Indian restaurants at home in the UK, and here in Paphos, and this is one of our favourites. We've had Indian street food before and are delighted to find it in Paphos. We found the cooking at Shahi very fresh and full of flavour. Their portions are good, my partner's lamb was very tender and the herbs and spices beautifully balanced, `and the paneer dish I ordered was one of the best I've had, both dishes had generous amounts of both lamb/paneer and the flavours. We found our starters, rice dish, and Nan all delicious, nothing greasy and all very fresh. We we've been visiting our family here in Paphos at least twice a year for over 10 years, and Shahi is placed on our 'must go to' restaurants for each trip. It's easy to find, walk to the end of the harbour, as far as Tea for Two, if the sea is on your right, Tea for Two will be on your left, take the road up the side of tea for two, (a slight hill) turn right at the top and walk past the first restaurant on your right called 'Grazie', a cream coloured building, (there is an old beautiful colonial building to your left with blue doors) then Shahi is just after Grazie on your right. It's 3 mins walk from Tea for Two at...