Shalimar Restaurant — Restaurant in Ann Arbor

If I could give negative stars, I would… Google, how is zero stars not an option ?? Great location.. literally the worst service on the planet. Buffet was less than subpar,with many items needing to be refilled and staff was less than enthusiastic in doing it.. they kept walking around, blissfully ignoring that it needed to be replaced.. OMG it was Mother’s Day !! How do you NOT pay attention to the buffet ?? The fact no one was inclined to refill it, reflects poorly on you.If you don’t want to work, don’t run a restaurant… easy peasy right ? This was a terrible variety for even a regular mid weekday buffet… Honestly the food was not even remotely palatable, I’ve eaten better Indian food from freezer section at Walmart, so don’t understand the arrogance of the staff, as if we were somehow beneath them. Staff rudely told us they were closed even though we were finished and waiting for a family member to use the restroom. Another family member needed to use the restroom and was rudely told no, she wasn’t allowed to use the restroom because they were closing in 10 minutes !!! Who says that ?? Who refuses a patron to use the bathroom ??? Since we had already paid our bill, good God, we weren’t planning on staying a second longer than needed, but to be told like we were children is absolutely unacceptable. My BIL took the time to make them aware that rudeness wasn’t necessary, but they looked at him like he was from Mars, and didn’t apologize. Also what restaurant only has 3 mango lassi during a peak buffet time that too on Mother’s Day ? Save your time and money and visit Aroma Indian Cuisine… much better food, much better service. Shalimar doesn’t deserve your patronage..Don’t be in the customer service industry if you don’t know what “service” entails. Before the owners of the establishment reply with some remark, my family comes from a long line of service, not in the food industry, but service nonetheless, where caring and ensuring clients happiness is of the utmost priority. I will happily give a 10 star review when I am treated with respect, and even when things don’t always work out as planned, it’s okay… because everyone is entitled to an off day ! Unfortunately, Shalimar doesn’t or isn’t capable of realizing this fact. In an age where people are having to close their doors due to the economy, people don’t need to spend hard earned money to be treated less than human. To the owners and staff of Shalimar…Please keep this in mind the next time someone comes to your restaurant… although not sure why they would after reading my review… Treat them with the kindness and respect they deserve, because your customer is your livelihood.🙏

Edit : 5/16/2023

I’m adding an addendum to my review, answering to the owners reply… We paid for 8 people, no one in our party shared the buffet… also we never expected mango lassi to be included in the buffet. !! We asked for Mango lassi knowing it was not part of the buffet… your waiter came back and said there was only 3 mango lassi, so we said okay we’ll take the 3 mango lassi and ordered diet cokes for the other members of the party. Your waiter never said it was extra, but we never assumed it was… but I must ask, how do you explain the rudeness of the staff during our ENTIRE meal, when we only paid AFTER we ate ? Is it believable that an establishment would allow people to pay for only half the total amount ? If… and take this with not a grain, but with all the salt in the sea, if your staff is charging for 4 buffets with a party of 8, you have bigger problems with your staff not knowing basic math… you might want to spend extra time in training. You gave us a hand written bill and we paid at the front with a credit card… so if there was any error, it would have been brought up at that time… but again we paid for 8 not 4…. Thank you for your...

Heaven is found in India! Shalimar is the BEST Indian cuisine in MICHIGAN! The wait staff are exceptional! The Thali is surprisingly delicious from the lamb to the rice pudding like dessert. Every morsel of the Naan is so delicious it is the best bread you can ever have served with this meal. This meal is so worth the drive, parking and price! I love Shalimar. The owner is one of the best in Ann Arbor too! Ashu is the best server and he did not bribe me!!!

What makes dining at Shalimar so excellent! Billiu, the head chef is the secret. He not only cooks the main meals for you but he goes out into the area to hand pick EVERY spice that is carefully blending in his kitchen. Every spice is carefully picked by Billiu. He does not return to the same market each time for the same spice he make sure that every spice is to his liking and because of this when he combines them at his kitchen these are the most delicious spices used for his various dishes. It is truly worth your while to dine at Shalimar because it is the best Indian cuisine in the state.

To have an employee personally recognize the greatness of the Chef with a lot of pride, Shalimar is a Diamond of Indian Cuisine found in downtown Ann Arbor. Eating here must be on your bucket list.

June 6 2023 update: Iqbal our waiter after meeting him eight months ago has continued his high level of service that is totally appreciate it. He is very attentive to every customer that he serves and he has a great personality. I cannot believe that he is a wrestler and a rugby player that plays Indian wrestling rugby I would love to see you in a match. The trip to downtown Ann Arbor is absolutely worth its worth it when you go to Shalamar’s you never go wrong.

July 18 2023 update

Nan!!!! On the lunch buffet. The Gods love is! Iqbal is still one of the kindest and best waiters to serve us from anywhere!

I have reached Nirvana! Yummy with...

Initial Experience: Very disappointing. We had traveled an hour to try this restaurant since we had heard good things about the food, we called in advanced to make a reservation. The host told us we did not need a reservation. We arrive and are asked for our reservation name, we explain the situation and are then treated rudley as if it was our fault for not having placed one. What is worse is the host argued with us rather than apologizing what was clearly his mistake and began sitting people who came in after us, who apparently were allowed to make reservations, before our issue was resolved. We were finally disgruntly sat by the host at an awkward table for a party of 3. With this, we decided after that experience within the first few minutes of us being there that we would not stay to eat. Very upsetting since we had driven such a distance too.

We reviewed the restaurant online and both called the manager after our experience. When I spoke with the manager on the phone he said he was going to re-train the staff that we dealt with on the reservation policies and apologized. However, in the response to our online review they responded with "Recently we had experienced some negative comments and looks like this customer where not even visited restaurant. We feel someone ( group of people ) is personally trying to hurt this restaurant putting negative comments" (It looks like this was also a response for another low review they recieved) therefore trying o discredit reviews and remove them which puts an even worse taste in the mouth about this restaurant. Overall, the customer service at this...