Mehfil Indian Restaurant — Restaurant in Atlantic City

I’ve had mostly takeout food from this place over the years. The business is family ran, and for the most part, it’s a pretty decent place but has its setbacks according to how you interpret it.

First, let’s get the set backs out of the way. Before this place was named Mehfil, it was called Punjab Palace. I don’t presume to know why the name was changed. My guess, usually when any brand/ business does a renaming, it’s because of negative association. Example - Comcast to Xfinity. I’ve mostly had takeout from this place since they were Punjab Palace and for the most part, it’s been good. Now, dining in the physical restaurant location is a different experience. As soon as you come into the restaurant, you see the side view of a beverage cooler and to the left you see the pay counter. Across from the pay counter, there are small sections for the buffet they have during the daytime (I went at night time, so they were empty). Now, the seating is not great, allow me to explain. It’s a table style place with cushion bottom chairs, no booths. The tables are wobbly, extremely dated as evident from the faded colors on the actual table and they feel sticky for reasons I don’t know why (possibly they don’t get cleaned enough or they do and the coating is gone). The chairs are fine, they aren’t that comfortable, the cushion gets the job done. The ambiance is completely dull; you don’t have any decorations - the walls are completely white and the windows are covered with semi-transparent dated cloth curtains. In the background you have music playing and they’re all wall fans at a few locations. The service is fine, they are nice people and the wait time is reasonable. Although I can’t really comment into that much detail regarding the wait time because my party was the only one there; shortly after, a family came as well. A major point to note, it shows the type of vibes a place has when it’s empty on a Friday night in Atlantic City. Lastly, it’s a pet peeve of mine. As a restaurant, DO NOT USE paper plates nor plastic utensils/cups. It is cheap and tacky. As a restaurant, your not charging cheap prices for the food, I’d expect it should reflect in the experience and the plates, utensils, and cups are definitely part of the experience.

Lets talk about the food. In general the food was pretty good and that’s why I gave it a generous 4/5. My party ordered naan, chicken sizzling tikka dish, and seekh kebabs. A very basic order but full with flavor. The naans were good, not heavy with raw rough inside sometimes but made well with sesame seeds and not burnt. The chicken sizzling tikka came on a small iron skillet (as in many restaurants for mainly flare); the tikkas had raw onions, lemons and some parsley as garnish. They were tasty and cooked thoroughly. The seekh kebabs as had the same garnish and were extremely flavorful and spicy. Usually kebabs from this place are not this spicy but personally I don’t mind the extra kick. The kebabs were not stale, they didn’t look precooked (although the ends of almost all the kebabs were heavily burned) and reheated as is the case in a lot of restaurants but hard to prove. Some places do prep work that involves forming the kebab and cooking it to an almost half done state and then freezing it; not saying that this place does not but I can understand if they did because as a person who makes the same kebabs at home on the seekhs - they take time. Hence making it on a larger scale would possibly require the chef to do some sort of prepping.

Overall, I really liked the food because at the end of the day, I’d take the taste over the ambience but the plastic utensils/ cups and paper plates are a huge turn off. It just feels very juvenile, cheap, and and tacky. My suggestion (which is from an avid foodie) is to do a massive update to the place. I will definitely recommend checking the place for the food, not so much for...

My family and I are in AC for a few days and we were hungry last night. AC tends to run a bit pricy when dining out with a family of 5, so expecting to pay good for good food we were headed to the Borgota for their Buffet (only one near the boardwalk on AC that we’re aware of) and at $40 per person it’s worth it because you can eat as much as you desire and snacks and desserts are very good at the buffet.

Nevertheless $200 was ok if we were really going to eat that much and enjoy it. With a pair of 12 year olds and a 17 year old who are all slim and don’t eat much, $200 would’ve been a waste.

Luckily, my family has a huge appetite palette and we decided to start looking up Indian restaurants in the area (only because we had passed by a couple), and wanted to enjoy some good basmati rice, and some good curry.

We stumbled across Mehfil Indian Restaurant on Google and read the reviews over and over. We’ve been to several Pakistani, Indian, Bangladesh restaurant in the Bronx New York so reading stuff about how they use disposable plates and napkins and forks and spoons, how the place was not like a five star restaurant, how the chairs and tables were old, whatever….

I have to tell you that this is one of the best AUTHENTIC Indian/Bangladesh places I’ve ever eaten at. The food was over the top with great flavor, and it was all prepared fresh. The chicken was tender, the naan was excellent, and they even had spice levels so you can decide if you wanted your food not spicy, mild, or very hot.

The food was absolutely delicious. Most of us ate the spicy chicken curry with basmati rice, and naan. One of my daughters ate the tandoori chicken with basmati rice and it looked delicious. The servings were generous portions, and the price was unbeatable for a family of five. I think we spent 100 bucks and we ate like kings and queens. Parking was available right outside in a small parking lot for $1.35 an hour.

Yes, the place might be a little hole in the wall (which it is not at all) but this hole in the wall was pretty clean. The tables were clean. The chairs were clean. The floor was clean, even the TV screen looked like it had been wiped down. They take good pride in their service and their food, and it shows. They even hooked us up with some Indian treats after we ate dinner. Our server was attentive to us the entire time and took care of whatever we requested while we ate. I read he was the only one who waits tables and my hat goes off to him. It’s not easy being the only waiter when the food is THAT GOOD. I found out it’s a small family business too so kudos!!

We will definitely be eating here again when we travel back to Atlantic City. I’m glad my wife found this spot in my family, not only ate good food, but we were really full. Definitely 100 times better than any fast food option, it may not have been the Borgata Buffet, but it was really really good at a really good price and our children were happy that we ate there. At the end of the day, that’s all...

I visited this restaurant with my husband in Atlantic City, Monday 5/29/23, which happened to be Memorial day. Though they were not busy so the holiday didn't seem to drum up business and maybe we should have taken better caution but we were interested due to a local's recommendation so we tried it out. I have to say that this has to be one of my top worst experiences. As normally I would just keep quiet. There was no greeting, just "2?" in which he grabs some menus and drops them on the table turning around to go and attend something of which we have no idea. Taking maybe 5-10 minutes to return asks if we are ready. There was no introduction or welcome. At which point we asked for some water. Regular tap no problem as we are in a restaurant that serves spicy food we figured water would be a nice basic drink. Man says, "WE DON"T HAVE REGULAR WATER only water bottle which you have to buy." This was the biggest issue we had. Very upsetting. Not against paying for the water but against the lack of option and PLASTIC WATER BOTTL. At this time I ordered and still had not received water. After some time had passed and I was growing more agitated my husband simply suggested we leave. Jamming them with the food and ultimately wasting their product. I thought this rude and decided to let it go and see what the place had to offer. Having 8 years of experience in hospitality and my husband 15 we know that it wouldn't be polite to walk out after ordering but also feel as though there should be a complimentary water option AS EVERY RESTAURANT HAS THIS COURTESY. We mention this and he says no restaurant in AC has free water and that we are free to not eat there. As it is written in the menu that water bottles are $1.50. We all understand business but you have to give people a choice. You can't just force them to buy water or be thirsty after ordering spicy food! He didn't even care it being our first time. He gave us a water bottle and plastic cups. No ice. I would not recommend anybody to go and dine there. I usually don't write anything bad about anybody but this Man left...