Nirlep Indian Restaurant — Restaurant in Charleston

My family has driven by Nirlep many times and had always wondered how good it was. I went onto restaurant com and saw they had gift certificates for this restaurant and noted there didn't seem to be any restrictions on their certs like other places; ie. not for lunch, only dinner, etc. We decided to go there for Father's Day. We enter the restaurant and are seated promptly. But we aren't given any menus and wait 2-3 minutes and decide since they had already given us our drinks and still no menus that they must think everyone just gets the lunch buffet that was available. That's fine I've had plenty of great Indian buffets. The food was meh ok. Some dishes were better than others. I finally decide to ask a waiter how much the buffet is and he informs of the price for the lunch buffet. I was slightly surprised that it cost so much, but we told each other, we would probably only come here if we had gift certificates as it was a tad pricey for the quality of food.

We go to the register to pay the check and I hand the manager our gift certificate and he flatly refuses it stating that it's only good for menu items...I inform him that that's not what the gift certificate states. He says they have called Restaurant com and they are trying to work it out. At this point, while I'm slightly perturbed I can understand possible issues with an online gift certificate broker, but restaurant com has been very good about sending out email notifications if the details of a gift certificate have been modified and allow me to exchange them for other restaurants if I'm not happy with the change.

So the kicker, I inform him that they never provided us menus to begin with and he states that "You could have asked for menus"...I've never been to a restaurant that didn't tell you how much the food/buffet cost or didn't provide at least a menu to choose from. At this point, I incredulously ask that I have to prompt them to provide me a menu? After some arguing, I convince them to accept my gift certificate and vow never ever ever to come back to this restaurant again.

I will tell all of my friends not to go here and I could never recommend anyone to go...

I have been a regular at this place for the past couple of years. Out of all the Indian restaurants that I have been to in Charleston, I prefer this one and would like to rate it as 3 stars for food. But, based on my experience in the last couple of months, I feel that the owners are selective when it comes to good customer service. Last night, I ordered "Hariyali Chicken Kabab" which is a kind of a sizzler . When it was served, most of the Kababs were charred and tasted bitter due to being partially burnt on one side. I could not enjoy it. When, I gave the feedback , the Owner's Son politely excused himself by saying that he would pass on the feed back to the Kitchen and that they are training a new person in the Kitchen. At the end, when I passed on the same feedback to the owner himself, he did not show any courtesy by apologizing and carried on with rude expressions on his face. This was a bad customer service experience. I left without adding any tip. All I expected was an acknowledgement. I must say that I feel discouraged about visiting this restaurant again. The Owner needs to learn some lessons in...

To start, Nirlep is continuing to stay open with both take-out and dine-in, while maintaining social distancing and very clean practices. They are wearing masks and gloves as well.

My fiancée and I have been going to Nirlep very consistently for the past few years. We tend to do the lunch buffet. The food has always been delicious. The buffet offering is extremely generous, price-wise, and the wide array of mouth-watering flavors is out of this world. They change up the menu for the buffet nearly every day as well, so new flavors are often discovered. They have a great selection of vegetarian options, as one of the owners is vegetarian, but you should ask just to make sure you are picking the right foods. I often see people who are a little nervous to try new foods that might seem strange, but simply ask them how it’s good to eat certain dishes, such as with rice or another dish. Everything is very tasty here if you give it a try. I would recommend Nirlep to anyone who is visiting or lives around here to at least try. This is the one restaurant that I will sorely miss...