Shalimar of India — Restaurant in Conway

Oneliner review: If you have food from here, you will regret it.

We were a group of five on our way back from White Mountain, NH to Boston, MA. We did a day long trecking and were craving for some hot Indian food and that's when we stumbled up on the sign board 'Shalimar of India'.

The Restaurant looked good in appearance and we didn't bother to check the review. If we had, we wouldn't have had food from there or better - wouldn't have decided to write this detailed review.

Since the five of us were really hungry, we ordered the following - Chicken Tikka Masala, Chicken Jalfrezi, Lamb Jalfrezi, Beef Masala and Beef Curry. We were hoping that it being an Indian restaurant we would get to eat something authentic. It was written in the menu that all these dishes come with rice. Without much delay, the food was served and to surprise all the gravy of all the dishes tasted exactly the same. All of then had the heavy taste of canned tomato puree. I can understand why restaurants have to use canned tomato puree for making dishes, but the overwhelming similarity of the dishes made it evident that that gave two flying hecks about the dishes. The names in the menu were just a way for them to make it look interesting.

This would have been OK if it was a restaurant which charged you only 8-ish bucks for a main dish. But unlike the really good restaurants in Boston urban area the USP this rural area restaurant was pricey and untasty food. Each dish coated around $15 and was absolutely inedible.

When they served initially they gave only two bowls of rice. (It should have been 5 as we ordered 5 dishes) So as we ate we asked for two more bowls of rice. The additional bowls which they brought were too small with hardly 3-4 teaspoons of rice. When they gave the cheque surprisingly we were charged an additional $4 for the rice. So we asked them and the answer was as follows. The initial two bowls which they served were apparently equivalent 4 bowls of rice and they gave one to us for free. (How considerate!) The last bowl was charged $4. I have no clue where on earth would people charge $4 for four teaspoons of rice.

However they were extremely prompt to add 18% 'service charge aka tip without any fail.

My advice: If you see this board, just drive past and there are Thai and Chinese restaurants down the road. Go...

John and I have been going to Shalimar almost since the day it opened in the mid 1990's and it truly is our favorite restaurant. I know that all Indian restaurants are different, and each reflects the part of India the hosts are from. This is northern Indian cuisine from what one of my friends from India says (and they have enjoyed it too, when they are visiting).

John is partial to Punjabi Lamb - it has the ground lamb in the sauce as well as the chunks of lamb. I'm partial to the Saag Paneer and Lamb Saag.

I REALLY don't like eggplant, and I mentioned it once, and they brought out a small dish of Baingan Bhartha for me to "just try!" and so I did - and I actually liked it! I told them I don't quite like it enough to order it for myself, but now I understand why it's a favorite of one of my friends who goes there (also a regular).

Although I rarely order any other drink other than the hot masala tea (which I really love - it's lightly spiced w/ milk) I've had the mango lassi as a treat, which I loved.

Sometimes I order the vegetable pakoras - but I get too full for my lunch after that! It's coated with chickpea flour, rather than wheat flour which is good for me since I don't eat much wheat.

One thing I have tried and tried to duplicate at home, but can't seem to get it just right is the delicious dal soup. Sometimes we order an extra quart or 2 to go, just because we love it so much.

When I am eating wheat, we'll order the garlic or coconut nan (John prefers the coconut and loves it).

I've had the grilled chicken too, when I'm in a mood for something a little lighter, and have enjoyed that.

Because we've been customers for so very long, I've had an opportunity to peek into the kitchen on occasion to say hello - and I can tell you that it is VERY clean. So are the restrooms. Spotless.

We try to eat at Indian restaurants everywhere we go, and always come back to say, "It's good, but we like Shalimar the best!"

So, although we are not of Indian descent, and we may not be familiar with too many other styles of Indian food (northern vs southern), we...

I was excited to find an Indian Restaurant in such a remote area. The ambiance was so so. We ordered Chicken Tikka Masala, Garlic Naan, Lamb Biryani, Chicken Biryani and Mango Lassi. We thought this much food would be sufficient for three people. But the quantity was very less, taste was worse and prices are very high of each item. There was a 5 year old who was starving and could not eat any of the items served. It looked like they simply used ready to eat sauces which we get in market instead of cooking it in the restaurant. Garlic Naan was like a Paratha. This was the worst Biryani I ever had. The rice pieces was mushy in the Biryani like they have served Khichdi mixed with meat pieces. I feel pity for the locals who come here and eat and have given good ratings to this restaurant. Because they don't know the real authentic recipes and this is like defaming such brilliant recipes. It was like mix the ready made sauces to already cooked normal rice and mix meat pieces. And in this process the rice got mushy.

Anyways since the food quantity was very less and we were still hungry we had to order something else. So we called the waiter to order Shrimp Biryani. The waiter asked if we didn't liked the other two Biryanis, why are we ordering more and was scared that we may return it after ordering. But we told since we are hungry and there was no other option nearby. That's why we are ordering. The Shrimp Biryani that they served was exactly same as previous two biryanis except chicken/lamb replaced with shrimp and 2-3 full spoons of red chili powder added. It was tough to decide whether they were taking revenge of us complaining about the previous two Biryanis that were too bad or it was their lame attempt to improve the shrimp biryani. I mean they simply added red chili powder to improve the taste of biryani. Google...please add an option to give 0 stars also because somethings don't deserve...