Charminar Indian Restaurant and Catering | Fremont — Restaurant in Fremont

We had a very disappointing dining experience at Charminar Fremont on October 24, 2025. The evening started off well — they accepted our reservation over the phone, which we appreciated. However, things went downhill soon after we were seated.

At 9 PM (on a Friday night, when the restaurant is open until 11 PM), nearly 90% of the biryanis on the scannable menu were unavailable, which was quite surprising for a place known for biryani. We adjusted our order and decided to try other dishes, but it was clear the restaurant was severely understaffed. There was barely anyone around to take questions or give updates on wait times.

The Zafrani Paneer Tikka we ordered was extremely chewy and rubbery, completely off in texture. We immediately brought it to the staff’s attention — they acknowledged, an offer to remake it or order something instead of that, which we declined as our patience was already wearing thin.

After waiting another ten minutes without receiving the rest of our order or any update, we decided to leave. We politely informed the staff, who simply nodded without an apology or even a basic “sorry for the inconvenience” or “please visit us again.” It was disappointing to see such a lack of care or professionalism toward guests.

I even took a video of the paneer to show how bad it was — it really speaks for itself. Overall, a deeply unsatisfying experience, and unfortunately, not a place I’d recommend or revisit...

I usually don’t like leaving negative reviews, especially because I’ve visited this restaurant before and had good experience with their vegetarian food. That’s why I was really looking forward to trying their non-vegetarian dishes this time. I placed a pickup order around 5:30 pm for Hyderabad Chicken Biryani and Butter Chicken. The Butter Chicken was fine, but the biryani was very disappointing. It was distasteful, the chicken had no marination or flavor, and the overall taste was flat. The rice lacked the fragrance and spice blend that makes a biryani special, and it didn't felt anything near to an authentic Hyderabad biryani.I felt like they gave us stale food….For a dish that this restaurant highlights, I expected much more. What surprised me most is that this place has so many great reviews, and I myself have had better experience here in the past. That’s why this order was such a letdown. Consistency is key, especially with something like biryani where people come in with high expectations....

This restaurant was opened recently. We went on a weekday and it was relatively busy.

Ambience: Nice interior with good amount of lighting. The feel was very good. They also have a seperate big private room for large parties which was nice

Food: we ordered two chicken kebab starters and a mutton starter. The chicken was soft and juicy to eat and after a long time to my surprise the mutton was also very tender and the taste was amazing. For the mutton starters you might need roti as they are wet starteters. It would have been nice if they mentioned that in the menu. For the main course we ordered chicken dum biryani and bezwada biryani. The presentation was good. Bezwada biryani was not as expected but the chicken dum biryani was really good. Did not get a chance to eat their mutton dum biryani as it is not available on weekdays. They did not have the special desserts which we wanted to try on weekdays which was a surprise to me.

Overall with for the money. Hopefully they continue to maintain...