House of Biryanis and Kebabs North Wales — Restaurant in Montgomery Township

We were initially excited when a biryani place opened closer to where we live, but unfortunately, our experiences have been increasingly frustrating. Here’s an honest account of what we’ve gone through. Our first visit was a dine-in experience. We ordered Tandoori Pomfret fish, Tandoori chicken, goat curry, and naan. To begin with, the service was incredibly slow—our order was taken after a wait of 25 minutes, even though the restaurant wasn’t busy (only three tables were occupied on a Saturday evening). Staff seemed uninterested and inattentive, roaming around without acknowledging seated customers. When the food finally arrived—50 minutes later (and I’m not exaggerating)—we were disappointed. The fish was stinky and overpriced, and the overall food quality was very average. Despite this, we gave the restaurant a second chance and began ordering takeout. Initially, we enjoyed the chicken fry biryani (medium spicy) and Hyderabad chicken 65 (mild, for my child). For a while, things seemed fine. However, on the fourth order, we received chicken Vijayawada boneless biryani instead of chicken fry biryani. When I called to point out the mistake, the replacement was handled aggressively. While they provided the correct dish, it became clear they held a grudge. On my next visit, the person at the counter mockingly asked me to double-check my order on the bill, clearly remembering the previous incident. I chose to ignore the remark and let it go, but it left a bad impression. Then came today (Friday, 1/24/25), which cemented our decision to stop visiting this restaurant. I called and ordered our regular dishes—chicken fry biryani (specifically mentioning boneless) and Hyderabad chicken 65 (mild). When I went to pick up the order, I had my 3.5-year-old son with me. The lady at the counter saw an opportunity to offer a dessert (shahi tukda) for free, likely to get rid of it. I didn’t think much of it at the time and took the order home. When I got home, I noticed a few things. First, there was no bill attached to the package. Second, yet again, they had given me chicken Vijayawada boneless biryani instead of the chicken fry biryani I ordered. Frustrated, I called the restaurant to confirm my order. The person on the phone rudely told me to “order correctly” next time, making it clear they remembered me and were holding a grudge over past incidents. I let it go again. What happened next with the dessert is what truly upset me. My son, excited for the “treat,” took one bite and seemed unusually desperate for more. This raised my suspicions. I tasted it myself and was shocked by how ridiculously sweet it was—an excessive, unhealthy amount of sugar. To confirm, I had my wife taste it, and she had the same reaction. As a scientist, I am well aware of the risks of sugar shock or hyperglycemia, and this caused genuine concern. I have frozen a sample of the dessert for anyone who wishes to test it. On top of that, the biryani seemed to be from a mix of different batches, and it was apparent the Hyderabad chicken 65 had been mixed with regular biryani from another lot. This experience has left us deeply frustrated and disappointed, especially on a Friday night when we were looking forward to enjoying dinner as a family. The repeated mistakes, poor service, rude behavior, and now this dessert incident have convinced us to stop ordering from this location entirely. If you value good food, professional service, and safety, I would sincerely advise avoiding this particular HBK location. Consider visiting the Norristown or other...

If only I could give this place a rating of 2 , but Biryani saved the rating. We were waiting for this place to open for a while now , as we really liked the location in Malvern (5/5). We visited this place right after their soft opening. We have ordered Murgh malai kebab, garlic naan , chicken chettinad curry and goat dum biryani. It took a while to have the order ready, there were no water served to us for a while, we were sitting right in front of them where they were serving water to people who came after us, okay understandable forgot about us, but even after asking for water it took a while. The silverware were missing as well. Anyways I can understand as its been right after the day of opening they are still not used to it.

First comes the murgh malai kebab, which was not even close to what we had in other restaurant, the chicken was so hard felt like it was over grilled and over charred as a result it lacked the juicy flavors which I would expect from kebabs. Next comes the Garlic naan and chicken chettinad curry, first off we asked if we can get a suggestion of a curry which does not have any sweet flavor , they recommended chettinad curry and we went with them blindly and however at the end the curry had a sweet flavor to it. I will not say the curry was not good, it’s just that we were not in a mood for such curry. There naan’s were the worst. Until this day ,I did not imagine that some one can go wrong with naan’s, they were so small and felt like they were not done properly. The only one thing which lived up to the hype was their hyderbadi goat dum biryani. Oh my god it was so amazing, I can even say it was one notch higher than the malvern location. The mutton was perfectly cooked , the spices were well balanced and it tasted delicious. After this whole experience I did not want to rate this place yet as I wanted to give it another chance , given our love for the other HBK locations. Next weekend we ordered take away for chicken lollipops, Gongura mutton biryani & double ka meeta.Unfortunately it was another bad experience and here I am rating this place 3. The drums of heaven ( weekend special) were so bad that we threw it away , the flavors were good but chicken felt so raw. The biryani had more of like red chilies flavor and it was lacking the gongura flavor. The double ka meeta we ordered only after we saw that it was on their specials, If there dessert on their weekend specials list tasted like this I dont know how the ones on their regular list tasted like. The flavor was missing over all, no sweetness , it tasted oily , bread was too saugy and we had to throw away that as well.

This is the first Indian restaurant where I had to try food which were supposed to be their weekend specials and literally toss them away in trash by not being able to eat the rest. If they keep going this way I don’t know. Completely disappointed as this place is way closer to where we live from, but I don’t think we will ever visit this place except for their goat dum biryani( hope that stays the same), we would rather travel to further locations of HBK where we always have a great experience. I am not ready to give this place a third chance until something...

Will never visit this place again. Can’t even comment on the food because we walked out due to the rudest server ever. Was not overly busy when we entered and the young man motioned us to a table smack dab in the middle of two other tables where the table to the right had the loudest guest. So we asked could we please sit over there in a booth and were immediately told no because that’s a bigger table. Never mind that one of the booths had two adults ( like us ) and one small toddler. The booths lend more privacy and we wanted that to enjoy our meal and catch up since my husband has been traveling for work. The entire restaurant was wide open so it was not like there were lines of people waiting !!! So we took ourselves over to a table nearer the front door, also not ideal or as comfortable as the booth but okay, here we sit … and sit we did. The young man finally came over with water and I gently said that he might want to avoid trying to sit people so close together when there is ample space and especially to not sit people right next to the really loud lady. He got defensive and says he can’t tell people what to do. Well apparently he can coz he told us we could not have the booth. ( it was well after lunch and much before dinner ) He then walked away and never returned to take our order. We waited a full 10 minutes. So we walked out. Which is too bad cuz my husband is from India but sadly I am not and therefore obviously can’t cook like his mom did so we enjoy eating Indian cuisine out often. But it won’t be at this place after today’s not only lack of service but a totally rude encounter. Wish I could give a negative star...