Biryaniwala - Omaha — Restaurant in Omaha

So my family and I just moved here from the DC area, which has a heavy Indian population, and so many Indian restaurants, it would take you years to try every single one of them. With that said, we have pretty great exposure in our lives to this type of cuisine and were really really looking forward to Bawarchi’s, as there is one in our home town on the east coast as well, same restaurant family.

I cannot state how badly I was disappointed in our experience last night. I am typically a very forgiving reviewer and will always give restaurants a second and third chance, but I will not be going back to Bawarchi’s and I’ll detail why below.

For the price point and reviews, and experience at another location, we expected good things from this restaurant.

I’ll start with the service, and we ordered carry out. My wife’s dish was given the wrong portion of rice and the wrong type of rice. This wasn’t discovered until we got home. We ordered two 8 oz portions of raitha (raita) and mint chutney, they were forgotten as well, but my wife got that sorted out before leaving, and all the spice levels we ordered were done incorrectly.

Next we move onto the quality of the food. The biryani we received was very spicy, the order was for very mild because we had little ones that aren’t ready for that yet. The butter chicken was anything but the creamy texture it normally is, it appeared dried out and dehydrated, and that’s the sauce on top of the chicken, so that was frustrating. And one of the naan orders we had was incorrect and was so spicy and dry, the only thing we could do with it was use it as a scraper to remove stains from our stovetop. I have never seen a more inconsistent display from an order ever. After attempts earlier to let the restaurant correct mistakes, we had reached a point of no return with this order, so we chalked it up to a loss.

My biggest complaints were the mint chutney and the raitha. The raitha, everywhere I’ve been, has been creamy and delightful. Last night, we received it with the consistency of watered down skim milk. There was no dipping or mixing that with anything without completely ruining the entire entree or naan. It didn’t look like the raitha in the pictures from previous reviews, but for me, it’s about principle at this point. I get it, times are tough, but if it’s down in quality that badly it would be nice to know so that we don’t spend extra money buying extra flavorless water being sold as raitha. The mint chutney as well, was more like extra spicy skhug than mint chutney. It was so hot we couldn’t even eat it and it was also watered down so badly you could not even dip.

Extremely disappointed. We’ll stick with Star and Kinaara for now, and give...

We are so happy to have found Bawarchi. We have been regular customers of other Indian restaurants in Omaha, and enjoyed them very much, but Bawarchi raises the bar for this cuisine in our experience. The menu is extensive, and at first a bit intimidating as there are so many dishes we have never seen before. The waitstaff is unfailingly helpful in explaining the different options.

My husband and I have dined at Bawarchi 8 or 9 times. At first we stuck with what we knew: Lamb Korma, Butter Chicken, Rogan Josh, Saag, all delicious and prepared fresh and hot. Then we started asking about other choices, and have never been disappointed. The Tandoori Chicken is served sizzling on a bed of onions and greens. Exceptionally tender and juicy. On our last visit he had a weekend special: Tangdi Kebab. This was 4 chicken legs coated with bright spices and I don’t know what else, but it was stellar. As with the Tandoori Chicken served sizzling and steaming on a cast iron plate with a delightful mint chutney and a slice of lime. It will be a favorite in the future.

We don’t generally order dessert but we were offered a pretty apricot custard with a soft cookie soaked in the pudding, and we were very happy we tried it. A perfect way to cool our palates after a spicy meal.

The garlic naan, onion kulcha and bullet naan also served fragrant and hot, blistered and ready to soak up sauces. We can only manage to eat one serving between the two of us but we always order another to take home to enjoy with the leftovers.

Cocktails? Check. There is a full bar here with a nice Sauvignon Blanc, and a very good cosmo.

Service at Bawarchi is prompt, polite and helpful. The spice level (1-10) is attended to and we have been warned if there is a choice the staff suspects may be too spicy. I love spicy food, and have found Level 4 to be quite warm enough for me. Level 6 was stretching it for me but it was so delicious I kept eating it until it was gone, even if it took me tackling the leftovers at home with a pitcher of water.

In closing, let me say we are not people who photograph our food in general. My husband has broken this tradition, however, because he wants to remember the dishes he eats at Bawarchi. This is our new...

We went during a full house. The servers did a pretty good job turning the tables.

The menu for the appetizers allows you to choose what protein you want with different pricing options for each of them.

The biryanis was a bit difficult to navigate as there was no explanations for someone who is unfamiliar with the terms. I did like how the pots came with dessert and appetizer, but that's for the next meal. The following is what we ate.

Pepper fry $16 5 stars We got the shrimp. It is sauteed in a pepper sauce with curry leaves, sources and nuts. The nuts really elevate this dish.

65 (dry) $14 4.25 stars I'm a big fan of astorias (their sister restaurant) chicken 65, possibly cause it's wet. This is still a delicious option. The flavor is still there, but it's dry.

Garlic naan $3.5 5 stars Comes cut up into 4 pieces.

Chicken tikka masala $15 4.25 stars Solid option as usual. This sauce was a bit chunkier.

Chicken korma $14 4.25 stars It says that it is in a mild cashew nut sauce, but please note there is a presence of tomato as well that was not mentioned in the menu. The sauce was very smooth.

Since both the Tika masala and korma are tomato based, I would choose differently next time. There is a difference but I would choose one or the other and go with something more different like the vindaloo.

We ended up adding a dish

Amaravati chicken curryi $14 4.5 stars This dish is much more oily for a curry. It has a strong amount of heat. I loved the heat. If you can't do spicy, this is probably a skip.

Mango Lassi $4

Royal falooda $5 4.5 stars The vanilla ice cream that's in it really made it for me. I mixed it in. Would recommend trying this for something different. I wish there was a bit more ice cream in it. I didn't think to ask while I was there though.

Everything was very solid and we got to meet the owners while we were there. Always nice to see owners working next to their staff. Looking forward to trying other items from them to get a more compiled rating. Their...