Charminar Indian Restaurant & Catering — Restaurant in San Diego

My wife and I were ready to visit our favorite Indian restaurant. I decided to check out the competition and after reading reviews, I felt compelled to try Charminar, instead!

Bonus: proximity; saved time, and gas $.

We typically order Butter Chicken, Chicken Biryani, Tandoori Chicken, and Chicken Tikka Masala! Add, mango lassi when the mood strikes. The verdict? The food was savory, default spice levels wonderful, chicken was tender, and blend of flavors were perfect for my taste. The Tandoori Chicken set the tone for the rest of the experience; loved it!

Now for the ratings:

Overall 4.75/5 great food, good service, fair value, nice ambiance. Superior experience to most $$ restaurants in the area.

Value 4/5 not stingy with meat, but not generous either on two dishes. Still better than most.

Tandoori Chicken 5/5 Order it, my mouth is watering just thinking about it! Want smoke infused flavor, you may not like. But judging on its own merits.. I find no fault. My only complaint is I would have liked another piece of chicken for the price!

Chicken 65 Biryani 4.25/5 this dish was good, but a bit pricey. Love biryani? You won’t be disappointed. The portion was fair, but not their best. ($ better spent on more tandoori chicken!)

Butter Chicken 4.5/5 great, but just a few more pieces of chicken or include basmati rice would perfect this meal.

Naan (Garlic)(Chili Garlic Naan) 4.75/5

Naan is quite good, few places serve naan of this quality. No complaints here.

The overall experience was great! I rarely feel that way about restaurants.

End.

To management:

Let’s face it, no business is perfect and I want my feedback to be useful. (Hence ratings) I weigh value, service and ‘the little things’ highly; and I believe all businesses have to up their game during inflationary times. This establishment was good, but not great in this category.

I really am nitpicking, now! The food was a home run, now for ‘the little things’

I am not a fan of places that make you buy rice for curries (minus biryani). Some businesses incorporate rice cost into the pricing model for entrees, others charge extra. Charging for rice starts to feel like I’m being nickel-and-dimed, or, inability to connect with customers with more modest incomes. For fancier rice, a premium is fine, but you’re in Mira Mesa, not La Jolla/Del Mar; everyone is feeling the sting of inflationary pressure. Price accordingly.

Next, the establishment is clean and classy compared to the lot/location. Feels like a good place for dates, coworkers, or friends to have a meal. One thing I didn’t feel was that it was kid friendly. I want to bring my 10 year old, but the family vibe —maybe by design— wasn’t there. I’ll visit again with the little one and see how she feels.

Final nitpick, and it’s a doozy! The water was truly unspectacular. What a weird critique, eh? Serve chilled or iced water, or throw a lime, lemon, or cucumber slice.. do something, anything to make it interesting — room temperature water wasn’t the best to contrast the heat from some of the dishes. I was thirsty, but the unspectacular water turned me off and I didn’t care to pay for drinks marked up 5-10x cost.

Also, I felt guilty drinking my ‘complimentary fountain drink’ (aka. coke can), if you’re going to provide gifts to encourage patronage, do it w/ no strings. (Say, “if you enjoyed your experience, please kindly review on google/yelp; we hope to see you back soon!”. That’s it, else you have a bunch of folks complaining about in their reviews.

I hope you take the feedback to heart. If not feasible (comp rice, better water, 15-20% more meat) then price it in, or have promos e.g buy 2 entrees, receive complimentary rice. Get creative, but keep prices steady; any higher and the value proposition is gone.

Nitpicking aside, Charminar is a 5/5...

Heavily weighting the Service because it was so odd. We arrived at 5pm to a near empty Restaurant. Once provided Menus we attempted to order the Family Meal (4 people), but were informed that was only available for Pick-Up not Dine-in. We contemplated ordering to-go and meeting at the other couples house which was close - but the point of going out was to eat out. We made other dish choices and waited for the food. It was all good, some of the group found one dish spicier than expected. I did Rate the food highly. Then it got weird. The waiter brought our bill. We asked to split and charge half to each couple. Ok, no issue there - fortunately the other couple asked for a receipt (we didn't). We boxed up a few leftovers and chatted a bit. A waiter (same or another?) appeared and asked if we wanted to pay the bill. wth. We said we just had and presented one receipt as proof. Turns out, they had closed out another table, not ours. There was a $20 difference but when even that info come out, the staff didn't have a solution. They claimed they couldn't void the charges and stood there wanting us to resolve their issue. I pulled out a $20 bill to just resolve their error ASAP. Note, while we had tipped generously on the original payment, There was little chance to add any tip on top of this additional $20 cash. Being entirely their fault, it would have been nice and not unheard of to not have bothered us and eaten the cost of the error. As said, we agreed to pay the difference and settle up because it was our bill and did so without argument. Not 5 minutes later they returned to the table, now a third time and not so politely kicked us out claiming they needed the table. There were several other 4 and larger person tables sitting empty. So, food was good, Menu ordering Restrictions were confusing, and I'm told the social politeness was authentic which I don't believe was a compliment from the...

I recently dined at a Charminar that left me with mixed feelings. While the food was delicious, the poor service overshadowed the entire dining experience.

First of all, as soon as we entered the restaurant, it was clear that the seating arrangement was inadequate for our party of eight. The small space made it extremely cramped to have a proper dine in experience. To make matters worse, on the table we were given, there simply wasn't enough space at the table for each person's plate and the food itself. It was a challenge to enjoy our meals when we were constantly juggling plates, utensils, and trying not to bump into each other.

But it wasn't until I expressed our concerns to owner/manager, Abdul, that we discovered that the seating was supposedly meant for "nine people". There is no way you can fit nine adults in a small booth which he offered to us. It was baffling to see how Abdul blatantly disregarded the comfort and needs of their customers.

Another thing was the restaurant's poor service was the staff's negligence when it came to offering water throughout the meal. It required us to constantly calling the servers for water.

The final straw was the absence of any initiative from the staff to clean the table or remove empty containers until we explicitly asked for it. Given it was already a cramped place and small table for party of eight people, it was nearly impossible to fit every meal on the table and able to enjoy food without keep knocking stuff off of the table. It felt as though we were inconveniencing them by requesting such basic services.

In summary, while the food was great, I would not recommend this place for a dine in experience. You are better off ordering food for pick-up and eat at home. I would recommend to look for alternatives if you'd like to have a dine in experience for a party of 8 and more(other tables had enough space for a small group or a...