Shalimar Restaurant — Restaurant in San Francisco

I lived in India for 4.5 years and love Indian food. I had already tried Shalimar from take out at friends house but this was the first time I went to the restaurant. The location of the restaurant is my least favorite (tenderloin neighbourhood) because it is a bit unsafe but we were hungry and at 10pm you don't have too many options in the city because it's too late for dinner. The three of us went to Shalimar and the place was pretty small and crowded so had to wait briefly for a table. I must say, I wasn't impressed with the place at all because it was a bit dirty :( and having lived in Mumbai for so long, I don't like to be reminded of that but this is something you can expect if you want to eat this type of cuisine, I've had a similar experience in Santa Clara too at another Pakistani/Indian restaurant and I guess it's ok for once in a while eating out at these joints. We ordered dal fry (which was ok but I expected way more flavor from that dish) but also i'm biased because I get to eat Indian food at home all the time so perhaps i'm too demanding :P, mutton gosht which my husband (who is indian) loved it but i wasn't too happy about it and also because mutton is a not my first choice of meat or dish, tandoori chicken legs was probably what I enjoyed the most - succulent and not too spicy and shared tandoori roti, garlic naan and alo paratha - the garlic naan stood up and was soft and fluffy and some of our friends say it's just the way its served in Pakistan too so must be authentic. Overall I liked it but wouldn't say this was a great experience. Ah, and what can upset me most of all is not having fresh cut lime to pour on top of the food - they had this sad lime juice in a bottle instead :'(. Friendly and helpful staff and fast service but I just can't get over that it wasn't...

The chicken was extremely dry and 0% juicy. Usually it happens whenever they are grilled for several times (in several days). It was clear that the chicken was from very old days.

The brain masala had some amount of unwanted things, usually that happens due to improper cleaning. It had less brain and more masala, compared to other times I eat.

They have water jug in freeze, but I couldn’t drink water from there as the water was a bit dirty (something fallen on water).

Price is extremely high. The brain masala was $20 for such amount shown in image. Together with rice, chicken and brain masala, it’s almost $35.

We ordered food and had to wait for 45 minutes to get food, as they forgot our order. Whenever we asked that how long it may take, then they asked which orders we placed and then they started to prepare our order.

My recommendation to customers, if you go to week days, be prepared to get uncleaned and improperly serviced food. Only one person was taking bill and taking order - he didn’t seem welcoming as well. Foods are expensive. Every item is separate, nothing comes with another item. So it’s not customar-friendly as well.

I suggest them, putting the actual food images to wall, so that customers can see the food type and quantity beforehand. Make some lunch or dinner platter with actual colored image. Listen to customer properly, and serve orders according to customers who ordered first (which I found not ok for them). Do not keep frozen foods for more than 2 days (rather cook freshly brought items), as I saw a lot of frozen foods were making hot to...

I was visiting from Texas and tried Shalimar in San Francisco. The restaurant EXTREMELY dirty from tiles, to tables to kitchen to counter table, to fridges to floor to everything else. Don’t even ask about the bathroom. DISGUTING. If you are selling food for God sake pay some attention to hygiene. The person selling the food or receiving the payments had the same unhygienic vibe. Not sure where to start from the food. I asked him if there is anything he recommend that is freshly cooked or the restaurant is known for and he was of NO HELP. He responded nothing is cooked today. While I appreciate the honestly. I still went with Nehari which wasn’t good. Order Qabuli chana and they were extremely poor. Bland flavors. Also order chicken seek kabab which were extremely average. Asked the guy for lemon for the Nehari and he brought be a lemon bottle (which was refilled with God knows what). It looked like they had been refilling lemon bottle with their own stuff for a very long time even so that the bottle had gunk stored on it. I wish I had taken pictures but I didn’t. Please pay attention to Hygiene folks!. Extremely bad experience. I even tried Pakwaan which is few blocks down and even though the food wasn’t out of ordinary but at least...