Nawab's Indian Cuisine — Restaurant in Springfield

When my husband and I ate here for our anniversary, I was taking a second look as I walked to the door - the windows are so blacked out I wanted to make sure it wasn't closed! But then we stepped in and the first thing we noticed was the smell of spices - it made our mouths start watering almost instantly.

They seated us immediately and served us water - room temperature, which is normal for many places outside the US and I actually quite enjoyed. Our food took some time to come out but when it did, you could tell it had been freshly prepared.

We started with paneer pakora, or as I referred to them, "India's answer to the mozzarella stick." Paneer is a Indian cheese, similar to a farmer's cheese, coated in a chickpea batter and deep-fried, then served with tamarind and mint chutney. This was a delicious starter!

We also ordered some chai (or, as most people in southwest Missouri know it, tea). The only complaint I had was that I couldn't get this by the gallon. It was served at the perfect temperature and I couldn't help but down the whole cup in about two minutes. The cardamom and star anise notes were clearly present in it. Thankfully, my husband ordered his own because I wouldn't have shared.

For our main courses, I debated about what to get before settling on a chicken korma, medium spice, and my husband got a lamb vindaloo, medium spice. They're beautifully served with a dish of rice and a dish of sauce. The chicken was in large chunks, perfectly cooked. The sauce was just spicy enough that I really enjoyed it. My husband's lamb vindaloo was excellent too and I may need to try my own next time. It made good leftovers the next day since we both saved about half our dishes. My husband also ordered some naan - look, technically I shouldn't eat it because gluten and I don't get along real well, but I couldn't resist. It didn't disappoint except for the fact I only had a bite and I wanted more because it was delicious.

They surprised us after the meal with a dish of gulab jamun, since we mentioned it was our anniversary. This is like freshly fried doughnut holes, served in a rose-flavored syrup. Soft and fluffy and absolutely delicious. I spooned up as much of that syrup as I could. It was amazing.

Honestly, writing this has made me so hungry - this was one of the best meals I've had. We are going to find a chance to come to the lunch buffet so we can try as much as possible. We've already recommended Nawab's to so many people. We're pretty experienced Indian food eaters - we have tried all the places in Springfield (Zayka, Taj Mahal, and even used to eat at Gem of India when it was around), but this blows them away.

If you're really new to Indian food and not sure what to get, I recommend naan (thin, fried bread), tikka masala, and definitely some kheer (rice pudding) to finish it. That's my six-year-old's favorite food when we cook it at home. I genuinely don't think you can go wrong with anything though. I can't wait to go...

This is not authentic Indian food. Tikka masala had boiled shredded chicken, paneer korma tasted like a smoothie with excessive sugar, buffet had mere 7 curries out of which 4 tasted exactly the same, seems like they just added different colors/cut of the chicken. They weren't hot. Naan was the only thing that was good. Thought to try biryani trying to give them a second chance. I should've just left. The worst Biryani I have ever tasted. It should not be called biryani, was basically chicken tossed in chili powder and salt served with rice. Its a big INSULT to biryani.

For the owner: As I am not allowed to post a reply I have to edit my comment. The server was welcoming and nice to us, I did not want to make the server feel bad or blame her as she recommended the biryani Hence I told her it was okay. The manager/owner was mumbling and giving us a look rather than saying welcome/hello when we entered. We drove 3 hours and were hoping to have a good experience on our way and saw a buffet with 7 options of entree charging $20 so we all had the same thought and decided to re enter as we were tired of driving, I have never seen a buffet this sad, on top of this FOUR curries tasting exactly the same. And as for the biryani we had mere 3 bites and left the whole thing, on top of insulting a customers review you are also lying about us eating everything. This is ridiculous. We told the server we will be right back and we did come back. Our plated were filled with food when we left. On top of serving disgusting food you are also a pathetic Liar.

The guy standing at the register wasn't doing much and letting the one girl do most of the work. When he brought our biryani he put on the corner of the table without asking who its for, I assumed its the owner showing attitude. You are in a complete denial as I caught you redhanded with your disgusting food. I am done replying to this pointless argument where you just want to give blatant excuses, saying my review wont close your restaurant, if that was my intention I can get it done. I am not weak hearted like you who cant take an honest review and respond properly. This is my last reply and I hope you make your food better and...

Friend and I have gone six times, usually at dinner, between 5-7. We're familiar with the atmosphere, and are perfectly fine with the fact that it might take 20 to 30 minutes to get our food out after ordering. That seems to be standard. However the service this time was abysmal.

We had to flag down a waiter after 20m of being seated with no interaction.

Put in our order, nothing complicated. Then we were left alone for at least an hour and 10 minutes. That was wonderful. That's let us really enjoy the experience of not getting a refill on our water.

In the hour and 10 minutes, all we had was water, our appetizer came out, which tasted just fine. But then we didn't see another person come to our table or even ask about us for the next 50 minutes.

They brought out our food, which was wrong, then they brought out a replacement, which was also wrong. The gentleman that brought out the food tried to tell my friend what she had what she ordered.

So to recap, we were there for over 2 hours, three of our five dishes were wrong, staff tried to tell us that we didn't know what we ordered, and then we talked to management about it all they said was "I'm sorry." We were also ordered plain naan, then they brought us out garlic naan and tried to upcharge us for it.

When we pointed out with other tables with more people that came in after us had gotten their food and left before we even received ours, all they said was "I'm sorry."

And on top of all this, after waiting 20 minutes after asking for the check, I still had to flag down another server to ask for the check. A manager stood over me while I wrote down the tip. We had a discussion about the service, and he just kept repeating I'm sorry and not offering any other options, they didn't even offer a discount. All in all, that's a new kind of malarkey for me.

I can't advise going to this place based on service alone. Unless you want to roll the...