Shahi Darbar Restaurant - Telfair — Restaurant in Sugar Land

Food is decent. Nothing to right home about specially with so many other indo-pak restaurants around sugar land. On only food alone Shahi-Darbar gets 2.5 stars. The one star review is solely based on their rude customer service. In fact, I have multiple issues with their business practices.

I have received a text promotion mentioning 2 chicken curries for $12.99. There was a link as well (I never click on unknown links as a safety practice). Anyway I called the restaurant to ask about the promotion validity and order. But the lady on the phone informed me that the chicken curry promotion is for $14.99. When I mentioned the text, she handed me over to Malik and it went downhill from there. He insisted that he doesn’t care what the text said it’s what their Facebook page promotes (the link from the text that I never clicked). I asked to be removed from their promotional text and he said he can’t do that- he’s just the CASHIER, He doesn’t know who sends the text promotions. When I pressed him on who can then- he went on a rant. At that point I knew I wasn’t going to order and just hang up. (Admittedly that was rude but I had better things to do than being yelled at and now writing this review!) Anyway here it gets worse. He CALLED BACK to yell some more on him being a proud honest businessman ( take note previously he said he’s just the cashier) and how he doesn’t need me as a customer because he has thousand others. The bizarre thing is- I totally believe him on that and it’s fine by me, but dude, why would you call me back to...

Dirt Poor Customer Service.

1st time: We placed an order months back on a Friday for Saturday lunch and was told to come at at 1pm. I came to pick it up on Saturday at 1pm and was told they don’t have the biriyani.

2nd time: Today, I went in to the store, placed an order for 2 chicken biriyani and 2 kabobs, paid for it. Ran an errand and came back 45 minutes later and was told now no biriyani and only the kabobs. (No sorry no nothing). Requested to pay my money back for the biriyani. They do not know how to do a refund in credit card and said they can only do store credit. I had no other choice according to the two ladies working the front desk. To my regret, I asked for a mango lassi on the house as complementary for my son. They rightfully refused and said I can buy it. (I agree, my mistake for asking, I was wrong) I then told them. I am not ever coming back to this store, just give me my refund. I don’t want store credit and to take the store credit back. A after arguing for 5 minutes they agreed to give me the change in cash, which they finally did.

As I walked out, one of the ladies called me “paagal” in Hindi/Urdu. Which means I am crazy. I told them I understood exactly what they said, they tried to play it off as they called one another that name. Also, as soon they paid me, lady was snapping her finger at me saying get out. (Hey, their store, I’ll get out.).

No more business from me at this location. Plenty of other biriyani places in Sugar Land with better customer service...

I went to Shahi Durbar for dinner with my family today and this was the second time we went there. Our experience this time was a bit disappointing for several reasons. First of all, the cleanliness was not up to the mark as it was last time, you could see the dirt and spider webs outside from the window and even the floor was so messy and not properly swept. Secondly, the lady who served us did not give us adequate time to decide what to order and kept asking to give her the order (she literally handed us the menu and came right away to get the order) we arrived there at around 8 pm so it wasn't even near the kitchen closing time when they ask you to order right away. The food was alright but the "beef bihari" we had was definitely burnt and we could not even eat it. Also, they put too much meat tenderizer in the beef bihari, this was not the quality of the bbq we had last time there. I told our server that we cannot eat the beef bihari and even showed her the burnt look and asked her to take it away. The response from her was "you could leave the dish on the table and our staff will pick it up". Later I took the check and even had to pay for the burnt beef bihari which we just left on the table as I am sure we would have ended up with an upset stomach if we ate it. This was truly a let down and I do not look forward to...