Reviews of Shalimar Curry House (Restaurant)

Danny Blessing

Great food, cheap, friendly workers, and always quick unless the place is very busy. They always have $6 specials during the week which is perfect for a college student on a budget

Kyle Henderson

Overall, I thought the food simply wasn't as good as most other Indian restaurants.

Angel Tom

Garbage food

Sarvesh Kekatpure

I would give less than one star if possible. I have no complains about food. Parking is a huge problem. I had asked an old guy, who seems to be the owner, if I can park at a spot. He said yes. My car was almost towed and I had to plead to the Mediterranean restaurant next to Shalimar not to tow the car. Please avoid this restaurant...

Christina Bhola

Great food! Decent service and the Samosas are amazing

Apoorv Jagtap

Liked the experience there. Its a local owned restaurant and they have special dish of the day. So, check it out and have a good time!!!

Bill and Monica Gaudet

We were just curious about the place, was nervous at first! So glad we stopped here to eat!! Delicious!!!! Savory, sweet, I would drove the hour from home, to come eat here again!!!!

MasbotAlpha

Fantastic place, friendly service, and delicious, authentic food. My personal favorite restaurant in Columbia, and undoubtedly the best curry I've ever had--- I can barely recommend Shalimar more. They offer vegan and vegetarian options, the prices are great, and after ordering a variety of their dishes, I can proudly say that I have never been disappointed.

Benjamin Lamm

Delicious food, made fresh every order. Staff is friendly and helpful, always willing to make recommendations for your order.

Wesley Nelson

Very much enjoyed it. Good sized portions.

domonic tidwell

Best chicken swarma in Columbia

Sophie Carr

Friendly owners, affordable and delicious meals. Portions are very filling. The place is small like a cafe so we usually do take-out but if you want to dine in there are tables and the service is excellent. It has a nice “comfort food” vibe.

Dawn Mina

My husband and I went there tonight .Great price ,Great food treated us like family .We will be back !!!

Skye Kinder

The only reason it didn't get 5 stars is the parking situation is terrible (however they deliver with Bite Squad). Food was hot and fresh even though it was late in the day/early evening. My only regret is I got medium instead of spicy. Paneer with korman was delicious! Will be back!

Rob McCue

Tasty, fresh and made to order Indian food. The combination options keep things simple while offering a nice variety. So glad to have this cuisine close to downtown.

Abby

Okay so we love Indian food. It's probably my favorite cuisine personally. The best Indian in Columbia was Bombay Grill on Bush Rv which is now 2gingers and does not compare at all. Now we either go to Delhi Palace or Spice Junction which is family owned and bakes their own (delicious) naan. Still not as good as Bombay Grill *tear First off the women working there who served us were very nice. The food came out pretty quick and it is cheap with decent portions. However unlike every Indian restaurant I have ever been to the dish came on one plate with my chicken tikka masala and aloo gobi together on top of the rice. Weird. The tikka masala did not taste like tikka masala and was yellow in color instead of the usual orange/red from the tomato sauce. Indian food is very sauce heavy and this was not at all. In fact is was almost dry like it had been premade then heated up in a pan before been served on a huge bed of basmati rice. My husband had lamb korma which was ground lamp instead of chunks of meat. He asked for "hot" and it did just not happen for him. Now the flavor wasn't bad. I wouldn't say the food was bad at all, just not nearly as good as any place we've been to before. I would give this place a 3 out of 5 but the naan... the naan looked like prepackaged pita bread heated up in a toaster oven. And my husband had to run to the bathroom as soon as we got home. Not bad for the price but would not recommend. Just pick up a frozen Indian meal and save even more.

Tyson Brown

Google shows hours hours all day, so I drove 50 minutes to only find they are closed. What a major inconvenience!

Deanna

Love the tikka masala

Mike Gillis

Good curry. Very small for dining in. Poor lady was working by herself and doing literally everything but she handled it. I'd go back.

The Skate Map

Had a super positive experience here. Food was great, owners and staff were super polite and treated me like I was part of their home. I loved the food. It was fantastic and I will be back. Thanks!!! :)

Ethan Phillippi

Good daily lunch specials

Duaa Daher

Great food and great staff!

Will Simms

Classic hole in the wall indian place. Hit all the staples: family ran with a great customer service, a cook who doubles as your cashier, a hot bar that's waiting for a large party, and food that tastes amazing. I got a to go order and had a reasonable wait, the menu was well designed and pleasant to look at! Would recommend fully.

Matt Zelasko

Had a great experience 2 times I went with both meat dishes and vegetarian dishes. Good people running the kitchen too. Really only Indian place I've found in town, and it's what you'd expect. Not super expensive, but great for what it is. Will be returning and have it in my out-to-eat rotation.

Dynamic Mo

They have a delicious food..i will not forget that awesome women who is working over there . She is so respective.

AB CD

The food is trash and is NO WHERE NEAR THE AUTHENTIC INDIAN FOOD. HAD TO THROW THE FOOD BECAUSE IT WAS SMELLY and not FULLY COOKED. WILL NEVER GO BACK AGAIN. I WISH I HAD KNOWN ABOUT THIS BEFORE.

Robert F. Goings

Great restaurant. I personally know the owners, and they take GREAT pride in everything they do! I would highly recommend. Very authentic cuisine!

Harsh Patel

They don't know what "authentic" indian food should be like. NEVER in my life going back again. wish i could've given no stars at all. Food was TRASH. Y'all need to try out Persis (on bush river) or 2 Ginger (on bush river), they are SOOO much better than this place. Paid $18 for two plates with coke, i think coke tasted better than the food itself.

Victoria Banks

Typically I do not review Indian restaurants because I normally have a good experience. It is a mom and pop Indian restaurant, that is not a problem. The wait time for the food was too long including waiting for our drinks. I ordered Paneer Makhani and my BF ordered Paneer Tikki Masala. They both tasted the same. We ordered it medium which typically is enough spice. They were very bland and the rice was regular white rice with peas in it. I eat Indian food often. I give two stars because the lady was nice. I wont be going back. Maybe they should hire a new cook. The place has potential to be a good fast food restaurant.

Julia Robinson

I've never had such salty Indian food. I could barely choke down their Palak paneer and the Tika had very little flavor

Bikash

Waited more than a hour for food No lamb in lamb biryani No taste at all Poor service Waste of time n money

Tucker Creed

Great and inexpensive

Merton Keith

Great food nice atmosphere

Phoebe

Took me 20 minutes to just get tea & didn't give me my change until i asked for it.

Karthik Gopinath

I moved to Sumter, SC a month ago after living in Wisconsin for 4 years. I was craving some Indian food and the closest was in Columbia. I decided to make the 40 min drive and try Shalimar. The restaurant was completely empty on a saturday afternoon, which should have been a red flag, but I decided to give it a shot. I asked for a "Plate" with daal, saag and some mango milkshake. I didnt want to eat there so I decided to make it a "to-go" order.. When I can back home and looked in the box I was in for rude surprise !! The rice was stale, the dal and saag were mediocre at best and the worst of all, there was no naan in the box !! I ended up throwing out most of the food and had a stomach ache a few minutes later. I have one last thing to say to the owners. If you want to cheat and deceive people and give them old, stale food, you wont be in business very long. This is probably my worst Indian restaurant experience in the US. Just spent $12.50 for garbage when I could have probably gone to a chipotle and had a fulfilling meal. Very very unhappy.

Andrew Leitner

I love indian food but it is usually slow and expensive. Shalimar is both inexpensive and relatively fast. Luckily it is close to campus so it is convenient to grab in between classes. The samosas and pakora are awesome so make sure you add them to your order. The biryani rice is excellent. The only bad part is sometimes they only have one person working and it takes forever to get through even a small group of people.

Marcus Osborn

Great food, great family business.

Arnold Karr

The lunch special is wonderful! It's a cozy little hole in the wall, owner operated, and the proprietor is very attentive to make sure you are pleased with your meal. Be advised, the special includes salad OR drink. I recommend the chai cup.

Idotress Joseph

This place is AMAZING. It is like the ideal sense of homecooking... Technically, anyone can cook a meal at home, but not everyone's homecooked meal is made with love the way your family makes it for you. This place does. Everytime.

Douglas Cahl

Excellent Indian food. Good selection. Great Mango Juice. Good prices.

Nicholas Vandermunnik

Overpriced mediocre Indian food

abdullah balharith

food really disgusting, flavorless and expensive stupid choice since i was out town

Calmingspeed s

One parking spot in front is available. For lunch I purchased a plate which is suppose to come with a meat and 2 sides and bread and only got one meat (chicken which there were only 5 small pieces...smaller than a quarter), one side and no bread. My companion found a spider in her food and two pieces of wood. I found two long silver hairs in mine. Will not be going back.

maudine richardson

Delicious! 1st time here. I will be back.

Megan Callahan

We have a hard time finding good food since leaving Florida so we were very happy to find this little place. The food was great and the people were very friendly. Their garlic naan was delicious and their tikka masala was perfect.

Catdragon's Art

@Jennifer Everyone has their own tastes and opinion. In my opinion, it was awesome.

Logan McLean

Place is dope, would recommend

Umer Farooq

Not open, 5 pm on a sat.

pravin chaudhari

After completion of our trip from Charleston. We wanted to have indian food. I didn't found parking lot. We ordered chicken makhani for two of us. I got it in one small bowl. Tanduri nan was like frozen one. Instead of serving us they were busy with fighting. Since I was not happy with I got surved I tried calling couple of times. Didn't got response. From there I had to run to another Indian restaurant i.e. Persis biryani grill. That was quite awesome.

Brian Davis

Absolutely delicious! Cute little Indian place with authentic food, vegetarian options, and good levels of spice. Only suggestion would be that they switch away from disposable cups and cutlery to silverware and cups.

Alireza S

It offers many delicious and healthy foods at reasonable prices.

AbdurRahim Wadud Hynson

Excellent menu...

Cody Pitts

It's not the nicest place, but the food is good, and it's way cheaper than most Indian restaurants.

Hochiminh Rosario Cuevas

Although the food is delicious, the service is rather slow and there's one person taking orders and cooking. Location is fine but the venue itself is small. So, it's a hit and miss. Don't get me wrong, if you are not in a hurry, then by all means, please :)

Zack conyers

Food got my stomach going crazy for a week!!!

Rachel Whelan

What a disappointment. I ordered a plate option with daal and aloo gobi. The dal was on top of the rice (which is strange, as daal is a porridge that doesn't come with rice in most restaurants). The portion of the aloo gobi and the daal were each about the equivalent of 1/4 cup. The naan that accompanied the meal was hardly the size of two business cards. There was at least a cup and a half of rice. I feel like a paid nearly 9 dollars for just rice. I think the worst part was the fact that I ordered it "spicy," and it was barely a mild. Though the flavors were alright (for the price), the overall experience and results were pretty unsatisfying.

John Tupper

Chai and lamb saag are amazing. service is good and employees are kind and family friendly.

Rub Raj

Very slow service. Only 2 people working. Food doesn't have taste. Not recommended

Marlo Brayboy

The service was great. Portions were not too big but very filling. As an Indian food lover I am very picky and this place surpassed my expectations. The owners are extremely nice and the food was great! Small little place with delicious food. We had the plates with lamb and (medium) chicken curry. Saag (great spice) and great fresh rice. We will come back anytime!

A.S.M. Fakhrul Islam

I have been to many Indian restaurants around here and was never impressed for some reason. Then I checked out Shalimar. Now I don't go to any other place to grab lunch. They serve very good quality food, especially for that price, and the restaurant is based in a very convenient location as well. Didn't expect such good food for that price at that location. Great job! Keep it up.

Nickolas Woods Woods

Ohhhh boy, not even sure where to begin with this one. I guess I’d like to start by saying thank you to whomever established this Devine house of the greatest tasting Indian food this side of the United States.. I am not exaggerating when I say this either. I’ve had Indian food all up and down the coast and the closest Indian food that doesnt really compare, was in New York. Price; If money is even a slight issue for you, and you want to feel like a million dollars after you’ve endulged, you’ve found the right place. Expect to spend roughly $20-$25 for two. Location; Not quite the 5 star I was looking for but what it lacks in parking and size, you receive in excellent food and extraordinary customer service. Customer Service; As I am sure you’ve read in other reviews, this is a Mom and Pop shop... while this is true, it just doesn’t do a justice on how well these folks handle themselves. The nice woman who is always working front will without fail, 100% of the time make you feel like you are -yet again- a million dollars. Overall, I’d have to say you are missing out if Shalimar Curry House is not on your itinerary for Columbia, SC. The scenery is beautiful giving the fact that they have authentic Indian artifacts placed throughout the dine. The service is phenomenal and heart-felt. The food is hands down the best Indian your going to find without going to India lol. Lastly, the price is just right. You aren’t just buying food, your buying soul food.

Erik Groh

Best Authentic Indian Cuisine in Columbia South Carolina. So tasty and fresh. Fantastic service!

Chris Remley

Good if you like this type of food.

Romeo Ford

I'll say this, I'm usually picky about food, movies, and music, but this place i gave a try for the first time (today), i was greeted, and any questions that i had they were able to answer. Most people hate waiting, me I don't mind because I know that my food will be hot. When they gave me my food, boy it was hot an ready. I went home a prayed over it lol, took first two bites and wow!! Amazing food! Inexpensive at that! I recommend anybody to go too this restaurant. Only down side if any, is the restaurant isn't that big and the restaurant is in a college area which means it's verrry hard to find a park without walking a great distance or getting a ticket. This is now my favorite place!!!

Folusho Ayeni

Wonderful Indian food! The prices are great, and the food is cooked to order. You can't beat that! In the picture is a samosa and a chicken and beef korma plate. I also had the mango juice, which was refreshing and natural. There's plenty of vegetarian options too, and I'd probably actually try them. 10 out of 10, glad to have found another fresh spot to eat at!

Joe Warhost

Fantastic. Healthy, delicious, affordable. Definitely reccomend.

denise b.

love it here and the vegetarian options!! really kind and informative owners, and the food is delicious. i love to eat here when i'm tired of college food, lol. always coming back again!!

Nishanth Dinakaran

Was visiting the Riverbanks Zoo with family, and stopped here for lunch. Didnt check before reaching, as it was a small place. Was initially a bit apprehensive as the place was too small. But their hospitality was amazing. The old couple were very friendly. Food was also delivered very quickly, and we loved it. All of us loved the food. Except for the ambience, service and food would rate it 5.

Sameed Ahmed

One of the few halal restaurants in the area. Consistently good Indian food at a good price.