 |  | Petaling Jaya, Malaysia |
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| ★★★ My wife, 18 month-old baby and I visited this place for dinner last night.
We were initially apprehensive after reading about the bad and rude service, but felt like having some South Asian food and this was the only one we came across in this vicinity...so we decided to give it a try anyway.
Firstly the service. Yes, I would agree that the service cannot at all be called friendly. The person who met us had a rather serious and unfriendly demeanour at first (perhaps we were coloured by the comments we read here). But from our experience, he was not at all rude or unhelpful. So service is not bad, just average from our experience.
The place offered buffet dinner (the buffet is on every weekday night until 8pm). The person who served us (he seemed to be the greeter, server and cashier all in one!) also said there was a-la carte items from the menu, but after looking at the buffet, we decided against the menu items and went for the buffet instead.
The buffet variety for main dishes was quite good actually...lamb rice and fried pilau rice, two types of chicken (tandoori and kurma), a lamb curry, three types of vegetables and samosa.
The taste and presentation was quite ok we thought. The food on the buffet was still warm and fresh when we arrived (it just came from the kitchen), so it was appetizing and definitely appeased our hunger.
There was not much choice for salads, but considering there was three types of vegetables on the buffet main dishes, I thought this was ok.
Finally the selection of dessert on the buffet was poor. There were orange cuts and some sort of Indian ball-type dessert in syrup. We've had this dessert before in other places and it was much better than the one here.
Considering the overall choice of main dishes, the place offers good value for money actually.
So all in all, an ok place for Halal Pakistani/Indian/South Asian food.
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 | | London, England |
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| ★ Were gonna eat here but they were charging us full adult price for kids to eat at the buffet with no ala carte option so we left. Not good service at all considering there were potentially 12 of us who were gonna eat and instead no one did ( |
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| | United States |
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| ★★★ Very mediocre desi food. The buffet is okay, since you can load up on as much tandoori chicken and kheer, both of which are hard to mess up, as you'd like.
The one good thing I remember is that they make the naan fresh, which is always respectable. For this reason, I'll give it 3 stars. Also, it's been 2+ years since I last went; had this been nearer to the last time I went, I'd probably have have given it 2. |
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| | Daly City, CA |
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| ★★★ A bit pricey for very run of the mill average food. The dishes had good portions though. The tikkas were a bit overcooked but the curry dishes were spiced just right. Don't think we would come back because of the high prices. |
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| | San Diego, CA |
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| ★★★ i dont eat indo/pak food that much but when i was there for the buffet on several occasions, the food was actually alright mA. the problem was the service. they seem to be irritated, unfriendly and aloof. i like the food but just wish the brothers were nicer. |
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| | San Diego, CA |
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| ★★★★ Only Pakistani restaurant in San Diego. They have very good Nehari, Chaplee kabab's, chicken BBQ and seekh kabab's. Most other dishes are ok but some are pretty bad. Their Samosas, mango shakes and mango lassi is also very good. Prices are a little high. We visit them about once every 2 month. |
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| | Gurnee, IL |
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| ★★ Today I went there for a second time since this is the only halal place I know from where my hotel is. I'm a consultant who travels a lot and always looking for halal retaurants in the vicinity. Most of the restaurants I have been to provide good service and very friendly. Not for this restaurant though. The owner was very rude to me and sounded angry when I asked about the menu items. I would never go back to this place although the food itself is OK. I found out Lamb Biryani is only served on Saturdays. Too bad since I'm a fan of the dish. |
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| | St Louis, MO |
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| ★★ Happened to be in SD for a week and wanted to try out Pakistani food... Looked this restaurant up on Zabihah.com and went there.
The restaurant is not clean, bathrooms are dirty. They could certainly improve on hygiene!
Tried the buffet.. Good quantity and good quality for the price. Some of the food was stale though. Fresh naan was really good. It was not included in the buffet price and we were charged extra. Surprisingly, even though they were charging more for the naan they did not want to serve it timely which was a real drag!
Service was poor to mediocre.
The kheer had gone bad and tasted sour. So we didnot get any deserts.
Did not go back and would not recommend it. |
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| | United States |
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| ★★★★ My family and I visited this restaurant twice about 2 days ago. We appreciated the buffet-style it offers, it was $7.99 for lunch and $8.99 for dinner which we thought was reasonable considering the variety of food they offered - other halal restaurant charges more. Loved the lamb curry - or whatever it is called - it was a nice match with the naan.
They do ask customers to use new plate each time - it's displayed on the wall. Parking space is available. Restaurant is clean. The only improvement I would suggest is to allow people to pack the buffet as to-go -- this would be a plus for the restaurant. |
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| | Tempe, AZ |
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| ★★ I hate to criticize ANY halal restaurants in the US, particularly because they do the community a great service. I have to make an exception in this case. Here are the pluses for this restaurant: Spacious place, with the tables laid out fairly well. The color is garish, but hey this is supposed to be a Pakistani restaurant so you get green in many shades! The service is fair, as the waiter suggested that they were understaffed. The price was okay for the quantity served.
We ordered a la carte, and the food was just about edible. Where do I start? The nihari tasted deeply of atta (or whatever thickening agent they used). The meat was just there - no texture, no taste, and not a hint of flavor. The dish gave cardboard a close run.
The tandori chicked was bland (probably because we asked for mild). I wasnt going to take a chance with my stomach by ordering spicy because Indo-Pak restaurants take it to the other extreme when it comes to spiciness.
I enquired about this curious lack of taste, and the waiter mentioned being understaffed and let out that a Mexican was the main cook. Granted, we all dont get people from the sub-continent to be chefs in our restaurants, but the least they could do was taste the stuff sometimes to correct an erring chef.
Bottom line: Although it could have been worse, I will probably never go back to this restaurant. I cannot believe that SD doent have a better Pakistani restaurant - at least none are visible on the zabihah site. |
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| | Vienna, 9 |
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| ★★★ I visit this restaurant once (and would never go back) during my one week stay in SD. The food and the service both were below average. The only positive thing was the good quantity and they have buffet deals as well for lunch and dinner. Overall, I do not recommend this to anyone. |
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| | San Jose, CA |
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| ★★★★★ I must say excellent food, went tosan Diego for business must go to this place. |
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| | San Diego, CA |
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| ★★ this is the worst PLACE TO EAT you can go to in San Diego. do not go here. Where do I start
The women's bathroom door did not close the whole way, so men passing outside could easily see inside. There was no soap in the restroom either. The trash can was overflowing with dirty napkins. God knows when they last cleaned up in there. I have been to gas station bathrooms much cleaner. The bathroom was in the view of the entire dining room.
This was suppose to be a buffet right. They were violating a number of laws buffet is suppose to follow: They only gave us one plate and expected us to use the same one again each time we took something.
When I requested a plate, they said we gave you one.
The food in the buffet was cold, and tasted at least two days old. I think I saw some mold on my bread, and requested the waiter to bring a new one. He had the nerve to charge me for two pieces of bread. I tried to explain that the first one was bad, and that I sent it back. He said, that was your choice.
Horrible horrible experience. I am never going to this place again....rude waiters, out to get your money!!!
Dont waste your time here |
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| | United States |
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| ★★ Plenty of parking outside, staff are okay (not excellent), quite a busy restaurant with younger crowd so looks cheap and cheerful and definitely has some regular devotees.
Maybe we're picky, but we've eaten a couple of times at this restaurant for the buffet and frankly, I have seen the buffet concept executed better elsewhere. It is cheap though $8 / head so you get what you pay for. They have plenty of young, staff on busy evenings during Iftar but found they could not keep up with refreshing the limited buffet they had. Our dinner was a little spoiled as there were only scraps of meat in the meat dishes and the rice kept running out. My wife and I now prefer to go elsewhere or eat in rather than go there again. |
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| | United States |
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| ★★★★ Excellent service and food...I had duck, fried chicken, and some more dishes. I LOVE the Muslim vibe :-) |
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| | Brampton, ON |
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| ★★★ Nice place to visit. Buffet is reasonably priced for 7.99 during the lunch hours and 8.99 during dinner! Tandoori chicken & Kheer were found to be the best tasting from remaining buffet items! |
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| | United States |
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| ★★★ The food is tasty but the prices are too high. $13 for weekday lunch buffet is too much. It could also be cleaner. And they always serve the same food for their buffet. There are minor changes but pretty much the same list for 7-8 item buffet. It might be easier and cheaper to cook the same food everyday and add it to leftovers from yesterday, but they certainly are losing customers for that. If they changed their buffet every day, introducd a few new items and maybe served some free hot drinks (how much does a bag of tea and a cup of hot water cost?) in addition to keeping the place tidier and cleaner, they could certainly justify the relatively higher price. For all of these reasons, I go there only once in every 6 months. |
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 | | Round Rock, TX |
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| ★★★ like everyone else said, they are expensive and you dont get enough for what you paid.
Food tastes normal. |
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| | Yuma, AZ |
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| ★★★★ The food is good but I'd like to mention that this is one of the most expensive Desi restaurant around. The prices are really high for the quantity of food served. The buffet is also priced at $12 which is kind of high for a weekday lunch buffet. The quality and taste is good though. Their Chicken Tikka and Kheer is very tasty. |
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| | San Diego, CA |
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| ★★★ Bismilla is an mediocre restaurant. My two primary concerns is that for the price of any dish the portions are _very_ small leaving me unsatisfied. For example:
- Tandoori chicken is 9.99 and you get only 4 pieces (two thigh, two drum sticks)
- Kabob is 9.99 and you get only 8 small one-inched size pieces (compare this to san-francisco area where you can get a 4-inch kabob for $2 measly bucks)
- Shrimp plate is $15 smackers and get this you only get 6-8 freakin' shrimps that are not even cooked well!!
And my second concern is that the buffet is not great either. Only the tandoori chicken is fresh and tastes good, while all the other 8 dishes/items are stale/old (the samosa and rice come to mind) and like one reviewer said the one or two meat dishes have hardly any meat.
The only saving grace for bismillah restaurant is the good taste of the tandoori chicken, kabobs, and some of the curry dishes (e.g lamb karahi).
But it's been 1.5 years they have been open, and it's the same old stuff and quality. They really need to improve quality and portions to make me a returning customer. The only reason I go to them is because there aren't any pakistani restaurants open in san deigo.
Fortunately, there are two more restaurants that just opened - Kashmiri Cafe and the Indian Restaurant in Clairemont.
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| | San Diego, CA |
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| ★★★★ I've been here probably 8 times and have been very pleased with the food. I always get the buffet and it's worth the price. The chicken curry is very good, chicken tandoori is good, samosa's are great and everything else is good. Once I ordered from menu and the portions weren't very big but love the buffet. Oh and just to let you know that sometimes on the weekends they have private parties and then they are closed to everyone else. Better call first before going there! |
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| | Yuma, AZ |
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| ★★ I have visited this place at least half a dozen times in past 6 months hoping for some improvement in quality of service. The food is average, but again, the management attitude can be better. |
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| | Wayne, NJ |
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| ★★ I was excited and happy to hear the opening of this Pakistani restaurant, however, the food is expensive. plus the buffet food looked like it is left over from lunch. so see before you eat.. |
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| | San Diego, CA |
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| ★★★★★ Hello everybody..this is my first post..I am quite regular visitor of Bismillah restaurant both in LA and SD. I like the food very very much..Especially the Kababs and the authentic curries. The curries in other desi restaurant tastes all the same tomato/cream based. My friend Mr. Hamza didnt like the food and the service..I would suggest him to try the menu and order some good food othe rthan Buffet..$9.99 seems more but the spices/masala are hard to gather in US. I have done catering twice from them everybody like it..Management is very friendly and also the guys working there..I suggest many of my friends to visit there...I go there..every weekend and try thier Mughlai Biryani, Lamb chops, Lamb karahi...these are authentic....
I LOVE it!!!!! |
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| | San Diego, CA |
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| ★★ I was excited and happy to hear the opening of this Pakistani restaurant, however, the food is expensive, below average in taste, small in serving size and the service is poor as well. |
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| | San Diego, CA |
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| ★★ This review is for their buffet. On the weekends when they charge 9.99 for the buffet, even that time they have this lamb curry which just has bones. I mean the bones are so big, it just does not seem to have any meat. It also has a lot of fat in those pieces. I don't know any restaurant which makes lamb curry with bones. Also there is no variety in the buffet, its same every time - lamb curry with bones and chicken korma with bones. The management also is very rude and its very difficult to give them any suggestion or feedback. I would love to have Pakistani restaurant in San Diego that serves good food and has a friendly management but this is not the one for me. All of my friends feel the same way, most of them have stopped going to this place after their first visit. |
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| | San Diego, CA |
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| ★★★ I am sure the Pakistani community was glad to hear the opening of the first Pakistani Restaurant in San Diego. However, The food is expensive and tastes average. The serving size is also very small. I advise them to revise their rates and improve the quality of food. |
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| | San Diego, CA |
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| ★★★★★ excellent food and service with very reasonable price. this is the place to go in san diego. |
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| | San Diego, CA |
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| ★★★★★ Bismill‚hi Rahm‚ni Raheem
The Halal board of San Diego has verified that Bismillah restaurant in San Diego is in fact serving authentic zabiha meat. They have provided proof of purchase from venders that that provide hand slaughtered zabiha meat. We have contacted the venders independently as well to confirm with them.
For more information please check:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/halalboardofsandiego/ |
Hours: 11 am to 10 pm
Phone: (858) 565-1661
