Ellie's Desi Kitchen

The restaurant has been bought out by Rayis who previously owned Shahi. I spoke with the owner who said that he has taken over the business and it\'s now called Shahi Ellie\'s. However, the name outside of the restaurant still says Ellie\'s Desi Kitchen. Please note the review pertains to the open buffet part of the restaurant. I had made reservation for a party of 40 for a 7pm Sunday evening dinner buffet 4 days prior to showing up. I also called on the same day hours before our expected arrival (7pm) to confirm my reservation and the lady I got on the phone said that she\'ll notify the people in the kitchen so they would be aware and prepared accordingly. There were other patrons in the restaurant who made the buffet line prior to my guests\' arrival. I would estimate that our party used up about 45%-50% of the restaurant. By the time my guests made the line, some food serving trays were already empty (i.e. chicken tikkah and chicken biryani) and had to settle for either going back and waiting for the food (which took as long as 10 mins) or getting some naan, Haleem, or Okra, which were abundantly available. If they say that buffet starts at 7pm then I expect all their food items to be ready to be served by 7pm and not 7:15 or 7:30. Why weren\'t they efficiently and adequately prepared for the influx of guests that were there? There was no designated waitress to service my guests whom I would go directly to and inform her that there was no food in the trays, so I had to speak with 3 different waitresses about the same issue and I got the same response which was there is food but it\'s gonna take time to heat it up and bring it out. Those waitresses would then go and attend to other patrons that were in the restaurant. Nobody came by to check on my guests and ask if everything was alright or whether we needed something. I had to get up and ask for large refill water bottles and I ended up going around and serving water to my guests. Allow me to reiterate, NOBODY came to check if we needed anything. At the end, I wanted to discuss the quality of service that I had received (or lack thereof) that evening with the owner, but he was nowehere to be found. One of the waitresses said one of her colleagues called in sick so they were short-staffed, which I find inexcusable because the level of incompetence displayed would not have been covered even if they were fully staffed. The quality of food was acceptable. However, the bottom line is that they are grossly understaffed, overwhelmed, and are unable to handle and cope a big party/group without sacrificing service, despite being aware and notified well ahead of time. Unfortunately, the level of service I received was unacceptable and flat-out embarrassing as a host treating his guests. I hope ownership takes note about what needs improvement. I will return to this restaurant for the Spicy Chicken Sandwich sub, but definitely not for the buffet. The following is the menu and my rating next to the food item: Appetizers: Chicken Corn Soup 4/5 Hot & Sour Soup 4/5 Gol Gapeh 5/5 Buffet items: Chicken Tikka 3.5/5 Chicken Biryani 3/5 Butter Chicken 5/5 Haleem 5/5 Fried fish 4/5 Okra 5/5 Plain white rice 5/5 Chanai with aloo 4/5 Naan 4/5 Dessert: Gulab Jaman 5/5 This is the criteria I\'m using for the rating: Ambiance/atmosphere: 4/5 Cleanliness: 4/5 Service: 0/5 Food: 4.3/5

Food is good, but the chicken is sometimes overcooked.

Usually come here only for subs. The service is okay not to great sometimes slow. The subs itself is usually packed with meat which is a good thing. But I find their consistency on taste to alter from each time I come. Sometimes it's amazing, sometimes I feel like I wasted my money. I believe they have 2 chefs. Overall a decent spot for subs would recommend.

The spicy chicken sandwich is awesome. They have a wide variety of options to choose from, friendly owner and staff. Mango Lassi is my favorite. They do not have fried chicken though.

Best Spicy Chicken Sub ever. The Samosa Chaat appetizer was good too. The owner verbally confirmed the Peruvian food items were also Halal. Highly reccomend this spot

Great food. Especially subs and starter items like dahi pori..

The Chinese is ok but the sandwiches are quite good. Service could be better but it\'s not the worst I\'ve ever had. Atmosphere is alright and it is quite comfortable.

Chinese food is tasteless and hopeless.There subs are ok.Nehari was acceptable if you add some green chillies and cut ginger with lemon drops.Service is very slow.Dine in area is just ok.

i think its closed

this is the worst food I ever ate when the food came out it looked old and not fresh The chef even came out and watch us eat we felt uncomfortable

If you want to eat sandwich subs, there is no place better than Ellie's.. Desi food is not the best, but their subs

Good food, but understaffed. The famous spicy chicken sub is delicious!

Unbelievably delicious! We stayed in Ft Lauderdale for 6 nights and we wound up making the drive down to eat at Ellie's 3 times! Huge mouthwatering subs at a great price. The spicy chicken sub is fantastic and a must-try. The Cheeseburger sub is delicious as well (cheeseburger patties cut in half, topped with cheese, sauteed mushrooms). We tried the Aman chicken and the Aman steak, both were excellent but the Aman chicken was slightly better. All of the sandwiches have the right amount of meat, veggies, and sauce and are made with their perfect sub sandwich bread (not too soft/not too hard). The restaurant is busy every night so call ahead and order your food - we found that if we ordered 20 mins in advance, your food was ready and hot when you got there.

One of my personal favorites. Been hooked on the spicy chicken sub since ellie first started serving halaal food. The recipe has been imitated but never duplicated... Clean location, agree with most comments about service needing some improvement (just not the same without ellie running the show). Not sure if she is still the owner, but the recipes are the same. As with any restaurant you have to know what to order or what the place specializes in. Here are my favorites Spicy Chicken (i am sure you are already aware, but if you are new in town, make a stop just for this, get it with everything, add cheese, and jalapeno on the side... trust....) Amaan style Philly (special recipe from a lost brother, R.I.P, I.W.R, chef amaan) Be careful with your spice request, as they fire this one up. Burgers are meaty and well seasoned (traditional american not desi) desi chinese food is also pretty good.

Ellie's is known for their Spicy chicken Sub, which is the best. Their Lomo Saltado(Carribean dish) is pretty good as well and so is their Kabaab platter. They need to hire some professional waiters and keep their restrooms clean

Number is disconnected, did they move?

I am a local guy, eating in this place since it was in a dump near University/Taft. This new place is very clean, but the white owner of this HALAL place does not want to hire servers to save money. It takes very long to get food. And you have to get up to get drinks, napkins, or for that matter anything, even to pay. My advice is to order ONLY BBQ and/or Hot Subs, the stuff they make the same day, for other stuff, I am not too sure if it is from the same day.

went to this place while visiting miami area. nice food. took long to serve though but it was good.

I have been going to Ellies since it has opened. I enjoyed the food in the past but have noticed a decline in the quality over the years. I feel the oil they fry in is old or has been re-used many times. Anyways, That I can deal with.. what I can't deal with is ..I went there about a month ago and i ordered 2 spicy chicken subs. I was in the middle of mine when my husband made a funny face. He opened his sub to find two long hairs in there. Ladies...have you heard of a hair net? Im kinda disgusted so I doubt i will be going back there. I want to eat from a place i know is clean.

Went there last night with a few friends and we called in our order 20 minutes prior to reaching there (they said it will be ready in 20 mins over the phone). Reached there in 20 minutes, food wasn't ready. Waited an extra 30 minutes before telling us it is almost ready. Hey at least welcome us, offer us a drink. Finally, we get our food, and what a surprise? It was cold. Go figure. Burger was good, everything else was average. Customer service has really gone downhill since moving to the new location. Seems like they don't care. Halal certificate states chicken is slaughtered with a mechanical knife. I will let you make your own judgment on that.

We are visiting Miami for about a week. Decided to try out many of the halal places near the Miami metro area. We went to this restaurant for a dinner. Food was average quality. Clean dining area. However, the beef that was in the fried rice was very hard and tasted old. My wife ordered a hamburger with french fries. Her sandwich was OK. Fries were good fresh made. The samosa tasted old. I would not give them more than 3 stars.

being in south florida for past 30 years or more we decided to review resturants in our area of miami and fort lauderdale. we been to soo many resturants in these years that is amazing, some opened and closed fatster than we could drive there, and some been in bizz for a long time, some has very good food and still empty and some have horrible food but pack with people, dont understand that. lets review this place now.i know ellis , she is an old lady who used to have a food place in newyork and later at unversity and taft. she is very well know for her halal subs. i like steak and cheese subs and spicy chciken subs, they are out of this world. they used to have an employee name aman, who was a great person and knew everyone, he had a great PR. they names a sub after his aman sub which is actually the best sub they have. chicken wings are good fresh and other food like nihari and haleem is great to, but if you in a mood for latin halal food , finger food , and american food then this is theeee best place in south florida. the prices are low or reasonable. place is clean and well setup with welcoming atmosphere. i go there often and do recomend to everyone i hope my review helped you. enjoy ur meal !

did not like the food at all ! they're trying to do so much all at once when they should focus on one type of food ! very disappointing!

FOOOD IS AMAZING! service is nothing special. I followed them from previous location. The subs, chinese, indian are all fantastic. Coming from Orlando, the drive is well worth the food.

The new location of this restaurant is decorated very nicely and more importantly very clean. The same desi, bombay-style chinese and american food items carried over onto the menu. In addition, they now have Peruvian food (which I have not tried yet). Elie's remains my favorite desi joint in south florida, hands down. Yes, they are famous for the spicy chicken sub, but they have incredible bbq (I especially love the chicken tikka bbq), great pizza (halaal turkey pepperoni even available), and greeat chinese food too. Great service, great food... I will continue to go there on a weekly basis.

excellent place to eat at. i followed them from old place . tatse and quality is same great. was worth travelling 45 miles as i live in miami..will go there again.

Great Halal place, with a large menu. Favorites such as philly cheesesteak, jerk chicken and other sandwiches persist at this new location. Peruvian Halal menu is also available. New location is much nicer and cleaner. Check it out. Hospitable staff as alwasy.