Delhi Darbar

Worst experience ever! We ordered delhi darbar special biryani, chicken naan and rogan josh… the biryani had no taste whatsoever.. it was literally tasteless.. the chicken naan didn’t taste like chicken at all. it tasted more like paneer paratha without salt… and the goat roganjosh was not that bad. but it not cooked properly. so we had to return it and ask them to cook it properly.
Overall i would not recommend this place. This was the 1^st time we went there and would definitely not go again… and there was a wierd chlorine taste in all of their dishes.

Was walking from my home in Crescent Heights with my mother about 6 years ago to go to Namskar. Which we thought was just ok but we love indian. Then we saw this little hole in the wall across the street so we gave it a shot.
Best decision we ever made. Have been going there ever since, the staff recognize us instantly and are super friendly and wonderful. The cooks make wonderful food. It’s just unfortunate how little business they get.
We moved to Cranston and we still make the trip about once a month because we haven’t found anything that has come close to Delhi Darbar!
Thanks for the amazing food you guys!

Two reviews here one for all you can eat and off the menu.
So we love coming here for all you can eat we always come around 5:30 just right after it opens so. I can get the freshest food. Pretty good butter chicken (off the menu much better some how) I don’t really like butter chicken. A simple spread of meat and veg dishes. When we went I was delighted to have a fish fry dish.
I like they have mango fruit cream for dessert along with a carrot one also just as delicious this one is served warm yum! My husband has like 3 bowls of the mango fruit cream.
Now off the menu review. We got the butter chicken way better somehow like I said. And beef vindaloo and veg dish. I like that they asked me how hot I wanted it as my husband doesn’t like a lot of spice. Fresh naan yum yum

Last night I randomly picked this place.
The place was empty. The only two people sitting upfront are the cooks. At a table by the bar playing with their cellphones. Another gent sitting in the bar area. Talk about uncomfortable and unprofessional.
We were offered the menu and the buffet. Should have took the menu. The taste was almost there. Just the food was luke warm. Mmmm… hardly warmed meat. I could imagine the bacteria floating around in it.
I’d probably not eat here again but I’d wonder if they are just warming up dishes in the back.
One great thing they had going for them was the Naan. Was excellent.

For the number of times I’ve eaten take-​out from here, it’s surprising that this was the first time I’ve dined in. I needed a quick dinner between work and visiting with a friend, so the buffet was a perfect option.
First things first… the fish pakoras are a must, and thankfully, there was a fresh batch that made it onto the buffet shortly after I arrived. They are tender, delicious and so packed with flavor that I can never pass them up. Naan, papadums, and veggie samosas were also freshly prepared.
On to the curry… I had a little bit of the mutter paneer, butter chicken, beef vindaloo, lamb curry, and a couple of others that were just as delicious. Saffron rice was perfect, as was the raita, mint chutney, tamarind sauce and my-​oh-​my the pickle… that’s got to be the best spicy pickle I’ve ever had in my life!
I was stuffed to the gills, but I just had to go on… a little kheer and gulab jamun to accompany the last of my fabulous chai (and the chai is first-​rate, by the way). Dessert did not disappoint. I only wish I would have had room to try the ras malai and mango pudding too!
Take it from me, it is so worth it to hunt for a good parking spot to eat here, so take the time to enjoy the buffet, drop in for take out or order from
!

We went for their dinener buffet. For a person like me that loves various stews, this place rocks. It had at least 10 difference yummy stews. Specifically I loved their methi chicken, beef korma and butter chicken. Their mango fruit cream was nothing special.
Their dessert was not that much attractive to me. Their golab jamun was too sweet for me and there was not many choices. Saying that, I liked their carret pudding and rice pudding.
Staff were nice and décor was decent.

I only came for the lunch buffet, so I’m sure its much different than the ordered menu entrees.
Great variety in the buffet line. With a few things I haven’t tried before, a few standard items like butter chicken, and a few unfortunately missing (I like my dal and aloo gobi).
The flavor is a bit dull, and I was hoping for some more spice in their curries. And a few of the curries were too watery and runny, which made it difficult to get a decent scoop with the naan. The naan on the other hand was fresh out of the oven, with plenty of garlic and flavor.
So I was a bit underwhelmed with the taste of the buffet items, but the price was right. Definitely cheaper than any Indian lunch buffet in downtown, and pretty close to what you pay in the Falconridge area (aka, the Indian Restaurant District).

Ah Unilocal,you should allow half stars. I would rather give this 3.5 stars, so I opted to go lower instead of higher.
I love indian food and having several vegetarian/​vegan friends, we tend to go out for it quite a bit. I love seeing the variations between all the different places.
Delhi Darbar is a nice quiet place on 16^th. I have never seen the place packed, but it definitely has some of the best food in the city. I’ve never been to the buffet, but I’ve had dinner here a few times and it’s always delicious. I highly recommend trying it!
That being said, last time I was here, the service was really slow and it did take awhile for the food to come out. I think service could use a little more attentiveness and it would go up in the rating.

One of the top Indian Restaurants in Calgary.
Delhi Darbar has actually been on the Calgary restaurant scene for a while, working out of a Glenmore Trail location for four years before moving to their current location on 16 Ave NE.
Like many Indian restaurants in the city, their menu is filled with delicious-​sounding vegetarian and non-​vegetarian choices, with specialty items highlighted in red.
They also have a short «fusion» menu with items that I had not seen anywhere else in Calgary. It was difficult to decide what to order!
Special NOTE — 80% of Menu is Gluten Free and Friendly
Lunch Buffet Monday to Friday $ 13.00 a
Dinner Buffet Monday to Wednesday $ 20.00
Wednesday Nights if you are lucky they sometimes play Bollywood Movies
Jai Ho

Another excellent Indian restaurant. I think I got persuaded to visit after reading some good reviews on Unilocal.
It is a block or two away from Namskar, my current favourite Indian restaurant in town. From the outside, Delhi Darbar is easy to miss. Anyway, when I went, it was empty, and I couldnt understand why. We ordered an array of dishes, and loved every one of them. Their naan stood out. It was garlicky and absolutely delicious. I could eat it by itself!
Service was attentive, and price was fair. I will definitely return and try their buffets one day!
⁷⁄₃₀

Wanted to have a look at the entrée menu but the server convinced us to have the buffet. He didn’t want us to use the coupon we had for a discount off an entrée menu and it would also mean not having to prepare more food. This was a little upsetting and not a good start to the meal.
The rice had a bit of saffron in it which was nice and the samosas weren’t amazing but they weren’t bad either. Everything else was pretty bad, however. I don’t question the food’s freshness but the preparation wasn’t very good and 100% westernized to the point where I wouldn’t call it «Indian» at all.
I had first tried the Beef «Vindaloo» but it turned out to be bbq sauce. I’m not kidding. It was BBQ sauce. The «beef» appeared to be more like scraps from the preparation of the evening’s entre dishes. It was very fatty, tiny pieces overcooked to the point where it was shredding as it was being scooped from the food tray.
I then tried a bit of the butter chicken thinking that it’s a hard dish to mess up but they disappointed here, too. The sauce was thickened with corn starch. Curries are supposed to be cooked until the desired consistency but it appears as though these cooks hasten the process with corn starch which made for a bland curry. Actually it wasn’t bland. It was sweetened like all the other curries which I find quite strange.
Then I tried the «Chicken 56» which turned out to be a thickened tobasco sauce dish (again with corn starch). It tasted very gross and the chicken was way way way overcooked.
I do NOT recommend eating at this place because the food is very low quality compared to practically any other Indian place in the city.

Just stopped in for buffet lunch today and I was extremely disappointed.
Food: The food has been totally westernized. It is bland, lacking the spices and full-​bodied flavours that Indian food is known for. I tried 3 different curries and each one was bland and overly sweetened. The naan bread seemed flat, probably because it was store-​bought. I also tried the «mango fruit cream» or something and it was filled with canned fruit (like Del Monte canned fruit). Talk about lack of pride in food preparation!
Service: When we first arrived, we asked for a menu but were talked out of it by the server «because the buffet is hot and fresh and you should get that instead». Also, we were left alone the entire time and not really asked any questions like, «How is the food?»
Price: Pretty standard for buffet.
Never eating here again and I would never recommend this place to anyone wanting to eat Indian food.
Go to Mirch Masala, Tandoori Hut or Taj Mahal (in order of personal preference) instead.

I really enjoyed my meal here.
There was a variety of curries which all tasted different (sometimes you go places, especially buffets, and you can tell that the curries are pretty much all the same with a different meat or vegetable tossed in).
My favorites were the butter chicken, the chili chicken, and the cabbage curry dish! So good! The na’an was really good here. Not too oily but very soft and easy to tear.
The spice level was really good as well. I generally can’t taste spice anymore because I think I’ve burnt my taste buds from eating spicy food but the food here wasn’t too spicy but not too mild either.
I really enjoyed the desserts here, especially the mango fruit custard. The fruits used are some of my favorite — honeydew, pineapple, mango. Yum. I really liked the carrot dessert too, it is really sweet, and maybe it’s because of all the butter (so I feel guilty eating too much).
I’m really glad I got to try this place! It was a pretty good price for the variety they offered, and the service was really good as well. Very friendly and always nearby with the water jug (especially when there are a lot of curries it’s nice to reset your taste-​buds between so you can differentiate the tastes of each curry and I especially hate when Indian restaurants leave you hanging for water or don’t have any other alternate palette cleanser).

I popped into catch the dinner buffet with a few Unilocalers. and little did I know, a lesson on how to eat said Indian food from Vishnu V.
Delhi Darbar is one of those spots I probably never would’ve wandered into had it not been for Tiffany N’s review. From the outside, it’s in a bit of a sketch row on 16^th Ave. The interior was a different story thankfully! No sketchiness here. The resto isn’t exactly a hole in the wall, but it isn’t huge. And on a Thursday evening, it certainly wasn’t busy. We had a reservation, but didn’t appear to need one. We had our pick of tables at 7pm.
The buffet had a decent selection. About 6 different kinds of chutney, some salads, and a good 10 other dishes to eat with rice or naan. There was no naan by the buffet, but a basket was brought out fresh for our table.
Food lesson: Papadum. I was never really sure what to do with these oversized, ultra thin and crispy chips, so I’d break off a piece and dip it in a chutney. Turns out you’re supposed to mix your chutney with rice, eat a forkful of it and then take a bite of your papadum. Another piece I didn’t know was to tear off a piece of naan and use it to scoop up some of your food, kind of like a mini taco, rather than using it as a bread shovel (food shovel? Smooth Wendy.).
Overall impression: The service was spot on 4 stars. Our server came back periodically, kept our water glasses filled and was all around just a pleasant fellow to have serving us. The buffet didn’t impress me much, it was ok, but the $ 18.95 we paid seemed a little steep for what we were getting.
Since my visit, a few friends have commented about how good the food is off the menu, so if you’re thinking of heading in, perhaps do that and skip the buffet.

Been here today for a dinner buffet. Being a foodie, I was very much excited abt the taste of the food here because of the reviews it had.
But it was not sooo worth the excitement :(. It’s a typical delhi food (capital of india) which is supposed to have a little of sweet taste in it. Not all people would like this taste. So think about it before you go here. Even the chilli chicken didnt taste so spicy (ofcourse few others non-​indians who were with me were emptying their water glasses).
Good things:
I liked the table, it had a rotating disk at the center which made us to easy in grabbing the food.
Many chicken dishes But I liked Honey chicken and chilli chicken, Samosa, potato bhajji, Gulab jamoon (a sweet) and custard. Nt too sure abt beef dishes (as i don’t eat that). They serve kingfisher beer too !!
Things i didn’t like:
Rice wasn’t good. Carrot sweet (gajar halwa) could be much better. Little over priced for the quality we get.
Finally. you wont be left out with disappointment. It is a sure place to try out at least once. Because you get some curries here which u don’t often c at other buffets.

This is one of the best Indian restaurants in Calgary, but lately I’ve been worried for them, as every time I go; there doesn’t seem to be very many customers. Their veg offerings are amazeballs, especially their yellow daal. Even better, the owner is not shy at all about telling you how they prepare things. I’ll probably never be able to get my rice nearly as good as their saffron rice, but getting tips on how they prepared it was pretty damn generous. Their chutneys and dips are so good, I could probably drink them. I’d put that ish on everything! And best of all, their samosas. NOMZ.
I take it back when I said that their move to Crescent Heights was a bad thing. I’m now glad that they’re a bit further away now, because if they were close by, I’d probably eat there every day and have to wear maternity pants everywhere I go. This was the food I requested when I got out of hospital. The first bite was so good I wanted to cry. So please, please, please, go to Delhi Darbar, my favorite Indian restaurant. Go so that I can be safe in the knowledge that it won’t close on me one day. It’s my cocaine!

I was there last week and went with the buffet so we could experience a wider variety of offerings. I found all dishes were excellent and the service was friendly and attentive. I wasn’t a fan of the desserts, but I generally don’t care much for Indian deserts. I will go back.

We were there last night and went with the buffet so we could experience a wider variety of offerings. I tried all items in the buffet, at least 12 different curries, etc.
In my opinion this was North Americanized shopping mall quality. Nothing too risky and the associated lack of intense flavours/​punch. I’ve had much better Indian food in other locations around Calgary.
One thing they did do very well — the naan.

This is my favourite indian buffet place. They have great food and a lot of variety. I hate going to indian restaurants where they dial down the spiciness factor but these guys have some nice spicy dishes for people who are accustomed to indian food. The people who work there are really nice.