Mirchi

Mirchi’s on 12^th… My friend orders from here often. The butter chicken is to die for. However when we opened the tandoori chicken $ 6.95+ we found one piece… that was a little expensive… Naan bread is sooo good. Highly recommend Mirchi

I love the curry here! I had the pleasure of trying the Kotfa, daily vegetable curry, and chicken karahi. It was over the lunch hour, and it wasn’t a buffet anymore (which I like!)
I am very close to giving it a five, but the state of their bathroom makes it hard! I think they had some water problems or something which forced them to close down, and I think they renovated since then. It’s really nice décor but it’s dark in there.
Anyway, everything tastes great. They are spicy enough and full of flavour.
They do have a stone oven so their na’an is actually great!
Prices are medium to high for how big the servings are, but you do get what you pay for. I think this is my favourite E Indian/​Pakastani food in Calgary and its definitely better than any other curry serving restaurants (I know that Indian and Pakastani food differ but in terms of the overall curry flavour/​spice/​etc.) downtown.
Definitely excited to go back again. Great lunch specials on curry!

Great décor, very nice dining room. Food is authentic and of high quality. A worthy destination for dinner.

Very delicious and inexpensive, fantastic service. The butter chicken is amazing as is birani

A Pakistani/​East indian cuisine … That was how it was written on the display board which made me to try out this place. Chose this place for a lunch buffet during a week day. The price was $ 16(ex. tax).
The options in the buffet were not many but tasted good. Veggie options were very less comparatively. Especially the fish curry was tasty. Food was just upto the mark. Yet to try ala carte menu.
May be I would visit this place again as it is a neighbourhood restaurant.
Service was ok. Washrooms were clean enough too.
Overall not a bad place to try.
Unilocal’s 30 day challenge: ¹³⁄₃₀.

The only reason I give them 4 stars is the food took more than 40 minutes to be served. Otherwise the food was tremendous. My favourite was the Goat Biryani and a close second were the Beef Tikka. We also enjoyed the Nihari, goat curry, butter fish seekh kebab and chicken Biryani. Absolute amazing food! Very authentic!

value for money and great food, the butter chicken and naan are the best!!! reasonably priced andd everything is fresh!

The food was amazing. Best Naan bread I have ever had. Samosa’s were spicy but not killer. The biggest surprise was how cheap it was. I will be back

My friend kept raving about this place and their Biriyanis, going so far as to say that it was the best biriyani he has ever had at a restaurant. My friend and I are both no strangers to Indian/​Pakistani food, so I was convinced. So off I went last night!
It was confusing at the entrance because it seemed that the same door led to both Mirchi and this other lounge establishment with a different name. After asking a waiter and confirming that I was actually at Mirchi, I sat down. The restaurant seemed like a section of a giant warehouse turned into a restaurant. Which is cool, but I think the décor here at Mirchi left something to be desired. It seemed too big with too little tables, and too little decoration. And it was cold. Maybe its me, because I get cold very easily, but my dining partner kept saying it was really cold too, and that they should crank up the heating.
Anyway, we knew what we wanted: chicken biryani, kabab and garlic naan. We ordered, and I ran off to the washroom. Upon entering the washroom, things got a bit disastrous. The girl before me came out of the stall saying it was plugged. There were 4 stalls in total — and believe it or not, NONE of the toilets were working! It was a bit ridiculous. So I went outside, and told one of the waiters about the problem, and he told me to use the men’s washroom, after checking to see that no one was in there. Yeah. I used the men’s washroom. (What? I needed to go! Desperate times call for desperate measures!)
Anyway, after this wacky bathroom situation was over and done with, I came back to the table. Our food shortly arrived. I dug into the biryani. Meh. Really, it was not special. At all. I was baffled as to what my friend was raving about. I would not even call this biryani. It was more like mildly flavoured rice with some chicken folded in. I know what GOOD biryani is, and this is NOT it! Then I bit into the kebab, and it was good! So was the naan! Thank goodness. We gobbled up our 3 dishes, and decided we needed more food. Maybe my partner and I are ravenous eaters (well, we are), but the portions were not very big. We asked for a ‘chicken karahi’ and another naan. Both were pretty good. We took some of the chicken karahi to go.
All in all, did not live up to my expectations. Food was okay. I have been to some much better Indian restaurants in town, that are not even in the Northeast. And the bathroom scenario, oh my.

Love this place, even though they kept getting rid of all the stuff I like! Maybe because I was the only one ordering it :(Their veggie samosas were amazing, and I loved coming in and watching the guy in the back make them. He’s so fast! They had a veggie kabab, but got rid of that too. I’d come in almost every day before for lunch, order whatever veggie curry they had that day and sit with the newspaper while they prepared it for me. Then I’d proceed to inhale it along with their roti or naan. My favorite is the daal.
If you’re wandering around downtown late at night, Mirchi is open until midnight! They used to be open until last call. Recommend this place to anyone who wants decent Indian or Pakistani food downtown!

The location on 12^th Avenue and 8^th Street SW is much superior to their new location on 2^nd. 12^th is not licensed but Pakistani food, if served properly, does not include alcohol at all. Muslims do not drink alcohol. Seating is sparse but it is well worth the wait and it is the restaurant of choice, downtown, for Calgary’s Pakistani population.
Nothing is over priced and everything is superbly prepared. I have eaten here well over 100 times and have tried everything on the menu. The goat chops are succulent and melt in your mouth, the karahi dishes are properly spiced with huge portions and very tender. For the adventurous they serve paya (cow or goats trotters), haleem which is lentils and shredded beef, and nihari which is a traditional Pakistani beef curry. All are 100 percent authentic. For those more finicky, try the chicken curry which will fall off of the bone. They do serve butter chicken but that is an Indian dish not Pakistani.
Two people can dine for $ 35 and be stuffed silly. Your mouth will sense what you have eaten long after you left.

Food was delicious. They don’t serve alcohol here (just as an FYI, in case you wanted to get drinks with your dinner), but that certainly doesn’t detract from the overall experience. Great décor. Overall nice experience. We ordered the Butter Chicken, Afghani Tikka, Naan, along with another chicken dish and a vegetable dish. Very filling, and I would recommend dining here. Service was very friendly.

In terms of service, speed and convenience of location, Mirchi gets 5 stars hands down.
In terms of the food itself however, I’m sorry, but only 4 stars. Yes, the food is super fresh and well prepared, however it does not make my list for ‘tastiest Indian food in Calgary.’ In fact, despite the fact that Mirchi is downtown and that I live downtown, I’d still much rather make the trek to some of the other Indian restaurants in town because the food is tastier elsewhere.
I have to hand it to Atif the owner though, he let me walk in, place my order and pay even before the restaurant had opened. I’m grateful for his hospitality :)
Like I said, the service was stellar… I just wish my taste buds were left feeling a little happier.

The food is very very good, very tasty, highly recommend going.
We went as a group for the buffet lunch and all the dishes were well made.
The Tandoori chicken — moist, which is a surprise from other buffets I’ve been to where it’s been dry throughout.
Goat curry — money dish! — was well spiced, fall-​off-​the-​bones type of dish. If you have ever wanted to try goat curry, this is the place.
Nan — fresh and good.
Butter chicken — one of the better ones I’ve tasted. Not so much of a buttery cream texture to the sauce, more of a kick to it, very nice.
Lentils — burns so good to the belly.
For desert — rice pudding (KIR, sorry if I have the spelling wrong). — Another MONEY DISH. Not so sweet you feel your teeth falling out at other places I’ve been to, nicely sweet, everyone at our table cleaned off their dishes.
Other items:
Décor — very upscale, very classy. Nice chairs /​tables /​wrap-​around seating at the front.
Service — excellent service, eager and pleasant staff.
Music — a little bit loud, should turn it down a bit.
I will derfinitely return or oder to go, great restaurant!

We decided to give Mirchi a try. Mirchi has a lunch buffet for $ 13.99/person. Lunch buffet is only on Mon — Fri.
The buffet spread had the following:
— naan — brought out fresh
— basmati rice
— tandoori short ribs — delicious but find it hard to eat. I do like to suck the bones after!
— tandoori chicken — so moist and tender
— goat curry — OMG!- one of the best goat curries I’ve ever had! NB: Watch for the bone splinters.
— butter chicken — pretty good
— lentils — one of my fave dishes, made with green lentils and tiny hints of red peppers in a cream sauce
— zuchinni curry — peppery hot — dished out a whole green chilli in the curry — that’s probably what is spicing it up!
— potatio & green pepper curry
— pakora
— cucumber, carrot, onion mix
— romaine lettuce with pieces of cold tandoori chicken
— raita for salad dressing — yogurty creaminess
Spice Level: For a Pakistani restaurant, I’d say the spice level is a 4 stars out of 5. It is more spicy than any Pakistani restaurants I’ve been to.
If there’s no buffet, it’s alacarte. That would be something to try out!
One little warning though: the restaurant is set in the basement and there’s a set of stairs from the sidewalk to the door of the restaurant. At the landing/​bar, there’s another set of 5 stairs to the actual restaurant.
Also, I find the music a tad too loud for my taste. I think they might need to tone it down a bit.
Parking is on the street parking.
Will definitely come back for the food, for sure.

A celebration dinner for my best friend took me and the crew to the new Mirchi on 2^nd Avenue SW. The place is gorgeous and the owner who used to oversee the 10^th avenue location was there donning a very dapper suit and watch. We had a reservation and sat in a luxurious table for 6. The place was dripping with luscious fabrics, reds and blacks. The ornaments were tasteful and the restaurant is basically a very elegant place to have delicious South Asian food.
Our lovely waitress and only waitress this evening serving over 12 tables was very warm yet formal and she took our mango lassie orders and food orders in good time. The place had dim mood lighting and great fusion Bollywood tunes. The food took quite a long time to come however but we were in an especially patient mood, so gifts were then passed to my friend and more conversation enveloped the space before the first appetizer was served.
We ordered tons of plates, from the lamb chops, to curried prawns, chicken skewers to spinach and potato curry, it was so amazing, side baskets of Naan bread were ordered as well as basmati rice and yogurt sauce. We must of had 10 plates on the table, including a nice refreshing cucumber salad and coleslaw salad mixture with diced carrots and cabbage.
To round off the meal we ordered saffron ice cream, gulab jamon, and sponge cake. I highly recommend this new location to anyone who wants to go on a romantic date or would like to gather with a small intimate group of people and feast.