Nirvana the Flavors of India

From outside, look old place but interior was nice. Due to long weekend, could not book table but owner/​manager was helpful to accommodate big group while we walked in.
Food looks good and fresh. We ordered few entrees, naan, appetizer and rice.
Hara bhara kebab was good but the chutney, specially green was ok… more mint flavour than any other ingredient.
Paneer tikka masala and Baingan bharta was good. Beans in Kadai vegitable taste uncooked or undercooked.
Dum veg beriyani was great.
Garlic naan disappointed as can see garlic on naan but no garlic taste.
Sweet lassi was good.
Overall good experience.

This place always has the best Indian food, hands down. The flavours are always vibrant and the sauce is never watered down. It’s thick and hearty. The menu has a large variety of items, including many you don’t see at other Indian restaurants. I never leave reviews on Unilocal,but this was enough to compel me. Only downside is the décor is a bit outdated.

Nice clean atmosphere.
The staff was very friendly and helpful with menu recommendations.

Terrible. I would be humiliated to bring my Indian family here. Will never return. Many other places to choose from in Mississauga.

The. Naan. Is. Great.
Been to Nirvana a few times, the first few as a last-​minute decision to stop over. Always, it’s been a good experience. These days, it’s a go-​to for us — as people that love Indian food, for our palates we’ve found Nirvana’s offerings to be among the most flavorful. :)
The seating is spacious and the atmosphere is pretty nice. Some nights can get pretty crowded, however, so if you’re looking for a quieter experience try heading there at the start of their dinner service — 5:30PM or so. Service has never disappointed, and their prices are affordable.
And again, the flavor of their naan is memorable :) Made to order from a Tandoor oven (visible behind glass to the dining area), they offer some creative variations: Cheese filled naan (filled with paneer) and Chicken Keema Naan (filled with diced chicken) are among our favorites, along with the classic Nirvana (coriander and garlic) Naan.
They offer takeout and delivery within Mississauga as well!

i love your food and service consistency is excellent every time we got there. simply marvelous.10/10

I’ve been to Nirvana twice — the first time was for a corporate event in their private room, the second time for a weekday dinner.
As the organizer for the event, I was very happy with how it ran. The food came out hot and our guests were pleased with the selection — I believe they had about 6 or 7 different veg & non-​veg options. Our waitress was very sweet and attentive to our party of about 12. The audio/​visual set up was also great.
For my second visit, we ordered samosas, butter chicken, and daal makhani. The butter chicken had this wonderful smokey flavour that I haven’t tasted in butter chicken at other restaurants and I liked that the daal had kidney beans in it (which may be typical, but it’s not how we usually make it at home, so a nice change). My bf was a little peaved when we had to pay $ 4 for onions — he’s from India and (quite strongly) believes that onions accompany a meal and should be free… I’m not sure I agree, but something worth considering if you’re an onion fanatic.
Our meal was about $ 50 for the two of us, which seems a little on the pricey side for Indian food, but overall, it was a good meal and I would definitely recommend for a work event.

Fantastic food! Malai Koftas and Hara Bhara kebaab are to die for! The owners and managers are excellent! Can’t wait to come back!

Go here only if you want to enjoy the décor and ambience and not food. And specially don’t try biryani, they call it biryani but it is chicken mixed rice.

Good décor, classy looks. Mediocre food. Nothing special. I think they couldn’t make 5 star hotel food and while trying to make food like Sheraton or taj or oberois they missed the Punjabi dhaba food also. So good isn’t bad. It’s not great either. Full marks for décor. Too bad I can’t eat décor.

I’ve been here many times over the years. Things aren’t the same anymore. Food tastes bland, nothing special. Service is slower than you’d expect. Staff is friendly however. Appetizers were the best part of the meal. And definitely on the pricier side for an Indian restaurant of this caliber.

The two stars are for the only two meat dishes that were good, the Goat biryani and the Lamb rogan Josh.
We went here for dinner. Two stars deducted for two rickety and shaker chairs on a table of four. One star for lack of knowledge of menu items of service staff, and pompous attitude of supervising lady.
Among other things we ordered:
Drinks:
–Tea (served in a nice pot)
–Soup (came in a porcelain mug style cup)
–Sweet lassi was small, thin and mediocre
–Salted lassi, ditto.
–Samosas (instead of potato fillings, had largely French beans, traces of other veges including potatoes– hmmm leftovers? Thoughts, anyone?)
–chaat paapri– relatively crisp, and passable but chutneys and curd sauces had added color and one could see the synthetic green. not very appetizing for a restaurant with upscale style décor, and decorative pieces, but then also rickety chairs.
MAINS:
— Goat biryani– certainly the star of the dinner, especially in terms of presentation. Baked in a cast iron pot, sealed with a roti to keep it moist. Came with cucumber raita, with cucumbers grated thick and large, instead of fine.
— Lamb rogan josh– Excellently done and great flavors without dripping in oils.
— Lamb saag– the greens were TOO bitter and competing with the oils in quantity. More oils than lamb!
We ordered mission roti, came lathered in grease, not sure if it was butter or oil, but it was not ghee. Would have been nice if they had asked and we could have specified butter, or brought us butter on the side.
Paneer naan was fairly decent.
— Mattar paneer– the worst I have ever tasted. It came in a thick creamy sauce, with a paucity of peas. The paneer was tasteless, the peas were underdone and very scarce, the sauce was pathetic.
Two people came around to ask how was the food. Told them about the lack of peas and showed them the almost untouched dish. The server was sorry that we did not like it, but the supervisor said, «No, it is very good» and went away. You could tell, the peas had not been cooked in the sauce, but separately parboiled and thrown in. They were still green in a yellow sauce.
Considering we ordered do generously, The courtesy of offering a replacement for the ONLY vegetarian item we ordered would have been appreciated, especially considering, that it was mostly untouched.
— DESSERTS–
–Ras Malai– this was the best of the three deserts we ordered, but serving size was SMALL.
— Malai Kulfi– serving size large, medium in taste.
— Gulab Jamun– serving size was large, and sugar content was extra large!
Will neither return not recommend. We had come for the rumali roti, but it is not offered everyday!

Went for the executive lunch buffet. Was very excited after seeing the menu before hand. As is well known, the décor of the restaurant is very regal. It was quite sad to see that the parking lot and the restaurant were nearly empty.
Food:
Appetizers (hara bhara kabob, chicken shashlik) were lukewarm; hara bhara kabob (fried pea-​filled patties) had a unique taste but were too sweet. the chicken shashlik was well-​cooked, but was bland and was not hot enough to really bring out the taste.
We also ordered mango shake, which tasted sweet and mango-​y, but really it was simply a mix of milk, lots of sugar and mango pulp.
The main course, chicken karhayi, paneer tikka masala and nirvana dal, was definitely very good. The curries, the dal and the naan were properly hot, seemed to be freshly made and were perfectly spiced. No disappointments there. Waitress was happy to bring us refills for any of the items.
I was so full from the food, that I basically did not touch the rasmalai, which seem to have the malai watered down (literally).
Service was good.

Food was okay. Wasn’t the greatest but wasn’t bad either. After I left our stomachs started to hurt with their food. I doubt I would ever come back. Also the service isn’t the greatest. The girls working there don’t know how to serve in a professional manner.

Nirvana is a great restaurant. Great lighting and ambience, and exceptional service. The food was flawless, especially the Paneer Tikka Masala — which was the Chef’s special. I would definitely recommend this restaurant!

I went here for a going away party for a coworker.
Dealing with this place is like going through a contract a lot of ammendments.
* no bill splitting
* gratuity is included with the price (so they can get away with bad service)
* only one round for appetizer and dessert
* different prices for vegetarian and non-​vegetarian.
* we bring the food to you rather than you picking it yourself in the portion we choose
* we will bring the food whenever we feel like and make arbitrary choices like waiting for the full party to arrive without checking on whether the main bulk of the party is already ready anyway.
After what felt like forever which is about 30 minutes after arrival is when they started asking what we want to get.
I chose the non-​vegetarian option, though they only had two dishes that are non-​vegetarian and they’re both chicken. The appetizer which only had one round had some chicken dish which wasn’t too bad. The mains only had butter chicken (which is close but relatively of lower par than that of India Sweets).
In typical Indian style, most of their food had a bit of heat, but they were pretty tolerable even for myself so I did enjoy eating a few of their food. Some of the veggie dishes were pretty good.
However, I don’t normally get myself full, unless the food is bad or disagrees with me. The food probably disagreed with me and a few of my colleagues. It had the same feeling as a cheap Mandarin buffet which puts ingredients to make you feel full and leave ASAP. I had to waste eating the left over dessert and I hate wasting food.
Near the end of the terrible service ordeal, the waitress says to the person who was coordinating the payments that we do not split the bills and we already tack on the gratuity as it to add insult to injury.
I only gave this a two star because some of the food made up for the minus 4 star service. And I won’t recommend this place to anyone. How it even got those awards I can just speculate that they must’ve paid someone off or they knew the reviewer was arriving.

Very slow service, poor customer service and bad attitude by staff. We got appetizers, took waiter 45 mins to come back and take dinner order. When he came back 45 mins later he denied that we had placed the order! Didn’t even apologize. And in the 1.5 hours we sat there (and we left without having dinner) no one came and offered to refill our drinks or water. I will never eat here again nor would I recommend it to anyone.

I was in Nirvana.. .
.. . while eating at Nirvana.
This place was great. It makes a really good impression as soon as you walk in, the inside décor is amazing. You feel like you are eating at an Indian palace or something. And as a bonus the seats are well cushioned. I came here for lunch with a few of my co-​workers and we ordered the executive lunch «buffet». It’s sort of a different style buffet where they bring the food to you, and if you want more of anything, they bring more afterwards. It’s actually a very smart strategy because it helps prevent a lot of waste, and the food is always fresh when it comes to you. To be honest, I had no idea what we were eating but it was delicious (and I don’t use that word lightly). The food was very flavourful! The chicken was well cooked and not too dry or chewy.
My only complaint is that it was difficult to get the waiter’s attention to refill our water glasses and for the bill afterwards but I didn’t mind staying there a bit longer since I was so full afterwards. Oh, some of the food is spicy, so I guess watch out for those of you who can’t handle the heat lol. They also offer vegetarian options.
Overall great experience, I would definitely come back here again.
Warning: the food will make you want to take a nap afterwards.

I went to a staff lunch at Nirvana and I thought that the food was pretty great. Very traditional tasting, nice and warm, food brought based on need and most importantly — they were able to tell me what did/didn’t contain gluten! I have been missing Indian food since I was diagnosed with celiac so I was very happy to be able to eat almost everything brought to the table. Unfortunately, I still suffered once I got home, likely from contamination. I would have preferred to have been told that they couldn’t offer me anything that was guaranteed safe, rather than being told I would be fine and they knew there was no contamination.
I give the food and the service 4 stars, but the pain I felt all night deserves a 0.

I visited here with my immediate family and grandparents who are visiting from India. The GPs were immediately taken by the name, wondering what the liberation from samsara and attaining moksha had to do with buffets. «Canadians throw around these terms carelessly,» explained my parents.[1] They all snorted in a way that conveyed «we hope this place doesn’t suck». Tough crowd.
Vedantically accurate or not, Nirvana is a spacious and well-​decorated restaurant situated near Hurontario and Highway 401. It seems well-​suited for groups; there were round tables that could easily accommodate eight or more people. And it’s pretty opulent. There are sculptures and artwork galore. We snagged a circular table for six beneath a chandelier centred in a coffered octagonal ceiling. That’s just how I roll.
We got the Executive Lunch Special ($ 13.99), which is simply malai kofta served in a briefcase. I’m kidding. Actually, the ELS is pitched as a «buffet at your table»; they bring you three dishes (specify vegetarian or meat), daal, raita (yogurt), a generous basket of naan, yellow rice, and galub jamun for dessert. This is perfect for the sedentary buffet-​goer with poor decision-​making skills. They just bring you some of their choices (which change frequently apparently), and it doesn’t even take that long. Within minutes our table was covered with copper containers. To start there were vegetable fritters and boneless lime-​chicken. The green-​tinged chicken was a great start to the meal and there was a lot of it. I would recommend you try it with the brown chutney.
For the mains we got paneer makhni, aloo gobi, curry chicken as well as the aforementioned daal, rice (this was good), and naan. The consensus around the table was that everything was Fine. That’s it. The dishes had a perceptible mix of flavours, but it wasn’t a sensory explosion and certainly not an out-​of-​body religious experience. Spicy and mouth-​watering this food most definitely was not.
Oh, and the galub jamuns were ovoid which is a dealbreaker for me.
That said, it’s a pretty killer deal for a whackload of edibles and the service was very accommodating. I probably won’t make a special trip out here, but if I happen to be in this (Godforsaken) portion of the GTA again, I’d stop by, especially with a group.
Obligatory Title Pun: Come as you are/​as you were/​as an ALOO GOBI.[2]
Menu Readability: I’m sure it’s splendid, in that it’s leather-​bound and all that, but I actually forgot to look. (I was hungry, mkay?)
Need to mention: Even though it’s not a buffet (more like a tonne of food at your table) they treat it as such and you cannot box any leftovers. Lame!
What this place teaches me about myself: I could be the brown Weird Al. (Weird Ali?)
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[1] I imagine it’s the same as a Canadian finding a restaurant in India called Canuck T. McMapleSyrup’s Hockey-​Beer Em-​pour-​ium and Beaver Dam.
[2] Or: «Here we are now/​entertain us/​I want CHHOLE/​and DAHI BARAS.»