Haveli Indian Cuisine

So let down by the quality, service and atmosphere of the Holcomb bridge location.
The food at the Sunday buffet was bland, LUKEWARM, had there was a very limited selection. The service was slow and the atmosphere was not good. The cook was walking around the restaurant with a dirty white shirt and pants.
A couple of hours after eating I had a really badly upset stomach.
I wish I knew how to turn this restaurant in to the Health department for food sanitation and safety. I did not see a Health inspection report posted.

I’ve only ordered delivery via Grub Hub. I really like the food. The driver (who I think is the owner) is super nice and always pleasant when delivering. We’ve had paneer, daal, mulligatawny soup, and tandoori chicken. Everything is always delicious, and the fact that they deliver is a plus! I would say the reason I don’t give it five stars is because the raita is not consistent, which is one of my favorite parts of an Indian meal.

Maybe…
Having eaten at the Marietta Haveli, I had low expectations for Haveli’s Holcomb Bridge branch. (Why then did I come? A meat-​and-​potatoes friend gave me a certificate she won in a raffle.)
I have to say, our initial meal was really really good. Samosas are samosas, so we started on a good note. My chicken tikka was perfect: wonderfully seasoned, moist, plentiful. (Unfortunately, basmati rice is not included with what they designate as «sizzling» dishes.) My husband ordered lamb kabobs. He thought they were so good, he didn’t offer me a taste! (I noticed that his portion was considerably smaller than mine.)
And now for the «maybe.» On a subsequent visit with a group of people, I again ordered chicken tikka. This time It was dry/​dry/​dry. Other dishes like chicken korma, chicken tikka masala and a lamb dish were over-​run with gravy. The nan that was supposed to have fruit, had none. Merely a whiff and not as good as regular nan. The poori was nondescript.
Since I really liked Haveli the first go ’round, I’ll try again. But after that, onward and upward!

Only reason i went here is because i had a Groupon. Im of Indian descent, i eat Indian food 365 days a year, i’ve eaten Indian food in from 5 star hotels to the the back alleys of Delhi, Mumbai and many other cities. Bottom line is… i fakking know Indian food!
So that being said lets continue :)
Ambiance was dull, old carpets, old everything… very dated feeling. Not a problem… i’m not here to stare at the carpet. im here to EAT.
Service was slow… this one poor guy was taking orders, bringing out the food, answering phone calls and what not… you catch my drift?
Food was okay. Nothing to get crazy psyched about.
I ordered a few different naans and asked the waiter not to butter them up, when they arrived they were all buttered :(
Tandoori chicken was okay… i’ve had better.
Raita was watered down. Sizzler plate (the most expensive item on menu) offered different meats… but was meh. My friend got the lamb korma and it was the wackest korma i’ve ever had! Too sweet, not thick enough, orangey color… i think this dish would be better off being called butter lamb… as in butter chicken. Mango lassi was okay as well… it’s not mango season right now and i could tell they used canned mango pulp.
The dessert is why i bumped them down to 1 star. I asked the waiter what dessert i should get and he said «gulaab jamun.» Im guessing the reason he said gulaab jamun was because they don’t go bad easily and are readily available in cans. Anyways, I got the kheer and rasmalai. The kheer was basically milk and sugar mixed together with cooked basmati rice thrown in it. Very lackluster and disappointing. I mean if you put some Haveli kheer in front of me and some Arroz con Leche, i would’ve picked the Arroz con Leche as the kheer… that’s how bad it was. The rasmalai was ROTTEN, it had gone bad… like fungus growth ROTTEN. I tasted it and spat it back into the tray, payed my bill and ran out of Haveli.
…and i was the only Indian there… go figure!
NEVER GOING BACK AGAIN.

Very sub-​par. Despite a frequent Groupon for this place, my fiancé and I went and happily paid full price, considering it is now the closest Indian food place to our new residence in Norcross.
His chicken tikka was ok but my chicken mahkni was atrocious. Firstly, it was dark meat, not breast — is that ever how it’s done? Second, there were a good amount of BONES in it! Like borderline dangerous. I didn’t finish it, which says a lot for me and butter chicken.
Inside, the place is run down and sad. Our waiter was nice.

One of the better Haveli’s. The naan is brought out fresh to your table instead of sitting under a heat lamp. The buffet is pretty big with several curries, 2 rice dishes, appetizers, sambar (soup), salad and 2 deserts. Everything was warm and delicious.
The service is very friendly and quick, we never waited more than a minute for drinks or naan. For $ 9, it’s a great meal.
***For the 1,000 people that bought the groupon: checking out is super easy. No confusion, no stupid requirements, no loop holes. Just flash the app and your done.

We had the lunch Buffett here and it’s really good, specially the chicken tandoori and the goat curry.

For some unknown reason, my review from 2011 has «disappeared». So here goes again, with a few edits:
«Bay Leaves (which closed last year), had a simple but good buffet that often included what was to become one of my favorite dishes — curried cabbage. Yes, cabbage. It was wonderful. After Bay Leaves closed, I searched for another place with a good curried cabbage. I found it at Haveli Indian Cuisine in Alpharetta. Don’t get me wrong, I also like the other vegetable and meat offerings, but I LOVE the cabbage.
I saw some of the other less than stellar reviews here. But I promise you, when the food comes out fresh to the buffet, it is very, very good, at least to my non-​native-​Indian tongue. The waiters (Hari and Pushpu) have always been pleasant and helpful to me. When you go, tell them that Joe sent you.»
Since I wrote that review in 2011, Pushpu’s wife (Neelum) came to the U.S. from Nepal and has joined the staff as a waitrees and she is a treasure — sweet and helpful. Also, the restaurant has been remodeled a bit so that regular diners and large parties have separate seating, which is great for people like me that don’t like crowds. And I still go there as often as possible.

It is pretty disappointing when a longtime stalwart of Indian cuisine in Atlanta has fallen so badly. The restaurant (in name, at least) has been around forever and I’m not sure if it is still run by the original owners anymore.
I went during lunch one day.
Tandoori chicken: Dry and hard with weak seasoning
Chicken Tikka Masala: Yes, I know this isn’t really Indian but if they serve it it should be good. The sauce was weak without the normal rich, tomato taste that you expect. It was clear there wasn’t any coconut cream or milk in it.
Goat curry: Watery sauce with very tough meat. It tasted boiled rather than simmered.
I really expected more from such an established chain.

This place is disgusting. I rarely write reviews but our experience here was beyond bad. The meat was tough, the waiter surly and the price was too much for the sub-​par food. I wouldn’t feed the food to my dog. I would give it no stars if Unilocal would let me, because there is nothing to recommend this place. Save your money and go somewhere else.

Don’t you dare visit this place. It serves such bad food — uncooked. If I complain or rather politely tell the chef who came to ask us how the food was, he simply ignores my complaint and walks away. What a POOR service?
The food is pricey. The quality stinks. Service is terrible.
Doesn’t deserve to be a restaurant.
Chicken Tandoori is what we ordered and was not cooked at all inside. It was just pained orange and black on the outside and served.

Have not been to the other Haveli restaurants, but this one is right next to my house. I have only been for dinner, not the buffet at lunch.
Food:
Good, solid Indian food. Nothing fancy, but always yummy. The Nan bread is awesome! They have lots of options. I really like the lamb options– especially the Lamb Vindaloo. They are also really good at adjusting the spiciness of dishes upon request.
Ambiance:
Not so good. Looks kinda old and shabby. Very dated. Clean, but otherwise not much to speak of.
Service:
SLOW. Not the food coming out, but the actual server. There has only ever been one guy working when I go. He is nice but often doesn’t even notice when we come in and are waiting to be seated. Then he often walks to the kitchen or to the other side of the restaurant and you are unable to get his attention if you need something, like more water.
Overall, I continue going because the food is reasonably priced, always yummy, and despite the disinterested service– it’s usually a pleasant experience.

We recently went here for Mother’s Day on a Sunday at 5PM due to the kiddo’s. The restaurant was mostly empty — which was the intent with young kids in tow! The staff was extremely courteous and helpful as my husband likes to ask lots of questions. The appetizers of vegetable pakoras were really good. The restaurant provides complimentary papad and chutneys. We ordered a couple of dishes and all very extremely yummy! The only reason I gave it 3 stars was because the food was luke warm and not piping hot. We will definitely give this place another chance as the food was good enough (if not better) to rival The Palace and Café Bombay and was a little less expensive.

I think this is the third separate Haveli location around Atlanta that I’ve eaten at in the past decade. The one in Marietta was the first Indian buffet I was exposed to. I’ve always found them to be solid and enjoyable, although rarely mind blowing.
My favorite’s always been the saag paneer and their naan.

Stopped by here for the lunch buffet. I stopped in at 12:30 pm, and to my surprise, I was the only one in the place, but I decided to try it anyway.
Service was good… I had the lunch buffet with a water. My water was kept filled the entire time, but I am not sure the waitress spoke any English at all… but she was pleasant and smiled a lot.
Buffet, in my opinion, was very average for the $ 9.95 price tag. Some of the food was lukewarm even though under warming lamps. I had to ask for bread after a couple trips up to the buffet to see if they had put any out… and they made me some fresh, which was nice. The Tandoori Chicken was very good, but that is about the extent of «very good» food. The rest was average, lukewarm temperature wise, and the taste was rather bland. Their Indian donuts (not sure what you call them) where swimming in the syrup and were so saturated with the stuff, it tasted as if they had been in there for 5 days.
Choices…there was a salad type bar and a food bar. The food bar included 1 soup (vegetable that day), a tray of rice, probably 5 different types of liquid type items to put over rice (some had beans in the liquid, some had meat), and then another 3 items that were meat (Tandoori Chicken, Goat Meat (yipes), and I forget the other one… also bread tray which, as I said, was empty.
Overall, the place is average… but I am certain there are much better choices in the Alpharetta area.

The fair review is that the food is very good and the service is very good as well. Big portions, and really delicious meal. It have been there more than 4 times and will go there again.
Here is the truth, if you want fresh food and get the real taste of their Indian food, you would have to go for the dinner. There is a difference in the quality of lunch buffet and the dinner, but for $ 9.99 what do you expect to get?

The service was very good when I was there. (It was an off-​hour — there were few people dining.) The tea was very good, as was the naan, but the food I ordered was *extremely* salty (paneer tikka masala).;

I don’t understand the negative reviews on this place!
We’ve now been to the Alpharetta Haveli twice and have been delighted each time! We are Brits, so we know a thing or two about Indian cuisine. Haveli offers a fairly broad menu — all the things you’d expect, plus some items you might not. The food is excellent — the spicy stuff is really spicy, and the milder items are mild — but all are very tasty.
Unlike many Indian restaurants, we found the service to be great — friendly and efficient. It sports a small bar — we have not tried mixed drinks (usually not a good choice in Atlanta Indian establishments) but there’s a decent choice of wines and the usual beers — including Indian choices.
It’s a large place, so I imagine there will always room for a small or large group. Net, net — highly recommended!

I went a few months ago. I love Indian food, so I really wanted this place to flourish. Unfortunately, the food was so-​so and the service was terrible. Won’t go back.

The previous occupant of this space was an Indian-​themed restaurant called «Pan-​American Buffett.» It appeared to be run by a mother and teenage sons. I tried it 2 – 3 times but never went back because it never improved.
«Haveli» recently took over and I recognized that logo as being a longtime metro Atlanta restauranteur («Since 1985″ according to the text on the door). Well, as hard to imagine but Haveli has actually taken this space DOWN A FEW NOTCHES!
I recently visited for a monday lunch with my favorite dining companion. The first red flag was the lack of any other diners at the peak of lunch hour, though I attributed that to the fact the place was „relatively“ new.
The second red flag was „Haveli“ had actually CUT the number of ‘buffet’ items in half from what Pan-​American had put out WITH NO IMPROVEMENT. And the quality that of what they did put out was beyond disappointing… there was some sad, dank curries, a few forlorn pieces of tandoori chicken, there was cold, unappetizing chat and cold vegetable dishes. It all smacked of being leftovers from the previous Sunday.
This was all ‘served’ in the same surroundings (that have grown ever more dismal) that have marked this location since it was opened in the early 90s as ‘City Lights» … to make it even worse: the «waitress» who had a low command of english asked if we wanted anything to drink. I responded with ‘ice tea’, ‘sweet tea?” She looked a bit sheepish and confused.
About halfway through the ‘meal’, I saw her talking to someone in the back room and he was apparently mixing up the tea at that very moment. She served it and it tasted like colored water. Though she poured herself a glass at the back bar.
To finalize this review: the guy from the back room, («stylishly clad in a white t-​shirt») came out to ring us up. The ‘buffet’ was $ 9.99 each and they had the audacity to charge an additional $ 1.99 for the wretched tea. The guy actually had the gall to ask «How was the food?» I actually sputtered at the price for the tea… and could not look him in the eye about the food. There is no way that he could not know they have an imperfect product.
If I could give a «negative five» stars (–5) than that is what they would get. I don’t see this place lasting the year, much less through summer. Good riddance! Make an effort, Haveli.