Minar Fine Indian Cuisine

Best Indian food in town. The lunch buffet has great options and the food is always fresh. They bring fresh naan to your table. Would recommend to anyone looking for good authentic Indian food. I have never had a bad dish from here and the staff is very friendly!

Looking for an Indian restaurant, I am glad I stumbled upon Minar Fine Indian Cuisine. I enjoyed my times here, which were the lunch and dinner buffets. I did not have the chance to try and order off the menu.
You’re seated as soon as you arrive. There are two dining rooms for patrons with options of dining in, take out, and buffet.
Food is consistently decent with a variety of options for the buffet. There are about 8 options consisting of vegetarian and non-​vegetarian items with a salad bar and dessert. Spice is essentially gone, but the flavor is throughout like the way Indian food should be. I believe Minar Fine Indian Cuisine downplayed the spice level, which is quite disappointing. Naan is included in the buffet but arrives later than your first plate because it is freshly made!
Some items I remember from buffet:
Goat Curry (²⁄₅): Not spicy and had much better before. I didn’t get this again after trying it my first time.
Chicken Tikka Masala (⁴⁄₅): Delicious like always. I think it’s hard to go wrong with Chicken Tikka Masala. Most common dish. Plenty of chicken pieces but went for the sauce to eat with my naan.
Chicken Dilbar (³⁄₅): This was decent. Kind of bland in my opinion compared to the other dishes available.
Chili Chicken (⁴⁄₅): This was the spiciest dish out of all but was not for me. It has a slight sweet taste at the end, kind of like sweet and sour chicken.
Rice Pudding (⁴⁄₅): One of the better ones I’ve tried. Prior to Minar, I tried it at a place where the consistency was not even pudding. It was like soup. Gross.
We ordered Garlic Naan, which was delicious! I highly recommend it to dip it in the sauces.
Service was good and consistent the times I have been here. My water never touched bottom so kudos to that.
Open 7 days a week.
Lunch:
1130AM-​0300PM Monday to Saturday
Lunch Buffet: $ 9.95
1130AM-​0230PM Monday to Saturday
1200PM-​0300PM Sunday
Dinner:
0500PM-​0900PM Monday to Thursday
0500PM-​1000PM Friday and Saturday
Dinner Buffet: $ 11.95
0500PM-​0900PM Tuesday and Wednesday

Love this place! I had a friend in high school originally from Bombay, India & I’ve had her mother’s home cooked food quite often, this is pretty darn close to it! I always go for the buffet, I am a vegetarian & the choices for me do not disappoint! Over the years the restaurant has changed the interior décor, not glamorous, but inviting enough. The staff is
always attentive & friendly, sometimes a language barrier might impede. The buffet menu does vary on certain days, I have never gone to an evening buffet, but my coworker has & raved about it. I wish I could have the recipe for their Eggplant Marsala, it’s to die for!
The tomato soup is the absolute best, naan is always hot & fresh, sometimes they run out of mango juice & chai on the buffet line. Desserts are usually decent, love the rice pudding.

They had potatoes & green beans one day & I could not get enough! It was delicious, I wish they always put it on the buffet! Sometimes I wish they would change the buffet choices up a little more, maybe have samosas for an appetizer. But anything they make is delicious!
Worth the trip for sure!

The food was cooked sooo good, the meat was all nice, juicy and tender. Everything was excellent! Definitely worth a try, and I’ll definitely will be back!

I’ve ordered a chicken biryani, lamb biryani and lamb curry… I’ve never ate such a worst food in my whole life… I guess the lamb curry was made ages before… the food was spoiled and he still served it. and it ended me having a food poisoning.. so plzzz don’t ever go there

What a superb lunch buffet. Hardly expected to find such an outstanding place in a one horse town like Utica. The buffet had splendid choices, the food was delicious. don’t miss this place. Only thing you should not order is the mango lassi which is very very sweet!

I travel throughout the state with a gaggle of co-​workers. We’ve sampled Indian restaurants from Potsdam to Long Island and have found Minar to be without a doubt the most delicious.
The fact that they have a dinner buffet? Whoop whoop! I saw a review saying that the spread was small. This isn’t true it all. I actually haven’t been in about 2 years and found it greatly expanded.
Whether you love Indian or are curious to try it for the first time this is the place!

I visited Minar for the dinner buffet last evening. Several large groups of Indian men were enjoying the buffet which is always a good sign! Overall the buffet was good but not at all spicy — I would have enjoyed a bit more heat, especially in the lamb vindaloo! Dinner included freshly baked naan which is always a nice touch. The only disappointing item of the night was the tomato soup which was not very hot. As I served my cup, the waiter came by and turned up the heat so I don’t know if someone had turned it down by mistake perhaps?
All in all a good solid Indian meal — I’d like to visit again and order off the menu to see what things taste like with a little more Indian heat!

Minar is definitely one of my favorite restaurants around. I love Indian and the selection here is the best! Chicken tikka masala is perfect, any lamb dish, all their curries, and their vegetarian options as well (all about the okra)! Naan is an absolute must. Great service, great food! P. s. — Highly recommend the dinner buffet on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, but make sure you go hungry because you will wind up stuffing yourself to the brim!

Fantastic choices! Had the lunch buffet and had to be rolled out I’d eaten so much! Everything was delicious. I was worried that it might be too spicy but it was just right.

Probably the worst Indian buffet I’ve ever been to. I have a feeling it was the lunch buffet leftovers, sitting in the heatlamp all day. Everything was dried out, and the sauces were paste. The buffet was limited to a tiny table, about ¼ the size of any other buffet. There wasn’t even a paneer dish. There was little heat or flavor, and the sauces were way too sweet. I’d never go to the buffet again.
That being said, there were a lot of indian families in there, and none were using the buffet. I’d imagine their menu food is decent, but I was never given the option. I’d try it again if ordering takeout from the menu.
The staff was very attentive and friendly. However, they brought me «extra naan» that was taken from the leftovers of another table… who does that?

My club organization always order catering from here for our largest fall event.
Pros:
— Nicest owner ever! He is very accommodating and gives great recommendations every time. He is always present at our annual event and makes sure that the food aspect is all in line.
— I love their chicken tikka masala (sweet curry?) and garlic naan. I don’t really like spicy food so I always get that dish :)
— The waiters/​waitresses at the restaurants were really nice as well (sometimes awkward but they leave you alone to enjoy your food)
Cons:
— You will smell heavily of curry if you eat at the restaurant, but that’s also a good thing right?

I LOVE Minar! After moving from a bigger city with tons of Indian choices I will say that Minar is seriously a treat for the Utica area! Everything we have ever tried has been delicious, I especially love the Paneer Naan and the Chicken Mahkni. They have excellent vegan and vegetarian options and cater to everyone. The buffet is reasonably priced and also always includes multiple vegetarian dishes. I recommend trying it out!

While the atmosphere is nothing fancy, the food is always consistently good. My husband and I eat here frequently. The owner is friendly and gracious. I have tried a variety of dishes, including chicken, lamb and vegetarian meals. I have never been disappointed! I just wished my kids enjoyed Indian food as much as I do. :)

I really enjoyed each time I’ve been to Minar. Great food, and they spice it up just right for me! Service is pretty attentive, and the wait isn’t very long before your food arrives.
I haven’t tried their buffet, but typically order off the menu. Different curries, and have tried some of the vegetarian dishes. Their basmati rice is amazing — it comes with many dinners. Garlic nan is very filling, especially if you already have rice.
Patrons are dressed either in business or casual attire, no rules that I’m aware of.
I took one star off just because portions have shrunk the past few years — I used to be able to have tons of leftovers! Also, they also used to give you a little appetizer at the table — has sample of three different «relishes» and thin crispy homemade cracker. One was definitely spicier than the others, but I enjoyed all three. I think they eliminated this service this past year.

Yuck, what a terrible experience. From the moment we walked in, we were standing around awkwardly as two awkward hostesses/​waiters half way acknowledged us. A busy looking guy walks to us, asks how many, points us to a seat, and seems to float away quickly. Weird magical powers.
We ordered samosa and cheese pakora, pretty okay. Nothing special. Our entrees, on the other hand, we’re horrid. Only the Saag was good. My lamb kebab was the driest meat I have had. My friends chicken tandoori and lamb Josh was horrid and dry. The Naan was just as bad. As a middle easterner, I cannot call this flour real «naan».
And the wait staff was just so weird, inattentive and awkward. We would get a different person serving us each time, as if they are coming from nowhere. They were horribly useless, slow and lacked the personality required to serve at a restaurant.

This restaurant was recommended to us by the owners of a bed and breakfast in which we were staying. I need to find places to accommodate my vegan diet and Indian food is almost always a safe bet. The problem is that there are many variations in the quality of Indian restaurants. I’m happy to say, this is one of the best.
There is nothing fancy about Minar but the food is phenomenal. I had the Chana Masala and while my companion’s portion of his Vegetable Biryani was twice the size of mine, I was not disappointed. Not to say my portion wasn’t generous (we both brought home leftovers) but his was huge. There’s nothing like bringing home leftovers from an outstanding meal!
The service was very good if not a little slow at the end of our meal despite there being so few patrons left at that late hour. Our server was very knowledgeable and was able to steer me away from the Naan bread because it contained.dairy. That kind of consideration is not found in every restaurant.
Overall, we both were very, very pleased at the taste and quality of the food and will definitely go here again if we find ourselves in Utica.

Caution: may cause intense Indian food cravings off business hours!
This has got to be one of the best Indian cuisines I have tried across the US. The ingredients are über fresh, and the dishes are spiced to perfection. Delightful and delicious! Order in, out, or feast at the buffet!
I usually order the chicken curry, medium-​spicy. Chicken is tender and never has any bones. The Basmati rice is steamy and the hot Naan bread heavenly! The vegetarian options are marvelous also!
The folks there are always friendly and polite. The owners really masters the *art of serving*. Depending on when you come in, once in a while you can catch some Indian Top 40 (which I even tried to Shazam to no avail)!

My clothes still smell like curry. Does that say something?
I had the chicken biryani — the chicken was little too dry but it was a very sweet dish. After a few bites you def feel the spicyness. Loved the naan, I believe it was the garlic naan that we ordered and it was soo good. The boy and I also shared the kheer (rice pudding.) it was missing raisens. =(

Excellent food! Everything I’ve had or tasted here has been delicious! They are extremely generous on naan bread and rice. They have a huge variety of different things.
This food may not be exactly what original Indian food tastes like because it is mild to not spicy (real Indian food is super spicy). But that is because they are being considerate of the average «American» taste buds. I honestly can’t handle spice too well so I am glad they don’t make it too spicy so that we can add in the spice ourselves. You can simply ask them for more spicy sauce.
The manager is also one of the most generous and welcoming managers I’ve ever encountered at a restaurant. He isn’t always there but if you get a chance to, talk to him! He really appreciates his customers and values the business so he makes sure he is offering you the best he can.