Shalimar of India

It’s awful. Tasteless no flavor. Chicken undercooked and only 5 disgusting undercooked gelatin like chicken pieces rice no flavor. Expensive and disgusting. They should take lessons in true Indian food from other places in new haven or nuclear

In Stowe for our honeymoon. Needed a change of flavor from continental/​European fare so we drove into Burlington to explore and have lunch. Wonderful little restaurant! Delicious chicken tikka masala, goat vindaloo and aloo matar. Nestled within the University of Vermont campus. Very fun and yummy!

We have been going to this restaurant for over twenty years. We have always had great meals and we enjoy the family-​owned local neighborhood feel.

I cannot remain silent about this:
I love Indian food, but in my part of the state, there is none, so I was excited to try this place while visiting. Deja Vu (RIP) was good. The India House used to be good, but I haven’t been there in decades. Competition is not a bad thing.
I always ask for food in Asian restaurants to be «authenticly» spiced, like the staff would eat at home. That is far hotter than ordinary American tastes would care for. I ordered «medium», as recommended. Perfect spicing, a slow burn that you don’t notice until a few bites later: «Hot» would have buried the complex flavors, but I’ll try it next time!
The food was about the best Indian I have eaten (US and UK), and the service was all I could ask for. The naan (strange: they spell it «nan») was excellent, and that is not as easily achieved as most people might think.
My point is, I read all the Unilocal reviews, and noticed something odd: There are about an equal number of «great food, great service» and «horrible food, lousy service, overpriced» comments, with no reviews in between. Odd.
When we were ready to leave I spoke at some length with the owner: They weren’t busy, so he had the time to talk. Nice fellow. I told him about the discrepancy between reviews. He was familiar with them, and explained the situation. The details don’t really matter, so I’ll cut to the chase: 18 ethnic Indian young folks came in. They are lucky they didn’t leave in handcuffs. Count the bad reviews: These are REVENGE REVIEWS from the guilty parties!
«Overpriced»? The two of us got out of there for $ 45 (before tip). I’m used to paying that much EACH, for good food.
No, this is not «fine dining»: It’s not fancy. There’s no leather upholstery or wine steward. So what? You can’t eat the décor.
In conclusion, I can be very brief: Try it, you’ll like it.

I was here to pick up food for my uncle, and there was just one other family in the restaurant. This family was waiting for a member to join them, and the proprietor asked them rudely to order immediately or that he’d take our order on priority and delay theirs by a half hour. No matter how courteous people were to him, he was snappy and curt with them. This was the first of many rude gestures by the proprietor towards the customers. Honestly, I don’t care about the food in a place where they treat customers like garbage.

Awesome food that tasted just like the kind mom makes at home. It was like eating home food far away from home.
Great service and the restaurant owner stayed past closing time just to serve us the food that we had ordered for to go… now who does that these days?

Amazing authentic food and a very warm host… sardar ji opened until 11:00 coz we were running late. now how can you even beat such hospitality? i am definitely coming back again!

The food is usually great. I’ve had mixed experiences here over the years. The staff is always friendly and welcoming. You can tell this is a family owned business. It seems somewhat inconsistent with flavors of certain dishes on the dinner menu. I have always had great success with their take-​out and Sunday buffet. The Sunday buffet is the best deal in town for quality food. Lots of great meats and veggie options. All you can eat paneer and naan for 12 $. c’mon now — that’s just awesome! I’m surprised there is not a line out the door every Sunday.

Went in for dinner on a Sunday night. The restaurant itself isn’t incredibly eye pleasing but the family atmosphere and authentic artwork is nice. A pleasant woman and what I believe is her husband were running the entire show. The food was FANTASTIC, with room to customize amount of spice/​heat. My boyfriend and I were both very satisfied with our meals. We ordered an appetizer and two entrees each which we knew would be too much but we wanted to have leftovers. Still full from dinner but excited to dive into our leftovers!

I’ve been here many, many times since I moved to Burlington. The curry is fantastic (naan is hit or miss depending on the night), the service is about what you’d expect at a small family run joint, and I’ll keep coming back.

As I had never eaten Indian food I din’t know what to expect. The owner/​host was very helpful and explained the menu. The lamb curry and garlic Nan was delicious.

The only Indian place in town happens to be the best! Wonderful spices and kind service. If you’re looking for cocktails and ambiance this is not your spot. Seeking delish food? Stop by! Go for the tender chicken curry dishes. Not a lot of diverse food in Burlington, VT so here it is.

Got the Chicken Saag. It was a bit bland for my taste. Husband got vindaloo and said it was tasty. Friendly staff. Food was a bit overpriced for the portion size. Rice and cheese naan was a bit dry and tasteless. Overall not bad, but I wouldn’t come again.

Worst food ever. It was a home cooked badly cooked meal. Sweet was the worst. My daughter felt so nauseous after the meal.
Worst meal ever.

We took the whole family here, girls from 4 – 12. It was a hit!
The food was fresh and expertly prepared. Waitstaff was attentive and friendly.
I suggest the naan, chicken pakora.

I’ve been eating at Shalimar for at least five years and it’s the go-​to place in town. The staff are friendly, genuinely good folks who always make us feel welcome. They will happily take special requests like «make this as hot as possible.» They’re also very tolerant of my kids, who are loud and poorly behaved.
Generally speaking I like the food: when it’s good it is spicy, aromatic, and there’s a certain sweet pungency in the aloo mutter that I can’t replicate in my own kitchen no matter how I try. Since 2010 or so they’ve gotten a bit hit or miss: the most frequent issue is the naan being sodden and weird-​tasting, and a couple times the veggies tasted canned. This doesn’t happen often, but it does occur.
Overall, though, I like Shalimar a lot: when it’s good, it is very good: their Aloo Mutter and Pindi Chana are excellent, their ginger Naan is crisp and delicious, and if my wife is to be believed their Shahi Paneer is quite good. They’ve begun doing their rice differently recently, and it’s a standout now: springy, flavorful Basmati fried with herbs.

Great food. Great service. Definitely a family-​owned restaurant. Was able to accommodate us and made us an okra dish!

This was the only place to eat open on Thanksgiving and I was a little nervous going into a place that was completely empty. The food was great. The spice had been toned down, but that makes sense for a place in Vermont, and I’m sure they would adjust it for you. Our waitress didn’t forget about us or hover (as tends to be the case in an empty restaurant). It was one of the better meals I had in Burlington.

Great Indian take-​out. Love the chicken saag and garlic naan. A little pricey, but the portions are good and it’s always delicious. My go-​to is the chicken saag and garlic naan. I don’t know why they aren’t more busy!

I had high hopes as we walked into the fragrance of food. I shouldn’t have looked around and realized there was only one other table of people on a Saturday.
We started with the samosas. Not sure if they make their own or not. The crust was nice, and not greasy. However, the filling was just one solid pasty clump, with a random green pea every so often. I am used to samosas where you can identify the small chunks of potatoes, tomatoes, peas — solids amongst a thick sauce. Flavor-​wise, it was okay, probably because the bit of spiciness was enhancing the flavor.
My husband had the chicken tikka marsala, which he describes as ok. I had the fish marsala, which was clearly not cooked in the sauce. If you cook the fish with the sauce, the fish tends to be tender, and the edges of the fish sometimes break into the sauce, just from the stirring. Here, the fish pieces were neat little rectangles that had been possibly pan fried, and then mixed with the sauce.
Oh, the mango lassi was nice — should have stopped there.
Would love to support a local family business, but it really wasn’t very good.