Benares

It had good reviews on Unilocal so I tried having it delivered. When I didn’t receive it 15 minutes after the promised window I called and was told its on its way and it won’t be cold. Guess what it was stone cold. I was very disappointed.

Benares is one of the best Indian restaurants in New York City. I have some truly memorable dishes there, including:
— duck curry
— sauteed lobster with wild mushrooms and garlic cream sauce
— baked halibut with ginger garlic coconut sauce
Highly recommended!

Benares was my wedding caterer! Everyone loved the food, I didn’t hear one complaint and they were very flexible and accommodating since we had allergies in the family. Even now when my husband and I order food from here, we just enjoy trying new dishes each time. You can’t go wrong with the Rogan Josh (lamb) dish or their fish curry dish. Both of them are just cooked so well. Highly recommend it!

It’s the best Indian in the neighborhood. The food is really good. The prices a bit steep but the portions are huge, so you end up with two meals for the price of one. Great deal.
If you are ordering get their prefix special for $ 17.
The servers are extremely nice too.

Indian buffet lunch are usually disappointing unless you pick the best three among one hundred. It suffices to say that it is far from top 3% and I’d not come back for buffet. I had dinner in this restaurant before and it was alright though not extraordinary.

CHECK THE BILL!!!
They automatically charge a gratuity of 18−20% on the bill, so check the bill carefully.
The food was good and ambiance is ok, but it is overpriced for what the place offers (agreed its the times square area), but what bothered me was the fact that they charge a gratuity on the bill which leaves no room for the customer to express their opinion about the food and service.
Some of their a la carte dishes like ‘laukee kofta’ are unique and taste good, so I wont say food is bad (especially the veggie dishes). They are definitely on the pricier side for what they offer…

Great food but terrible horrible service. I mean like the service is so bad that it takes the rating down to two stars as no amount of good food can justify dealing with crack service like what you get at Benares. It us unfortunate when business owners do not give a S and ruin their operations by hiring and not training incompetent staff to serve properly. The servers suffer from a complete and utter attention to detail and keep forgetting your order. Not going here again.

Decent food but poor service. They also charge an automatic 18% gratuity for tables of all sizes, so check your bill closely.

This is a little place tucked away on 56^th st. Because it wasn’t crowded at 8pm the weekday evening we went, they allowed us to push 2, two-​top tables with booth seating against the wall together to form 1 four-​person table. Yes, we are same side sitters (ugh, I know) but especially with Indian food, we share everything. One thing to note which I took as a good sign was that almost every guest in the restaurant was Indian. Who knows Indian food better than someone who is Indian? I took it as a sign of authentic cuisine.
We started with the samosas which tasted good, as always. I’ve never actually had a bad samosa. Our server was very friendly and attentive. We had the Chicken Tikka Masala and the Chicken Vindaloo which did take a bit longer than expected to come out. The portions are quite large though. I preferred the Chicken Vindaloo. It had a kick to it, but I didn’t find it overwhelmingly spicy, and I say this as someone who can’t eat super spicy, hot things. The chicken tikka masala wasn’t very good. The main complaint is that the tomato to cream ratio was off. It tasted almost exclusively like tomato sauce and it was hard to detect any creaminess. Unfortunately the large chunks of chicken in both dishes were a bit dry which made them tasteless and hard to chew. The naan was not the best I’ve had, but it was still good because much like samosas, all naan is good. I think our server misunderstood us when we politely declined taking our leftovers. But since he was kind enough to pack them up for us, we thanked him and took them instead of trying to explain that we didn’t want them. Unfortunately, the lid on the Chicken Vindaloo wasn’t sealed all the way and it spilled everywhere. No bueno.
Would we go back? No, it’s not likely. I’s not close to our apt and we enjoy the food at other places better, but I don’t regret trying it once.

I’ve been here twice so far and it is one of the best Indian restaurants around. I’ve tried the chicken tikka & the lamb vindaloo both were really good.
The place itself is inviting & spacious. The servers were pleasant and knowledgable, the servers can explain the spice levels and put in requests for spice levels.
Tip: ask for the jalapeño peppers on the side of you want it extra spicy

Really mediocre dining experience. The food was ok, but not great. It seemed to attract a lot of tourists.

What a horrible HORRIBLE waiter
Started to order salad, samosa, crab, chicken tikka masala but when I asked for cauliflower vindaloo… he absolutely refused.
I pointed to a cauliflower and potato dish, and said can you do that with vindaloo… he said no, but I can get it AND a side of vindaloo sauce and mix it myself at the table…
WHAT? !?!
I asked to speak to a manager… he said there was none.
They should be ashamed!
They just lost loyal customers.

Um bom restaurante indiano, comida saborosa e bem servida. Uma boa pedida após o teatro já que fica localizado no Theater District, mas tem de correr pois fecha cedo. Um prato serve duas pessoas tranquilamente.

I am great fan of Indian food. Food at this place is just ok. Rice pudding was below average, full of thick rice. Rice puddings in India are too good.
Ambience average.

This was our first introduction to Indian cuisine for our kids– ages 9 and 4. It was a super fun dinner, awesome food, and the waiter was so charming with our kids. Made these Chicagoans fall in love with NYC.
Order the cauliflower appetizer. I don’t even like cauliflower, but the smoked flavor was divine.
Everything was good– and a new tip I learned– order the yogurt drink– mango was yummy– the dairy cools the palate if you can’t handle the spice. Waiter brought it for our son, who loved the intense flavor of all the dishes!

the lunch buffet is consistent. you will find the standard Indian buffet menu there. not too crowded and close to upper midtown offices.
manager puts automatic 18% tip for group of three. that is ridiculous. first of all, it’s buffet. secondly, there was only three of us.

Ordered the pre fix for dinner yst… chicken kebab appetizer and choley… The food was good but they forgot to send the nan… We had to wait to get the nan and they weren’t even apologetic about it neither did they send something complimentary like what other restaurants would do… I have received complimentary desert so many times for a mess up in the order!

A group of us went on the whim and did not check the reviews before going there which we were very hesitant. But the birthday girl really wanted Indian food. We were seated immediately and it was about 15 of us or so.
I ordered butter chicken which was so YUM! The spices exploded in my mouth. The food’s presentation was beautiful and also DELICIOUS! The drinks were potent. The restaurant was not really big however the décor was beautiful. The service was excellent as well. Adding it to my Indian restaurants in NYC!

Came in for dinner, food was awesome, very bold and strong spices like I love
Service was OK, maybe could have been a bit faster but not an issue
Portion size is big and price seems reasonable

It wasn’t bad; it wasn’t amazing, but they have a lunch buffet for $ 12.95…the line included pankora, samosas, lamb curry, chicken tikka, chicken tikka masala, paneer… other things and two desserts. Naan was brought to the table. Service was good… they cleared our plates when we were done.
I liked the chicken tikka masala and the paneer was pretty good. Good samosa.
TLDR: great deal if you’re looking for Indian lunch buffet. (this review isn’t that long)

This place is fantastic, I take all of my business lunch meetings here because the food is always amazing and the price is great for midtown. The buffet is always top notch with all the free naan you can eat.
The only thing i would complain about is that they once gave us such a hard time about splitting a check. To be fair we had asked them towards the end of the meal, but they were just very unaccommodating considering we go there all the time (and they know and recognize us).