Darul Kabab

So I’ve avoided coming here for a while due to a décor that isn’t exactly chic. I was wrong. Went there for a late night dinner: vegetable samosas, chicken tikka biryani, aloo gobi with naan, masala tea.
First of all — everything tasted fresh and cared for. Even at the late hour (we were the last customers of the night).
Masala tea — started with this. Asked for no sugar, no milk. Came with leaves and cloves and smelled wonderful.
Samosas — very good. Potatoes were in chunks (as opposed to being mashed). Temperature was good. Balanced taste. Good sauce. Solid.
Biryani — had a light spice kick to it. Bit down on a few cardamom pods. This is important: presence of cardamoms felt like that means that it was cooked there and then with spices. Chicken was perfectly tender, flavorful, and present.
Aloo Gobi — the cauliflower tasted fresh and crispy. Tomatoes went well with it. Tasted home-​made.
Naan — so I am a bread snob. Here, I really liked their naan. Inside it was slightly soft, outside great fresh texture. I am pretty sure it was just cooked.
The main thing for me that seemed out of place was that the décor did not match the food. The food tasted amazing. The décor seemed cheap. I would recommend to change the ceiling, paint the walls a darker color, adjust lighting to be more table-​centric. Or don’t do any of it and remain one of my new favorite local gems that no tourist would ever accidentally wonder into.

Food is pretty cheap especially if you get the lunch buffet. Food is not too bad but kind of too mild for me.

Mouth-​watering and absolutely delicious food. I have been a fan of this place from my first visit. I am a regular customer and have never been disappointed once. Owner is very polite and service is friendly.
Highly recommended!

The food here is good. Definitely better than Divas in Davis. The service is absolutely terrible, but if you can tolerate it, this has one of the most complete lunch buffets that I’ve been to.
The samosas are good and the saag generally delivers. It’s worth the trip.

Fresh, deliciously flavorful food! I can only speak to the vegetarian food — everything I have tried has been wonderful! I usually order take-​out and arrive a little early to pick up my order– I have been given complimentary mango lassi before while waiting, which was delicious and greatly appreciated! Darul Kabab cares about the quality of their food and their customers — it shows!

I had dinner here with my friends. Food is good taste is fine. My Husband actually really liked it.

This review is only for the lunch buffet — bottom line is this place is alright but I don’t think I would come back. There are so many other options in the area (Indian and non-​Indian). $ 12.99 is a pretty good deal for a buffet, but I think most Indian places offer similar pricing for their lunch buffets.
The staff was attentive and I had an overall pleasant experience but their food was really just… meh. Most of the meat was overcooked, except the Chicken Tikki Masala. The dishes were mostly on the sweeter side and were extremely mild (in terms of spiciness).

The food here and chef is actually Bangladeshi and on eid this place is packed with Bangladeshis. The food here is pretty good and as close to real homemade food you can get without going to Bangladesh or queens, nyc. Their paratha are amazing and beef bhuna is excellent. The buffet doesn’t do the restaurant justice as they tend to put out what people expect from an Indian restaurant like their chicken tikka, which is bland. But overall if your looking for something different then chicken curry (which is very good here) and break away from
What you consider Indian food this is a great place to try.

DK is taste-​TAY!
I’m never disappointed when I come here. The food is good and the prices are about average for Indian fare. Afternoon buffet dishes are great and rotate during the week. It’s the best time to come (IMO) bcz the restaurant is quiet but does a 180 for dinner and there’s lots of hustle and bustle going on. The lunch buffet is daily until 3pm and features 11 dishes for $ 12.99. There is also a dinner buffet on Monday and Tuesdays which has 14 dishes. They’ve recently added fish curry to the buffet and it was a welcome addition. However, it’s LOADED with bones so you need to eat it super cautiously.
When you walk in, the open space is welcoming and the colors are vibrant. Can you smell it? The curry? The faint smell of garlic? Tandoori chicken in clay pots? The fresh naan. *my mouth is literally salivating at the moment* The massive flat screens are a bit distracting but after a few minutes you’re able to tune them out. After you’ve settled in and ordered your water, make your way over to the serving stations (proud of yourself for choosing the buffet bcz you get to sample, almost, the entire menu) and ‘plate-​up’. Once you’ve made it back to your table you discover the server has brought fresh, hot, glistening naan over. Sit. Feast. It’s been a long day and there’s nothing like a tasty meal to make you forget about that annoying biker who ran the red light and clipped your side mirror.
You have naan. Hot naan. And curry. All is right with the world.

Updating to 5 star as they made tremendous improvement over last few months. They are consistent with the quality and don’t leave any room for complain.

If you’re familiar with Indian cuisine then you will know your way around this menu, which is actually Bangladeshi, meaning it is quite similar. The staff are very eager to please, although the atmosphere is rather spartan, to say the least, nevertheless it feels like you’ve left the US and ended up in a small Bengali town, which suited us just fine. The prices are modest, while the food is certainly good enough without trying to be fancy, just honest good food. We will come again. For value, it can’t be beat.

Left work late on a Wednesday night and stopped here, since I’d been meaning to try it for a while. The place was largely empty with only a few tables occupied. I’m a little surprised at some of the reviews. I wonder if the service varies a lot depending on shift. In any case, the waiter was friendly and unrushed. I ordered a goat curry, some nan, and a chopati… it was all quite good: with strong distinctive flavors, which I like in South Asian food. The nan was fresh and of good quality.
I enjoyed a good book and good food. Just the kind of place to unwind after work.

Never again…
The Good: They have a location that used to be a fast food joint, so they have some parking in a lot, which is rare for Mass Ave. Yay free parking!
The Bad: I should have known when it was dead on a Saturday afternoon. The waiters were watching us like hawks. I don’t know if they thought we were going to make off with their silverware, but we got an unnerving sense of being watched and not in a «hey can I get you something» kind of way.
The Ugly: The North India/​Bangladeshi buffet was left out for hours unchanged. We sat for nearly two hours and never saw any of the food refreshed. The waiters would stir it on occasion, but that food was old and sitting. I ordered a chicken seekh kabab off the menu as a «weekend special» but it was gross. The menu lists tomato, lettuce, onions and cucumber as accompaniments but nope, just soggy lettuce with a weird sauce that is not mentioned on the menu. The wrap for the kabob was stale and even the chicken kabob itself was very average.
Conclusion: Not worth it even a little. I spent my meal looking out the window at the Nepali restaurant next door, and wishing we tried that one.

The only problems I have with this place are that it’s expensive, and the atmosphere doesn’t lend itself to a comfortable eating experience. I’m not too happy with the white walls, it just looks too sterile for me to get excited about eating here. This place used to be a KFC, and it took a lot of renovating to get it to look like a real restaurant (as you can imagine).
Love the rice pudding at this place, and the chicken tandoori is juicy and very flavorful. The samosas are also nice and crispy, and the lentils are cooked just right. They need to put labels down on some of the trays though, especially since not many people are unfamiliar with Indian cuisine. It saves people from constantly asking the waiters, which im sure they would appreciate as well.

I am very much particular when I pay for my food. I don’t like paying money for the crap I can’t eat. Maybe my comment will offense many. But I felt really awful.
First the waitress does not understand english. I know the language she speaks, and I was trying to communicate with that. But sadly she did not understand from my order.
I said to make chicken tikka masala too hot and lamb curry medium spicy for my friend. She did just opposite. Lamb curry was too hot and chicken tikka masala was mild.
Second thing the food was cold.
Thirdly it took a while to get them food. So I assumed maybe they were preparing the food. But which is not true, because food came really cold.
Fourth — I did not like the dirty napkin and décor. I had to ask the waitress to change the napkin because it was used.
Fifth — the food quality. The food quality was very stray. The way they use spice and chili pepper is not balanced.
I would not recommend or let say I would stop any of my friend to go there ever.

I can’t help but feel as though Darul Kabab is having an identity crisis. A tuxedo t-​shirt immediately comes to mind: is it casual (burgers! pizza!)? Or is it fancy (white tablecloths!)? Nobody knows.
DK is located in what used to be a KFC. And yes, it still very much looks like an old KFC. There’s no escaping it. The Darul Kabab logo is ultra-​sleek and modern, clashing with its menu/​posters full of 90s script fonts. But why am I still talking about logos and fonts?
My boyfriend seemed to enjoy his meal, while my tandoori salad was mostly iceberg lettuce and a little bit of dry, flavorless chicken. I did order a few other items, but I can’t remember how they tasted.
Every time I walk past Darul Kabab, it smells FANTASTIC! It makes me sad to see only 2 – 3 customers in there. I really think that with some marketing help, they would do quite well.

I’d had takeout from here before, and always enjoyed it, but last night was the first time I’d been in to sit down for dinner. I was looking for a place in the neighborhood where I could take my friend who uses a walker. (It’s surprising how hard it is to find a place where you can pull in close to the door, and they don’t have any stairs.)
As it happens, my friend loves Indian food, and lamb is his favorite type of meat. He ordered the lamb kebab and thought it was great! I’m vegetarian, and I loved the Navratan Korma. We both had the plain naan and thought it was great.
It is really worth mentioning how welcoming, friendly, and helpful the entire staff was to us. My friend is very concerned about putting anyone out to accommodate him with the walker, and everyone there was so lovely to us – they just made it a really delightful experience all around!
We’ll be back!

The sweer lassi is watered down and not sweet enough. Just buy kefir for $ 3 at shaws and add some sugar. Same thing. The masala tea was okay. Like a cross between dark tea and coffee, add some sugar and it is like a milder chai.
The veggie samosas are delicious and the mint sauce was a bit spicy. Very yummy.
Boyfriend got the lamb kabob and he thought the lamb was very salty but delicious. I got the chicken wrap and it was very good. I felt like there was a lot of greens in the wrap but for around $ 8 it was a great deal! I was so full after my wrap — which by the way is naan bread. SO GOOD

I’ve been trying to figure out why people don’t give Darul Kebab better ratings. Maybe it is because they are in an old fast-​food restaurant, and it seems as if no one eats there.
But you should give it a chance, as the food is delicious and affordable. The DK Naan, with sesame seeds and raisins, is downright comforting on a cold night. True, the food isn’t that spicy, but if you compare individual dishes with what you can get at Annapurna, the dishes at Darul Kebab are better. (You can get alcohol at Annapurna, though, so if you want to drink with your meal, go there.)
The wait staff has always been prompt and courteous. It might be because they aren’t too busy, but we never had any problems with people serving us water or bringing rice or anything like that. And we certainly never had issues with takeout orders. The service is just as good, if not better, than what is provided at other restaurants in the area, no question.

Boring. Boring. Boring.
The best part of lunching at Darul Kabab was watching one of the six (!!!) flat screens. Foreign language soap opera with subtitles, anyone?
Overall, the food was super bland. Maybe it’s cause I was dining with my mega white husband — but the curry and kebab dishes were tasteless. No spice. Under seasoned. And kinda a bummer.
The service was alright considering we were the only people dining there. The server was polite and congenial, but decent service doesn’t make up for the food.
The veggie samosas were OK — but I’ve definitely had better.
Don’t think I’ll be hitting it up any time soon.