Shalimar Charcoal Tandoor

There are a few times in life when a meal is so perfectly executed that it is nothing short than perfection and one of those meals was the chicken biryani I had at Shalimar Charcoal Tandoor for lunch today. I knew the second I had my first bite of the divine biryani I had to write the review it deserves, the review it needs

This place is awful. I should leave it at that. The only redeemung factor is buffet is open all day. However, it’s one of the worst you’ll ever see. There is so much excess OIL on top of all the curries. Most places would have the decency to skim that off. The chicken has a lot of bones on it = cheap. The saag has goat in, which almost defeats the purpose. The bread does not seem to be baked on premised but rather store bought and warmed up. To top it off, they have Samosas right near the buffet but you have to pay extra for it, really? I wish I could have read my own review before coming here

Buffet was absolutely the worse I have ever had; tasteless goo.
The atmosphere is anything but cozy; messy, Formica tables and very bright fluorescent lights.
Let me know if you are going to eat there anyway, so I can tell you:“told you so!” afterwards.
Why this place has (had) 4 stars blows my mind.

My Thursday evening go to. Their boneless chicken tikka is one of the best in the area, perfectly spiced and cooked. Lit had a great charcoal grill taste, but remains succulent and juicy.
Paired with channa masala, naan and a little bit of rice– makes a perfect meal.
The reason for 4 and not 5 stars is mainly b/​c I’d like to get some salad along with the meal.
I’ve also catered from Shalimar a number of times for large or small events. Each time the food has been well prepared, not overly spicy or oily, and reasonably priced.
I highly recommend Shalimar to anyone who wants a quick, Pakistani meal, for a low cost.

Won’t recommend this at all. We visited this place on eid day around 5 pm. The person at the counter was so rude. We requested to fill in the empty dishes that were supposed to be part of buffet, but that person completely refused to do so saying they were busy in catering orders. Another person came out and asked us to leave the place and go somewhere else. We were not expecting this kind of rude behaviour.

I’ve lived across the street from Shalimar for about 6 years. Why I’ve never noticed it until recently is beyond me. So, being that I’m a foodie and also a fan of charcoal kabobs, I decided to stop by here the other day. Now I’m upset that I never noticed this place earlier.
I ordered the beef chapli kabob here and it was awesome. Not the best I’ve ever had in comparison to kabob icons like Ravi in Ballston or Kabob Palace in Crystal City, but for your run of the mill Afghan style kabob, Shalimar is definitely a cut above the rest. The naan was delicious and I got a good portion of rice and chick peas with my kabob.
I’ll definitely stop by this place more often now whenever I’m in the mood for kabobs.

Best Chicken Tandoori I’ve ever had; so tender and perfectly marinated. Their chickpeas are awesome as well. Not the best ambience but great food!

Cheap and very tasty food.
Loved the lamb curry.
Ambiance is not that great but the food is just amazing.

We stop by once in a while to get samosas. But yesterday we got the chickpeas as a side dish. All 6 people got a tummy ache immediately. Note to owners: in this socially connected world we live in word gets around pretty quickly. If your food is making sick then it can ruin your restaurant’s reputation.

The service and food here are excellent. The naan comes with all the meals is wonderful in its warm, soft, chewy goodness. I had the Chicken Karahi, and I would definitely order this again. It was spicy (but far from being too spicy for me) and the chicken was flavorful all the way through the meat. I am not a big fan of chick peas, but I absolutely love Shalimar’s. The chick peas are cooked to softness in a dark sauce and have a slightly smoky flavor. Great place.

We tried the Chicken Krahi, Lamb Kabob & buffet. All were delicious! The Lamb was so flavorful. A great mix of seasoning was utilized. The Chicken Krahi was also flavorful. It was cooked flavored to the bone and juicy!

oh man, this place has great butter chicken and lamb, Always go there when in Virginia ! … great tandoori also

This place has the best authentic bone-​in Karahi Chicken! We were blown away by the fresh ingredients, aromatic flavors of tomato and ginger, and the suppleness and juiciness of the chicken. The ginger wasn’t in matchstick size pieces either like most other places but it was infused and incorporated in the flavors. The chicken was a substantial sized chicken, more then enough for two adults and leftovers later. The meat was so tender, it retained plenty of moisture after being reheated. I do wish the karahi chicken entrée had more sauce but the miminal sauce it had was finger licking good! It came with 2 fluffy naans, a small container of rice, and another container of chickpeas. What a terrific value and a delicious carry-​out treat for $ 20-​$ 21!

Authentic and good flavoring. The owner/​staff were not the friendliest and seemed a little surprised non Indian/Pakistani’s were there but overall it was a good experience. I ordered the lamb kabob; it was not as tender as I would have liked but it had great flavor.

Great Pakistani food in a very simple setting — you pay just for food, not for interior. So good I and my coworkers go out of our way to this place once or twice a week.
The best lamb kabob I ever tried (and I tried a lot) 80% of the time, the other 20% the meat is not as good. If you don’t like spicy, ask for less spicy or «washed» kabob.
Chicken kabob is also very good, and their naan which cones with every dish is superb.
Every Wednesday now they have fish filet in the buffet, and again it is the best I ever tried. Other days they have goat meat or very tasty kubideh-​style kabobs instead of fish. Make sure you try their yogurt sauce too with meat and fish.
Salad in the buffet is very decent, good for low carb diet, but no fruit.

I’ve been here a couple times now, so I felt the need to Unilocal about it.
Great Indian/​Pakistani? buffet for $ 8.99. My only gripe is the food was not warm enough this more recent visit. But that’s my only gripe!
Flavorwise, the food was great! Juciest Tandoori chicken I’ve ever had! A couple mixed vegetable curries. Some daal i think. Chickpeas (chole). Fresh basmati rice. Chicken curry, and some kind of kebab and onions type mixture. I don’t know what it was exactly, but it tasted kind of like kufta or kofta with spice. Maybe Adana kabob? Mixed veggies and chutneys. All of which was good. All of which, was also not warm enough. I guess worth mentioning is the vegetable curries looked a little oily, but they did taste good… so… it is what it is.
Of everything, the tandoori chicken and kebab were the standouts for me. Seriously juicy chicken… and the kebab was a nice change of pace because I don’t see that on most buffets. It was a little spicy and moist and full of flavor. Really tasty.
I just wish the food was hotter… definitely would be 5 stars if it was all hot. Maybe if it was hotter it would have dried the chicken out? Maybe that’s why it was so juicy. It was seriously very good tandoori chicken.
And to top it off, the tandoori bread was as fresh as it gets. seriously. It was at least as good as any other tandoori bread I’ve had elsewhere. Hot and fresh. They give you a piece fresh from the back, its not sitting out on the buffet line.
The guy working there was friendly too. Although there were only a couple people there enjoying the buffet today, a couple more people came in and had carryout orders.
As long as you are not afraid of the temperature thing, I would say hit this place up for sure!
The place did not seem dirty to me. It’s not white table cloth or anything… but everything was in its place and there wasn’t a mess anywhere I could see. It’s a quick stop in for a meal type of place. Not a take a knee and pop the question type of place.
Thanks! :)

The kabobs are great and flavorful. However their samosa chaat needs improvement. The samosas have been stale and hard the last few times we’ve been there. Food takes a long time to come out… but to be fair– the kabobs are worth the wait. Their sides are OK… but don’t have a lot of flavor or options. I have to question the cleanliness of the restaurant… floor, tables, seats, and drink area are all sticky.

Decent. Didn’t really care for the kebab meat, but the butter chicken was good, and the samosas were cheap and the chickpeas were good.
In the future I’ll buy some butter chicken and a bunch of samosas!

Juiciest and most tender chicken. It’s very delicious. There chick pea curry is amazing (chole) def a must try. Their food is fresh and yummy. It’s a favorite in my family, we have it at least once a month, more if it was closer to us– we drive from Leesburg.

Found is good. Service is sometimes slow. Environment isn’t that good.
Found a bug in my chicken biryani this weekend and their reaction wasn’t that of remorse or shock. Be careful.