Seeeeeeeeeeee need water its so spicy. Last time here. One of my guest was with me and I proudly said to him l take you best Pakistan food place so he was so excited. But when we reach there and tried food my friend look at me and said WTF. Cold, spicy and no taste. I really not recommended. Chickpeas was dry looks like no one touched for hours. Butter chicken tray was full with gravy but four pieces of chicken in there. And price they said under 10$ but they charged 11.50$ each. There is no problem to pay 12 $ for food when you having good food ,but this buffet not worth for even 5$ read more

The food is not that good. It can pass if this was the only place on earth, but other than that, I will never go back to this establishment mainly because the service is absolutely terrible. I go in for lunch with a friend and the restaurant is not that busy. The buffet looks decent but I was interested in ordering Butter Chicken for my entree. The server has not a clue of what is going on and looks like she's never seen a human before. She tells me they have Butter Chicken at the buffet. GREAT news at first BUT then come to find out that the entire dish of the chicken they had out was mostly bones. It's supposed to boneless. So I tell her that's not what I'm interested in. She keeps trying to talk me into the buffet.........Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez that was annoying. They also served us a pitcher of luke-warm water. We asked for Ice, it never came. We had to get up and go to the counter to ask for ice. I asked for rice with my chicken (after the girl finally just put in an order for me for a fresh BONELESS portion of it). It never came. I was instructed I had to go and walk up and help myself with the rice at the buffet...after I asked 3 times, however. The chicken: flavorless and the sauce was too thin. The rice: not how jasmine rice should ever be. Also flavorless. The complimentary bread: FLAVORLESS. The service: I can't deal. read more

Food is absolutely delicious! My husband and I just moved to the DC area and we have been here at least 3 times in one month. It is well priced and the spices in the food are amazing! We go on the weekends when they have a buffet, I am usually not a fan of buffets, but this one I will always return to. read more

Best Pakistani food in the DMV! Everyone needs to try it! The butter chicken is amazing.

This place has a fantastic lunch buffet. The food strikes me as authentic Pakistani. The service is exceedingly polite and attentive. They even bring a water pitcher and fresh-baked tandoori naan practically as soon as you sit down. For less than $15 you can sample from probably a dozen entrees, rice, salad, soup, and several kinds of dessert (they had gulab jamun and kheer and a carrot dessert). I especially enjoyed the ground beef with ginger (I believe it's called Tawa Keema). I dropped in on a Saturday afternoon on the off chance that they were doing take-out, and was pleasantly surprised that dine-in was available and they even had the buffet still. Afterwards I sampled some Kashmiri chai, and they also have an array of pastries/sweets to take away. I'll definitely keep returning here. read more

Their food is really inconsistent. One day it's great the next day it's not. I found the haleem to taste old tangy a couple of times and found the meatball to be raw inside. Had serious tummy issues after visiting the last time so not going back again for sure! read more

It was a sheer disappointment to visit Dera. We ordered 3 dishes including roast Chicken (charga), behari chicken and behari beef. All 3 were below average in taste. The side dish of channay were stale and tasted horrible. I don't usually leave bad reviews but buyer beware. May be it was their bad day or ours. read more

Disappointing. The food was not bad, but not great. The interior decor was nice; roomy with chandeliers. Server was attentive. I assumed they would only have the buffet during lunch hours, but we came around 7pm on a weekday and was available. The food was surprisingly pretty spicy, which is not a bad thing but not expected. The chicken had a lot of bones. I didn't see butter chicken offered as a buffet item which I'm used to seeing. We also ordered samosas because a lot of yelpers highly recommended them... (?) This time, I sadly cannot agree. (For me, normally when other yelpers specifically rave an item, it's dependable). The samosas along with the other items available in the buffet tasted bland and lackluster. Maybe it was an off night. read more

Came in after dinner to try out their paan. Met the owner, who was very courteous and polite. Overall ambience is slightly barren but the variety of food items available is superb. It also felt like I was back in Pakistan with all the variety and types of appetizers, snacks, desserts and drinks available. Samosa dahi bhallay, pakoray, mithai of various kinds, gannay ka juice etc etc. A big thumbs up for making a very nice restaurant with so much to offer. read more

Our family tried to attend a Chand Raat Eid Festival just to experience an Eid Celebration. Unfortunately, the festival didn't start on time and had no appearance of starting anytime in the near future. Having set our hearts and minds on Pakistani food, we were in search of a new place to satisfy our desire for a Middle Eastern meal. We found Dera and upon first glance, we were doubtful that there would be anything worth going in for. The vast emptiness of the place was a sign to us that it was no good. I'm glad we persevered. We walked in and found the waitress/hostess to be very aloof (a theme which would carry throughout the staff and evening). She seemed uncertain about whether they were actually serving people. I found this odd because we called prior to driving over to make sure they were open and were told they were. She turned and asked if it was okay for us to be seated (I assume as I couldn't understand what she said). When given the okay, we were seated a table that already had disposable plates, cups and utensils set out. She moved those aside and replaced them with real plates. The whole restaurant was laid out and I came to the assumption that they were hosting an Eid Mubarak dinner for sunset. They had a buffet for $10.95, which my husband and I chose. We ordered butter chicken with rice and naan for the Twinkies (our twins) and some raita to share. It took a while (probably close to fifteen minutes) to get our food (obviously not the buffet portion), but considering the amount of people that were picking up food catered for their Eid celebrations, it made sense. When the food finally arrived it was piping hot and delicious. The chicken was white meat that was juicy. The butter sauce was perfectly spiced and the naan was crisped and charred in the best ways possible. The buffet had a wide variety of traditional Pakistani and Indian dishes and left me very full after one trip (I hate it when that happens!). My favorite had to be the lentils and the biriyani. The aloo palak was my least favorite as it seemed under-spiced. There was quite a bit of oil on the surface of most of the dishes, but it didn't deter me from digging in at all. I also loved the fact that dessert was included in the buffet. We grabbed some gulab jamun for us and the kids for we couldn't risk a revolt. My only disappointments were the standoffishness of the waitstaff (granted the phone was ringing NONstop the entire time we were there so they were probably overwhelmed) and the rushed feeling we had by them because of the upcoming celebration. I really loved the buffet and the fact that we could sample so many dishes for a very reasonable price. I would have loved to stay to join in the celebration of breaking the Ramadan fast, but maybe next time. Overall, Dera was very clean, very delicious and reasonably priced. I will return and do recommend. read more

Food is always fresh and delicious. Their sunday buffet or eid buffet is usually the best! Always a good pic for traditional pakistani food.

I ordered chapli kabab and haleem after long time, I used to eat before pandemic, the food was good but now I don't know what happened to them, the food is really not tasty at all. Even the service got worse. May be because they fired their chefs or something else. read more

I came with my family at this restaurant . I really like the decor . Beautiful wall paper like Turkish art at the walls . Nice and clean . Plenty of seating . We order chicken Karachi , butter chicken , chicken behari kabab and mix platter everything delicious freshly cooked and fresh tandoori naan . The service was good all the staff was friendly and attentive . It was a very good experience we will be back read more

I first had food from Dera at a wedding a few months ago. It was some of the most delicious catered Indian food I ever had. I think it was more Pakistani/Punjabi style (very spicy, oily, delicious). So we came one Sunday to see if they had halwa puri. Oh they sure did! They have a great buffet with the typical Pakistani weekend specials of nihari, haleem, and paya. Halwa, alu, and cholay are also on the buffet so you just have to order fresh puri. The buffet is really tasty, and they serve you fresh naan as well. This naan is perfection!! Super soft, yet with enough bite to sop up all the lovely gravy from nihari and paya. I didn't love the haleem (may have been chicken haleem). But the other buffet items, including butter chicken and chicken biryani were on point. I'd rate the halwa puri at 3.5, because the cholay was too runny and the halwa was yellow (usually is dyed orange). The puri was a little crumbly as well. Overall tasty, but I've had better in this area. The buffet more than makes up for whatever the halwa puri is lacking though, especially at $10.95. read more

Really nice food. Should try dera supreme bbq platter. Nice and friendly satff. But takes little bit time to complete the order but I think fresh needs waiting read more

2nd visit was just as great as 1st. Buffet menu changed a little for variety. Today's line included some tasty goat an what I would call tandoori chicken strips. The strips were oddly shaped and tender. It was actually chicken pagora, which Google told me was lightly battered and deep fried. So it wasn't tandoori but the spices tasted similar to my uneducated pallet. Staff was very friendly and informative again answering my guest ions about the sauces and such. Ok, one dish looked like a big bag of frozen American mixed vegetables with stir fried onions and sauce, but it tasted good. It's small quiet and simple. It is totally worth getting past the construction appearance of the exterior! read more

My rating of this place is based on food and value. I understand that it is not the most refined place on the planet but considering it's in a strip mall in Springfield, they have done what they can to make it seem nicer. The big draw is obviously the $10.95 buffet. For the price, the food is excellent. I had some of everything and it put many pricier Indian/Pakistani places in which I have eaten to shame. The chick peas were surprisingly addictive and flavorful (possibly a hint of cinnamon?) and the fried chicken wings were really yummy. Service was great and the place was clean and neatly decorated (I liked the tiled flooring- a nice touch) although it is a bit spartan. My only complaint was that the veggie option was basically salad. The food is a bit spicy (which I love) so if you are taking people afraid of spicy food, warn them ahead of time. read more

Great food, great service but the neighboring place is so loud it made this restaurant really vibrate throughout the time we ate over here. By the time I got done I was thoroughly nauseous. That's the only item, which was so bad, that I am giving Dera a one star. Otherwise it's good enough to be a 4/5. read more

This is review based on a first time experience. Food ordered: Buffet, Supreme Platter, Regular Platter, Keema Naan, Kulfi (don't worry not all for me, had my family too) :-) Food was really good and tasty. The kabobs are the best part. They are tender, spicy, and well cooked. The buffet is ok, nothing amazing but it gets the job done of getting decent food on your plate. The tikkas and fish from the buffet needed to be exchanged as they were a bit dry. The keema naan was good, the filling was decent, although I wish they cut back on the oil a bit. The kulfi as great, it tasted authentic. The atmosphere was decent, its not a place for cabbies but more for families. In terms of improvements? Keep the oil at a minimum, I know they are super busy, but maybe try to hire an extra cook/water. I had ordered chai but was told it will take a while. But they were super nice about it. I guess its a good thing they were packed, I reckon they just need to look over the logistics of things again and hire a few more people, at least for the weekend. Overall good clean place, great service, smiling face, tasty food, will def. go back again. Hope the community continues to support this business. read more

We saw a mouse in the restaurant climbing up the long curtains. Unfortunately, I was already done eating. I asked for a manager and the person I spoke to said that there was no manager on duty. I told him about the mouse and didn't seem to care or even ask me to show him the mouse. On a side note: the banquet hall next door had a live band and the entire Dera restaurant was shaking uncontrollably with every beat. The noise was unbearable and the employees said that there was nothing they could do about it. Would NOT recommend. To ANYONE. read more

This was our first time at Dera today.They have been fixing the whole place up and it will be ready in about a week for events/parties up to 150 ppl. Anyways the food is pakistani and not indian. We told the guy at the counter that we are looking fwd to hosting an event in 2 months and are considering you place for this.These are the following things we ordered Papri chaat : wayy average. I ve had better chat at Ravi and even that was mediocre. Chai : old chai re heated.probably the worst i ve been served in any restaurant. Had it like i would just gulp my medicine. Biryani : initially i thought it was the better biryani out of all other places i ve eaten at but my husband pointed out that they have mixed qorma with biryani to make it spicy and indeed the whole thing was just like eating qorma with rice.chicken biryani had one chicken piece literally. Still if u want to experience what a good biryani MIGHT taste like , try their biryani and ask them to make it spicy. Btw qorma was not on their menu for tonight so either they use left over qorma oil for the taste and aroma or God knows what. Bbq platter : consisted of kabobs and chicken boti etc. i dunt know where this trend of serving kabobs n boti on a hot platter came from , it either burns them or just absorbs all moisture. This is what happened to ours as well.also the spices in kabobs were not grinded properly at all and we could taste big pieces of chilli powder , cilantro , mint etc etc. Channay and okra sabzi : these came complimentary for sampling. Channay were not bad but too much flavour of curry leaf and cumin seeds. Okra was not bad either. Verdict : the food is not indian but pakistani. It is a plus point atleast for us. I dunt like the indian style sweet buttery curries which are commonly found everywhere. The food is super oily too BUT if you are not a picky eater like me and my husband are , you will like it . I will consider this place for an event only bcoz places like ravi or kabob palace etc do not have a banquet of their own. read more

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We stopped by during lunch and had their lunch buffet.The food was very authentic which satisfied our indian food cravings. But I do have to say that we have had better. Service was good and we especially loved that they left a big pitcher filled with water on the table because we drink a ton. We also noticed that they sell assortment of Indian desserts on your way in/out. Overall, this is your typical Indian restaurant. If you are in the area and want Indian food, give this place a go. read more

They gave us old samosas and expired chutney!! I don't understand why they would do that to their customers. I ruined my food just from using the expired chutney. I won't be coming here again. read more

Amazing food and environment. Great spot for Pakistani and Indian food. Everything from Nehari, Paya, behari kebab, biryani, etc. available. Love it and very authentic with great portions at a very reasonable price read more

Pleasant surprise ! This place got mouth watering buffet for only $10 ! You can't simply beat the price, specially the dishes are tasty. I recommend going there weekdays if you want quicker service but from what I know, weekends they have much better selections and possibly price might be little higher too. Overall, it's worth the price and a must if you are looking for Halal/kosher food !! read more

Dera - Buffet ! Only 10 bucks - Pakistani Near Me - Springfield, Virginia

We order food from Dera restaurant, food was so fresh and mouthwatering, there chicken kabob was so good and spicy chicken biryani with basmati rice outstanding .... read more

Stopped by for lunch. The place seemed pretty clean, there were some spots on the wall but not bad at all. I have been to some other buffets that have lots of stuff. Dera does not have a wide variety. However, what they do have was fresh and really pretty good. The chicken in sauce I had was very good but perhaps in the traditional cooking style some bones were left on and it required some pulling of unexpected small bones from your mouth. It was worth it though. There was an okra vegetable dish that was really good. Spicey and fresh. I would recommend this place but be forewarned it seems pretty authentic. If you are looking for an Americanized version of Pakastani food then I do not think you will like it. read more

This was our first time ordering from this fine eatery. We really like the portions (they give a lot) and the food itself. We had no idea that oven baked round bread came with the order - so we were pleasantly surprised. I ordered one NAN any it was GREAT!! Additionally there was no rice - it's not INDIAN FOOD people lol! The dishes sound similar but its not. The ONLY reason I have 4 stars opposed to 5 was the food was a bit oily, otherwise it's a great find AND we will order from them again for sure no question!! We loved the food thanks again!!! read more

Sorry but my last experience at Dera was not so good. Iftar buffet was so ordinary and tasteless.

I absolutely Love this place, especially the decor. Took the family recently and we decided to order the buffet. Very clean place with a lot of space. Which helps when taking the kids out for dinner. I highly recommend it. We will definitely be returning soon! read more

Recently I had to order 2 big trays of chicken biryani and paid $200. In return I got two Trays of rice with 6 small pieces of chicken... What a shame... Be careful when you order for parties from this place. read more

Always love eating at Dera!! I've been to a lot of events that were catered by Dera and they never disappoint! Kabobs are always on point!

Great food love the kachoores which are chicken patties!! Their buffet didn't look good but the food to order is really good!!! Their sweets are amazing!! I tried their gajar ka halwa which was amazing If you are in the are you should try this place!! Ps they also sell behari kabob which not that many restaurants serve. read more

So I'm not sure what happened but both my husband and I didn't really like the food. Then to top it off, we both have really bad stomach aches and just feel terribly sick. The food honestly wasn't good. We had the dinner buffet and it was really lacking quality. The butter chicken had no chicken, the chick peas were really dry, etc. I'm just really disappointed. read more

This place doesn't even deserve a one star. I ordered chaney, biryani, and chicken karahi. The food that I ordered smelled really bad and it looked like it was left over food. I don't recommend anyone to eat from here and please save your money. read more

Fantastic service and delicious food. The owner was beyond courteous and friendly. We will be coming back for more. -Sasha & Hibah

Ordered the buffet option and 1. The food was cold 2. Afterwards I have been throwing up and sitting in the bathroom for almost the whole day. Never going back read more

I bought food from this restaurant when I was Serving the food it was really cold it felt like ice cream and I was so disappointed because it was for little get together. I spend $300 and i am so unsatisfied with quality of food I got and I wouldn't recommend this place to anyone. read more

Can I just say how impressed I am with this place? It is off the hook! Now to be completely honest I have never gotten the buffet and have only ordered from the menu so I can't comment on the buffet. What you have to order: Dera Supreme Platter! It honestly feeds like 3-4 ppl. Also the karahai is amazing. You can't go wrong with those two. We had a party of 13 last night and was able to have more than enough food with 3 platters and 3 curry dishes! Very authentic kabobs! Go here read more

Def not worth it. Ordered the chaat pappri and it looked like something I could make better at home, no taste at all, if you want chaat definitely check out shineys in Annandale or niralla right next door. The buffet had a lot of options..but the butter chicken barely had chicken in it, same thing with the spinach and chicken they chicken briyani was more like briyani and bones..no chicken. I guess they're trying to save money with skimping on the meat. The gulab jamun was dry, samosa was dry...waste of my money. I went with my mom and boyfriend and we were all disappointed. Oh and be careful they charge an automatic gratuity.. not like the waiters are actually doing anything anyways. I will not be going back. Much more better places to eat in the DMV then here! read more