We tried Serena buffet again after a very long time. We were pleasantly surprised with their improvements on the weekend AYCE buffet. Food, service and atmosphere. All the food is delicious, authentic and fresh! They offer so many choices; nihari, paya, Haleem, chicken chapli & boti kabobs, chicken biryani, goat pilau, puri halwa and several veggie dishes. The naans and puris are served fresh made hot to the table compared to the other buffet places where they are cooked and jumbled up in a big pile on the buffet! This buffet offers everything you want! Hot, fresh, neat and clean surroundings too. Mango and plain lassis along with hot tea made with real milk! We liked that the Mali kheer desert was the real deal and a delicious ending to a perfect meal! read more

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Overall (A-) I like this place. It doesn't have the best food, but it is all safe bet, the service is not the best but it is pretty good and it's a great value for a buffet. Food (B+) I went for the lunch Buffett and they have a ton of items. Both veg and non-veg. Election selection and they bring fresh naan/bread to your table. Lassi and Chai are included also. So is dessert,, appetizers and garnishments. I tried everything and my favorites were the fried chicken, chaat, both lassis, paya and chicken boti kabab. Note those were my favorites but everything was decent. It's all safe bet food. Nothing you will crave and nothing you won't finish. Service (A-) Indian place with a buffet on Devon service. The waitstaff is super nice and trying their best. Got the naan out pretty quickly, took time to clear dirty plates, but kept buffet items full. Value (B+) It was around $26 out the door for the lunch buffet which is only on Saturday and Sundays. I thought it was a good value for all the items. Look it's a great way to try a bunch of Pakistani for items for a pretty decent price. And not bad food on Devon. It's a safe bet type of place to go to lunch if you can't decide what you want. Check out pics and decide.... read more

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The food tasted really good and we especially enjoyed the garlic naan and the frontier chicken rice. The chicken 65 was evidently doused in fake color, more than necessary, but it tasted really good so we were able to overlook that. The chicken tikka bot we didn't quite expect to look like that - it didn't have the charcoal/grilled flavor but again still good, flavorful juicy chicken. Unfortunately the service was really slow (overstaffed and food took forever to come out) and we did end up with a very upset stomach the next day. This spot used to be a hidden gem with an amazing lunch buffet but ever since they moved locations the quality has dropped substantially. Unfortunately would not be able to recommend this place anymore either. Which is a shame because the aesthetics and ambiance of the new location are better. read more

Serena Restaurant - Garlic Naan Frontier Chicken Rice Chicken 65 - Pakistani Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

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I came for a special event with family, and we had the pleasure of eating from the buffet. I love pakistani food, but not overall spicy food and unfortunately the for we had was overly spicy. The chicken wings were one of the only things that I could eat in a buffet that had about twenty something items. They were great though, crispy and chewy on the inside. I like how they had mango Lassi because that's one of the main thing my kids like. The other things are chicken nuggets and fries, and although my kid didn't like the chicken nuggets very much, they did like the fries and I tried the fries as well and they were so crunchy and felt like there was a batter in it which was really good If they can make food to order on the Less spicy side if people request it, like our group had, I think it would be better but the service was great and so were the hot and fresh naans. read more

Great service and great food. The buffets especially are great options to try a bunch of different food that is all great tasting.

Great place for Desi food. Have gone here for the lunch buffet and for dinner many times. The food is always fresh and flavorful and the place itself is very beautiful. The service is quick and efficient, it is a great sit down spot! read more

Have been going here for over a decade and can easily say it is the best restaurant on Devon. The food is always amazing and fresh and their mutton pulao is a must try. The lunch buffet offers many options and is a great way to try everything they have. Highly recommend checking them out! read more

We had a great meal here on Christmas Day. Great service! The mango lassi was amazing with our chicken and lamb dishes.

Stumbled into here while walking on Devon. Pretty crowded for the Saturday lunch buffet. Got a mix of dishes including butter chicken and chana masala as well as naan. I thought that everything was good but nothing was amazing. Besides the food, I had their mango lassi which was so good. read more

Serena Restaurant - Butter chicken, chicken biryani, and chana masala - Pakistani Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Well despite the pandemic I guess it was by luck that I discovered this restaurant in Devon that still does Indian buffet. They only do it Saturdays and Sundays I was going to do individual around here since the pandemic has hurt most of the restaurants especially ethnic restaurants. Anyways I like the fact that they also included mango lassi in the buffet but they're biryani and their other dishes aloo are actually very good. For people who Miss eating Indian traditional do come here on Saturdays and Sundays also I would probably come again to try the individual dishes. read more

Serena Restaurant - Indian - Pakistani Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

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Great Sunday Brunch buffet! Wonderful place with nice service. There's so much to choose from on the buffet and I chose several types of chicken with various Indian flavours along with basmati rice and vegetables. You must try the delicious sweet lassi as well. I'd definitely recommend Serena's if you're in the neighbourhood. read more

Serena Restaurant - Brunch buffet plate - Pakistani Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

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I came here during Ramadan for their iftar buffet. They had plenty of offerings but I wasn't a fan of most of the items I had aside from the biryani. read more

I was the only customer in the restaurant as it was on a Monday at 3:00pm, the chicken dish I ordered KARAHI CHICKEN was so amazingly delicious it was almost a spiritual experience. Tender chicken, sautéed onions, and the seasoning and dill & plumb dipping sauces. Came with a side salad that they gave me two of and I ordered CHAI tea that was so delectable that it added to the enjoyment of the meal. The portion size was huge & the atmosphere was pleasant. This restaurant was a complete random pick as I found a spot to park on Devon street for $5.00 on my way home from the City and was rather hungry. Worth eating at again & again. read more

Please do not eat at this restaurant. The food was dry and flavorless. The item served was not what was ordered, as the restaurant doesn't prepare dishes according to a standard recipe. The worst part of this experience is that we got food poisoning within hours of eating here, so hygiene is definitely an issue. read more

whenever I & my wife visit Chicago from KS, never leave without having dinner at Serena. Such a great place to be at for dinner, lunch or brunch at your convenience. Highly recommended......! read more

This place is amazing ,from staff to food I'll give 5 stars ,owners are personally involved in kitchen and customer service,they have buffet on weekends which is very reasonable and keeps getting filled with fresh and warm food . On weekends buffet ,they offer fresh naans and poori to your table ,soup ,good appetizers,salad, condiments,authentic sweet dish ,halwa ,aloo Sabzi ,channa cholay,,nihari,Haleem,chicken biryani,kobos,chicken boti are their regular buffet dishes ,Kheer (dessert) is amazing ,don't miss it ! So far this is one of fave brunch places over weekends for ethnic breakfast ,recommended it to many peers n family and never got disappointed. The good thing about them is their consistency to maintain good standards . read more

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I really enjoyed it!! The beef was so tender, the grilled chicken was very good as was the butter chicken. I would definitely go back again! read more

The taste is amazing, the quality and quantity is very good with excellent service and nice ambiance too. read more

Serena Restaurant - Pakistani Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Good food, nice service and above all its certified Zabiha halal. My favorite place. read more

Best and most tasty Iftar buffet on Devon. Dinner item were cooked to perfection. Zarda was out of this world.

Lots of food, tasted good but the came out kind of cold. The best thing there is the Beef Nihari. Chicken Biriyani was just OK. Service was also really good the staff were attentive and outgoing. Ambiance was nice and the restaurant was clean and seemed fancy. read more

We stopped by for their lunch buffet on a Saturday. The restaurant was very spacious and clean! Staff was excellent with service! Promptly brought our naan, puri, and water. Very attentive for our needs! Buffet has a large selection and variety to choose from. We sampled a little bit of each. The rice dishes (biryani and mutton pulao) were our favorite. Good balance of spice. Some of the vegetable and meat dishes could have had more spice and seasoning. The halwa was delicious! It was incredibly hot in the restaurant and prevented us from fully enjoying our meal. read more

I'm eating at this place for almost 12 years as the years the food is getting delicious and more delicious. Especially, I am fond of Mutton Pulao and Chicken Chargah. read more

Serena Restaurant - Chicken Chargah - Pakistani Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Good food. Great environment. Their branch have Soo many items. Good for family dinner and branch on weekends.

came here on Eid, and the food was surprisngly good. I am always reluctant to try new restaurants on Devon, but I really liked this place. Chicken pakora was really good, but looked/tasted a bit different than what I am used to (in a good way), kharai gosht was amazing, malai chicken was good but they skimped on the quantity of our first plate, and mutton biryani was also good. Would def come here again. Update: got the buffet for Mother's Day...again good was really good. They had chicken corn soup and egg rolls that I really liked. Wish they had the naan and puri out when they put the food out because some peoples nihari was getting cold. The Haleem, channa, keema with peas was all good. Liked the custard desert too. The palak paneer was a bit too salty. Bindi actually was good too...a lot of the food was a bit too oily though read more

We has dinner there several time love it as always. I and my husband always enjoy their quality of food and value. Best service.

My son and I enjoyed an absolutely delicious meal at Serena Restaurant today (somosas, chicken dish, beef dish, naan, and chai tea). The food was fresh and plentiful and the wait staff could not have been more pleasant and attentive. A wonderful experience! We'll return for sure. read more

The whole experience from start to finish is great. Very tasty and well prepared food, and you can chose among many menu options. The waiters are always so friendly and provide prompt service. I highly recommend this place! read more

Great experience,thier buffet is simply awesome,food taste and quality awesome love serena.

Had a family event here for about 38 people. Worst service ever. Judging from recent reviews it's a common theme at this restaurant. Never again. read more

Worst restaurant ever! I was here in hopes of satisfying my craving for desi food (Indian/Pakistani). The staff didn't seem as welcoming as one would expect, but thats not uncommon on Devon Ave restaurants. We were were asked yo take any table we like and we did. We waiting to see if a waiter would bring us the menu but apparently they don't care for customers who might want to oder from the menu instead of the buffet spread. Hungry and without any hope of being waited upon, we decided to try the buffet. The got some kind of chicken dish and chole to go with naan and puri. They didn't have any labels displayed making it hard for non-desi folks to figure out what to eat. As expected, everything on the buffet menu sucked! We asked our waiter who btw was brand new in the restaurant for the menu. Ordered Palak Paneer and Tandoori Chicken, which is usually part of the buffet menu in most desi restaurants. After around 10 minutes the we heard the waiters having long discussions and our new waiter came back to us apologizing and letting us know that they are out of paneer. Mind you this was in Devon Ave., the headquarters for Indian-Pakistani grocery. We were okay with substituting paneer with aloo (potatoes). Tandoori chicken came out sooner than we expected and, no surprise here, it wasn't cooked! However, the palak aloo is the only reason I'm taking this time to write a review. The serving spoon had pieces of tissue paper stuck on it. Upon complaining about it, the waiter informed the 'management' yet no manager was at our table to give an explanation. We decided to pay and leave. When the waiter brought us the check, and the damage was $42. I gave my credit card and the guy says 'sorry only cash'. When I asked him to show me signs in the restaurant that let customers know about their 'cash only' policy he says 'no internet credit card machine not working' and walks away answering his cell phone. I gave up on hopes to be treated as a customer, walked to an ATM, withdrew cash and paid the bill. I did not get a receipt which makes me think they don't really operate as a regular business and pay their share of taxes. I will never go back to this restaurant and strongly recommend others to stay away from this place. Oh Btw, my girlfriend was sick for a couple of days after eating here. read more

Serena Restaurant - Palak aloo with a dash of tissue paper??? - Pakistani Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

Clean and quiet restaurant. Had no foul smells unlike some other on the same strip. And their cutlery was also spotless clean! Good service. Their chicken biryani was wonderful & they have quite big portions. The tandoori chicken could do a bit better. Naan was also perfect. Bihari also tasted superb. Overall it's quite an underrated restaurant and I hope they maintain the cleanliness & quality. read more

Mohammad Sh I used to take family every weekend for their buffet and also sometimes weekday for dinner before covid more than100 times, the owner and his family they all know us by face and each time we were greeted well. We liked Serena a lot that's why I always told my friends to go there cause their food is great. Sadly, I visited them yesterday and ordered food 3 seekh kabob plates, 2 Nihari, 3 chicken boti, 3 chicken biryani, 1 Kuna gosht, 3 kids fries and chicken nuggets plates, and some nans. Each and every thing wasn't like they used to cook, or you can say not cooked right close to raw. 1. Seekh kabobs- had smell like old ground meat without taste. 2. Nihari- looks like they added water to make more soup - was watery, that's why no taste nothing like they used to have. 3. Chicken boti- looked great with only red color but had same problem of smell like old and no spices. 4. Chicken Biryani- was so so boiled rice with no spices. 5. Kuna Gosht- can't tell the taste but you know you're eating something without kuna taste. 6.Chicken nuggets and fries- chicken nuggets were close to raw but can say only thing was good at that dinner was fries. 7. Nan- lastly the so-called nans when they brought them to the table looked like raw dough called the waiter and asked him that they are not cooked and they are not nans but looks like uncooked regular bread, for that he said that lately we changed the company of wheat and they're sending us bad wheat. I told him even if the wheat is different at least cook right, he took the nans back and never came back. after 10 minutes another waiter brought so called different nans but same uncooked. we told him to check yourself they 're not cooked he checked by breaking the nan and gave different excuse that sorry our clay oven is not working it's broke and took the nans back. Showed up with nans 3rd time but with the same problem, after inspecting himself this time he gave another excuse that they bought a special machine for making nan, but no one knows how to operate it right. I told him how you think we should eat our food without the nans or bread. One thing I have to mention here that they used to be famous for their nans. We all were fed-up, so I told him just pack the chicken biryani to go and left rest of the food on the table. he said OK and packed the chicken biryani. Owner of the restaurant was working in the kitchen so I told the waiter can you call him so went and came back from the kitchen and said that owner is ashamed and embarrassed and doesn't want to come out, but don't worry I'll not charge for the things you people not taking or ate. I was angry so when he gave me the bill, I just signed I didn't pay attention to the amount, and he took the CC slip back, I thought he took out the amount for things we didn't eat but to my surprise when I saw the bill on my Credit card $276. So, we paid $276 for 3 chicken biryanis (12 dollars each) $36, for 4 cokes, 3 fries, and waste of our time. They should be ashamed of their selves of charging $276, plus everybody knows that Indian Pakistani food without nan or bread is always no no. read more

Ok call me a follower or bougie but I will never willingly go to a restaurant with 2.5 stars on yelp. With that being said, my friends and I were in Devon and one of them was adamant on coming here because they have both Indian food and Chinese food and he wanted Chinese food so I begrudgingly agreed. Walking in at 6 pm there were no other customers which made me raise my eyebrows. The menu offered Indian food and a separate section for Chinese food but we learned from our server that they no longer offered Chinese food at this establishment. The menu has not been updated apparently. Imagine the look of disappointment on my friend's face! Anyways fast forward to the food. I ordered the Mattar paneer with a side of rice and it was delicious. The portions were huge and I just couldn't put my fork down even though my belly was telling me to stop but my taste buds wanted me to keep going. The prices were pretty cheap considering the amount of food you were getting. All my friends enjoyed the dishes that they ordered. Everyone left with a happy belly and happyThe end. read more

Serena Restaurant - Mattar paneer with a side of rice: happy belly - Pakistani Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

It was our first time trying Pakistani food and it was so delicious. The food is spicy, but in a good way. We had the Serena Platter and it came out sizzling hot. The Nehari was excellent, very spicy but such great flavor and tender beef. The Chicken Biryani was my favorite and the Naan paired perfectly with everything. The Daal Palak to my surprise was also delicious. The portions are very generous so we had lots of left overs. Highly recommend this restaurant; I know we will be back! Not to mention the service was outstanding. We went during the lunch hours on Tuesday so there were not many other people. read more

Great Nihari and paya! eat here all the time. Food is generally good as well. They have a setup for Iftar in Ramadan so frequent there often, often over chola chat. Chai is good as well. Naan and roti are pretty well made as well Yelp rating on this one is off...it's a good restaurant. Place is clean and servers attentive to your needs. read more

as was mentioned by other reviewers, the quantity is good but the quality isn't. the samosas were soggy and way too spicy. the menu said the paneer was mild, but it was very spicy for my tastes. this is the first and last time for me there. (the lighting was way too bright - felt like a library, not a restaurant.) read more

Cleanest bathroom in Devon! Absouletly superb! Flush works flawlessly, had to poop after having a hell lotta food, and believe me the bathroom took everything in!!! The sink wasn't clogged, amazing water pressure, the jug in toilet was clean as well. PS: They have some cool supplies in the bottom of the sink as well! ;) read more

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Serena used to be one of my favorite restaurants but not anymore. The food served was stale. We ordered mutton pulao, paya and bihari kabab. The bihari kabab was under cooked and the pulao was stale and not even properly heated. Will not return to this restaurant again. read more

Went for Iftar buffet tonight. They are charging an unfair amount of money per person with the amount and quality of food they are serving. No appetizer was served with dinner. They served cold spongy vegetable pakoras, bitter fruit chat and channa chat which also wasn't fresh, dahi baray were a mixture of dahi Boondi and dahi bara. After 15 mins they served dinner. Which was again a huge disappointment. The beef pulao was bland, chicken boti was also bland, dont know what the marinate was. Tikka was again taste less.I Dont think they marinated it. Nan were soggy. The only decent curry was nihari. There was only one dessert, kheer, which did not taste good either. They charged us 18 percent service charged on top of the 19 dollar per person we were giving. Huge disappointment. I would not recommend you wasting your money at their iftar buffet. Definitely not worth the money, taste or calories. read more