WORST service I have ever seen. We paid at the beginning (which we never should have done). Waiter spilled a whole pitcher of coke ALL over my husband. Manager/owner refused to refund us or do anything about the situation. He wasn't apologetic or anything. We had to tell them to come clean the floors...it's as if they had no common sense. After the spill, no one even came back to our table. And on top of all this the food wasn't even good. Horrible horrible experience. read more

Stay Away!!! Worst guy on the table reservation desk. I think it was the owner himself. I can't even imagine about the place if the owner himself was that rude. We were group of 8. We had Groupon deals. As soon as he heard that we have Groupon deal he made his mind that he is not going to serve us. He said that he will not give us table together because we have Groupon deal. Worst reason ever. Bydway, he had at least 5-6 big tables available. He asked us to stand on the side and wait. I politely asked again about the table after waiting for a while. He gave me pathetic look and asked to stand on the side. He then started misbehaving with my friend. We had 3 kids with us. He made all of us stand there and misbehaved. We then decided that it's not worth eating there after all that humiliation. Will never visit that place and wouldn't recommend anyone. Stay away from those rude people. read more

Overcrowded and overpriced. Went for Eid buffet with my husband and 2 kids. After waiting for more than an hour we got a table for four. Buffet was suppose to be $22/ adult and half price for kids but the guy at reception desk charged me $22 / kid ( age 8 y and 10 y). After adding gratuity I paid $110 for 2 adults + 2 kids. It was a pretty pricey buffet. My kids could not eat much as everything was so oily and spicy. Very average quality of food. Plenty of options but quality of food was mediocre. Mango lassi was watery and desserts were also very average. No one was attending the table and the service was very bad. The place was so overbooked it felt like a fish market.I regretted coming here with my family. read more

I love their buffet, decently priced 20$ plus tax. They have a lot of dishes including lasagna and french fries. It gets loud and chaotic. Dont expect great service or ambience but the food is definitely good read more

Oh gosh...the best Indian buffet food ever. Everything in the buffet is finger licking good. They serve everything from Naan to butter chicken and goat. The waitress and staff are very friendly and super attentive. This place gets packed due to the food and price per person. This is one of my favorite places to dine. read more

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This is their new location at pioneer blvd, the place is clean and great views from the windows. Plenty of food choices and the place got packed. You can find all types of meats, halwa puri , dal , nehari , haleem. Its on large scale. Decor is superb. This is a vast improvement . Parking gets full after 2pm thus better arrive early . read more

Had a groupon for a weekend buffett. Firstly, the receptionist (I believe he's the owner) was rude and the food mediocre at best. Don't even get me started on hygiene or service..Worst ever! Save your money and go to one of the Indian places on Oak tree Rd. Final Verdict: Enter at your own risk!! read more

Came back to Shahnawaz for an Eid Buffet, I am extremely satisfied with their huge variety of food buffet and it was good too. Whole family enjoyed the buffet and and a huge improvement from my last visit. read more

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A palace it is not. No one could mistake this for any kind of palace. At all. They do, however, have pretty decent food. I've been here on countless occasions for small banquet-type gatherings as well as a weekend buffet and have never come away disappointed. The drinks are mediocre and watered down, but it's Edison and it's a buffet or banquet so I don't expect the Ritz. If the owner should read this or anyone that has the owner's ear, please ask why the bathrooms are in the basement and always smell like death? Thank you. read more

My Muslim friend had brought me for Ramadan dinner a week ago. All said and done, the food wasn't bad. It was the customers that were bad. The place was overcrowded. They should raise the price for a better experience for those willing to pay. It was so overcrowded that people were shoving their fellow people just to get food. I understand if you are fasting but literally shoving, and dropping plates is just not ok. The crowd is what will make my friend stay away from this place now. read more

SHANAWAZ is runby complete idiots who do not understand the basic of management 101. I drove to shahnawaz today from Long Island, NY - (a 1.5 hrs drive time) only to open my iftar with my family. We reserved our table confirmed the reservation three times prior to arriving to the restaurant. Upon, arriving we were told the reservation doesn't exist. These guys are running around with reservations written on a peace of papertrying to seat all the people that come through their doors. I guess they haven't invested in computers yet to actually accomodate their "vast business" yet. The time for iftar passed and we are still not given a clear answer as to what really happened to our reservation. These guys are jerking us around to move aside so they seat their other customers. No sense of management and they clearly don't know how to treat people who enter their restaurant. We weren't even given an incentive to even open our fast with something light yet just jerked around. I actually can careless if you take this review serious or not.... but I am sure the dude with the "beard" who couldn't even face the truth and just gave answers with attitude during maghrib time will get his worth. I went to Moghul Resturant instead and who clearly know the meaning of a "reservation." read more

Best buffet in town! Made it at 8:15 right before they closed. Best Bihari chicken, niyari, fish pakoras, gol gappes and rasmalai!! Too good! read more

The food here is decent though not out of the ordinary special. They have a large variety of selections to choose from in their buffet so I guess it's good for someone who just wants to go stuff themselves silly with spicy food. I agree with the other reviewer that the the soft drinks are heavily watered down. All in all I think this place is a little overpriced considering the number of choices available in Edison for Indian/Pakistani food. Please make sure to check and verify your bill before you pay, to make sure you have been charged the correct price per person since the restaurant does not post it anywhere on the premises and the cashier/owner has a habit of surreptitiously adding a few dollars to the bill. Also please do not leave a tip under any circumstances as the proprieter does NOT permit the wait staff to retain the tips. DO NOT PAY A PENNY MORE THAN THE ACTUAL BILL. read more

We went to the restaurant with family. My son was asleep in his stroller. The doorman helped me with the stroller. Once inside the owners daughter tells me that my son can't remain sleeping in his stroller and recommended a child high chair to put him to sleep. I left with my son and waited in the car. Management is poor. Food is not great. Spend your dollars wisely and go somewhere that is family friendly. read more

One of my favorite Pakistani/ Indian restaurants. I love the weekend buffet and drinks are included! Including mango lassi!! I never been to a buffet like this that includes drinks. The food is really good including the bread, naan and chicken tikka masala. The desert was good- a nice variety including mango ice cream and gulab jamun. read more

Usually have nothing but good reviews here but we held a wedding event and they completely botched the food order by replacing the beef bihari kabob with other random chicken items and tried to pass it off like they did nothing wrong. We told them on the spot that it was wrong but they refused to correct it and even subsequent phone calls and emails afterwards went unanswered. Again, we usually have great experiences but this was very disappointing compounded by their lack of communication. read more

Best Pakistani food you'll find in NY/NJ. Buffet has a large variety of Pakistani cuisine, starting from street fair (chaat, bhel purri, samosas etc) to breakfast dishes (chaney, halwa purri, aalo bhujiya), main course specialty dishes (biryani, haleem, leg of lamb, behari kababs) and a whole bunch of other dishes. So you can have your fill of whatever you're in the mood for, and you can't beat the price, $17/person for an all you can eat buffet!! For those of us who don't cook much ourselves, this is the best deal to satisfy your cravings of the native food. It's a clean, family environment, nothing fancy, but GOOD basics. Don't complain about it being 'nothing special' coz more than likely if you grew up eating it, it's never going to be special (I bet Japanese don't find sushi 'special' either but the rest of us do, right? You get my point). It's only 'special' if it's Mom's cooking! It's GOOD food and as close to authentic tastes as possible. Don't complain about it being spicy either as that is how this cuisine is meant to be, quite frankly I thinks it's not spicy enough. So if u can't handle spicy, don't bother. I know there are tons of Pakistani/Indian spots in Curry Hill (Lexington NYC) and there is yet another very famous spot in Jackson Heights Queens, I've tried out most, but fact of the matter is if you want GOOD food along with a CLEAN environment, you're better off checking out this place. This location only serves brunch on the weekend & they have a banquet room as well. They do have another location on Oak Tree Road, Edison NJ, that is mostly likely open all week. I believe they cater for events, and have some frozen kababs available at select retail locations as well. Word of advice, wear comfortable clothes i.e. something with an elastic waist band that can accommodate the expanding tummy as u gorge yourself into a food coma! :) read more

I heard a lot about this place and wanted to give it a try. We drove from NYC and arrived at about 1pm on a Saturday. The receptionist charged us $38 for two people and we were seated promptly. Huge variety of authentic and great tasting Pakistani food. Haven't seen too many places offer high quality Pakistani dishes at this level. We left completely satisfied. read more

So, first all positives: best lamb shank, best karachi style Nehari, tastiest halwa-puri, loved the green-chicken-somethin-somethin!, chicken karahi was excellen. Perhaps the best desi buffet I have ever been except PERHAPS the Reza's (Persian/desi) in downtown Chicago! Drinks such as mango lassi, soft drinks etc come with the buffet - so no hidden costs! Need improvement: Soda was flat, not the best of the deserts; Wife had the Kashmiri chai and she wasn't overly impressed. Did not see any somasas - believe those were gone once consumed! Too crowded and we had to drive for 40 minutes but will go back there again n again! *Update: OK today is our second time just this/2016 Ramadan; Lovin it! read more

EXCELLENT FOOD. If you are looking to have a good sub-continental buffet, look no further. This is the place. Great options, well made and you won't have to beak your bank. Family and I loved it. Give it a try. read more

Normally we like this place but we hosted an iftar party here last night and it was a TERRIBLE experience! There were many things wrong. For starters we had reserved the main hall area for 150 people but management gave our tables to other customers that were not part of our party. Upon complaining, instead of the management apologizing and rectifying the situation they did not redirect the customers and instead made some of our guest sit to the side. Secondly, the buffet was set up outside in the parking lot and there were NO employees managing the buffet at all! There was a huge mess of food that had fallen on the floor or out of the serving trays. There were long periods of time where food needed to be refilled but no one was around to do so and we had to hunt employees down refill the food. The buffet was so unorganized with no sense of direction set for lines and hoards of people just crowding the area. The men and women were all forced to go in the same crowds with men bumping into women. Also there was no announcement when Athan happened & it was time to break fast as well as no announcement on salat accommodations available. We are very disappointed with the staff & management. We were hoping for a wonderful iftari experience during this beautiful month but instead we spent the entire time stressed and trying to ensure a nice experience for our guests. Definitely don't recommend hosting an iftari here. read more

This is now Shahnawaz Banquet, rather than the palace! lol! Firstly, this is a gem..like a real one, and I have no idea why I had not discovered it before - considering I know all remotely good places around this area. Secondly, awesome-awesome food! I'm talking about seriously good Mughlai food..this has pure Pakistani descent and so has that amazing taste as well. This place and buffett opens only on the weekend :1-4 pm. Imp. suggestion/info.: Even though they have amazing snaccks/starters in all kind of meats, but they have only 1 chicken curry based dish, and 1 mutton curry based dish, and have various beef based dishes (which I think limits the choices for folks like me who don't eat Beef). Kudos to their chefs & should point out that even the deserts are remarkable! Going back their whenever I can (since I don't live in that area any longer). read more

The only good thing about this place is their weekend buffet. Otherwise, it does not look like a palace by any stretch of the imagination. The food is good, flavorful and delicious but sometimes it can be a bit more oily than I prefer but then that's Pakistani restaurant food for you. This is the only good Pakistani buffet place in all of NJ, trust me!! read more

Over priced- the atmosphere is... Like people have never seen food before. It was kind of shocking- and I know when you buffet, you waste a lot of food- but the waste I saw last night was appalling. The food was mediocre- there were about 2 dishes that stood out to be good. The naans were undercooked- samosas were burnt and had a sour taste- the juice station was pretty impressive- desserts were ok- I make better brownies than what on the buffet- I think too much coloring for the foods- the mattar paneer was very distasteful- I would never go their again. For almost $20 per head. Definitely not worth the money. read more

Great place! You really should be Pakistani (or go with some Pakis) if you want to eat here. The food is nice and authentic. It's a bit of a mad house but I think that's part of the charm. Go for the food and you'll be happy. If you expect good service, nice decor, clean tablecloth, etc...go eat somewhere else. read more

Were in NJ for the weekend, this place was highly recommended for brunch. We had to hit the road for a long drive back home, ate in a rush. But food was really really good. They have a huge variety to select from- I love street food. I wasn't a big fan of their dahi balay and chat. But the lunch items for really good- my favs being the chicken biryani and they had some roasted lamb- was delicious. Dessert items were all superb. read more

Worst buffet ever..the restaurant made us wait for 1 hour even after getting reservations 3 hours in advance. They typically have wedding and birthday parties sharing the same buffett, so be prepared for endless wait, ZERO service and pathetic hygiene. read more

The place is very accommodating. The food is good. The service is good. The decor is acceptable. Not a fan of live music.plenty of good variety. read more

Shahnawaz Banquet - Pakistani Near Me - Edison, New Jersey

I am giving 3 stars as I didn't get diarrhea or get sick as the food is mediocre, greasy and better off simply taking shaan masalas and cooking at home. The restaurant is dirty and bathrooms are filthy. Unfortunately my family when visiting from India force me to go there as normally I would avoid it read more

This is a very popular buffet and catering restaurant in the community. Food quality and variety is the best. Food taste is authentic and festival style. An hour away from where I live but Still my goto place for catering or weekend brunch. Live music on Sundays is fun. Sometimes we stay there for hours listening to old Indian and Pakistani songs. read more

First they don't have handicap rest room for your adult If you take your grant mam or .... She and he can go restroom Shammm No customer service They thing they are they only one in this business People Do have a choice read more

Great buffet! Best Pakistani/Indian buffet I have had in US. It's a bit expensive but if you pay cash then you can save 10%. Apart from the variety they have the quality for the food. They have great appetizers, food and sweets. To top it of you can have chai or Kashmiri chai. Just be careful if you are a small party. They might not entertain you. First they'll say let me check. Then will say no table is free at this time. When you ask for the wait time, they say I don't know. Essentially leaving you with no option but to leave. I do think that the food is great. But just wanted to give a heads up to future visitors. I am still giving it a five star as I don't want to take away from the people cooking great food. I just wish that the people on front desk and their "Akhlaq" was as good. read more

We found a discount on Groupon which was great! This is in Edison, sort of on a side street across from a school. We went on a Saturday around 2 pm and it was packed ( had to park at school). It was nothing fancy but a big room ( sort of like a hall). The food was delicious! They had all types of food. Different meats dishes, vegetarian dishes and dessert. Everything I ate was so delicious!!! My husband said the dessert was better than the actual food but everything we had we loved. We will definately be going back. It is buffet style but even though so many people...didnt feel so crowded when you went to get food. We will be going back for sure! read more

Seriously, one of THE worst places to hold your party at. My family recently rented the smaller room for an party on a Saturday and it was a mess. The party started out fine. The owner came in a couple of times to check up on things. They have a nice sound system where you can hook up your own music. Tables were decorated simply. Then we started having problems. We were told we would be able to bring home any left over food since, ya know, we PAID for all the food. (The food was okay. We ordered chicken tikka, chicken biryani, jalfrezy. The paneer sabzi was terrible though. No flavor at all) Then they start clearing out the food and we're like "Hey what about our food?" and they claim they had no idea what we were talking about and we could take the food if we wanted to. They were acting like they were doing us a favor when they already told us they would. We said of course we want the food and they gave us some biryani, naan and tikka chicken when there was SO MUCH left over. Then they tell us we need to turn the music off at 10:30. WHAT. Are you kidding me? Their reason? People live upstairs. Now I'm no architect, but I'm pretty sure it's a terrible idea to build a banquet hall underneath a residence (but hey, at this point I lost all hope in the intelligence of these owners). We were told NOTHING about this beforehand. They just sprung it on us at the moment. That is extremely unprofessional. Oh but wait - it gets worse. Then it's time for our dessert. I was excited for the free ice cream but lo and behold, where is the ice cream?? At this point the owner had left and the only person left was this waiter who could barely speak English. We ask the waiter, "Where is the ice cream?" Our meal plan comes with ice cream. "No. You don't get ice cream." And he scurries off. What?? We were too busy dealing with guests and entertaining to start a huge argument with him so we made be with the lousy plate of jalebi they gave us. At around 10:30 this waiter is cleaning up, bringing in chairs from the other room and stacking them up, taking down some vases and tables. Our contract says we are allowed to be there until 12:30 so what's the rush dude? Oh but he was in a rush. The dirty waiter comes to us and tries to tell us we need to leave at 11. We tell him no, we are allowed to be here until 12:30, like it says on the contract. He starts arguing with us and creates a big commotion during the party. Then he just leaves and we don't see him until 12:30. He did nothing to help with the party for the rest of the night. TL;DR: Don't go to Shahnawaz. They are liars who will tell you everything will be taken care of to your face, then make you stress out while trying to enjoy your party. ONE OF THE WORST RESTAURANTS/HALLS IN EDISON EVER. I hope they feel good about running such a terrible business because I will never give them my business again. read more

The lunch buffet is surprisingly delicious! Their bihari kabab, fish, chaat, and nihari are good. Biryani is mediocre but overall a good experience. read more

IMHO, Best Indian/Pakistani food I've had in US in that last couple of years! The outlook is somewhat of a Marriage Reception sorts, with round table seating. People come in hoards so come on time!! And more importantly, come HUNGRY!!!! From the sumptuous lamb shanks and haleem, to the absolutely delectable rasmalai, everything here is authentic and delicious! Unlike a traditional buffet, food here is hot and refilled on time. The noise level and chaos level here is High as you rub shoulders with everyone while trying to get your hands on a wide selection of chaats :) Must try for anyone in and around Edison or even visiting over the weekend. read more

My girlfriend had liked this place, as we first tried it with a Groupon for "Shahnawaz Palace". I had bought a second one, but they looked like they were closed, and my groupon was for the lunch buffet. Looks like out of business. read more

Great buffet on the weekend. Everything tender and delicious. Lots of items, we didn't make it through half of what was there but it was all great. Will be back again and again. New favorite.. read more

Absolutely loved this place. My family eats out alot so we have tried many restaurants in Edison, NJ. This is the best buffet I have tried in the NY/NJ area. read more

Hello All! March 2016 I have been dining out several times a week since I was 7 years old. I eat Northern and Southern Indian food a few times a week, all around the Tri-State area. This is the biggest, Best and most authentic Indian Buffet anywhere! Aside from the tremendous and delicious food and beverage choices, it has a lovely décor and atmosphere. Sometimes there is live music! The food is as spicy as it should be, not dumbed down for the average American :-)! There is a whole wall length of various meat and vegetarian entrees, many appetizers including Golgappa/Pani Puri Shots (with All the fixings!), soup(s), several hot and cold beverages (included!) and too many deserts to mention, from the traditional Ras Malai and Keer to American (and I use the term lightly ) brownies (which as a chocolate addict, I cannot recommend ) and cake, (occasionally they have a fruit pudding to die for!). From my experience, and I am a very outgoing person, Americans are not usually readily welcomed in Foreign restaurants, but the owners/managers of Shahnawaz made us feel like family after our 2nd. (of many!) Visits! All of the wait staff is very nice and attentive too! Of the many, many Indian cuisine restaurants I have tried in NJ, the buffet here ranks among the best: 5/5 stars! There is plenty of free parking on premises and across the street! *Michael -N- Valerie, NY/NJ, Earth, USA read more