Let me first say that I'm not Indian and i don't want be a 4/5 star moronic uninformed Yelper. Â BUT, I do go with some of my hardcore Indian friends and we can all say this is one of the better Indian restaurants on Long Island. Â I've never been to their Port Washington location, so I cannot vouch if the other location is as good. Â Though their prices are not the cheapest, but considering the quality and generous portions, it's a pretty bang for the buck.
Review Source:Great service and food. Â
I had lunch buffet here and was pleasantly surprised that they had a good selection of vegetarian dishes. Â They all tasted good and I especially loved their naan bread. Â So warm, flavorful and delish. Â Service was very quick, efficient, and friendly providing a very comfortable feeling. Â I was only visiting but when I'm in town, I'll go to Diwan again for a good Indian meal.
Back to being excellent. It had fallen out of favor with me for a while. Now I would not hesitate to call Diwan the best again. The vegetarian entrees are all that I eat. I cannot speak for the rest of the menu. They know how I like my food spiced and never fail to prepare it precisely and consistently. Kudos Diwan!
Review Source:I came here for weekend brunch with a bunch of friends. Â For $10 per person, I can't really complain about the food. Â They had about 15 different dishes, my favorites being the chickpea, eggplant and lentils. Â They also had this dish, which I believe was fried sliced okra, which was really good. Â The kheer here was awesome - had two bowls! Â
Giving this place 3 stars because service was pretty bad. Â The restaurant was pretty empty, but despite this, they took forever to clear our dishes. Â We also had trouble flagging them down to get extra napkins because they simply weren't paying attention to us.
Diwan is good, but I think it's too overpriced. Â I haven't been to the lunch buffet which I'm sure is a deal, just got take-out but I might as well have sat in the restaurant after paying $20 for an entree and one piece of naan. Â The chicken vindaloo was good but I'm not expert on Indian food and honestly, I probably would have enjoyed it from any restaurant I went to, and probably for less. Â Next time I will skip the take-out and just enjoy the restaurant, it has very nice atmosphere.
Review Source:Indian food was always readily available for me in the 70's-80's-90's, as I had an Indian next door neighbor (Thankfully, still do) that is a whiz in the kitchen. So, I have some history of particular dishes and have always enjoyed Roosevelt ave and LI Indian buffets very much.
With such a large seating area at Diwan, I was thinking of a comperable buffet sized table and many a sterno keeping the entrees the proper temperature. To my surprise, the options were limited and unfortunately not as replenished as I have come to expect. I stroked the serving spoon too and fro in the goat broth for a good while hoping to tap into a nugget of bone (which the meat attaches to.) but my spoon came up empty. I settled on additional 1/4 scoops of the other available choices, which could have been a little warmer, with the hope of a full tray to arrive shortly. It never came. I'm far from brilliant, but I feel generally confident I can negotiate -taking large lid off the hot rice bowl & proceeding to serve myself the desired portion- but it didn't exactly happen that way. I'll spare you the specifics, but where to put the lid-the implinebt was flexable and flat at the base...Perhaps not worth mentioning, but it was a bit of a challange...
There were 2 Chinese food items at the buffet's end next to the missing goat, which rubbed the salt a little deeper into the wound of hunkering for the buffet offeringI enjoy the most..
The sever had asked me if I desired warmer bread, as it had been sitting for all of 11 minutes-refills on H2o and King Fisher were never lacking attentioin, taking a photo of us and serving an additional 8 four tops at a mnimum.--I think his ambition and intensity needs to be reassigned to the kitchen at a minimum..Tip that man well..I will go back again for another try, I hope to rereview in a more favorable light.
BUYER BEWARE!!!
I will cut to the chase here. You can read about how good the food was from the other reviews. No problems there. The thing that upset me was that they charged $2.50 for a glass of soda with ice, and charged FOR EVERY REFILL! I also ordered a cup of Chai Masala and was surprised that A) it had no spices. Just a plain cup of boiled tea with milk and B) they charged $3.50 for this! Needless to say that when the check came I was SHOCKED at the final tally! I went to the manager to question this and he did indeed confirm that that is the price they charge for the soda and every refill. I feel this is poor business practice. Let's face it folks. At $11.95 for a lunch buffet, this place is already not cheap. This is blatant price gouging! So we left with an extra $14.50 on our tab,( plus tax of course), and a very bad taste in my mouth. My advice to fellow Yelpers: Go in with your eyes (and wallet) wide open!
Let's cut to the chase -- this is THE best Indian buffet I have been to. Ever. I consider myself an Indian buffet connoisseur -- I've tried a few on Long Island and several in the city. I used to go to school at Hofstra on Long Island, about 20 minutes from Diwan, but that didn't keep me from partaking in the buffet just about every weekend. Akbar was just down the street from Hofstra... Akbar doesn't have anything on Diwan. As a vegetarian, I am always happy when I visit Diwan because they offer many vegetarian options (don't worry, meat lovers -- there is plenty for you too). Their saag paneer, which they offer probably 90% of the time, is my favorite curry I have ever had -- it alone is worth the price of admission to this place. While the service started to get a little bit worse over the year or so that I visited Diwan, it's not enough to knock a star off of this review -- the food is truly stellar and I always look forward to coming back to visit Diwan when I'm on Long Island. While 11-12 dollars may seem like a pricier Indian buffet, it is worth every dollar to get an incredible, authentic Indian buffet. Spend the extra dollar or so and enjoy the finer things in life.
Review Source:I just wanted to reiterate my love for Diwan. Â I ordered the chicken saagwala as usual. Â I barely made a dent in it at the restaurant and it lasted me two more meals and it's soooooooo delicious and perfectly spicy. Â The service also seems to have improved lots. Â And my friend and I also noticed "Diwan Express" next door. Â Not sure if it's open yet but I'm guessing it's for take out and catering? Â Yes please!
Review Source:This is more of a 3.5 star review. We usually order main course from Diwan and the food is really good. The Saag paneer, Dal Makhani, Chicken TIkka Masala are good comparing to other restaurants in the area. We usually order for dinner, so this review is not about the lunch buffet.
The interior and ambience of the restaurant is outdated (seems likes its been like that forever). The restrooms are not that clean as well.
We usually do a take out, which seems cheaper than eating in. We also dont order appetizers when doing a take out because the portion size is really small and not worth the price.
The wait staff and host seem really nice and friendly. Recommend the food here.
Delcious food, good service, friendly staff, nice atmosphere...one of the best indian restaurants on the Island for sure!! Lunch buffet has a great variety of tasty indian dishes. Everything on the menu looks great but i'm addicted to the chicken tikka masala and saag paneer with garlic naan, yumm!!! Enjoy!!
Review Source:As you might know if you have read my reviews, we had been longtime diners at House of Dosas until an unfortunate incident. Read my review for details. Across the street from them is Diwan. Although I am not one to pit one restaurant against another, the situation at House of Dosas forced that. We had been to Diwan once or twice and thought the food ok and a bit overpriced. The owners also seem to own a buffet restaurant which is adjacent to the main restaurant.
We were a bit hesitant when we arrived at Diwan. What greeted our eyes was two fans near the middle of the dining area that was blowing on the tables (including our own). Admittedly, we were a little concerned we made a bad choice.
Our waiter's arrival and delivery of the the dishes we ordered removed all our concerns. The food was absolutely fantastic. We ordered bhindi masala, chana masala, malaise mortal and paneer makhni. We ordered them mild and unlike our experience at Akbar's (the word mild is removed from their dictionary) each dish was mild but very well seasoned. You would think it was cooked at home. Our experience was very enjoyable and we definitely will be back.
You must try the Garlic naan. absolutely out of this world.
This lunch buffet was one of my go-to spots during graduate school, especially since it's right next door to Patel Brothers. The buffet highlights include tender-crisp tandoori vegetables, some of the best channa around, and two desserts, usually kheer with tasty little tidbits of browned rice and a fruit custard. Even better, the rapidly disappearing items are quickly replaced. Â At just over $10, value is great. Service is prompt & courteous and the restroom is always super clean. The factors witholding a 5th star are: tandoori chicken can get tough, goat curry is heavier on oil than most, and once I saw some dessert bowls next to the kheer were dirty. I still eat here on occasion, though I much prefer Copper Wok when in the neighborhood.
Review Source:Buffet until 330pm. Bless you Diwan.
Was jonsin' real hard today for an Indian buffet. Since my Dr likes to do the ol' "put the patient in an examination room and keep 'em there for 45 min so no one can hear them complain" routine, I missed my usual buffet spot. Using the handy Yelp app (shameless plug) I found a close buffet still serving lunch...Diwan.
VERY happy about this choice. Diwan is large, full of smiling employees and lots of food in the buffet. They had salad and at least 14 other hot dishes out. What were they? I couldn't tell you. I'm a bit of an Indian rookie still and I'm just looking to taste EVERYTHING. Each entree was warm and each tray was nearly full of food. I went up the first time and one item was out, by my next trip up there (5 min later bc I'm a glutton) there was a new full tray of mystery eats. OK, OK, Was the food good? Yep. My friend got annoyed with me because I kept saying  things like "wow this one is good", "Hey, this one is solid too!" and  "Did you get that one, it's quality!" So, yea, the eats are good. Fresh naan was brought to the table on the reg and I walked out one full, sweaty and happy man.
Buffet is 10.95. I'll head back here for dinner and if it was anything like the quality of the lunch I'll bump this bad boy up a star.
Not bad food, but I was unhappy with the service. It started out slow and continued that way at every step of the meal. Oh, the Papri Chaat came quickly and was pretty good, almost hot enough. It then took about thirty minutes for the entree to arrive. And there were only three tables seated in the place.
And once again, New York Indian fails. Even though I explained to the server that I have been to South India many many times and grew up with very hot Indian food. Out comes Mr Mild Mannered Dinner.
When I complained they brought out the Vietnamese Hot Sauce in the squirt bottle and five green chiles that I proceeded to cut with my dinner knife and mix in my food. (Shouldn't I get a discount for doing the cooking too?)
Ah, anticipating this they automatically add a 20 % tip, like it or not, even if you are only one person.
I may come here again, and give them another shot.
Love the lunch buffet, but the dinner can get a little expensive because the portions are smaller compared to other Indian restaurants I've been to. The food is made well, and they have a great selection of rices, breads (naan/roti) to mix with the entrees. Their chicken, and paneer dishes are def my favorite, and I love the general ambiance of the restaurant, it is fairly spacious compared to the other Indian joints in the area. I especially love the desserts here as they don't make them too sweet. The service has almost always been consistently good, but I have had spotty service once or twice on a busy night.
To get the bang for your buck, I would def hit up the lunch buffet!
After bugging my Indian friend from work to take me to a good Indian place, he brought us here. Â Holy cow! Amazing. Â I had a few favorite Indian places, (holes in the wall) but they all closed. I was looking for something that could compare. This place is by far the best around. Obviously when other Indian diners come in, you know this food is tasty and authentic. Â Everything we had was delicious and we could not wait to eat the leftovers the next day. Â I look forward to returning and stopping next door to Patel market to try even more new things.
Review Source:After a grueling shopping session at Ikea (aren't they always?), my husband and I were starved. I suddenly remembered that the area was known for Indian restaurants. Having had terrible food at the Curry Club and that other one in Setauket that I'm too lazy to look up, I was weary, but hey - how much worse could it get? Â
Luckily it was far superior! Diwan had great food. Our server, who immediately pegged us as first-timers, was super helpful in ordering and rather hilarious. I dont remember what we ate - mine wasnt even on the menu. But it was tasty and came with naan, so I'll definitely go back next time I'm in the area!
Diwan is a very well rounded place for Indian cuisine. Inviting decor inside, easy to find location, ample parking. Prices are pretty reasonable and the portions are large. Knowledgable and friendly staff and good service, not rushed, not slow, very well paced.
The samosas were good, doughy but crisp, with a nice filling. The chicken tikka masala was very good, rich but not too oily. The chicken korma was good, but it lacked a little something, could have used more zing, maybe more of the saffron kick. Good basmati rice, excellent garlic nan.
Finished off with the Indian rice pudding, which was really tasty. I will definitely return to Diwan as I love Indian food and it's so hard to find a really great Indian place on Long Isle.
I would definitely not call myself an aficionado of Indian food but I can tell you that Diwan serves some very tasty morsels. Â Was here recently with a buddy for lunch and we opted to order off the menu.
We shared the bang bang shrimp, baigan burtha, chicken badam korma and garlic naan. Â
The naan was awesome - lots of garlic and soft and pillowy. Â
The baigan burtha was grilled eggplant with tomatoes and onions - it reminded me of an italian eggplant caponata (which is one of my favorite things) but savory. Â We ordered everything spicy, so there were little bits of green chiles that gave an extra little zing. Â This was the standout dish for me.
The chicken korma was also exceptional. Â Large chunks of chicken in a silky creamy curry with a nuttiness that you don't get with a typical curry. Â I could have used a little more garlic naan to sop up the sauce.
I would pass on the bang bang shrimp - at $9.95 - you get 4 very breaded small shrimp (like U20's) in a somewhat non-descript spicy orange sauce. Â Looks like sweet and sour shrimp from your local chinese takeout except it was not really sweet. Â Too much other good stuff to waste your appetite on this.
In a town with what seems to be a hundred Indian restaurants, Diwan is top notch.
This is one of my favorite places to go for Indian food. We usually hit the lunch buffet and all I got to say is WOW. I love when they make Indian food for true Indian people and not tone it down because of the Americans taste buds.
If you are in the area and looking for a good lunch buffet this is the place for you. If you like it spicy this is also the place for you. If you come late like I have, they will make you more while you wait. The naan is also great. The Chaat station is also great hit.
I come here whenever I can.
We have had some pretty bad luck over the years finding authentic delicious Indian cuisine. More often than not we have left establishments disappointed, hungry and/or upset. Few and far between were the happy occasions we had. But to this short list I happily add the name of Diwan where we had a very tasty and jovial lunch. How fortunate were we to find Diwan among the plethora of choices in Hicksville!
With several vegan choices I was well set with Aloo Gobi and a spicy eggplant dish which filled my belly with happiness. The serene atmosphere dappled in the afternoon sun lent an air of calm to our frenetic day. The service was spot on and the owner Mac could not have been any more gracious. He told me he is opening a restaurant in a district outside Delhi. That might be reason enough to go India if his NY location is any indication of things to come. :)))
I digress... With delicious food, beautiful surroundings, nice service and next to Patel Brothers, who could want for a thing more? Not us.
I don't think they meant India...
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3.5 - 4 stars
My favvvvvorite! I'm here pretty much once a week either eating in or taking out with the boyfriend. If you like flavor and spice, try the Samosa Chat to start-- holy moly are they freakin' good! We usually go with the plain samosa but after the waiter recommended these for a change we haven't looked back since! Chicken Vindaloo and Saag Paneer are close my heart and always win. The Tandoori Chicken could stand to be more moist and flavorful, but not bad at all (plus it comes out sizzling and smells fantastic!). All of the servers here are very nice and friendly. I recommend asking them for suggestions if you don't know where to start... menu is pretty solid and straight forward though.
In addition to regular lunch & dinner, they do serve a buffet on the weekends. It's a pretty nice spread (with the exception of random chinese dishes at the end of the buffet??)
A few little complaints: I wish they would make our food spicy when I ask them to. I bring it up each time that it's not spicy enough but they don't seem to be listening... but only on Sundays it seems? I have noticed that other nights the food is better and more consistent. The food has been a little inconsistent (not by much at all, but we can tell since we eat here so often) during the past few Sundays... perhaps they have different chefs on different days?
Overall a GREAT place for great indian food.
Tried this place for the first time a couple of weeks ago, and had to go back already this week. I am CRAVING their lamb vindaloo! We went here based on a suggestion by some friends, and ordered based on the recommendations on yelp (these people REALLY know what's good!) We got the tandori chicken, goat vindaloo, and a couple of appetizers, along with the Kingfisher beer. Our server could not have been more accommodating; and what's more, he didn't give us the third degree when we asked for our food SPICY! (It seems most other places don't believe a white girl can handle her spicy food!) Anyway, everything was really good. If I had one critique at all, it would be that the tandori chicken was slightly dry and could have been spicier.
So flash forward to this week. I decided I needed some more vindaloo and found myself back there getting take-out. Omar, the present employee there at the time greeted me, poured me a beer and had a nice conversation while I waited for my food. Personality goes a long way with me, and good food aside, I felt a little bit more loyal to this place when I left.
Fantastic!
My girlfriend and I favorite Indian restaurants. I would absolutely say out of all your choices in the area this is the one to go to. We always start with the delectable samosa followed by the always delicious Chicken Vindaloo (spicy) and Saag Paneer. These two are my all time favorite Indian dishes and Diwan prepares them perfectly each time.
We frequent this spot almost once a week and it never gets old.
Very very good Indian food. I'm glad I came here to fulfill my Indian food crave. All of the servers including the manager were very attentive. It seemed like every time I would look around one of the waiters would approach me asking me if I need something else, which was great.
As far as appetizer I had the Samosa which was by far the best Samosa I've ever had. It was made fresh and the inside was full of potatoes and peas.
Entree I had the Goat Vindaloo which also was made fresh and the platter was full of meat, unlike some other Indian Places where the dish is full of sauce and no meat.
As a dinner side we had the Nann Basket which consisted of naan / onion kulcha / parantha all for $9.99. With the 3 different types of bread you get 3 of each. This definitely complements the entire meal.
Prices are good for what you get, service is great and food is delicious.
Hicksville is full of Indian restaurants and I think I found my favorite.
My favorites here include chicken mahkani, chicken korma, and chicken tikka masala... all good and well seasoned.. one of the better Indian restaurants in the area... You can't go wrong with the Naan either (they really need some Poori added though).
Overall, the service is good, the decor is nice, and the prices are reasonable. Â Worth the trip if you like Indian Food (or just want to try it.
You know when you get that craving for some good Indian food it's not going to go anywhere until it's satisfied. Last time I decided to have Indian food in this area my party left paying triple what other restaurants in the area charge and with some pretty mediocre food (I'm looking at you Rangmahal).
Diwan seemed to have much better reviews so I popped in Wednesday at noon to quell my curry cravings. There was a lunch buffet for $9.95 and that was the only option for lunch, i kinda wanted to order off the menu but since the buffet was my only option and it was pretty cheap, I decided to stay.
I piled my plate with some Aloo Chaat (basically just a light spice-infused fried dumpling), Chicken Mahkni which was in a boldly yummy cream sauce, Tandoori Vegetables, and Aloo Mattar ( a de-freaking-licious potato and pea stew) that was perfect for dipping my Chaat into. The Mattar was pretty spicy which, if you've read some of my reviews, makes me happy to no end! I was pretty full, but I did go sneak an extra scoop to dip another Chaat into.
By the time I left the dining room was getting pretty full so I guess Diwan must have itself a bit of a lunch following. Can't say I blame them, I had a delicious buffet with a soda for $12.52. They must use MSG though because I could've almost fallen asleep 2 minutes after leaving.
P.S. A buffet of Indian food was clearly designed by the makers of Prilosec and I'm filing this under pharmaceutical conspiracy.
Lunch Buffet is cheap and the variety is adequate and big on taste. Chicken Tikka Marsalla was on point. Tandori was a bit dry, Â Saag Panner was tasty The Naan was plentiful warm and fresh. The sweet Lassi was sweet and smooth to help with the intense flavors of the dishes.
A lot of bang for your buck. easy parking. friendly and attentive staff. Most Definitely come for the buffet as it's a great intro to Indian for your 1st timer friends.
Located in "Patel Plaza," this restaurant had the best Chicken Tiki Masala I've ever tried! The chicken was tender and the sauce was more creamy than usual but that's what made it special. It almost had the same color as a penne alla vodka instead of the dark burnt orange. We also tried the Goat Rogan Josh, Saag Paneer (which was Palak Paneer), and Shrimp Masala which was super hot. I would order the Chicken again because I'm not a fan of Goat and the Shrimp was too spicy but they were both good too.
The portions were served in Karahi bowls with a separate side of rice which we informed could be refilled if needed. Between 3 people we ordered 4 dishes and still had leftovers.
The service was great, all the waiters were friendly and attentive. The inside was decorated nicely and the bill came to about $80 (with a Martini) so I didn't think it was expensive considering we brought home all our leftovers. I will definitely be back, too bad I can't try the lunch buffet because it says on the menu it is 15 courses!
Wow, what a find.
My girlfriend's parents--whom are Indian--took me here the other night for dinner. Â Next thing I knew I was halfway through my meal thinking, "this is the best Indian I have had thus far in New York." Â Really, the food is very tasty and, most importantly, of excellent quality. Â The staff was also very friendly and attentive.
The fish tikka was incredible. Â The Bhindi Masala was good but had too much tomato. Â The chicken 65 was a tasty appetizer but really a General Tso-like dish geared more towards Americans. Â The Saag Chicken was excellent.
Overall, I was very pleased. Â I look forward to going back.
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