We enjoyed the lunch buffet and found the food very tasty and plentiful.
The wait staff is most attentive and willing to bring extra of the tandoori
chicken and bread. I found the samosas cool and not as hot as they should
be, and they bring the tandoori chicken and bread to the table as soon as
you sit down, rather than letting you get your first helping THEN coming with
the hot items. Overall, excellent food for the price they are charging. I'll be back.
I will never eat here or order from here again. Our takeout was the worst (yet far from the cheapest!) Indian food I've ever had. Our malai kofta, $8, had ONE kofta and lots of barely-seasoned, yet overly salty sauce. Our palak paneer, also $8, had three tiny little cheese cubes drowning in 16 oz of sauce.
The peshawari boti was good - juicy, well-seasoned. But again, a pretty scant portion for the $10 price tag.
I will give them two stars, instead of just one, because I called to complain about the lack of actual food in our food, and they immediately sent out another malai kofta & palak paneer at no charge. If their food had been more edible I would try it again, because at least the service was good!
Looking for a later night dinner on a Sunday and ordered from Punjabi Dhabha. Â My chicken was tough. Â The salad was basically iceburg lettuce and onions, with one or two tomatoes. Â I was told, every ten minutes that the driver would be there in ten minutes.
Overall disappointment. Â I can get better indian food elsewhere.
A friend of ours suggested this place since it is an Indian BUFFET restaurant with a very decent price. The buffet is everyday and they also have meat in the buffet which is pretty rare for Indian buffet restaurants.
So we ended up here on a Saturday night for an early dinner. The restaurant is very clean and a good size. The service is great. The servers are very friendly and helpful. Once you begin your dinner they bring fresh naan and tandoori chicken to your table. The food is pretty good. I won't say that it is the best or great...it is good. The chilli chicken lacked some chicken as there were more veggies than there was chicken. I personally don't like that idea. Moving along the line, there is your white rice, your chicken biryani, butter chicken, and a lot of different veggie dishes, with one mutton dish. The butter chicken was pretty good and so was my fave dish of the night. The desserts are fresh jalebi, rice pudding, and some mango pudding. I didn't really get a chance to try the desserts as I had already packed on the main course quite a bit and was out of space. My wife tried the desserts and she liked it. One thing I will say is, do not get the mango lassi...it's not lassi...it's more of a watered down version of a what was a lassi.
This is an o-k place but it is a buffet so that's a huge plus. The price is very reasonable and best of all, this is a Halal place...BOOYAA!!
Delicious is all I have to say about this place. I have been here a couple of times, and every time I have had the best service, attentive staff, and delicious hot food! They bring the tandoori chicken and naan fresh to your table and their buffet is always being replenished. Amazing butter chicken and lamb curry! I especially love the dal! Will definitely recommend this place!
Review Source:Buffet blows. Â
A cousin visited from overseas and when he read the name of the restaurant suggested we try this. Â We found some commonalities with one of the managers and started talking about good versus not so awesome dishes. Â My cousin pushed the manager to make sure to prepare for us, brand new dishes off the a la carte menu. Â Thank GOODness, my cousin did this for us.
Butter chicken was good.
Chili chicken (a South Indian dish, hard to come by in the U.S.) very good.
Naan prepared with butter! FTW!. Â My cousin and his lavish ideas.
I came back with my folks and tried the buffet another day and guess what. Â I hated the butter chicken which was bland, too watery and empty of flavor. Â Yet a sign hangs claiming they have local notoriety for having the best or most ordered butter chicken entree on Devon per Grubhub. Â Galub jamun was hard, blech. Â Chicken briyani.. seriously.. tri colored rice with bogus coloring and meats not fully engulfed in proper seasoning. Â Aye caramba!
Order off the menu and disregard the buffet and this could possibly be a four star experience. Â I like the Punjabi beats in the background, not loud but lively to give you a slight head nod. Â The restaurant is open daily till about 1 am(?) Management also boasted that they would do deliveries just about anywhere. Â Never tested, so do not know for sure. Â The place has the possibility of being a decent sit down, however I assume management or service holds them back from this. Â It's a nice diner Indian food experience.
Aside from the Mango Lassi, everything else was bad. The butter chicken barely had any chicken in it, the rice was old, all the meat was dry and seemed old, and there there was hair in the food. About the only positive thing I can say about this place is that the food wasn't that spicy.
Review Source:Ordered delivery and got it within an hour. Everything was ordered medium and I'm glad it was - the Lamb Curry was especially spicy. From my, albeit limited, experience of Indian food, all the dishes seemed particularly authentic and delicious. Our order of three entrees was delivered with only one order of rice - not a problem as I don't eat it, but I suspect most people would be disappointed. The included salad greens were a little wilted and aged - I suspect they were mostly an afterthought.
Review Source:Mind you... I am not a  connoisseur of Indian food... However, I have had many Indian friends whose parents have cooked for me.  One review said the Butter Chicken was too spicy.  HELLO! Have you ever had REAL Indian food?! It was perfect, he/she just can't handle spicy food.  The Biryani was amazing and a huge serving.  Maybe their delivery changed since someone said it took too long, because mine was here when they said it would be.  Everything was great and fresh tasting.  Wish I had found this place sooner.
Review Source:Our food took over an hour and a half to arrive (delivery) and it was mediocre at best. Â The Chicken Tikka Masala had more bones and tendons to it than actual chicken and the Butter Chicken was literally too spicy to eat! Â My friend who ordered lives for spicy food and even she thought it was horrible. Â And just when we thought the naan was the saving grace, there's half a clove shoved into the dough to be eaten in one bite. Â Gross. Â Considering the $35 we spent on the food, the least they could do was add rice to their dinners and maybe more than one piece of naan for $3.
Review Source:I just received food from this place tonight....it took them over an hour to deliver...after paying 36 dollars for our food, we didn't receive any rice, our food (tandoori lamb and chicken curry) had more bones in it then meat.
This was the laziest made Indian food I've had. The garlic naan was 3.00 and was only one piece.
Highway robbery for mediocrity. Never again.
The is by far the best Indian food I've had on Devon street. The atmosphere felt perfect for a pubjabi restaurant and the dinner buffet menu had a lot of variety. Service was friendly and courteous and they also had a bar. After a long day of shopping on Devon if you want a place to kick back have a kingfisher and some good desi food, this is the place!
Review Source:Back again and the food is still as yummy as ever. Fresh, warm and full of flavor. The atmosphere is awesome, from the lights to the music and the award on the wall for their butter chicken is well earned. And the staff is friendly. My wife and I walked away feeling quite full and look forward to coming back, again and again.
If you haven't been to Punjabi Dhabha, I highly recommend it. Be it lunch or dinner, you can't go wrong.
Great food, great customer service, great experience all around.
We went down on Devon Saturday night, parked the car, and started walking. Â It was so nice out and we decided to just wander until we found a place that looked good. Â We walked past Punjabi Dhaba and saw a buffet through the window. Â The manager came out and asked us to come in... he guaranteed we would not be disappointed. Â He was right!
Only $9.95 for a Saturday night dinner buffet? Â Plus they bring naan and tandoori chicken to the table? Â Awesome! Â The manager showed us what everything was on the buffet and couldn't have been more hospitable throughout the night. Â They were all constantly checking on us, bringing us more stuff, and the manager even sat down with us for some friendly conversation. Â I can't wait to go back!
As for the food... Gaaaaaah!!! Â (Homer Simpson drool) Â The chili chicken was in a huge wok just bubbling away. Â Biryani rice was so good. Â Chicken curry was outstanding. Â Best naan I've ever had... we had to ask for another basket. Â And my favorite was putting the gulab jamun into a bowl of mango custard for dessert. Â I think they must cater to westerners because the food was not very spicy at all. Â I would have preferred it much hotter but it was perfect for my friends who can't handle too much heat. Â
This is a great place to go if you are new to Indian cuisine and want to try a little bit of everything without burning up your insides. Â
The restaurant was very clean and decorated beautifully. Â The Punjabi dance music playing in the background made it even better. Â All in all a 5 star experience!
Went to Devon looking for BYOB dinner buffet and had expectations surpassed on every metric at Punjabi Dhabha. Affordable (student discount) dinner buffet with items that I rarely see in a buffet format. The biryani was excellent as was the goat, chicken, saag, vegetables etc.
Highly recommended and an excellent Devon experience.
Rather nice interior, this restaurant advertises an inexpensive dinner buffet.
We ordered off the menu instead of getting the buffet, and I think that surprised the server. After ordering a sampler platter of appetizers that included samosas, the server inexplicably brought us two cold samosas from the buffet table and told us they were on the house. Then they brought hot and fresh samosas along with the sampler platter. That was weird, but a good chance to see what samosas tasted like both hot and cold I guess. The chutneys provided on the table were excellent and flavorful along with our samosa blast.
The chicken tikka masala curry was delicious beyond reason, but the lamb curry was fatty and greasy. The mixed grill had a nice selection of ground kufta meat and sausage. The naan bread was excellent and we tried a beer called Chakra that was a tasty lager.
I'll go again and try more of the menu, and maybe even the buffet this time.
RODENTS!!! Ok, technically it was just a "rodent" in the singular tense, but that one rat was still enough to spoil our experience at Punjabi Dhaba.
Rewind: we saw the restaurant as a Groupon Now deal and we were fiending for some Indian and so we thought we'd try it out. The place looks nice enough. The buffet was on, but the Groupon was for entrees only, so we ordered off the menu (Note to Groupon users- also excludes the tandoori or prix fixe options). Having had some recent bad luck with another Indian restaurant in the area, we took the extremely safe route and went with the tikka masala and mutter paneer. Both were well spiced and really decent. The naan was hot and struck a good balance between chewy and crisp. Although none of it blew us away with that "Oh my God this is giving me an orgasm all over my body" feel that really good Indian food can give you (No? Just us? Oh...), I would have returned here the next time I needed a quick Indian food fix in a pinch.
So the bill comes, and it is several dollars more than expected. I notice that our "side of rice" has been upgraded into $5 "special" rice that I can't seem to find on the menu, and that an additional $7 has also been added. I asked the manager if he could explain the $7 addition, and he first tried to tell me is was extra tax, and when I pushed him on it he then told me it was an 18% gratuity charge. Having waited tables through college, I generally try and stick with the 20% rule, but I also don't appreciate hidden charges. There was no mention of it up front, it wasn't itemized on the bill, and the menu mentioned an automatic gratuity for parties of 6 or more. Sigh.
As I'm handing him my credit card, my wife yells and points at the floor. Crawling out from under the next table over, a rat is looking up at us expectantly, no doubt hoping to sup on whatever scraps may have fallen to the floor during our dinner. I point out the rat, and the owner tells me not to worry about it. Â My wife reiterates that a rat is watching us eat, and he again tells my wife "Don't worry about it."
So, the next time you find yourself sharing a mysteriously priced meal with a rat at Punjabi Dhaba...just remember to not worry about it! The manager said so.
I never had Indian food before this place. Â While it wasn't the best Indian food, it did make me curious to what Indian food has to offer. Â The beer I had was from India, and it was a fairly unique blend.
The food wasn't too bad, nothing special. Just a lot of curry and spices. Â Overall OK experience, will try another Indian place.
i loved this place. I come frequently.
The selections are really good, and everything tasted great. The level of spice here is just what I'm looking for. I get upset when I can't get something spicy enough.
The only bad thing was that I felt like I could have coughed all over everything from the spices lingering in front of the buffet! It almost happened lol. All those spices tasted oh so good in my mouth though.
Located in Rogers Park, there are lots of competitors in the area. This place has a great deal with a price of 10 dollars a person that includes endless naan and an order of tandoori chicken served right to your table.
The staff is so friendly and always smiling. No one makes you feel awkward and it's pretty clean. A little dark, but a nice dark. Warming is more like it.
They have a great selection of newspapers and brochures in the front all about news and events related to the neighborhood.
I've been to many of the Indian restaurants on Devon Ave and I must tell you Punjabi Dhabha is simply my favorite. Â The buffet is $9.95 and amazing. It has a great selection of vegetarian and non-vegetarian choices. Â They bring you Naan and Tandoori chicken right to the table. The gentlemen that work there are so nice and B.K is very personable and made our dining experience an A+! Â
If haven't tried Punjabi Dhabha yet try it I know you'll love it.
Relatively inexpensive and fast, courteous delivery.
Lamb vindaloo- tasted kind of like Hormel canned chilli and there were big chunks of fatty bone with no meat.  Be careful of your teeth!  when i did come upon a chunk of lamb  that wasn't covered in rubbery white fat, it was fairly tender- so that was good.
Vegetable Pakora- cold and dense, not crispy. Â not super great food, but a large portion.
Garlic Naan- good flavor but not warm at all.
The green sauce was pretty tasty. Â
it came with some limp lettuce, cucumbers and flaccid tomatoes.
They put some of my stuff in styrofoam containers when i had requested to please not use styrofoam. Â I don't like it because its lousy for the environment- it rubs me the wrong way a little bit when restaurants use them, especially if i have politely requested an alternative.
If you're looking for good Indian food, this is not the place for it. Tried the buffet ($10) and every single dish was mediocre. The meat and poultry dishes all lacked meat or poultry. The lamb curry vindaloo (which is traditionally very spicy) was so bland and had chunks of fat with very little lamb. The chili chicken and butter chicken as well as the chicken biryani all lacked chicken pieces. They serve tandoori and naan at the table but both are scarce. I've never been served such a small serving of naan or chicken at any Indian restaurant that does table side.
Also, the decor, especially the ceiling, is something you would find in Miami in the 80's.
A friend of the BF was visiting, and invited us out to eat. Since his wife is from India, I figured the food would be mind-blowing.
So, we showed up at PD and I was ready to be wowed. It's pretty much your standard buffet deal, with the tandoori chicken brought to your table.
However there were four of us at the table (BF and I joined the others a bit late) and while they did bring out another tray of tandoori, I was slightly miffed by the miniscule portion they brought (a wing and a leg) to us latecomers.
Also, despite the claims of the staff, I am pretty sure the A/C was broken. It was HOT in there! As in sweat rolling off the face. (At least outside, there was a breeze.) And this was NOT during our most recent heatwave, either.
On a positive note, the food was fresh and tasty. There was a HUGE wok filled with a pinapple-chicken & peppers dish. It looked more like Chinese food, and was very tangy and yummy. They had free lemonade on the buffet, as well as deserts.
Now, I can't speak to price here, as we were being treated by our friends. This is actually the second time I've eaten here with someone from India, and they always seem impressed with the food. It seems OK to me, but I suspect from the other comments that the prices are a tad high.
Friendly staff
Good for the price but I've had better. I'd hate to critique them like this don't get me wrong the food was good just not up to par with some of the other more flavorful dishes I've tried at other places. There are way too many places near by so I probably won't go back.
No shortage of eateries on Devon St. Â But there aren't a lot of buffets. Â Typically I hate buffets -- it's quality over quanity. Â But a good indian buffet can be the exception to the rule -- a great way to score a variety of dishes without spending a fortune or eating in a very large group.
Punjabi Dhabha is a great deal for the money and the quality of the food is way up there. Â They do a few things right with indian buffet:
1) The naan and tandoori chicken is made fresh to order for every table -- so no stale, cold naan leftovers to disappointingly dip into your ghee doused chicken or palak.
2) desserts are included
They do get ONE thing wrong though:
1) Chai is NOT included...
C'mon guys it's a 4 cent teabag per two cups and some milk.
Good variety of dishes and comfortable atmosphere make this my top $10 buffet choice.
Sure, maybe it's "just another Indian food place on Devon," but they have an AWESOME $10 lunch buffet that includes hot tandori chicken and Naan brought to your table. Â Taste = AMAZING. Â Price = EVEN MORE AMAZING.
I literally didn't eat again until the next day. Â Some of the best $10 I've ever spent.
Go to Sher-a-Punjab. Â That's my go-to place for Indian Buffet any time of day.
Went here on a Monday evening in the interest of trying a different Indian Buffet. Â The reviews seemed to be a complete split down the middle, so the devil's advocate in me decided to give it a try. Â My partner-in-crime was up for anywhere as long as kheer was present and her cousin is relatively unfamiliar with Indian.
Wow, was I disappointed and slightly embarrassed I'd chosen this place when my old stand-by was right across the street and 2 bucks cheaper (both were under $10.00, fyi). Â Admittedly, this review is mostly a comparison with Sher-a-Punjab, which, I think, is the only other dinner buffet on Devon (at least from my Yelp! search). Â
Punjabi Dhabha was really, really salty. Â I ate all the vegetarian options, while my companions had the meats -- they didn't think it was as salty as I did, for the record.
As I mentioned, I'm usually devil's advocate, but let me set a few things straight about Punjabi Dhabha: Â as another reviewer mentioned, paneer-labeled dishes do not include paneer, vegetarian food was overly salted, I heard another diner say "it's all potatoes" -- this is true. Â My partner-in-crime's cousin said the tandoori chicken was dry, naan was good and fresh though. Â Service was also good.
Punjabi Dhabha has a few more selections than Sher-a-Punjab, but quality reigns over quantity. Â Save a couple bucks and go across the street where they have paneer, dosa, and garnish their kheer with pistachios. Â Their pakoras and samosas also tasted much better and weren't 90% potato.
I can't believe I wasted my stomach on this food; Its the worst. Â Don't even bother. Â Everything had enough salt to kill you. Â If it wasn't that, it didn't look fresh, and if neither, you had a shot that it might just be enough to sustain you until you go somewhere else.
This is all when we ordered off the menu. Â We didn't feel like the buffett.
The lentil soup, the  tandoori paneer jalfrezi and the rice was inedible.  The complimentary salad was a sight I would expect to see silking out of the dumpster (I didn't eat it).  The good things we had were the Mango lassi, the naan and onion kulcha. Â
As for the service, its borderline inexcusable. Â We were greeted by one waiter who assumed he knew what we wanted and tried to steer us to the buffet. Â He didn't give much explanation when we tried to get more information. Â Then the busgirl interrupted our conversation and kept asking to take our dishes. Â Then she got our bill and tried to explain it even though she didn't speak English. Â Then another waiter came and said this is the bill. Â When I said that that there was a double charge, he said its right. Â Then I pointed it and he couldn't explain it so he just agreed to take it off. Â At least I didn't have to argue about the bill too much. Â Small miracles.
The ambiance is ridiculous. Â If a interior decorator did the place, I want to strip away their license. Â Think small town America, mid 70s faux oak style furnishings. Â The ceiling was great, in the middle, blue lights would highlight... nothing. Â And the music, oh the music, it was Techno/Bhag (great for nightclubs, but not casual eating).
The worst part? Â A tour group from around the world came right as we were readying to leave. Â This place was there restaurant to try on the historic block of Devon. Â Of all the great restaurants on Devon, and 3 right in the same area (e.g. Udipi Palace, Tiffin, Mysore), I felt really bad they will have subpar Indian (No, I can't even call it Indian) food to remember this area.
One of the best Indian buffets I have been to. Table service consists of water, tandori mixed grill plate, and naan. The servers kept all this flowing.
The buffet had a delicious mix of chicken, lamb and vegetarian curries, and not just the standard buffet fare. Everything was flavorful. They also have a couple desserts, sweet but standard buffet.
The price is a steal about $10 per person for dinner.
Don't get me wrong, this is still a buffet so not the place to expand your Indian food horizons or for a classy night out. But to behold an Indian bounty on a budget, Punjabi Dhaha is your best bet on Devon.
Bleh! Â
The service was the only thing that was sort-of ok. Â And only sort-of. Â I couldn't tell who our waiter actually was because different people kept stopping over. Â Some of them were very pushy. Â Anyway, the ambiance is wholly unpleasant here and the food is even more unpleasant. Â I'm sorry, did I say food? Â I meant menu items that appeared to be food but were, upon tasting, discovered to be simply salt sculptures in the shapes of food. Â It was some of the saltiest food, across the board, that I have ever eaten in my life. Â All I could taste was salt . Â The lentil soup and the vegetable (green pepper) tandoori were the worst victims of this sodium tsunami, and were basically inedible. Â I am baffled that this restaurant is even open with tiffin, udupi, and mysore all right across the street and numerous other quality restaurants within a several-block radius.
If the food wasn't bad enough, you're also trapped to suffer through it in the unusually depressing ambiance that they've managed to create through the odd combination of 80s hotel decor with modern neon lighting and a hip-hop soundtrack playing in the background. Â Fail on all accounts. Â Walk down the block and find something else.
I gotta say I like this place. The buffet contains many popular dishes such as lamb curry, chicken curry, butter chicken, spinach paneer, dahl, and many other dishes. The prices are cheap and hard to beat and best of all, I thought the food was pretty flavorful and no food poisoning. Hooray, what a keeper!......The desserts on the other hand was probably on the skimpier side with only 2 sides. The sweet pudding stuff or the (as my friends call it) "Sugar Balls"....
I'll be back for you "Sugar Balls"
Highlights:
-Butter Chicken. The best!
-The Naan. Super fresh and oh so crispy
-Tandoori Chicken. Also very fresh.
-The Price. 2 people $20. How can you top that for great Indian food?
-The Music. I love going into an Indian restaurant and hearing authentic music.
When we first went here we traveled up and down Devon looking for a reasonably priced, authentic Indian dinner. Since that night we've been back many times. Definitely recommend checking this place out. There are places that charge twice as much and aren't as delicious.
The buffet here is pretty pitiful. I realize that buffets are notoriously the worst way to experience quality cuisine, but our recent goal has been to introduce our roommate to as many types of Indian cuisine as possible, and as my girlfriend and I are both vegetarians, and she is definitely not, sharing entrees isn't an option.
Enter Punjabi Dhabha. I read reviews, see the price is low and the food is decent, and we descend upon this place after eating nothing all day. It is about 2 pm. Wow. So, the appetizer selection is relatively solid, with pakora and samosa available, and that's cool. The desserts are great, carrot halwa isn't served nearly often enough at buffets. But the vegetarian options? Sorely lacking. They have saag, baingan bharta, daal, and korma/veg curry. Nothing with kofta and nothing with paneer, no aloo anything, no mattar. I realize they can't have everything, but this is a pretty terrible selection of single ingredient dishes. While perhaps not the most authentic dishes in the entire world, saag/palak paneer, mattar paneer, and malai kofta are all common and popular western buffet dishes and not one was included.
What was there wasn't really of the highest quality, either, and our mango lassis were pretty small. On the whole, you get what you pay for. Also, my chair was broken. This wasn't "fat girl sits down and the chair collapses," it was a chair whose back had popped out and the owner just nudged it back into place and hoped no one would notice. Fun. This might be one of the cheaper buffets on Devon, but it's also far from the best.
Authentic Punjabi food, homestyle cooking
The nan you get here is one of the best in chicago...Can eat upto 5 of them cause they are soft and well prepared... Â Â The sizzle chicken is one thing the meat lovers can look forward to, but apart from that theres only one meat dish....most of them are veggie curries prepared indian style
The samosas are great and so are the hot jamuns(dessert)...so its really worth every dime if you are going in hungry..
cons: bad service...but then we usually go for the dinner buffet so we dont count on it
I was with Michael G. that night. Â It was raining so hard we just stopped in the first place that we could positively identify as having a dinner buffet. Â I thought the food on the whole was acceptable, some of it really good. Â The tandori chicken was pretty good, some of the meat dishes in the buffet were excellent. Â The service was friendly, and our naan and waters were refilled promptly.
Overall, not bad. Â The dinner buffets were about $10/person. Â Vegetarian patrons might be less satisfied with the buffet selection, though.
It was "a dark and stormy night" on Devon Street (and the whole of Chicago really) and my friends and I decided to just stop in the first place we could find that displayed a dinner buffet in the window.
This, unfortunately, was the place.
While this place has a couple of perks like unlimited naan brought to your table for use at the buffet (as well as tandoori chicken for the meat eaters), the food left a lot to be desired.
The somosas were small and burned on the buffet (though I think the waiter tried to make up for this by bringing my group fresh ones directly from the kitchen despite the fact that we said we were full) as was the naan, the vegetarian options were not well marked, and the saag was just runny goop.
There were some good mixed vegatables and the desert was somewhat decent.
But with so many choices on Devon, this might only be good as a last resort.
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