I have to say that I am appalled by the owners cavalier attitude towards his buffet and his loyal customers. If I'd have known he was such a jerk, I'd have stopped going here a long time ago.
The buffet is $6.99 and you expect there to be FOOD in the buffet trays when you walk in and sit down.
There have been many times in the past where I've had to ask for a certain dish to be refilled because it's completely empty. A customer shouldn't have to ask for a buffet item to be refilled. It's a buffet for gods sake! There's supposed to be food in the trays... not just a little rice and some cold nan bread.
Today we went in for the buffet at 1 PM (it ends at 3pm). The tables were roughly 1/4 full. It wasn't busy.
We go up to the buffet and notice there's no entrees. None! Well, OK there was one... there was tandori chicken that had obviously been sitting there for hours... all dried out.
I asked the waitress to refill the tikki marsala and she passed that on to the kitchen. The owner came out 5 minutes later and stirred the empty buffet trays again. I asked him about the tikki marsala and he said it would be a long while. I said.. ""a long while?!""
After about 15 minutes of absolutely no food coming out of the kitchen we walk to the register to cash out. My friend doesn't want to to ask for a discount but I do. If he wants to pay full price for dry rice and old, dry tandori chicken, that's his choice.
I ask for a refund and the waitress calls in the manager/owner. He's the dirty, old, Indian guy with the glasses, Tom Selleck style mustache and perpetually filthy apron. He comes over and I politely ask for a discount because there's no entrees available and hasn't been since we came in 15 minutes ago. He gets all belligerent with me and starts yelling. He's creating a scene in his restaurant and assumes that I'll back down and just pay if he yells really loud and causes a scene. I think not.
He says that it's our fault because we didn't check to see if there was any food in the trays BEFORE sitting down and ordering drinks. IT'S OUR FAULT THAT YOU HAVE NO FOOD?! We're supposed to make sure a buffet has food before we sit down and order drinks?! Are you kidding me?! It's a buffet! It's supposed to have food all the time!!! LOL!!!!
When he refuses even a small discount, I refuse to pay at all. He threatens to call the police and I tell him to go ahead. I'm sure the cops will come and see that there's no food and side with me.
He won't call the cops but continues to yell louder and louder... until finally the restaurant is dead quiet and everyone is focused on our conversation.
I offer to show him that there's no food but he won't budge. He says no discount and I can't leave without paying full price OR he'll call the cops. But, he won't really call the cops because he knows I'm right..
Eventually, my friend pays for both he and I on his credit card and we leave. I tell the rude belligerent unappreciative owner that we're never coming back again and he lost 2 good customers. He yells that if I'm going to cry about $6.99 he doesn't want my business anyway.
I called the credit card company and disputed the ENTIRE amount . So, the owner not only lost 2 good customers but he lost the whole amount of our bill. He could have been fair and offered a discount, kept 2 long time, loyal customers and got at least SOME money for the dry rice we ate.... but NOOooooooo. He has to be a complete jerk for some reason, get NOTHING & lose 2 long time customers.
For the record... in the 10+ years I've had a credit card... I have NEVER disputed a single thing with my credit card company. I've never had to. Shalimar deserved it.
I would not recommend patronizing the shalimar because the owner is such a belligerent, rude and unappreciative person, the bathroom is scary and the food is non-existent.
Cons: owner is a dirty jerk
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