New Zealand Herald

Reviews for Simla Mirch Restaurant

by Ellen
3rd November 2012

Absolute best butter chicken (and butter prawn) ever. Sweet and delicious. Korma is great, vindaloo is wonderful. Staff are always really nice (although I must say we generally get takeaways!) and polite when we come in. Great to rent a movie from civic video next door and take home to eat. Yum!

by Roshie S.
25th October 2012

We have Simla’s food quite regularly (well used to), it appears the quality has gone down in the recent past…possibly due to change in management. Let alone food the service is not to standard any more some of the current staff are rude. Not going any more. Appears that the current management’s sole purpose is profit maximizing thus the servings have gone relatively smaller moreover the gravy to actual veggie/meat (ingredient) ratio is appalling.

by Mal
10th September 2012

Went along with my curry club for the Simla Mirch’s Hottest Curry Challenge.

I don’t care for taste or decor…just ring stingin’ hotness. Having said that, we ate mid week when they had Italian beer on special. That was a big plus in our book. I’ve entered chilli eating contests which took me months to recover from. I was looking forward to this as I had a point to prove…that I was harder than my fellow curry club members. (Which I am not as a couple of them added bhut jolokhia powder to their curries to make it hotter.)

For a group of diners the restaurant will only allow half that number to attempt the challenge. Smart thinking on their part considering the amount of talker’s and not walker’s who would attempt it.

Their curry was blindingly hot. Enough to make me promise to myself, never again. Four of us finished within the set time, the fifth finished ate all of the meat in his dish but left the sauce…fail. We four got tee shirts for completing the challenge…they were way too small for all of us depsite being labelled Large. Nice all the same.

I would recommend the curry challenge to anyone looking for a super hot dish. This is 3 times hotter than ‘Indian hot’ so don’t attempt this unless ‘Indian hot’ is like eating a bowl of cereal to you. If hotness is what you’re after? Dive right in.

by Sarah S.
22nd July 2012

We went with a group and had the banquet for $32 a head. I did not feel it was good value at all, we had about one piece of meat each in each curry and a mixed entree which had only three items one of which was very average tandoori chicken wings. The food that I had was OK but absolutely not outstanding. Good value wine list though!

Comment from Prashant G. of Simla Mirch Restaurant 22/07/2012    Hide »

First of all I want to apologies for little disappoints you but…    More »

First of all I want to apologies for little disappoints you but would like to clarify here what we offered starter (on tray) we offered Chicken wings, Lamb Seekh Kebab and Pakora and on mains normally we offer four different curries but we have given 5 different curries to give you more variety and out of 5 curries, one of them Vegetable and rest of four meat (2 Chicken, 1 Lamb, 2 Beef) and in banquet we normally offer plain naan bread but this time we have given plain naan as well as garlic naan bread and during dinner time we have offered more curries, naan and rice to host if required. I think the restaurant was pack and noisy on that time so might be we couldn’t communicate properly with everyone so I apologies to you on behalf of Simla and promise you that we will give you better service and good value of food.
Thanks & Regards,Shital from Simla Team

by Khyati
5th July 2012

I and my family frequently eat at Simla Mirch and we like the curries and love their Kulchas, breads, naans. The taste is delicious and it’s very authentic seeming Indian food. On other day, I tried Paneer Tika curry which was superb and we thoroughly enjoyed our entire experience. The staff looked very friendly and helpful. Thank you Simla Mirch for a delicious Indian meal in superb surroundings.

by Erika85
21st May 2012

Made an online booking and soon after got a txt message to confirm my booking took my parents who came to visit from south africa for dinner and we all had a great time friendly staff and the food excellent !!!

by David B.
11th April 2012

They seem to be trying hard but there is something lacking.

The service was ok and the restaurant is nice enough but the food lets the place down. Outside the fact that I eat a lot of Indian food, I would not say I am an expert. But the dishes we had just lacked flavour.

Might be best to head elsewhere.

by Kalpesh P.
3rd April 2012

I had organised dinner for my 25 staff members and received one of the best service and taste at Simla.
Everything was well organised and well planned.
All the Staff members are so nice and friendly.

Personally myself and all my staff like the food and service.

by Wendy
9th March 2012

When I read couple of good respond about the Shimla Mirch I have decided to take chance again but sorry to inform you guys it been same experienced. I love Indian food & I have tried every Indian restaurant but In Shimla Mirch Food is tasteless & poor customer services. Not recommended to anybody. Again I waste my time & money……

Following my first experince at Shimla Mirch
It been worse experienced in my life. I never had such tasteless food. It was too salty & poor customer services I ever seen. Sometimes we can ignore the services but we can’t compromise with taste of food. It was total waste of money. We are not recommending anybody.

by Matt L.
16th February 2012

Got takeaway Vindaloo, little on the pricey side, but really good. Good depth of flavour.

Would go again if they did a special from mon-wed like my local curry place.

Comment from Prashant G. of Simla Mirch Restaurant 16/02/2012    Hide »

Thanks Mat for giving review and appreciation, We do run…    More »

Thanks Mat for giving review and appreciation,
We do run different special Mon-Wed like $2 beer and wine for dine in. Looking forward to you for dine in Regards, Simla Team

by MaxXavier
12th February 2012

Simla Mirch is definitely my favourite Indian restaurant. My girlfriend and I eat there religiously.

The curries are beautifully spicy when you want them to be and also still full of flavour if you’re going for the mild option. Naan bread is always cooked well, but would recommend asking for it to be served whole rather than cut into individual pieces.

I have eaten at all the Indian restaurants in Mt. Eden and Simla Mirch has by far the tastiest curries.

by hannah
26th January 2012

This place is normally really good, but lately its been really inconsistent.. The waitstaff are normally friendly.. The food is unpredictable thou

by Zeena S.
13th September 2011

Worse Restaurant, disrespectful staff they surely don’t want repeat business. Food was stone cold and horrible. We ordered Chicken, Lamb, Prawn curries and all tasted the same over salted. Tandoori chicken was dry and hard nearly lost my tooth……

Keep away from his restaurant for you’ll be putting money down the drain and when you complain they will ask you to leave saying that you are not welcome back…..

If I could I would give it minus stars….

by Anis M.
19th July 2011

Our experience at Simla Indian Cafe, Mt. Eden

Tables are very cold, the entire dinning area is expected be heated by a small white colour fan heater.

Food served is cold and salty.

Payment time. Barter Card – NO. Reason ownership has changed. ONLY 2 WEEKS AGO. Why havent you put any signage stating this – response we dont have to if you are regular customer you should know.

So here I am doing the job for them. Management has changed so has the food (for worse) and customer service has obtained a large attitude.

Comment – I am so disappointed with over all experience may not come again in-spite being regular. Response – Do not come again, we do not need more customers.

by sarah
31st January 2011

Pretty standard Indian cuisine, large portions. The Chicken wing appetisers are tough and fatty, my partner found a stone in his rice. The wait staff were extremely disinterested, didn’t show us to our table (just pointed to it) and had to come back three times to confirm our order. They seemed more interesting in their loud phone conversation that went on for our entire meal.
The food is ok, but far from amazing. There are other Indian restaurants in the area, Simla need to step up their game.

by danielle
4th May 2010

0ur favourite indian restaurant! Great service, the food is always up to standard – and we’re always pleasantly surprised by the bill (especially Mon-Weds nights).

by zoe s.
19th April 2010

Simla rocks my Friday night. My boyfriend and I relish the opportunity to have the best Indian in Auckland and eat there religiously. My flatmates also attend regularly (one of which says it is exactly like his Indian mothers home cooking.)

By far the best Indian, fresh, great cuts of meat (which are often fatty at other restaurants).

By Far the best! 5 stars.

The lamb jalfrezi is spectacular and the tandoori chicken is my favorite entree. EAT HERE! There are limited tables which is great for a quiet meal out and if you want to take away the meal is around $3 cheaper.

by Owen M.
6th December 2009

My husband and I have dined at the Simla Indian Cafe twice this week, the food was good, the service quick and friendly.
The first time we were charged $3 corkage. The second time we were charged $6 corkage. I was assured that there must have been a mistake the first time and that it is $3 per person corkage. This is expensive for a small restaurant which only had a few tables occupied on both occasions. We won’t be going there again.

by Rakesh
8th February 2009

The previous review has obviously written by the owners. We were there on the weekend, will never be going back. Absolutely the worst Indian meal in a long time. In-fact the cheap pricing should have told me something about the quality of the food.

Comment from Ravi T. of Simla Mirch Restaurant 9/02/2009    Hide »

Dear Mr. Rakesh, Thanks for your feedback. Please give us more…    More »

Dear Mr. Rakesh,

Thanks for your feedback. Please give us more details to improve our quality of food. If you can give us details of food you have eaten and date you visited us. It seems you from indian orgin, we can also prepare food according to indian taste, Just ask our service staff. we also ask our guest always at the end if they liked the food or not, as we appreciate their feedback. About cheap food, I am not sure if you have eaten at our place or some other place. we dont do $10 curries as other restaurant do as we are proud of our food and dont encourage $10 curries. But you can visit again and we surely wont disappoint you. once again thanks for you feedback.

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