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Biryani House
Categories: Restaurants Indian Restaurants Buffets Restaurants Pakistani Indian, Buffets, Pakistani [Edit]
25 Wellesley St EToronto, ON M4Y 2S9
Neighbourhoods: Church-Wellesley Village, Downtown Core
(416) 929-9444
- Hours:
Mon-Fri 11:30 am - 2:30 pm
Mon-Thu 5 pm - 10 pm
Fri-Sun 5 pm - 10:30 pm
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street
- Attire:
- Casual
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- Yes
- Take Away:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Wi-Fi:
- No
- Good For:
- Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
- Noise Level:
- Quiet
- Has TV:
- No
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- No
17 reviews for Biryani House
17 reviews in English
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Review from James M.
Toronto, ON
1/17/2012
The butter chicken is pretty excellent, and doesn't cost a lot. The service isn't too attentive, and the place looks somewhat in need of renovations. For an inexpensive bowl of butter chicken, you could do a lot worse. It's never very busy.
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Review from Zoe R.
Updated - 12/20/2011 4 photos
egads - what to do? I recently came here with a friend and we seemed to enjoy one of the nicer Indian buffet places in Toronto. Food and variety was pretty good. Labels were well displayed. Service was particularly good b/c the customer:server ratio was particularly in our favour. This ended up meaning fresh naan served right to our table, and regular refreshing of our glasses of cold water.
However, and this is the biggest However in all of my Yelp experience thus far... my friend had a WILDLY BAD BOUT of FOOD POISONING.
I did not have any of the Tandoori chicken, but decided to wing one piece home for my dog. He thoroughly enjoyed it... but, not unlike my friend, he was "off" the next day and resisted his two regular daily meals. Also, the first thing that he did when he went outside to pee, was eat grass (something that animals instinctively do when their stomach is upset and s/he might feel like vomitting).
Argh! This is one of my fave Indian buffet spots (the other being Dharma on King st.)... but the fact that my friend became SO VIOLENTLY ILL has now put a different spin on this place.
Gad, I don't want this place to shut down or anything - but geez, I don't want to become sick after having a meal here. My friend had to take sick leave off work, and is still not 100% 48 hours later.
Online I looked up ways to deal with Food Poisoning, and one site suggested a visit to the doctor's to document/prove the association with the restaurant AND to make a phone call to Health Canada(?) to make them aware of the situation.
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"You can report any concerns about restaurant food to your local inspection authority. If they determine that food (rather than on-site preparation) appears to be the likely cause of illness, they will contact the CFIA to initiate an investigation."
http://www.inspection....1 Previous Review: Show all »
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7/16/2011
If you like going to Indian lunch buffets, and have not yet been to Biryani House, I think this… Read more »
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Review from Luis H.
Toronto, ON
5/10/2012
Located in the heart of the Church & Wellesley Village (across the street from the Wellesley subway/bus station), this restaurant located on the second floor or 25 Wellesley Street East offers traditional Indian fare at affordable prices. Being one of the few Indian restaurants in the vicinity that offers an all-you-can eat lunch buffet, the place can see traffic most days from 12:00 - 2:00pm, but otherwise it's slow throughout the rest of the day. Food is good, however selection of desserts is small and waiter service can be slow. I had to flag a waiter just to request naan bread that my original waiter told me he would bring over but never did. Otherwise, it's a good spot to have a meal and people watch (walking on the street and congregating in the patio of the bar next door).
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Review from Vince Y.
3/2/2012
Service there is TERRIBLE! We were seated at our table, 15 minutes later, we got our menus and then had to wait another 15 minutes to get water and have our order taken. They are so disorganized that we had 2 different people come and try to take our order after we already did. I can understand if they were busy service can be slow, but there were only 4 other tables with customers. I could see other people looking around for their waiter so they can order. One table complained to the waiter that they have been waiting for an hour and a half for their food. On top of that, their order was wrong and the waiter tried to tell them that what they were eating was chicken, even though it was really lamb.
Our food went to the wrong table and our waiter got yelled at by who I am assuming is the owner in the middle of the dining room. When our food did arrive, they forgot our naan and so we had to wait for that. When we asked for water, we had to wait 15 minutes and had to ask two people for our check when we were done
Another table next to us kept receiving doubles of everything they ordered, even though they ordered one. When they tried to put in another order for take out, the waiter came by 3 times to verify the order and he still couldn't get it right. Finally, the man at that table told the waiter to be attentive and listen closely to what he is ordering be use the waiter could jot get it right to save his life.
I was wondering why there were hardly any customers in the dining room on a Friday night, but now I know why!! Avoid this place!
I registered on Yelp just to write this review because it was one of the most worst experiences I've ever had at a restaurant. -
Review from Lynn C.
2/19/2011
The food is good, the service is HORRENDOUS.
We were there on a Friday night and imagine that, the place was completely empty. We had a female server who too forever to take our orders, and then promptly forgot about it. About 15 minutes later, with no lassi or appetizer on our table, a male server came up to us and gave us the menu....we told him we already ordered and he looked confused.
20 minutes later, our appetizer (chat) came. It was good. another 10 minutes later, our "chicken" vindaloo came, and it turned out to be beef. We didnt complain. We did, however, after another 5 minutes, asked what happened to our sweet lassi and mango lassi and our saag paneer. 10 minutes later, the mango lassi came. another five minutes, came the saag paneer. We again asked for the sweet lassi and it finally came. We also asked for water from the start and that never came.
After finishing our meal, we waited approximately 10 minutes hoping to see our server, who disappeared. I finally waved down the female server who looked at me, and then walked away and never came back. I had to go to the bar to pay.
What would have been an enjoyable meal was completely marred by the service, or lack thereof. I think there are way to many better indian restaurants to put myself through the torture again. -
Review from Chris A.
Toronto, ON
1/4/2011
I was very happy with my experience here.
I had been there some time ago before I was writing on Yelp. I had only been there for their weekday lunch all-you-can-eat buffet. The price was $11.99 and I thought it was just fantastic. Large selection of foods on the buffet, and it was fresh.
My recent experience with their sitdown menu service was a good experience, although it was a slightly slow one. In their defence though, it was January 2nd, and I don't think they were really expecting to have alot of customers for their dinner service.
That aside though, the service was decent enough, and the staff was very friendly.
I really enjoyed the food. The samosa appetizer was absolutely phenomenol, and my entree was Calcutta Chili-Chicken, which is kind of like an Indian version of a Chinese Sweet/Sour dish. Not overly sweet, but definitely on the sweet side. Not as hot as I would have liked it, but I think adding heat to your food at this restaurant isn't a problem at all.
My entree was $13.95 which I thought was a little on the pricier side, considering the size of the portion, but the quality of the food was awesome.
The location of the restaurant is great, with it directly across from Wellesley subway station, and there is a car-park right beside the restaurant.
I would definitely go back to this place again. Good for large groups too as the dining area is large and open. -
Review from Shari M.
Toronto, ON
9/6/2010
Note - this review is based upon delivery from http://orderit.ca
I found Biryani House's food on the boring side. The seekh kebab tasted quite similar to a hot dog. Usually if there is going to be a down fall for a kebab, it is that its greasy. Never have I had one taste like a hot dog.
The channa masala looked very much like a can of baked beans. It was lacking in flavour. The heat seemed a bit out of place for the channa, like it was trying to compensate for the lack of flavour.
The only highlight was the whole wheat tandoori roti. It had great texture and flavour.
If you are thinking of ordering Indian from http://orderit.ca - pass on Biryanai House -
Review from Hana B.
1/8/2009
I was very enthusiastic when i first went to try biryani house for dinner as the menu from the website looked unique and very appetizing, with some unique indian dishes not found at other restaurants... but the food didnt taste as good as the menu makes it seem and i was quite dissapointed.
It's overpriced for the quantity and quality. The heaters werent on and I was freezing throughtout my meal, hardly a pleasant experience.
The service was poor, making us wait for long amounts of time, even though the restaurant was not very busy.
I would not recommend this restaurant at all for dinner.Listed in: Never Again
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Review from Melissa J.
Toronto, ON
11/12/2008 2 photos
How can I say no to $11.99 Indian buffet? That's right, I can't. And neither should you, especially at Biryani House.
I've passed by this restaurant millions of times and never gave it a chance, until the prospect of lunch buffet lured me in. I have never seen such a huge assortment of fresh, delicious Indian dishes in my life.
Biryani House is in a strange building that looks like it should have doctor's offices in it instead of an Indian restaurant, but once you head up the stairs into the real restaurant area, the place is actually quite nice. The decor is typical of Indian buffets, with lush carpets and linen tablecloths, but it's warm and cozy with huge windows that let you see all the action across the street at Wellesley Station.
And the lunch buffet is probably the best I've ever had. They had everything -- Chana Masala, Zucchini Masala, Butter Chicken, Tandoori Chicken, Beef and Goat curry and many more, as well as heaping trays of basmati rice and delicious freshly-baked naan. The majority of the dishes were vegetarian, and delicious at that.
I checked out their normal menu which seemed average, with most dishes in the $9-$18 range. The seafood dishes are the pricier ones, so if you stick to basic vegetarian dishes your bill will be substantially cheaper. They also deliver if you spend $35, but to a very limited area so that will be no help to me in the cold winter when all you want is Indian to warm your belly.
But I definitely recommend trying the lunch buffet -- it wasn't too busy inside (lots of room to hog the buffet), the food kept coming out fresh every couple of minutes, and for $11.99, you'll be full for the whole day. Mmm. I love this Indian buffet! -
Review from Chris M.
6/17/2011 1 Check-in Here
Biryani House seemed attractive at first, with its easily accessible location (right across from Wellesley subway station) and a very affordable buffet menu. But after a couple of visits there I've come to realize that it's too good to be true.
Why? The food is pretty good - they make a tasty eggplant bartha and roast up tandoori chicken that's tender and flavourful. The buffet will often rotate items so you can find something new to try .Basics like butter chicken, chana masala, pakoras, kofta and saag paneer are all done decently, though I've had better in Toronto for similar buffet prices. At the prices on the regular menu, I'm not convinced that the quality of the food would be worth what you'd be paying, but you can load up your plate at lunch with some tasty stuff.
But what's my biggest strike against this place? Terrible service. We came into the restaurant for an earlyish lunch and it was totally empty - no one was even around to seat us, ask us about drinks or even bring by a menu. After sitting down for a moment and getting no response, we just headed on up to the buffet. The staff were sort of shadowing us the whole time we looked it over. One of my companions wasn't all that familiar with Indian food and the staff were a bit brusque and not very helpful when she asked about the preparation of different dishes. We ordered mango lassis that took forever to arrive (though they were refreshing and sweet.) Perhaps most strikingly, there was no naan available when we arrived! No naan? At an Indian buffet? Really? When we asked, we were told that it would be brought to our table... it never happened, and when we checked up on it they denied it entirely. We finished up, and our bill was rushed onto the table before I'd even had a chance to let them know I was going to order some masala chai.
If you care about half decent service, don't visit Biryani House! Otherwise, the lunch buffet is OK, moreso if you're lucky to get one of the better-than-average dishes on the rotation. -
Review from David E.
York, ON
7/31/2011
Tried this place after the Pride parade in 2010, and were disappointed. We've been to a dozen or more Indian Restaurants in the city, and this ranks amont the bottom third. Food was acceptable, but just, and nothing stood out. The second floor windows looking out over Hayden Street are nice, but the food doesn't make up for it.
Can't even recommend this place for buffet lunch. Go to Aroma or Dhaba on King Street instead. -
Review from Joe N.
10/4/2009
I am not Indian so it is really hard for me to compare for other very good Indian restaurants on mom's cooking.. but their food was very reasonable. We enjoyed the chicken and the kofta (i think this is how you call it). the nan and the rice were also ok. overall a reasonable restaurant, nothing fancy, not to expensive. an OK experience if you are around and you want some Indian food.
PS: it does take them a bit too long to cook and serve the food and the restaurant werent full when we got there, so consider it if you are in a rush -
Review from D B.
Toronto, ON
1/12/2011
Definitely one of the best Indian restaurants in the city. Their chicken tikka masala can't be beat. Likewise with the lamb shank.
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Review from Roy A.
Toronto, ON
11/5/2009
Well, there was lots of food, but nothing jumped out as particularly exciting. Perhaps that's just buffets for you!
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Review from JLK J.
8/11/2010 3 photos
I have spent nearly every birthday, some valentines days, and some anniversaries for the past 6 years eating at Indian restaurants. i was excited to try a new place right across the street while here in TO on vacation. I was totally drawn in by the sign outside offering 35 items for a lunch buffet.
I don't know where to start once we got inside.
The place needs a complete overhaul of look inside. Yes, you expect indian restaurants, by and large, to look very tacky. But tacky is one thing. Completely gross is another. And oh yea, fix the air conditioner, it was hot and sticky inside. I have included photos of the floors, just in case you were wondering.
Our server: well, almost immediately after he sat us, besides one other couple, we were the ONLY people there, i believe he chose to forget we were there. There was no service. Getting a water refill was like pulling teeth. Getting his attention to get the check? Yea, good thing we weren't in a rush to get anywhere. And in the 10 seconds it takes to look at the bill to make sure it's right and to put the credit card in the billfold, he disappeared. Don't think we saw him again for another 10-15 minutes. Took longer to get the bill paid (requesting it, receiving it, paying for it) than it did to eat lunch.
The food: eh, just eh. There were only a few main dishes. butter chicken (in the US, it's commonly called Makhani), which i had thought would be tandoori chicken in sauce, but instead was bone-in chicken. good sauce, decent cuts of chicken, though mostly legs, very little white meat. there was a beef dish, but the beef was so tough to cut and chew, that we didn't even eat it. there was a goat dish, which we did not try. A tandoori chicken with no sauce (again, mostly legs). And some veggie options.
Then were was a small little bar behind it with some small bowls of things that had flies all over them, so we didn't eat those. I would guess only about 15 total items, including the ones that the flies liked.
I mean, it was ok, but I wouldn't ever go back. -
Review from Kat T.
3/7/2009
While going through the city trying to experience Indian food in all it's glory, I was compelled to visit Biryani house. Sure, they are also one of the few good values when taking a trip to Church and Wellesley area for some rainbow-filled fun. It was decent for dinner. A bit like Babur in that they serve 'fanci-fied' Indian food that may be tastier at $4.99 than the $14 items they offer. Ingedients may be fresher, sauces a little more complex, but overall, I prefer the mom and pop Indian restaurants around town. A good deal if your headed to Pride week, though.
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Review from Kartik K.
Toronto, ON
1/13/2009
I have been to this place only once on a Friday evening. We were a group of four. There must have only been 3 other groups in the restaurant.
I went in with lots of hope, as Biryani is one of my favorite indian dishes.
We started with the tandoori chicken as starter. The presentation was good and the dish was delicious. I then ordered the lamb biryani. It took way too long to get to us, considering the restaurant was almost empty.
The presentation was on par with what i expected for a biryani. But then it all fell apart. The meat was tough and not seasoned at all. I could have sworn it was just added before bringing it out.The rice was too spicy. And then it got worse. I found grapes (not a raisin, that would be normal) and green pepper in the dish. Never mind that these 2 dont belong in a biryani, they dont belong together in any dish.
If the "Biryani House" cant even do biryani right, i wouldnt bother with any other dish.
On the plus side the service was good, but i think that might have been due to the absence of crowds. Not gonna visit this place again.
