Review Shahnai Indian Restaurant - Preston

One of the best Indian restaurants! If you want to eat good home cooked-like food- must visit! Sweets are a must have. Worth every penny- quality and quantity both. Highly recommend :)

The owner is so customer friendly that despite the restaurant being closed, he entertained our order based on a special request. Chicken tikka was mouth watering.... I'll highly recommend this place for one of the juiciest Motichoor ladoos in town.

Fabulous flavours, great quality and generous quantity. Worth every buck. One of the best Jalebis I had in a long while. Chole bhature were delicious and very well made... quite authentic. Would highly recommend this hidden gem. Looking forward to many more visits...

Excellent service and awareness of allergies. Dessert options are the best I’ve had, not only the flavour but the range. Cannot complain about a single thing and plan to come back again for sure

Great Value for your spend. Taste is great! Staff is very friendly. I would definitely recommend if the goal is not a fine dine. 😇❤️ Overall ❤️❤️❤️❤️💕

Very nice and Authentic Indian food... Samosas here are one of the best in Melbourne, I have tried Samosa different time of the day and even 5 mins before closing also they give you hot and fresh samosas

Top notch food. Everything is freshly prepared including samosas. The owners are extremely kind that it feels like dining at your grandma's. I'm a regular and will always be.

This resturant was so awesome before but quality and customer service service both coming down. I had bad experience last 2 times and no more now specially I ordered sweet boxes , manager said yes he will pack sweets in boxes according I said in 3 line boxes but when I brought my order everything gulab jamun and laddu were mixed up and all gulab jamuns had different size shapes . Wasted day and money because I was supposed to give boxes to mates which were not good to give. So 👎👎👎👎👎

This place is a Preston institution!! ! My Mom and I love it, and we’re always to be found here after doing our weekly groceries at the Preston Markets just up the road! <br/>Have been coming here since my friends and I found it after they’d been to the threading place a few doors down. 🤣 <br/><br/>Try the bathoora (puri) with lamb curry, it’s to die for. Fave curry dish in Melbourne. The mango lassi and various Indian sweets are great too!

In search for chats and sweets, this place is good. They have variety of sweets and fast food. Small menu but tasty food.<br/>There is something distinct about shabby ambience in most Indian restaurants in this city. They are mindful of keeping the place just about clean.<br/>We ordered alu tikki chat and pakoras. Pakoras were yummy. Chat was also very good. We ordered rasmalai but it had a mosquito in it, so had to get it changed.<br/>We ordered some chole nature and alu parantha. The chole was very tasty.<br/>I would love to visit this place again for the food but the hygiene would still remain a question.<br/>

Cheap price and good food. Best if you are looking for something regular or no mood to cook at home. In 20$ you can have meal for two, which is great for me.

The only star i dint give to this place was for its interiors and ambience otherwise if it comes to food , hands down one of the places where you can get pure authentic tasting indian food. The place does not have any nice interiors or family type seating, but if you are happy to takeaway and enjoy the food it is highly recommended. Each and every dish here be it starters, mains or desserts are amazing. I specifically live chola bhaturas which remind me of back in india. <br/>Also the price of food is pretty reasonable.

This is my go to place for chole bhatura.. This is the best chole bhatura i have had in Melbourne so far.i have not tried anyother dishes here but someday i hope to try their chat..

they are amazing at sweets and parathas. but their staff is funny, sometimes they are spot on and sometimes they don't care that people are in question waiting for 30-40 minutes just to order. The demand and popularity has been amazing over the years but they have not improve into anything neither the food nor service, the place lack cleanliness and good customer service. their paneer gravies taste different all the time kaki can be so sour time to time. when people love you their expectation grows with each visit and thats where most food businesses fail. enjoy your monopoly until people find somewhere else.

This little Indian restaurant is very poplar with the Indian community. The food was cheap & no fuss. There’s a large variety of sweets & most customers come here for take away. We ordered samosa chaat for entree, that was surprisingly sweet and delicious. For mains we ordered the choley bhatoore & khadhi paneer. Both dishes appeared small but are quite filling. The choley bhatoore was a bit salty but very flavorsome. The khadhi paneer was rich, the roti was hot & crispy. We also ordered some little sweets for dessert. For drinks we ordered the Masala chai tea, that was an absolute delight! I’m not a tea drinker & yet I truly enjoyed it. The tea was temperature hot & the chai was perfectly cooked. Service was friendly & fast. Highly recommend this place for a cheap authentic Indian meal if you’re around this area.

The food is tasty but obviously with really poor decor.<br/>Even if u eat there they will serve u in disposable cutlery which is not a big deal for me but yes the curry servings are a joke(very small).<br/>More of a takeaway place and not a dine in..<br/>

A very few variety of dishes available, the service also is too slow but the food was good. Can go gere for light lunch or just to have some snack.

Worst customer service I had couple of hours before. Staff is so unprofessional, doesn't have a clue about customer service and professional conduct. I believe that particular staff(not sure for his name) just a liar and think others are stupid...... won't go there again..me or anyone in my family....

Shame on this restaurant. Worst Indian restaurant I ever had in melbourne. Horrible service and very rude staff. Visited first on 26/08/2017 and big No No again.

Absolutely amazing food and sweets but giving 3.5 scores due to unfriendly and uninterested staff, lack of hygiene and poor decor. I have tried chholey bhatura and aloo paratha and both were hearty and delicious

Love their Indian sweets, freshly made.  Every time I go go there have to have Chola Bathura.  Prices are still  reasonable as compared to similar places.

Came here expecting OK quick snacks but was blown away! Ordered Choley Bhature and Sambosa Chaat....Amaziiinnnng! However, they seriously need to do something with their decor! Absolutely not appealing one bit. Before the food came I was even hesitant on eating there but when I tried it I was surprised. Even though the girl from the kitchen had a hair cover on, that didn't stop a piece of small hair springing out of there Sambosa Chaat.

The cholle bhature is the thing to try !!<br/>Would recommend this place for dessert and North Indian breakfast .A variety of sweets to choose from ..<br/><br/>Loved it

Expected a lot better than Flora. Been in Preston for 2 years got couple of take away last month.<br/><br/>But they know only North Indian cuisine and the oil used was terrible.<br/><br/>Not a big North Indian fan, its pretty bad always in Melbourne.<br/><br/>Even their own Naan and gravy looks reheated and not fresh.<br/><br/>Just give a try...or avoid...

We were in Preston so decided to get some takeaway ...<br/>We ordered 2 butter chicken dishes and 4 naans. When we got home, we checked everything was there and thought there must have been a mistake because we received 2 very small containers of the chicken. We called the restaurant and were told this is the normal size of the dish! We couldnt believe it. All of the takeaway indian places around our area give us at least twice the portion we received. The food was good hence im giving a 2.5 rating but we will definitely not be back because of the poor value for money.

This place has the best Chats around! Food is so tasty especially samosa chat, chat papdi and Chole bhature. Be careful not to get addicted to this yummy food! :)

This has some really nice authentic Indian food. It might look a bit shabby but it's definitely worth it. Really cheap and nice place to eat if you're in the area😃

My parents have purchased their sweets from here for over 10 years and now I do the same. Consistently good sweets, reasonably priced. Try the samosas too!

The customer service was terrible. We waited over an hour for a simple chole bhathura order, there was no advice from staff that it would be a longer than usual wait and eventually they advised 5 more minutes. After 15 minutes we had to ask AGAIN and they said 10 minutes. At this point, we got up and advised we were leaving. There was no apology from the manager and no semblance of customer service. Do not eat here, really.

Have been here a few times. The parathas are good (Gobhi paratha specifically , alu paratha is ok & paneer paratha is not so good , but that could be just me ) .Choley bature is nice (overtly oily, but I guess that is given considering it is fried). We had dahi bhalle as well , which was again ok. <br/>The strength of this restaurant is its sweets. The jalebis and gulab jamuns are really nice and definitely worth a try.

Quality and quantity. Ate here once before, and recently ordered food for a party. Food was amazing, and price was very resonable. Will recommend anyone to order from here!

Pathetic delayed service. Extremes of delays especially if you want to organize a party. Delays are sure even if orders placed ahead of time.

So yummm. I really like this place. Sure the decor is old, tired and the ambience is low, but the food really is great for the price.<br/><br/>The food takes a little longer to come out than some places but that's because it's fresh and not out of a bay Marie and the naan bread is amazing, fresh and piping hot. I love indian restaurants and this is the best naan I have ever had. The lady is very sweet and always adjusts the meals to the spiciness I want with a smile.<br/><br/>Ignore the haters and give it a go : )

WORST FOOD - WORST SERVICE - RUDE STAFF. The WORST restaurant EVER... CHEAP food, RUDE staff... POOR service... The food was stale and when i kindly asked them to change it.... the owner came out shouting which was embarrassing and very insulting... Though I still paid for the the food, they had no shame at all. I am seriously disgusted. I highly request everyone to not to support such indian restaurant. It is a shame for the community.

I tried samosa chat... Which was good and had authentic taste... Ghulab jaman was good and everything was reasonably prices

Authenticity with a capital A. No hoopla about this place. Just good, authentic food at a reasonable price. Not recommended for a first date.

Home away from home!. Service is inefficient. Ambiance is modest at best. The place is often crowded. Doesn’t open before noon.<br/><br/>Chholay bhatooray and aaloo parathay are MORE THAN GOOD ENOUGH to make up for all the above, esp. at this price. So all these things combined offer quite an authentic Indian subcontinental experience :-P

Very very poor service ... waited 35 minutes for my order....too hot ...poor ventilation ...floor too dirty... chairs need repairs

THE BEST!. Anywhere that can take me back to my favourite memories of the little street takeaways in India, is a winner! Without a doubt the best and cheapest Indian I have had in Australia. 'Cholley with naan' is a must.  Samosas are delicious too.

Cheap quality cheap food. After read so many comments i went there order paneer butter and lamb curry 1st when i saw they r serving in disposable looks horrible and naan was totaly rubber...paneer butter was full of tomato sauce taste like cheese dipped in tomato ketchup and lamb curry was watery and not fresh totaly waste of time

Lovely food, great price, only let down is the plastic plates/ cutlery

Wonderful food, great flavours and real food! Great value for money!

Friendly staff and Decent food. Its quite close to from where I stay so I regularly visit Shahnai. The best thing about this place is the that the people are very friendly, Theres a indian lady and a guy who is usually at the counter. Must be the owners daughter and son i guess. They are good at what they do and the food is also decent for the price. Would be good if they had more options on the menu.

I definitely recommend this place as its the closest (if not the same ) of real flavor to Indian food that you can find in the northern suburbs !!! The service is very nice and cosy, the place is modest but a real hidden jewel with fantastic spicy food and beautiful desserts!!! The best I've tried are cholley bathure ( chickpea and roti or Indian tortilla ) and rashmalay (a dessert made out of cheese, milk and pistachio ) these are the lost exotic flavors of Indian cuisine finally found in a small modest but great place at the same time.

Fantastic desserts, meals available as well.. This Indian cafe / restaurant obviously specializes in Indian Sweets but also offers a limited dinner / lunch menu as well. <br/><br/>You can pick dishes off a menu, but I get the feeling that not all the meats (Chicken, Lamb, etc) are available all the time. The also have a small (4 when we were there) selection of pre-prepared curries offered as a set meal with the choice of rice or naan.<br/><br/>We picked two pre-prepared dishes and had a Chicken Curry with Rice (very mild and buttery) and the Chickpea Curry with Naan (Also mild despite being their spiciest). The curries were good, without being great and the naan was fantastic (obviously just cooked and not in a bain marie as you often see). I personally like very spicy food and would have preferred much spicier, but my wife was happy with the hotness. For the price ($6 for the chickpea and $7.50 for chicken if memory serves me correctly) it was a delicious and filling dinner.<br/><br/>Moving on - dessert, obviously the speciality of this place and well worth saving room for! A huge selection of (so far as I can tell) traditional Indian desserts. I suspect you could pick almost anything and be positively delighted.<br/><br/>This restaurant will certainly become my local Indian place, with take-away or dessert seeming a better option than taking friends there.

A word of warning: Shahnai is very popular, so if you're planning a visit then it might be worth considering a back-up plan for if you can't get a table.