Shahnawaz Palace (Central NJ)

Rating:

Quality, Taste, Cleanliness, Environment, Price , & Staff

——————————————————-

Positive: Large Pakistani buffet with a large variety of items and good drinks.

Negative: Food quality and taste has declined over the years and the food on the buffet tables is poorly maintained. 

Overall: The buffet gives a large variety of low quality Pakistani food and is only worth going to if you are really craving a desi brunch buffet as other Pakistani buffet restaurants in NJ do not compare.

——————————————————-

Updated 2/5/2012:

Upon trying Shalimar’s $15 Buffet in North Brunswick, NJ I quickly realized why Shahnawaz is doing so well.  They have a large variety of foods which no other buffet place can compare to, their service is top notch compared with other Pakistani restaurant buffets, and everything is included in the price (I am talking about drinks).

Although I still think Shahnawaz does not have high quality food, I can see why they are always packed. They have a great selection of foods, from appetizers to desi dishes to Chinese dishes, and a large array of desserts. If only they improve their quality it would be worth going to again.  In contrast, Shalimar was very disappointing as you will see in my review.  Overall, I would say to go to Shahnawaz if you REALLY want a Pakistani brunch buffet in NJ because other restaurants doing a similar buffet in NJ do not compare. 

10/29/2011:

Looking for a nice pakistani buffet in nj?  

For a weekend family outing, we decided to go to Shahnawaz Banquet Hall in Edison, NJ for their weekend brunch buffet priced at $18/adult and $8/child.   For this price you would expect a great meal. I was shocked that they charge for children because  usually kids under a certain age eat free at buffets. The plus side is that drinks are included within the price.

I will start by reviewing the setup of the restaurant. It looks like you are eating at a small Indian style wedding hall beause of the printed carpeting, the huge chandelier, and the colored dim lighting that reflects onto the walls and the ceiling. The table that we were seated at was quite tight for 5 people because it was hard for us to get up and leave the table without pulling the chair out. They also did not have napkins on the table which I think is very important to have when eating desi food. They did, however, bring us a pitcher of water with plastic glasses. (When you are at a proper sit down restaurant, you do not want plastic cups.)

Moving onto the set up of the buffet…this too needs to be more organized. The chutneys and sauces that go with the chaats were placed away from the chaat and samosas. They had appetizers all over the place and those should all be placed together as well. Everything was labeled except the desserts and that should be labeled too.

The service was excellent as servers continously kept coming to our table to take our used plates away and to ask us if we wanted drinks. The drinks were excellent and consisted of sweet lassi, salty lassi, and mango lassi. The food, on the other hand, was just mediocre. It was not being refilled quickly and some dishes were warm while others were cold. The only food items I recommend are the chicken nuggets, the fried fish, and the pani puri. We were very disappointed with the halwa puri. Even though it was nice and hot, it did not have any flavor. Other things we tried were the chinese dishes, paya, roasted lamb and these were all savorless. I thought maybe I’d have better luck with the desserts but they too were disappointing, especially the red velvet cake and brownies. How do you go wrong with brownies?

So all in all, Shahnawaz is way too overrated and the only reason they are doing well is because they are the only Halal buffet with a lot of variety in the foods they offer.

——————————————————-

Shahnawaz Website

View Larger Map

Sweet Revenge (West Village)

Rating:

Quality, Taste, Cleanliness, Environment, Price , & Staff

——————————————————-

Positive: Uniquely delicious cupcake flavors and a wide variety of non-alcoholic drinks.

Negative: Bar type atmosphere with expensive dishes.

Overall: Great place to go with friends for dessert and non-alcoholic drink if you want to try a new type of setting.

——————————————————-

You want to try a high-end cupcake place with a delicious non-alcoholic drink with your friends at a bar?

Sweet revenge is a very unique and small cafe in the Village. It has many different kinds of signature ‘Artisan’ flavors.  This place is actually a bar/cupcake place so that people who drink can have wine with their cupcakes and pies.

However, for those who don’t drink alcohol they have a bunch of non-alcoholic drinks as well. Some of these nonalcoholic drinks include their South African rock shandy and American rock shandy. You can also have frozen hot chocolate which is pretty bitter and probably made from dark chocolate. They also have a bunch of coffees, teas, lattes, milk, lemonades, and sodas. They are known for the cupcakes and pies.

The signature flavor which I enjoyed was something called Sweet Revenge which included peanut butter cake, a ganache center, and peanut butter fudge frosting. We also had a chance to try there very rich and delicious Bird of Paradise cupcake which consisted of lime chiffon cake with mango butter cream and fresh lime zest. They have a variety of other unique signature flavors including ‘Pure” which consists of Mexican vanilla cake and Mexican vanilla buttercream as well as ‘Dirty’  which consists of Valrohna Cake with dark chocolate truffle.  I also tried their ‘Crimson and Cream’ which has raspberry red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. It was very unique compared to other red velvet cakes I have eaten. However, it did have somewhat of a raspberry flavor to it. They also have some pies which I did not have a chance to try.

I think overall that this place is a very interesting and unique place to go to especially if you want to have a quick delicious cupcake with a nice non-alcoholic drink. You can always check their website to see what kind of nonalcoholic drinks they have. When comparing this to other cupcake places like Magnolia, Crumbs, and Georgetown cupcakes I think this is more of a exotic cupcake place. However at the other places the cupcakes have the usual delicious flavors.  Therefore, this place definitely has more of a unique experience than other places.  By the way, the owner is very nice and the service is excellent, which makes your experience there soo much better!

——————————————————-

Sweet Revenge Website

View Larger Map

Self-serve Frozen Yogurt (Central NJ)

Rating: (see below)

Quality, Taste, Cleanliness, Environment, Price , & Staff

——————————————————-

Positive: Aside from Red Mango and Phileo Yogurt (not located in Central NJ), Yogurt Land has unique, delicious high quality yogurt flavors with an average number of toppings.  Yo Mon has the nicest environ (although small) and topping selection with average quality yogurt.Wicked twist is in third place with lower quality yogurt and an average number of toppings.

Negative: Twist and Fruity Yogurt have lower quality frozen yogurt which doesn’t taste like its respective flavors with below average toppings.

Overall: Go with Red Mango or Phileo Yogurt if they are in your area.  Otherwise if you live in central NJ go with , Yo Mon (if you are into toppings and environ), or Wicked Twist.  I wouldn’t go to Twist or Fruity Yogurt.

——————————————————-

I had a chance to visit multiple self-serve frozen yogurt chains in central New Jersey and compare them to well-known chains like Red Mango and Phileo Yogurt. (I did not include Pinkberry as it is not self serve at the moment in the Tri-state area) What I gathered from my experiences was that Red Mango is probably the best in terms of its quality, healthiness, and the fruity yogurts they carry. Phileo Yogurt was not far behind either and I would eat yogurt at any of those chains any day of the week.

I would regard these chains as the standards to compare other frozen yogurt places with.   The self-serve frozen yogurt trend has made its way to New Jersey with a wide variety of small businesses opening to offer their customers a wide variety of flavors and toppings for around 45-49 cents per ounce.  The way it works is that you come in and choose your cup (small or large), taste a few small samples of the flavors, fill up your cups as you wish and add the topping you wish before weighing, paying, and obtaining  a spoon to eat your delicious concoction.  

Yo Mon, located in Freehold, NJ is best known for its exciting environ with a colorful, young scheme and multiple TVs as well as a small sitting place right outside the door.  Although it is one of the smaller places I have been too, they make full use of the space even though most of the time the lines are out the door.  Their frozen yogurt selection is nicely varied, although they have less fruity flavors at one time like Red Mango. Their quality of frozen yogurt is not as good as Red Mango, again, but it is nonetheless better than the other places in Central NJ.  Their Espresso and Mango flavors are probably the best they carry and their wide variety of toppings really makes the yogurt  even more worth it.  Aside from the typical variety of fruits, nuts, cookies, etc they also have a lot of liquid toppings like corn flakes dipped in nutella as well as crushed, warm Ferrero Rocher chocolate.  This place has the most variety and best toppings from any other place I’ve been too, including Red Mango and the other location for you to jersey has an excellent environment as well as a huge number of toppings.

Wicked Twist, located in Old Bridge, NJ is located in a small shopping center similar to Yo Mon and has a good variety of frozen yogurt treats, similar to Yo Mon with less quality in the yogurt.   They also have  a small location and sitting places both inside and out.  The local crowd keeps this place busy as well.  Their topping selection was average and therefore similar to the toppings offered by Red Mango, with a smaller fruit selection.  

Twist, located in Princeton and Fruity Yogurt, located in New Brunswick, NJ are definitely well placed in ideal locations to tap the huge number of students in their respective areas.  Sadly, they don’t taste as good as Yo Mon or Wicked Twist.  Twist does have smoothies and frappes that you can order.  Red Mango, though, also has a wide variety of smoothies, shakes, juices, and teas that you can order from the counter. 

Yogurt Land, is located in Hamilton and Denville, NJ.  This place has a larger variety of delicious, unique flavors than other yogurt chains in Central NJ including Devil’s Food and Red Velvet Cupcake Batter.  I had a chance to go there recently and was very impressed with their selection and quality.  Their topping selection, however, is not as good as Yo Mon.  It is a chain that recently opened and seems to be doing very well.  I think it is better than Yo Mon in terms of quality and sitting room, and therefore I would recommend going here if you are in the Central Jersey area and want high quality yogurt but willing to compromise on the toppings.

Overall I would consider going to Red Mango if in the mood for a fruity flavor like Pomegranite from POM, White Peach, Mango, Blueberry or any other flavor while visiting an area in which it is located.  If I am in the Philly area of parts of New York where Phileo Yogurt is located I would go visit them as well.  However, if in Central NJ I would go with Yogurt Land or Yo Mon followed by Wicked Twist.  But if I am in the more busy cities like New Brunswick or Princeton I would rather have ice cream or some other sweet ending rather than the frozen yogurt places open there.

——————————————————-

Red Mango

Phileo Yogurt

Yo Mon

Fruity Yogurt

Twist

Yogurt Land