Nirvana II

With everyone returning back to the office, this restaurant recently opened back up. The food is pre-made, you get your choice of rice and two portions of meat or veg. I ordered chili chicken, butter chicken, and basmati rice. I was wanting more spice from the butter chicken and the chili chicken was the best of the two options. Good portions for a quick lunch.

Not bad for a quick Indian takeaway place. I was in Charlotte on business and this place is basically in my building so it is very convenient. There's a limited menu, but the portions are generous and the food is reasonably good, so it is a fair value.

Best Indian food you can get in Uptown especially during lunch. Secret is to stick to the South Indian dishes (ie NOT the typical butter chicken/tikka masala/saag/naan)Get the biryani and whatever other South Indian curry dishes they have that are fresh and you'll get a solid authentic tasting meal.

Variety is the spice of life, and is this spice of life that is missing from Nirvana II. There are plenty of delicious spices in the food, but I went here for lunch and there were two vegetarian choices (paneer chunks or chana) and three meat choices (not three choices of meat, all the meats were chicken, but three choices of sauce for meat). I don't consider the biryani as a separate choice, because flavor wise you are getting biryani or rice.The value is similar to other places in the area, your Mexican or American places have a similar amount of food. I was a bit over stuffed from getting the 3 entree option - I recommend the 2 entree option as being the right amount of food.I enjoyed the flavors of the food but without being cheaper or having more variety they aren't going to break into the upper stratosphere of stars. I also thought the raita (yogurt) was a bit bland plus even asking for two containers I hardly got enough. The naan isn't worth the trouble. It lacks that light fluffiness and felt like it had been stacked under something heavy and absorbed extra moisture.They have the cooking skills, but they didn't make four star choices with the menu. They are another reasonably fast buffet that you can only carry out and they pack the container for you (they are generous enough).Conclusion: if you are nearby then go here, but don't travel out of your way. Find your local supplier. For me that is a place down the street from my home (see my other reviews and you will find it).

Grab and go Indian spot open for lunch at the base of Wells Fargo 3. Line moves fast and the portions are usually huge. I have never been to India so I can't comment on how authentic it is, but it sure tastes great. If you arrive later in the day they may be out of several items so be warned. I am relatively new to Indian food but was glad to find this place right by my office and I am thankful I gave it a try because now I'm addicted!

I'm pretty much a newbie when it comes to Indian food but I very much enjoyed the lunch I had this week. Wanted to try as much as I could at once so went with 3 meats. Chicken Tikka, Pepper Chicken and Chili Chicken. All meals come with basmati rice and naan, which here means warmed up pita I guess. Each dish had nice flavor and varying degrees of heat with the Tikka being the most tame, but also the most deeply flavored. The line was long but moved at a decent pace and the service was very friendly.

The chicken biryani tasted authentic and flavourful. Had lots of fresh spices. Watch out if you can't handle too much spicy. Make sure you get extra yogurt

About 6 months ago this place started to noticeably, but subtly, evolve. Gone were the friendly owners, replaced by a new crop of much younger, less interested employees. I can recall on not once, but at least 2 to 3 occassions going here shortly after 11am for an early lunch and the place was closed. I've walked in at 11:30 am and they're still setting up? Prices went up, small changes to the menu items started showing up and the coma-inducing, extra scoops of food that really defined the value of their offering started to wane. In other words, now you're getting too much food (instead of WAYYY too much food) for $9, instead of $8. Subtle - but impactful to the discerning lunch goer. One correctable, subtle issue that popped up, and still persists today as I pull another one out of my mouth while chewing and writing this review, is exhibited by the fact that they cook with in-tact, full-sized Cardamom pods and cloves. Now in and of itself, this is not at all an issue, and in fact encouraged as the subtle flavors are a terrific layer of flavor. The problem exists when the pods and cloves are not removed prior to serving the dish and so you'll occassinally get a mouthfull of surprise when you bite into an entire Cardamom pod which can simply destroy your pallette for the next several minutes. It's a rookie mistake, that can be easily changed and make a subtle improvement to their quality. Unfortunately, after some serious evaluation of this place for several weeks, if not months (yea I still come here pretty much weekly because it's the closest place to my office) I can no longer recommend this place to folks who may have an Indian food itch burning in their appetites. The subtle changes that the Aroma management team has made have deteriorated the overall offering beyond my comfort zone. In fact, the line out the door that used to exist for Nirvana II is gone - the people have spoken!! The other factor here is that Persis Biriyani opened up a place across the street in the Latta Arcade. In another month or so, after they work out the kinks, I would expect Persis to crush this place on every facet of their offering. DING DING DING - LETTTS GET READDDY TO RUMMMBBBLLLLEEEE!!!!!And oh yea, the naan is still awful.

I'm gonna go ahead and disagree with the prior review on this one.I was initially excited to hear about the opening of this new Indian Fusion restaurant as it's right next to where I work and I love South Asian food. The concept was new, interesting, and unique. The prices were incredibly low and the pictures on the outside looked pretty good. Unfortunately I was sorely disappointed when a bunch of buddies and I went to finally try it out (we all happen to be brown by the way). I can appreciate the fact that the food isn't supposed to taste exactly like Indian cuisine as it has culinary influence from several different areas of the world. But what I personally found was that the flavors and textures of the dishes they offered were as uninviting and bland as the yellow interiors of the actual establishment. We tried the red beans, the chicken korma, a couple of wraps, eggplant, and another chicken dish and somehow I couldn't even finish my food. Maybe it's just my bias since I grew up with this type of cuisine, but I'm not gonna pretend that I would even consider coming here again.To put it briefly, you get exactly what you pay for. For $5 at lunch time, you're going to get $2 quality chicken, $1 quality rice, $2 quality taste. It's like waiting in line at the school cafeteria. In the back of your mind, you're hoping for something good today, but ultimately you end up wishing you hadn't even made the effort to get in line.You can tell that some of the flavors are there in terms of identifying it as coming from a certain part of Asia, but you won't find the boldness or adequate seasoning in any of the dishes. The wraps were of course leaking everywhere because they put the actual chicken IN it's gravy into the tortilla. Not a clever move.I was also charged $76 because she "pressed the numbers too quickly." Hopefully the void shows up in my statements, otherwise I had an unbearably overpriced lunch....I suppose if you've never had Indian food in your life, this might pass as edible.2/5

What a rip-off! These people were at the Indian Festival this weekend....and I order rice and tiki marsala and a potato side dish. Dumb me didn't ask how much and I got home and was charged $16. And the food was ice cold!