moti mahal

had a great diner atmotimahal on friday night. i could go on about the food but the fish pakora appetizer stood out as tasted amazing. also, make a reservation if you go on friday night as it was packed.

dig deeply into your wallet, it's worth every cent..motiis easily one of the very best indian restaurants in calgary. you do receive a discount on take away orders, and the authentic cuisine is superb!
dine in, dine out... you will be satiated and thrilled with the experience!
: )

avoid the sunday brunch but otherwise good. as the title says, you'll get 3 day old gulab jamun and watery, tasteless kheer but hey, it's brunch, right? the rest of the weekmotimahal is pretty good but sundays? best just stay home and eat some ramen.

very nice. four of us enjoyed a visit here to celebrate a birthday. greeted and seated we were immediately surrounded in the beautiful aroma from the kitchen. service was warm and friendly. the fish pakora appy was great. fresh fish, well flavoured batter, mmmmmm. and the chutneys were superb. we went with two lamb dishes, a chicken, a fabulous veggie curry and sesame naan. and at the end, there were honey balls for the birthday boy. we enjoyed our visit and food for a couple of hours, leaving only the empty plates. recommended! many thanks to teammotimahal.

still great. been going tomotifor about 10 years, and its always consistently great. of the 15 or so indian restaurants i've tried in calgary, none match moti's flavours. a waitress there recently recommended lamb bhuna, and it's now my all time favourite dish, highly recommended. friendly service and great food, what more could you ask for.

vindalooooo.motiis awesome! i go once a week and every time its been great. go for the lamb where you can because its delicious, especially in the vindaloo. the chili chicken is an excellent choice if you are trying to decide on trying a new dish. i can't believe there are negative reviews on here about this place...

used to be my favourite - what happened?. this used to be one of my favourite restaurants in the city. i was traveling for a year, so naturally this was my go-to restaurant on my first night back. i was incredible disappointed.
first off, our server made it very obvious that he either hated his job or hated people. couldn't decide which. he was monotone the entire time except for the last 30 seconds before he handed us the portable pay machine - clearly trying to entice us to tip him. we gave him a very low tip, i wish we had left zero.
secondly, the experience just sucked. our samosa appetizer looked terrible. we ordered two orders, and they brought out four dark fried samosas which were plopped on top of a few strings of cabbage and gross looking carrots. i used to love their chicken samosas. instead it looked like i was eating chicken "balls" in dirty cabbage. *sigh*
now to the main. palak was great, hard to mess that up. perfectly spiced.
butter chicken - the one dish that should be perfect in an indian restaurant, was really watery. not a thick cream base like usual. very disappointed asmotimahal used to have one of the best in the city.
lamb vindaloo - sauce great. meat tough.

truly, the only thing lovely about this restaurant was the pleasant young man who made sure to check our water and refill as he saw fit.
sorrymotimahal, but your standards and quality have gone beyond south. not sure if it was management change or chef or what. but two huge thumbs down....

love the food - best ever. four of us only meet up twice a year for dinner and we always end up atmotimahal. we just don't want to go anywhere else. the food is to die for.motishahi kabob is our favorite - it melts in your mouth. prawn masala and lamb goa curry are delicious. always a good experience!

excellent food/service/value. visitedmotimahal for the first time this week.

they have been in calgary for 25 years and i have never been there until now.
have lived here almost all my life.
i was looking for a good vegetarian restaurant since my friend is a vegetarian and those places are difficult to find.
i am 59 and white and my friend is 50 and white.

i am not a vegetarian but preferred a place that could satisfy my tastes as well.
i am not an expert on this type of food but i enjoyed what i ordered and the entire dining experience.

my friend is considerably more worldly than i and she was very impressed with everything atmotimahal. :)

wanted a place that offered something more than just a salad or poorly prepared risotto or pasta. why is it so hard to get risotto right?

also wanted a place that had a nice atmosphere where the tables are not too close to each other so that my friend and i could have a decent conversation without the next table hearing every word.
also a place with nice but not overwhelming background music and a nice atmosphere.

the food of course would have to good as well.

so, off to urban spoon to find the perfect place.

foundmotimahal receiving very good reviews, went to their website,
looked at the menu and was amazed as to how inexpensive it was and the wide variety of dishes they offered.
also the photo on their site of the interior was perfect.
nice, decent-sized tables with lots of room between them.
i emailed the menu to my friend and she approved.
made a reservation and we arrived at 6:30.
parking right out front. awesome!

it looked exactly like the photo.

we were seated and attended to immediately.
the dining room filled up quickly after we arrived but the noise level was never an issue.

we ordered a half-litre of red wine.
trying new wines is always a challenge and we totally understand this.
the one we chose was not really to our liking but wines are always a guess unless they have exactly the wine you like.
this is not the restaurant's fault.
the wine we chose was fine but just not to our tastes.
will try a different one next time.

the waitress (sorry i forgot her name) was excellent and very knowledgeable
about the menu.

i love lamb (lamb roganjosh) and my friend has had curried vegetables.
we shared large vegetable samosas, pea and potato rice and amazing garlic naan bread.

everything arrived at the table in a very timely fashion and prepared to perfection. the portions were a nice size especially for the money and the samosas were larger than expected.
everything tasted excellent.

the waitress was very attentive and always made sure we were satisfied.
water glasses were always full.
she removed the dishes very promptly when we were finished.
that's a pet peeve i have. looking at empty dishes for too long.

there was never a moment i felt like i was being rushed out after paying the tab.

overall, a very satisfying dining experience at a very affordable price.
$75.00 tax in before gratuity for two people. excellent value!
i have spent over double that for a far less-satisfying dining experience.

i will definitely return just to try many of the other wide selection of items offered on the menu.

should have triedmotimahal years ago.

watered down. if you're one of those people who considers indian food a rare delicacy that you know nothing about,motimahal is the place for you!

i went tomotimahal once with my family (we're indian) and as soon as we walked in, we could tell it was one of those watered-down indian food places that was really catered toward western taste. instead of turning around and walking out, we decided to give it a shot and not judge a book by its cover.

unfortunately, we were right. we were all quite hungry after a long day and when i'm hungry, anything tastes good to me. however, the food was terrible, tasted cheap, and lacked taste. it was a pain in the butt to finish the food on my plate and i certainly did not want more.

definitely a $40+ we wish we could get back, but non-indians seem to like it so...whatever floats your boat! however, if you're indian and/or familiar with real indian food on a regular basis, this is not the place for you--its a complete waste of money.

delicious!. i had the veggie korma and naan bread - it was the most delicious naan bread i have ever eaten!! the korma was also quite good too - i feel like there were maybe not enough variety of vegetables (mostly string beans...) but maybe it was just getting to the bottom of the pot. overall it was delicious and i look forward to eating atmotimahal again!

so so. we were disappointed thatmotimahal didn't offer delivery service, but we decided to try it anyway. the malai kofta was amazing, great sauce, great flavour. the butter chicken however, was a thin sauced, flavourless, bland and very undesirable dish. we won't be ordering the butter chicken again.

best indian in calgary. i'm not a big indian food eater, but i've tried a few in calgary.motimahal hands down has the best in calgary.

our favourite indian restaurant in the city. we have been tomotimahal on 17ave many times for buffet or for dinner. their buffet is very good but nothing beats their dinner. everything is absolutely delicious and fresh! the portions are not too small unlike many east indian restaurants in this city. there is always a nice ambiance and good service as well.

here is what we usually order:

half a litre of red wine
vegetable pakoras for appetizer
egg plant bartha or lady fingers okra
palak chicken
lamb kofta (curry meat balls)
naan bread
coconut rice

80$ + tip

great northern indian food!. they're not afraid to charge for it, but man do they deliver!
i spent a few months in india this year, and since returning have been craving it. i wasn't sure if i was going to be disappointed, after having experienced indian food in india, butmotimahal was delicious! full of flavour and spices, rich sauces and yummy chutneys, the dishes definitly fulfilled my cravings!
yum!