Tantalize your taste buds with a trip to Darbar Restaurant in Kingston. Our menu offers a variety of traditional Indian foods such as butter chicken, naan bread, papadum and a selection of scrumptious desserts. To make a reservation, call Darbar Restaurant today.
I've been to Darbar twice. The first time I had the lunch special with a beef curry (don't recall exactly what kind), and thought that it was bland, uninteresting, and it had no heat at all, surprising because I ordered it "hot"
The second time I was invited to dinner with a visiting relative. I was reluctant to agree to this restaurant due to my previous experience, but we went nonetheless.
This time, I ordered the lamb dansak, and was completely blown away. It was definitely among the best dishes I have ever eaten at a restaurant. The flavour was bold and complex but balanced, and with enough heat to make the dish exciting to eat. I had a taste of the other dishes at the table, which ranged from good to so-so, but my order was truly excellent.
Both times, the service was prompt and polite, and the staff was very attentive without being intrusive.
If all of the dishes on the menu were comparable to my last visit, I would not hesitate to give Darbar five stars for food. Unfortunately, many items are underperformers.
Overall, if you didn't like Darbar, it's worth another shot - you probably just ordered the wrong item the first time.
Lunched twice two days running on the best Madras Lamb I've had in decades. Last time I had Madras this flavourful and piquante was in a Punjabi Jewel of a restaurant in the Charing Cross Road in 1973. I don't know where r Kar the chef hails from but surely that region of the subContinent is missing some glory...
We love the Darbar! The staff is quick and professional and the food is always delicious. We've never found the food to be bland OR too spicy. The Darbar is one of Kingston's hidden gems.
Take-out from Darbar . . . helpful staff, food prepared promptly and waiting when we arrived. Unfortunately, the experience went downhill from there. Everything we ordered was exceptionally bland, while the raita had more sugar than cotton candy. Serious lack of heat and, much worse, the complex flavors and spices that characterize Indian cooking were missing. Couldn't figure this one out - are they cooking to non-Indian palates (bland, sugary food???). We recently came from a much larger city with outstanding north & south Indian restaurants and many home-cooked meals with Indian friends, so Darbar was quite a shock (or lack of shock) to the taste buds. Much better Indian restaurants than this in Kingston - once was enough at Darbar.
It took many years to find an Indian Restaurant that came up to the quality of the Indian restaurants that I had been used to in London U.K.
I have been a customer of this restaurant since it opened and in my opinion, there is no better Indian food in Kingston, even though I have tried them all.
The restaurant is badly in need of a fresh coat of paint, but the employee's certainly make up for any dissappointment in this area
I absolutly love the Darbar, hands down best place in town. I live locally near Kingston and whenever my boyfriend and I decide to go out for dinner, we always go to the darbar, because we know we will leave satisfied and with some food for later on. Service is very friendly and good atmosphere.
Can't beat the pappadom as you wait and the Nan is always fresh and fluffy! I would say I attend the Darbar about once a week during the summer when I am home, and will continue to do so for the rest of the time it is around for.
I attended Queen's University's Information session with my daughter and her friend. For lunch, we opted to taste Indian food. The university people recommended to go to Darbar Restaurant. We went and after having lunch there, we were so delighted that we are pretty sure that in future whenever we will go to Kingston, definitely we will dine in Darbar Restaurant. I recommend other people to try foods and service of this restaurant.
We have been here a number of times and Darbar never fails to impress. The quality, large portion sizes, friendliness of staff, and overall positive experiences are what we have come to expect.
I dont understand all of the reviews that complain about freshness of meat, etc. My spouse and I are very particular when it comes to meat quality and we find that Darbar uses nothing but the best meats. So tender, you dont need a knife.
I have been to the other Indian restaurants in Kingston and while they are good - they pale in comparison to Darbar.
Try it and you will enjoy it.
We got takeout from them and let me say it was quite awful. The soup which taste like lemonade was also cold. 1 piece of papdum and nan only for a meal for two the shrimp was bland, small and had absolutely no flavor. I doubt that any of their meat or vegetables are fresh which the web site claims. I simply would say not to take a risk and stick to the other curry restaurants downtown... Worst Indian food ever!!!
My dad visited me at school and after a round of...
My dad visited me at school and after a round of golf I took him to Darbar. We shared two dishes with a naan and a beer each and were completely full and happy by the end of the meal. Plus, the waiters are always right there with water when you run out, so you never die from the heat. I've been a dozen times now and the food has never disappointed. It is spectacular! I find it hard to believe that I go to the same restaurant as some of the negative reviewers here...
In kingston for the night, we decided to order "take out" from Darbar. What a disappointment! Take out containers we barely half filled, we were all hungry after our meal. The shrimp curry, which cost $12, consisted of 6 shrimp and half of a container of sauce! The 4 other main courses that we ordered weren't any better! The naan bread was dry.(and they only gave us one after charging us for 4) It was a horrible meal! DON'T EVER ORDER TAKE OUT FROM DARBAR!
it was so bad that we were not able to eat it. this is not atall INDIAN. this was something else... i dont think any person can make this worst of a food... with all indian spices anyone can make good food but this was a disaster. never ever go there... coz the server has so much of attitude... i will never ever go there or will recommend anybody to go there. the server was so damn rude with us. there is no Zero given here for scoring them otherwise i would have given them a big ZERO.
I've been to this restaurant for lunch twice. They have lunch special which are fairly price and taste yummy. I especially like their coconut curry dish.
I have consistently had excellent food. I frequently pick up my order so have only eaten in the restaurant about 4 times. The servoce could be faster but the food is well worth it and the wait staff are very polite and friendly. This overall review should be much higher and is brought down by one reviewer!!!!
This was the first Indian restaurant I had been...
This was the first Indian restaurant I had been to in Kingston and must say I am kind of impressed. It is not up to par with the Toronto restaurants, but for Kingston standards it was pretty good. One odd thing I found was that their chick peas were sweet when they are supposed to be spicy, but surprisingly I liked them. The butter chicken is also sweet and is yellow, which was kind of odd. Nonetheless, it was a good restaurant.
We ordered 12 or so dishes between us to share and they were all yummy - some yummier than others but generally all good! I love this place! You won't regret visiting darbar....
