Maharaja's on Carmen

One of the best Indian cuisine in Sydney, with authentic taste and rich flavors. Chef would mend the dish to your taste. Ambience is so good, and depicts Indian culture quiet nicely.

Honestly the most delicious food. Love this restaurant. Beautiful decor too.Highly recommended!

We ordered Paneer butter masala and Malai kofta they were way too sweet. This were the sweetest curries we ever had. Waiters were not very professional. Overall experience was just ok.

I had an amazing experience dining here. The service was very fast and friendly and the food was phenomenal. I absolutely would recommend this restaurant and will be coming back

Had the work X Mas party here yesterday 13/12. Met with the Chef beforehand to decide on the menu items as some of the guests were vegetarians. Very new building and layout. The ambiance and the food was fantastic. Flavoursome food in more than enough quantities. Everyone had such a great time. Special mention should be made of Kamal who was in charge and saw to it that everything we required was available. Reasonable pricing as well. Highly recommend.

Maharaja’s on Carmen is the jewel in the lightly renovated strip mall that goes by the name of Carmen Drive Shops. Interior designers, Lexis Design, have created a welcoming environment that belies the age of the surrounding shops.Glass screens covered with geometric gold patterns softly reveal the opulent blue and gold dining room. Patterned pale blue textured vinyl wall-coverings are set off by deeper blue velour banquettes on two sides of the room, with the fabric also employed in the seat cushions of the high-backed, black dining chairs. Large windows offer a peek at the sleepy suburban streetscape, which has just enough parking to service the restaurants that the isolated strip contains.As I tuck into a sculptural arrangement of Pappadums ($3), nicely charred and oil-free from a fast cook in the tandoor, my dining companion nips to the bottle shop. The seven-month-old restaurant doesn’t have a liquor license, but it’s hardly a drama with a decent liquor store practically next door.The food menu is surprisingly succinct, though this isn’t Satinder Benepal’s first turn around the block. He began his restaurant journey with Maharaja’s Palace in Kirribilli, back in 1991. The original restaurant paved the way for Maharaja’s Haveli in Quakers Hill in 2008, and Maharaja’s Lakeside, which popped up in the Norwest Business Park seven years ago. The Carlingford restaurant is the baby of the family, and the first in the hands of Satinder’s wife, Rani Benepal.Rani was a bit flustered when we arrived - she was left to work the floor alone when one of her staff members decided to quit rather than show up for their shift that night. Regardless, we weren't kept waiting too long for our Dirty Samosas ($16) to arrive. The name stems from the artfully messy plate splattered with cooling yoghurt and well-cooked chickpeas sweetened with tamarind. The split-open samosas are much more flavoursome than the average potato-filled pastry, with a nice tingly heat level.I’ve eaten a number of versions of Chicken 65 ($20) and the Maharaja’s on Carmen rendition is the best I've tried. Here the bright red masala, flavoured with tomato and fresh curry leaves, sits over crunchy nodules of chicken thigh fillet under a scattering of spring onions to give the dish a bit of green. The spice level is great, and the batter keeps its crispness well.The Blue Cheese Naan ($8) is a unique update that feels a bit like late night kitchen fun with an Indian chef. The fluffy naan is presented in quarters with a squiggle of chilli mayo and a pot of sweet mango chutney to help cut against rich filling of pungent cheese. In this format, it's obviously more of an entrée than it is a bread you dip in curry.Not wanting to double up on bread, we had our Panjim Prawns ($31) with Plain Boiled Rice ($5). Carlingford locals prefer plain rice to pilau, Rani explained, though the lovely well-separated bowl of long grain rice still felt fancy flecked with a good amount of saffron.The yoghurt and kalonji (nigella sativa or black seed) topped prawn curry has a creamy coconut base. While the sauce was quite compelling, it had a salty edge that worked up a powerful thirst. Our clay bowl of Maharaja’s Baby Goat Curry ($31) was made on boneless baby goat, which didn’t really offer up enough flavour to combat the bright, acidic, tomato-based curry. The next time I happen to find myself in Carlingford, I think I'd swap it out for chef’s South Indian crab curry, instead.

Yes!! Best Indian in the Hills. Quite a few places offering a good Indian, but this place is on a different level. From the ambiance and hospitality to the wine range and dishes available. For once a kitchen that listened to us when we asked for extra spicy. Every dish was full of flavour and cooked perfectly. Add this to your must visit if you are in the hills.

We dined here on a quite Tuesday night for a family birthday and this has been the best dining experience as a family with kids in a long time. The food was amazing, the staff were extremely accommodating to our children and the pricing and portions were very reasonable. We will definitely be coming back again.

Wow! So nice, great services cracker food! We had the Blue Cheese Naan which was great, Fried Spanish Chaat wow wow wow! Amazing, Lamb Vidaloo was also wealthy of two wows wows, Buttter Chicken was yum the rice is big enough to feed 4 adults, a normal Naan, Pickles and Mango Chutny and to polish it all off (because all that wasn't enough) we had a Mango Icecream. Wow wow wow loved this place!

ordered mothers day dinner, have always been enjoying food from maharajas, dal was good as usual, paneer butter masala was too sweet, but the chef should seriously consider changing recipe for malai kofta, very dissappointing, every spoon was either a lump of sugar or lump of salt, just not tasty at all...I am guessing the chef has changed maybe?.. for the prices we pay customer has right to expect a good dish.