Shakinah Restaurant Ta' Xbiex Seafront in Qormi

The restaurant is really modern and great looking, in fact that must be the most high end looking Indian restaurant I have ever been in. I was almost missing the typical pictures of India on the walls. The food was good, big chunks of meat in my Hyderabadi. Free papadum is always welcomed. The lassi though was weird, they give you mango pulp separately. Why though, does someone really use just a little bit? Also the lassi portion was really small. The service was fast, although they were like 5 waiters who loudly spoke to each other next to the bar which was quite disturbing. Given the prices though I expected little more.

Excellent food! Excellent service! And excellent host!! Definitely 100pc worth going!!

The vibe that the owners bring to the place is top notch! I went there for my birthday and they were generous enough to give me 2 shots of frangelico and a scoop of some awesome ice cream on the house! Definitely recommend this place if you want to have a dining experience!

Fantastic service from Shakinah. We recently celebrated our anniversary and my birthday here and on both occasions the service was top notch and the food was excellent. The restaurant also offers many vegen options which is something important for us. Well done to the owners and all the staff.

Amazing food. Would come back again but their was minimal service and we had to keep asking them to serve us despite us being the only people in there.Highly recommend for yummy well priced food though!The raspberry fizz cocktail was lovely aswell, perfect amount of chilli kick.

Place is just fantastic.. .great service

HALAL FOOD! The best Indian food I’ve ever had let alone just in Malta. Full of flavour and was really impressed that they catered to our needs and provided us with a drink that wasn’t even on the menu. Also accommodated us with a stunning table in the back garden with a last min booking. Exceptional service!!

The food is great.the staff is professional. Great service.Cons: very limited dessert options and they are very average. Dont try fruit basket :)

Dinner was pleasant. Food delicious, service impeccable and a really nice atmosphere.

Food was very authentic and tasty. You will really feel like you are having classic Indian food in Malta 😜. Dal soup, gobi pakora, Chicken Pakora,peas pulav & dal, garlic naan, papad, chicken curry was amazing. Interior is very attractive with pastel shades and mirrors.

I cant fault this place! Amazing food, great atmosphere and service with a smile from the owners themselves! Thank you very much!!

Great choice for a great dining experience, everything is perfect. The food is of high quality, and the menu is extensive and authentic. The boss was there walking around greeting and chatting with guests and it created an amazing environment to enjoy a night out in Malta. She was super friendly and helpful and you can tell really cares that her customers enjoy her place. Will go back!

Lovely restaurant with amazing food!Went for a lunch there few weeks ago for lunch and had few dishes and cocktails. First we got the waiting snack which was Papadam with 3 sauces to dip in: mint, spicy and sweet, very tasty. Starters: Onion Bhaji and Paneer Pakora, they could use a bit salt but they were very good and the Onion Bahaji was a huge portion. For mains we had Beef Saagwala and Lamb Vindaloo with Cheese Naan, Onion Kulcha and refreshing Raita. The curries were delicious, full of flavors and the meat was soooo tender, it was almost melting when you took a bite. Cheese Naan was very cheesy, big plus for that as in a lot of places you can barely taste the cheese. The portions are very well sized, we actually couldnt finish everything so we took the rest for takeaway and really enjoyed eating it again :)Cokctails were nice, we took a few from the summer menu which had a beautiful presentation. They could be a little bit less sweet and maybe a bit cheaper but in general they were very good.The staff was friendly, restaurant at the time was not crowded at all so the service was super fast, the interior design is pretty and pleasant.Overall very worth recommending, lovely dining experience! :)

Absolutely wonderful experience. And definitely the taste of home. I was so pleasantly surprised. The crew there is just the nicest, helpful, and happy bunch. Helps that the owner is also always around and chatting to guests. Highly recommend.

A wonderful evening with the better half 😊Service was excellent 👌

Best Indian restaurant in the Island. Great staff and location.

A very lovely place, elegant and quiet. Waiters treats you politely and are very helpful. So the service was excelent, as well as the food. Very tasty and authentic. They have a huge menu with many possibilities, so this restaurant is a must in Malta if you love Indian cuisine!

One of the nicest Indian restaurants on the island, only issue is lack of parking in the area

Very good indian food - spicy and hot, but enjoyable. The local Malta wine 1909 is highly recommendable.

Food was good, not outstanding. The AC was a little too strong. The interior was nice and the service was good too.

I visited this restaurant over the weekend, as this was my first time in Malta, I was excited to try my home food in another country. I saw this restaurant come up on google so I thought I’d stop by - as I entered the restaurant, I was quickly turned away rudely for not booking in advance. This I thought could have been dealt with more professionally and with empathy.I returned the next day, this time booking in advance for the 10pm slot as I wanted to try out their Indian food. As we sat, the same rude waiter (Rajfrom the night before attended us. This time as he handed over the menu he mentioned we need to place the order quickly as the kitchen was about to close. If this was the case, they should not take bookings at this time, as it left us feeling rushed instead being relaxed to enjoy our dinner experience.We ordered our drinks, I asked what the Kinnie was, the waiter Raj described it as similar to pepsi. Once it arrived it was nothing like pepsi, instead it had a strong bitter taste - not to my likings at all. I retuned the drink after a sip and got a pepsi instead, but I had to pay for both drinks. A common customer service experience in the Uk is to replace the drink for free of charge especially when the entire drink was left. But they failed to do this which was disappointing!Some of our food arrived, the biryani didn’t arrive until we was half way finished with our mains. I would rate the taste of the food 1/10 - the food did not have the flavours as expected from traditional Indian curry as it taste very bland. The presentation on the other hand was 9/10 and the restaurant decor 10/10.From this trip, I would highly recommend you not to visit Shakinah for food, instead go to “Emperor of India” restaurant - That place had an amazing atmosphere, great food, the owner attended every table and cracked a few jokes, very light hearted and sweet. Out of the three Indian restaurant we tried over the weekend Shakinah would be at the very bottom.

Great food and cocktails. Lovely ambience and efficient service. Will surely visit again.

This places is always return place for us. Great tikka and flavour curryWould definitely recommend

Maybe the best Indian restaurant in Malta.Flavorful Indian food!Completely recommend this restaurant.

I had been recommended this place by someone who used to live here but was really disappointed. The service was mixed - some people were lovely, others not so. The food was sub par - poppadoms were soggy like theyd been out ages. My onion bhaji was enormous and also soggy. Also quite tasteless. My prawn main was bland and I left most of it. I shouldve complained but I couldnt be bothered. Such a shame for a great-looking venue.

At first I was hesitant because it looks like one of those not very authentic, overpriced Asian restaurants. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. I had some of the best Indian food ever here and it’s great value for money. Be careful, portion sizes are huge, even the starters!

We have dinner here once in a while, and even order their food at home. The apetizers and curries are to die for, and cocktails are excellent. The staff is very nice and attentive. One of our favourite places to eat in Malta.

Unfortunately, its a dissapointment. Ordered Chicken Korma, which had no taste! Chicken itself was blant (absolutely blant, not even salted), sauce was curled (May be because it has been frozen?and just sweet, no other spices were noticed, no curry taste or anything else. I have more taste and smell from usual yellow curry when I cook chicken at home. here the chicken seemed to be boiled and them mixed with the sauce (not cooked in it as it must be). Weve been regular customers at another Indian restaurant in Malta, and today decided to give a chance to another Indian place.. But not anymore. Emperor of India from now on only.

Absolutely no Indian taste. Tomato paste and a bit of curry powder with butter. Having traveled India extensively, this has nothing to do with the food there. It is, at best, a vague interpretation of the idea of it. Best to avoid!

Had high expectations following all the rave reviews. We ordered several curries, biriyani and deserts. Unfortunately for the price paid, they were very average - curries were just different sauces heated up with your choice of protein. Biriyani is more like polao rice with gravy. The lemon cheesecake was stale and didnt taste of any lemon. Very expensive for what is essentially a glorified sauce factory with a fancy exterior.

The food and place were great. The cocktail menu also looked very interesting. Will definitely go again.

Just amazing!!! Love Indian food,and it was one of the best experience in Malta. Food was delicious,and I manage to take photo only of the starter,but not the main course because everything smelled and tasted so good so did not had time for that.

We were amazed by the food and the service. Design of the place is great, makes you feel warm and cozy, our waiter was very helpful also we didnt have to wait too long for the food (that was truly delicious btw).One of the better moments of the evening was a short conversation with the owner, a very nice lady who made us feel welcome and gave us a few directions about the places we should visit.We recommend this place to anyone planing on visiting Malta.

Great experience, great food and friendly staff. Worth visiting again!

The best Indian food I had in Malta. The prices are reasonable and the atmosphere is great as well.

POSITIVES: Beautiful decor. Mango lassi was delicious. The waiter there was very helpful, friendly and polite. Was happy to offer replacements and the food came out quickly.NEGATIVES: Chefs/Kitchen and owner/manager dont care about the quality of food they serve or the service provided. The Sheikh Kebab Chicken was overcooked and so hard that it couldnt even be cut into. Chicken Madras Curry was very chewy and the curry itself was bitty as if it had previously been frozen and then pre-heated. If you know your Indian cuisine, youll know what Im talking about.We asked for the kebab to be replaced which it was and when it came out the second time, it was tender, perfectly cooked and delicious!We had also told the waiter about the Chicken Madras Curry but we advised we didnt want a replacement as at that point, we were so disappointed that the only 2 dishes we had ordered were both so lacking first time round that we just wanted to leave as soon as possible.To add insult to injury, the waiter asked the manager/owner "what should they do?" halfway through the service and my husband overheard him replying that "If they are repeat customers, then offer them a refund". It was our first time in Malta as we were there on our honeymoon and first time at Shakinah.We werent expecting nor did we ask for a refund at any point but would have thought due to the poor quality of both dishes, as a gesture of goodwill, the manager would have either reduced the charge for the curry or taken it off the bill completely. Anyone who has worked in customer service/hospitality knows they could have turned this experience around easily and got us as repeat customers by making some sort of goodwill gesture or even just apologising about the curry.If we hadnt been looking forward to eating at Shakinahs, maybe we wouldnt have felt so disappointed but what made it worse was that the owner/managers service was dependent on whether we had been there before. What makes them think anyone would want to go there more than once if this is the service and quality provided?If you dont know what good quality Indian food tastes like, youll be fine at Shakinahs. If you know the difference, go to Naan Bar (corner of Melita & Old Bakery Streetinstead and ask for a table downstairs. Theyre a small restaurant but so friendly, welcoming, nothing is too much trouble and the food has been amazing every time we went! We recommend the Chicken Tikka, Nimona, Shrimp Chingri Malai Curry, Awadhi Chicken Biryani & Mango Lassi.

One of the best Indian Cusine Restaurants in Malta. Great service (treated like royalty). A must go if your into Indian food or Would like to try it.

Lovely Indian place in Msida with great food, very accommodating staff and management. And the bill didn’t break the bank!!! Recommended

We wanted to try the Indian cuisine on the island because were huge fans of Indian food. The service was slower than in other places, but its a busy restaurant, so its understandable. The customary papads they give you on the house were delicious, so our expectations were growing. We had garlic naan, pilau rice with Shakinah king prawns and Jeera rice with dal tadka. My partner asked if they could make the prawns spicer, and they said yes, but the food was not spicy at all. The garlic naan was not very garlic-y and the dal tadka was so and so. Not very flavourful, which is very surprising for an Indian restaurant.

A beautiful restaurant on the Msida seafront, offering an extensive menu for everyone’s taste and diet. Exquisite food and super service in amazing decor! A great experience, loved it and will surely be back ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Have been there a number of times. I love the food (though the glass of wine was off one timeand the environment. They also take good care of intolerances, including vegan options and desert

Air conditioned and garden retstaurant area.Non spicy food that i had last timeTandoori Chicken and Pahadi Kebab

To start off with the decor is phenominal. Top quality and tasty food from starters up until dessert. Cocktails and fantastic service too. Probably the best Indian cuisine weve had in the past few years. Cant wait to be back. Thank you for a fantastic night guys

Food was very good, great! Love the interior, so cute. And very nice, friendly staff, super helpful and hospitable. Enjoyed the experience a lot! :)

Very nice restaurant with a good vibe. But the food quantity is less for the price we are paying.The food is not close to the Indian food what we get on the Island. The manager floor manager wasnt so friendly. If youre ordering gravy then its better to order with more sauce. Its a place to go for a fine dine but before check your pockets. Hyped a bit stands only for the environment, not for the food.

I would like to give a big shoutout to Shakinah for the impeccable service we received during our team lunch. Due to a technical fault the fire alarm went off and couldnt be disabled, we settled the bill accordingly and was overly grateful for this. The food was incredible and everyone enjoyed their meals. Will certainly be back for this incredible Asian cuisine.

Excellent Indian food, really delicious. Very good service and with a cosy atmosphere.

Overpriced, but worth it for the perfect desi taste. We ordered Biryani(a must), beef hyderabadi, Pahadi kabab, Lamb qorma. Staff is really friendly, owner is a humble personality with lots of talks ..Order took a bit long to be served.. however, loved the experience overall .. thumbs up for owner, chef n waiters..

Shakinah is a wonderful place, to enjoy good cocktails and most importantly great food! The staff is very friendly and helpful, and the design of the restaurant is simply brilliant. Definitely recommend giving this place a go if you fancy Indian food.

Nice ambience, very good service. Had curries.. chicken Korma good, masala not as good. However Im no expert on Indian food. Local Imqaret (date frittersfor dessert were excellent.