Cilantro Bangladeshi Bistro

On our way to Summer Weekend road trip, we decided to go to Virginia Beach, VA, (381 miles away from NY & about a 7 hours drive without any break 😂). Since we always prefer HALAL food for outside meals, I searched Halal places near by me, and surprisingly 😲 found this Bangladeshi restaurant. @Cilantro Bangladeshi Bistro The Best Halal desi (Bangladeshi, Indian, Pakistani) food in Virginia Beach. If you really want to eat delicious 😋 & authentic deshi food, you must try them. This restaurant is owned & run by the Bangladeshi family, we loved their hospitality & that was so amazing. Environment & food of the restaurant will give you the feeling that you are eating at your home. Prices of foods are so reasonable & food portions/quantities r huge so you can easily share with 3/4 people, order

I stumbled upon a hidden gem. Cilantro offers amazing home style Bangladeshi HALAL food. It’s a small no frill shop but the food here is absolutely delicious. If you have never tried Bangladeshi food, stop now and go check it out. The couple running the restaurant are super friendly and made good recommendations. We tried the Tamarind eggplant, stuffed alu (potato) chop, paratha, Jhaal (spicy) chicken, and dal. Each of the dishes were so good, reminded me of home cooked food. Simple and tasty dishes. Portion sizes are good and spice level is manageable as well. About the food, the tamarind eggplant was the best! I could just keep eating that with the Pulao. Also the alu chops with the chicken filling were so good that I ended up ordering some to go. The Pulao and Jhaal (spicy) chicken

A truly hidden gem. I love that we stumbled upon this place. Their food is amazing. If you haven't had Bangladeshi food before, you have to try it! We got our food to go. I had enough food in one order for 3 separate meals. Definitely great to pick different dishes to try and save for left overs. If you are afraid to pronounce the names of the food, the employees are very nice. They love giving suggestions or answering any questions you have about the food. They gave us many suggestions and they all turned out so good.

The chicken biryani special is excellent. The jhaal beef and shahi chicken are good too, the entrees come with rice and the portions are huge. It’s a little on the spicy side. Ordering is quick and to the point. The prices are fair and the food comes out at a reasonable place. Highly recommended.

No frills, down to earth, and good curry dish. Definitely worth going, but it lacked a little punch. Of course the spiciness and flavor is toned down to accommodate gringos palate. After all, it's Virginia. Having traveled all over South East Asia, the flavor was very mild for us. I was a little disappointed, but not everyone expects the flavorful spiciness like I do. Overall, not bad. Next time, I'll ask for a native version of the dish.