Tried their banquet night, hoping for a decent Indian meal at a decent price. We went with our wits…read moreabout us, after seeing another review warning they'd tried to charge someone full price instead of banquet night prices. Glad we did (read on).
The restaurant was tired and dated. It seemed clean where it counted, but from our table, we could see tatty decor and untidy clutter near the rear of the restaurant (including a scruffy old fridge with the beers in). The staff seemed friendly and polite for the most part, with different staff dealing with us throughout the night.
For £10.95, one could have any starter, any main, any rice, any nan bread and any side dish (though anything with king prawns elicited a £3 surcharge fair enough). We started with a popadum each (extra charge fair enough). Nice. The rest of it (chosen from a scrappy menu) was basic, ordinary, decent food. No flair, nothing incredible. Nothing interesting, but it was nice enough. It was like being in an Indian restaurant in 1991. The place was half full (being banquet night, maybe), and other diners seemed happy enough.
One incident spoiled things for my pal, when the senior-looking waiter suddenly swooped and snatched up half our plates. He asked if we'd finished, but the plates and dishes were in his hands by the time the words fell out of his mouth and we could swallow our food and reply. My mate was furious, as he'd wanted to mop up some of those dishes with his nan. This was perhaps a case of service meant well, but executed poorly.
Then, remembering that other review, I carefully studied the bill. Though we were correctly charged banquet prices for the main parts of our meal, scruffy barely readable handwriting (deliberate?) concealed that they'd charged us for 4 popadums instead of 2 (an overcharge of £1.20). Questioning this, it made the waiter study the bill with an odd smile on his face. Thenwait for ithe agreed we'd only had two, so he knocked a quid off the overcharge!!!! Yes, as though knocking a quid off an overcharge of £1.20 was fine. We had to insist they did it correctly, and by now four waiters converged on our table as though we might be trouble-makers. Luckily, they could see we were not. Just two blokes who could add up.
I'm afraid we left the place a little suspicious of the overcharge. Who knows? Maybe it was an innocent mistake. And a waiter with such poor mental arithmetic, he couldn't multiply 60p by 2 and get £1.20.
Decent, if bog-standard food at a good price on banquet night. Would have been less thrilled to have paid full price for what we had. Dated interior. Slightly odd staff in my opinion. And check your bills!!!!
