The restaurant looks clean, well laid out and pleasant. We were seduced by its aesthetic charms. The menu was quite representative of the cuisine and we saw the set meal for two. It seemed to contain a good starter, main course, dessert and coffee. The poppadums arrived, bit soggy, tasteless. The dips were ok. Starter consisted of two onion bhajees and one samosa, The bhajees were under cooked and so the gram flour was still liquid inside. The samosas were nice and probably the best item of the whole meal. The main course arrived Lamb Pasanda (four dried slivers of tough meat) supposedly lamb but must have been a very old, practically octogenarian Lamb. The chicken bhuna/korai?? was awful. Four very small pieces of cold chicken in a masala where the spices had not been cooked into the dish. Reminded me of an old restaurant I worked in in the early 1980's where they used to have the same basic masala and then put slightly different herbs in and called it every name under the sun. There were two portions of rice and one naan bread. Why one naan? it is supposed to be a meal for two. There was an undercooked vegetable dish with few bits of cauliflower and some tough potatoes.
I am an Asian expat, have travelled extensively in India/Pakistan and eat at sub continental restaurants regularly in the west midlands primarily in Coventry and Birmingham. There is a general rule that the nicer the looking place and more expensive the dish, the less authentic will be the cuisine. So for example if you want a really good value meal try Cafe Khan in Coventry or Zeenats(where the service is rubbish but the food is still quite good). In Birmingham several good restaurants on Ladypool/Stratford/Coventry road. I say to friends, try a few authentic places for food then compare. My wife is English and has also travelled with me on the Indian sub continent and of course in west midlands restaurants and is fully aware of the different kinds of cuisine and restaurants where generally English friends frequent. She has also now appreciates the wide diversity of food available and she was also unimpressed by the quality of food, especially by the miniscule representation of meat in the dishes. However the management of the restaurant should take heart that there are many customers for whom your type of food is representative of Indian food and not knowing any other, might find it quite palatable even though undercooked food with miniscule proportions may not go unnoticed. The service was not bad. The coffee was good at the end. At the end of the day the bill was about £40 which may not seem a great deal if you are accustomed to eating out and can generally pay anything to £150 for two people. However as a comparison you can buy an excellent meal for 4 people with an abundance of food for that sum in an authentic restaurant in Coventry. Unfortunately I shall most certainly not be visiting your restaurant again! Kindly try and live up to your moral responsibility give people a decent meal at reasonable price. read more
