As mentioned above, I also went this weekend on their first official night (so unfortunately paid for my meal
) so here are my thoughts.
Since it was the first night, I thought I better ring up and book, asked for about 7:30 and was offered 7:45 so that was fair enough.
On arrival we were quickly seated but then sat for about 10 minutes without menus. When they did eventually bring the menus over, he said "i'll come back for your drinks order" and then we didn't see him again for about another 15 minutes... my mouth was drier than the sahara at this point.
Eventually managed to get some drinks out of them and sometime after that managed to order our food.
Two popadoms each with pickle tray, shared a fish tikka for starter and main was Saag Paneer Korma for the wife, Deshi Bhujon with chicken for me and garlic naan / pilau rice.
The popadoms etc were spot on, hard (impossible?) to get those wrong. The fish tikka was good too, fish was a bit crispy on the outside and lovely and moist on the inside. Not massively flavoured, more delicate - could have done with a bit more flavour for me but thats personal taste.
My main was great, highly recommended, comes really well presented on a huge plate. Was perhaps a tiny bit too salty for my tastes but still very nice. Rice and naan were also good.
Unfortunately the biggest dissapointment on the night was the wife's saag paneer korma - being a Vegie, it wasn't good when it turned up as a CHICKEN saag paneer korma. The wife picked out a chunk and bit into it and it was paneer, I did the same and it was chicken... was very lucky that she got paneer or else she would have been gutted.
Reported it to one of the serving staff who was VERY apologetic and quickly went away and got the wife a new dish without the chicken this time. As I say, he literally apologised every time he came back to the table and did replace it very quickly and luckily no harm done. Good job i'm a greedy bugger that tucks into the wife's food
Bill for all of the above plus 3 x Cobra and a pint of coke came to £36 after the opening offer discount. Didn't seem too bad.
Overall my feedback would be:
1. The older guy with the glasses seemed to be running around like a blue arsed fly taking orders whilst the other staff were just clearing tables etc. I think this led to the slow service - to me having to wait 20 odd minutes before you can order a drink isn't acceptable. The place isn't huge and wasn't too full when we were there even... I could live with a delay on food if its busy but at least get a drink in my hand. So I think the guy with glasses needs to either delegate to the staff he has, or get some that can help him. Also because he was so busy and rushed, he didn't have time to chat with guests, or even time for plesantries... it all just seemed very slow to get someone there, then a bit fast and furious when you did get someone.
2. The younger guy who we spoke to later on who sorted the chicken korma dish out was much better in taking his time and making you feel relaxed... not sure if that was because of the issue we had or because it was quieter (although seemed busier at this point) or just his manner was better... anyway this guy would have been perfectly able to help the older glasses guy take orders and stuff so needed him about earlier in the night.
3. Make sure you don't put chicken in a vegetarian dish! The communication breakdown must have happened between the guy writing it down and the kitchen... the guy who took the order definately repeated it back as "saag paneer korma" so who knows what happened....
Finally, I definately think we will try the place again. Its a promosing start with a few niggles that should be ironed out once things settle down. It has a lot of tough competition to live up to but as long as it does iron out the issues then it should get my business purely on the basis of convenience, although if not then its not much further to walk to get to Malabar or the one round the corner from the Cinema whose names eludes me.
