Tajdar Indian Kitchen & Bar — Restaurant in Arun

Located in Findon Village West Sussex (car park hidden at the back). Nice restaurant, with plenty of choice - Vegan, Vegetarian, Pescatarian & Carnivore. Not sure if it was just a Pandemic Thursday night but very quiet , although the online Table booking system said there were no tables available. 🤔 Started with King Prawn 🍤 Bhlee Purée which was absolutely delicious and The Tajdar Spicy Lamb which again was lovely, however, when they say Spicy they really mean SPICY 🔥 🔥 with the Raita from the poppadoms it helped to cool it down a bit. The mains were great a Chicken Dupiaza and a Tajdar Special of Chatga Prawns - 👍 for both, with a Saag Aloo, Mushroom Bhaji and a Keema Naan, rice comes separate but 1 portion was enough - we didn't manage to finish, there was plenty of food😋. Unfortunately the service was a bit all over the place, we were quickly seated to a seat of our choice (it was that quiet) and drinks and poppadoms with dips ordered, the drinks arrived followed by the poppadoms, and after a period of time we had to ask for the dips. Fresh cutlery arrived for the main but was set with the knife on the left, no big deal, plates arrived with the main course, my plate was placed first - should have been my partner's first, main course and sides were placed on the table - although we had to sort the space out for the naan & rice, both our glasses were empty and we had to stop the waiter to ask for drinks. We were asked if the food was ok a couple of times but again when we had finished the table was cleared and we never saw a waiter again, to the degree we had to go to reception to get our bill and pay. So nothing horrendous, but just a few things that could be easily corrected - if it had been busy you could accept it a bit, but with only 3 other tables 🤨. But don't avoid the...

Before I start this review, I'll just say that I never complain about anything during a meal, believing that if I have to then it's already too late. We were taken to a table by a waiter who seemed very uneasy, our poppadoms didn't seem to be the freshest and the pickles tasted stale. The onion bhaji took a good while to appear. I started to eat the salad before I soon realised that the salad was not fresh, in fact some of it was brown at the edges and quite bitter to taste. This was a shame as the bhajis were delicious, but enjoyment was diminished by salad that didn't deserve to be on the same plate. Our main courses arrived, a different and very much more cheerful waiter serving us now. My wife's chicken tikka bhuna was ok but she didn't feel the bhuna flavour was quite right but her sag bhaji was very good. My chicken tikka dhansak was excellent and well complemented by a fine sag aloo and very good peshwari naan. Our problem is that we really didn't feel welcomed at the beginning by an unhappy waiter, a feeling further compounded by stale pickles and veteran salad with the bhajis. I don't complain about such things because I don't accept that restaurants don't know about such things - why do they think they can get away with such practice? For me, complaining just ruins the whole point of dining in a restaurant. I simply vote with my feet in such cases and return to places where such things never happen. In summary: Nice food let down by stale pickles and...

I have always been a bit apprehensive about trying new curries as I am not a massive fan of spicy food. However I looked at the menu and challenged myself to try something new and so I picked the Chicken Tikka Passanda. This dish was magnificent! The chicken tikka was moist and moreish with the creamy, slightly sweet sauce coating every mouthful of chicken. The dish was so flavourful I was thoroughly happy with my choice to try this dish. I was going to save some for lunch the next day but the food was so delicious I consumed the lot!

The owners of the Tajdar were very helpful with narrowing down the less spicy curries and allowing me to ask any and all questions (no matter how silly).

I have definitely decided to carry on trying new dishes from their menu but next I will be less apprehensive as I know I am in good hands with them! I look forward to...