Bantu Birmingham — Restaurant in Birmingham

A large group of us attended this restaurant, many for the first time.

I understand Bantu has recently moved to a new location, that location being Broad Street. With the exception of a small amount of signage, if you did not know otherwise you would be under the impression that the restaurant was still an Indian restaurant as opposed to African. The front facing of the restaurant and interior are a lot to be desired.

Whilst a few members of the group arrived late owing to traffic, it did not make a huge amount of difference as the seating arrangements had not been adequately set up to accommodate the group, despite the restaurant being called a number of times - conversations had and voicemails left to confirm the number of people in the party beforehand.

To add insult to injury, despite waiting a considerable amount of time to be seated, which we had to re-arrange ourselves to accommodate the group, there was a lack of communication between the owner (Leroy Dexter) and his staff. The latter of which were stretched beyond belief and being all things to all people. Consequently, compromising on quality and service. We were told to sit down so that our drinks order could be taken and in the absence of this happening a few of us went to the bar, where we were sent back to our table. Clearly distressed, the lady serving behind the bar asked the owner if someone would be attending to our table to which he sharply replied "I don't know you sort it". The manner in which the owner conducted himself and spoke to his staff throughout the course of our visit, let alone publicly was disgraceful. Eventually, we were served some drinks though the order was wrong and the rest taken from the table - those taken from the table took an hour to arrive, in addition to the 45 minutes taken to take the order.

There were significant delays between each course with the starters taking approximately 90 mins to arrive, confusion with drinks orders and a lack of awareness or knowledge of the menu from staff. A lack of cutlery and napkins. The table cloths became soiled from drinks knocked over, due to the table being so full as plates weren't cleared. We ourselves had to remove the table cloths and waited for them to be replaced with no avail.

The starters were served cold and the mains some 3 and a half hours later, with only some of the party receiving their mains and the others their sides with no main. We tried to provide feedback directly to Leroy Dexter who seemingly had no interest, ignored us or ordered another member of staff to attend to us whilst they were tasked with doing the many other jobs they had been asked to complete. Leroy Dexter continually lied, blaming the experience on Groupon (amongst other things) as opposed to his lack of organisation, professionalism and ability to provide good customer service. No accountability was taken or an apology provided.

A main was returned twice before a completely new dish was requested. The baby goat meat was inedible and served with cut up pounded yam passed off as casava bread with a side of cold jollof rice. Upon recieving the peri peri chicken instead, a portion that wouldn't even serve a child under the age of 5 was served which tasted as though it had been frozen, defrosted in the microwave and served. It also consisted of half of a very small chicken leg and one quarter of a thigh piece plopped on top of some pre-packed salad, again with cold jollof rice as a side this time with balls of pimento. When attempting to provide feedback to Leroy Dexter, he advised that the portion was a standard adult portion and reflected that of Nandos. The Bantu Punch served with the meal tasted as though the ingredients had gone off and appeared to be curdling.

As mentioned, this was a first for many, some of whom were Nigerian and it is safe to say it will be the last. Whilst Rishi tried his best and ensured service with a smile despite the odds being against him - The food is not authentic, the atmosphere and service offering as a whole are extremely poor.

Attend at...

I attend here for a graduation meal, on the way up the stairs, in heels i found out the hard way that the banister on the left side at the botton is not actaully secured to the wall. This is where i should have turned back and ate somewhere else.

The inside of the restaurant is picturesque. Very nicely set out, greenary and clean (if you ignore the fly congregating over the tables). The downside is after attending in 24 degree heat there are limited windows, no air-conditionion or even a simple fan and the waiting staff acted like it was a problem when i asked if there was a fan. There was however complementary warm tap water on the table, not a single ice cube.

The bathroom at face value look okay but after going into a few stalls the toilets either are missing a lock on the door, toilet seat or are just plain dirty, they do provide decent toilet paper though.

On to the food & drink..

I tried two 'cocktails' Ting Wrey & some Pinapple thing i can't remeber the name of. Both mediocre at best.. All alcohol no actual palatable taste to any other flavors just 'fresh' (said with the JA terminology meaning bland) . Some may like this but I don't.

So our actual meal was meant to start at 6pm, the graduation girl arrived two hours late (arriving at 8pm) she called at 5 to say she'll arrive just after 7 (the waiting staff told us). Bantu we're given pre orders of the food for apx 10/15 people. The staff kept asking us when is the when is * arriving their guess was as good as mine.

At apx 7.30 pm the waiting staff came out and told us the food for everyone was ready to come out with less than half the people there as * had told them a time to cook the meal by to be ready to serve. At this point I'm starving so i like cool bring my food out i'll eat it now after I've been waiting for 1.5hrs to eat (i arrived on time).

I ordered halloumi starter and morrocon lamb chops main, I originally order the BBQ ribs main but on arrival found out they were pork, i don't eat pork & Bantu staff happily changed my order to accommodate me dispite the pre order.

The starter came out cold. Which meant the halloumi had a rubber texture. Anyone who knows halloumi knows its meant it be serve HOT HOT HOT for the best tase. But it cools fast so i just thought okay w.e its got cold from being freashly cooked, in the time its took the waiter to get my food from the hot kitchen walk through 24 degree heat and place it in front me. Yeah makes sence. Its seved with one slice of bread placed on a grill. So the bread then has the texture of bread thats been left on the side for a few hours n got crusty. Not even a peice of butter or a side of sauce.

Now the u basically demolished my started in about 3 mins and sat waiting for my main cus i was happy to eat my food without everyone there after all my time is precious and I'm paying for my meal to be delicious and edible. So if its ready im. Eating it.

Waiting waiting waiting.....

• arrives, the rest of the guests & so does my main. I'm like huh... But thinking nah they must cook the main after my starter cus i order a starter and a main both cooked separately it can't be sitting there waiting with the people's food who just ordered a main. Oh boy was i wrong.. My main came out cold.. The only heat was the chilli in the cold jollof rice. The lamb had clearly being sitting the a while it was chewy and swimming in oil, the salad was dehydrated. My cucumber in my salad looked like zucchini it was that dehydrated. The only nice thing was the side pot seasoned beans even cold so i can only imagine how nice they'd be hot.

Everyone else's food came in the same state as mine, but thats not my problem cus i arrived on time and was ready to eat at the time the waiting staff said they're can bring the food out.

The bill,

After not eating my main, the waiting staff discounted 4 pound off my over all bill. Which was kind. But i will not be returning. In a rush.

I would have respected them more for turning us away after the late arrivals then serve that food trying to...

We visited Bantu on Saturday evening and were left so appalled by the service that we had received, which was disappointing considering the high expectations that we had from reading all the 'good reviews' prior to coming.

There were around 3/4 other tables when we first arrived at 18:30 however it took a while for our drinks to come. Shortly after receiving our drinks, we were asked to move to another table so that they could accomodate 10 people, this was fine however would have been more convenient if they had seated us appropriately in the first place.

We ordered our food and after an hour, a waitress came over to ask if we had ordered and when we responded that we had ordered an hour ago, she went to check on our order. Over the next 30 minutes or so, we had to ask multiple times how long our order would take and were constantly told "5 more minutes". It was clear that our order had been missed, if the staff had been more honest and had told us then there wouldn't have been an issue, instead the staff members purposely avoided any eye contact with our table. I explained what happened to the manager, who did not offer any apology, but finally she was able to progress our food.

The food finally arrived over an hour and a half later, the food tasted ok however the seafood was not very fresh considering the price of £80 for this platter. The lobster still had a rubber band on the claw (see photo attached), which felt quite unhygienic. We asked a male waiter if he could provide some tools for us to break the lobster shell, he responded that he would check and after 10 minutes we realised that he wasn't coming back so then we had to ask another waitress to find us some tools. By the time she had found some, it had been 20 minutes since we first asked.

The only thing to arrive very quickly was the bill and we asked the waitress if we could have a few more minutes. I'm not sure if she misheard us but she proceeded to stand behind my friend rolling her eyes and sighing at us. We then spoke to the manager to express our disappointment who offered to take our drinks off the bill as a goodwill gesture. Again, not once was an apology offered and instead we witnessed the manager smirking about the situation with the other staff members.

This was the first time that I had ever experienced such an unwelcoming and poorly managed restaurant. Apart from the first and only waitress to actually check in on us, I hope that the owner of this restaurant takes the feedback seriously and considers retraining the other staff members to improve their attitude and behaviour towards paying customers. We remained polite and patient throughout our frustrations and the responses received from the manager and some of the staff members were rude and shocking, definitely not expected in the...