Chaiiwala — Restaurant in Birmingham

I visit this place frequently as I really enjoy the food but today I had the worst experience ever. I ordered food over the phone for collection and the lady I spoke to was extremely rude and said “did you order before” to which I responded no. She didn’t even give me a chance to ask how long. Then when I got there, a lady with a black headscarf and glasses was on the till and I said I had a phone order she asked me for my name and looked at her colleague (had a turban kind of headscarf with her curls out) and laughed. Usually they take the payment before giving the food but they didn’t which I found unusual. They said it will be 2 minutes so I sat down and waited. Both the staff members that were at the till went inside to which I noticed the whole kitchen crew staring at me. I also ignored. The one with the curls came out and gave me my order and never asked for payment to which I said “I need to pay”. She asked me about my method of payment and I said I’m paying by card. I have no idea what she did but my card wouldn’t go through it and I know as a fact that I had more than enough money on my card and it’s a new card so there was no way the transaction was not authorised. I then took out my second card which also wasn’t working. On the card machine a message kept coming up that the network was unavailable but the lady said that it had been working all day and there’s something wrong with my cards but there’s no way that BOTH my cards can’t be working at the same time when there was sufficient funds in both. At this point there was a build up of queue and customers that were eating started paying attention to what’s happening. The turban headscarf lady’s “boyfriend” was also standing there and they were both smirking at each other thinking I’m some sort of stand up comedy having my cards “declined” making me look like a fool in front of everyone. Luckily I had enough cash on me to pay for my food to which the lady responded “oh by the way that’s £7.90 not £5.50” when she was clearly charging me £5.50 on the card machine but she was aware I didn’t have enough cash for £7.90. Absolutely appalling and unprofessional behaviour and will definitely not be coming back here. Situations like this need to...

Ok. So my experience with Chaiiwala Ladypool Rd is not a good one. Is not about food, the food is quite good, is about the customer service. I made a phone order around 11:00 a.m on 30th of September and ordered something for collection. At my arrival, in front of me was 2 gentlemen at the till, I was the next in the queue. After 30 seconds arrived in the same time a Uber driver and another person, a lady that apparently ignored the fact I was waiting in the queue, and she literally skipped the queue and place herself in front of me.. Later I understood why this attitude.

The lady at the till, ignored me completely, like I was NOT EXISTING, then after she finished with the 2 gentlemen, she helped the Uber driver (with this situation I am absolutely ok, they have a time frame to arrive at a location so would be unfair to wait) but the problem is the lady that came after me but she was still ahead of me, she was served before me.

The lady at the till start to do her tea, and meanwhile she was preparing her tea, she had her first interaction with me, making a sign with her hand like: let me finish this first and then I will ask you what actually do you need, EVEN you were the person that was first in the queue. Now, I feel frustrated because I find her attitude very racist. Only because I am not same race, religion, part of the family, etc I need to wait in a queue till this lady is serving all her relatives / friends / same background people?!

Now I am asking you: how would you feel if you go to a place that you know you are minority in there and the person at the till is serving all people that have same race, background, religion, etc before you, even if you were the first in the queue??????

I thought that in 2024, a business like Chaiiwala, is not part of the nepotism system and serve first relatives, friends, people from the same background. If this is the case please put a sign outside where is stated: “if you are not one of us, probably your waiting time is up to 5 minutes at least…”

Thank GOD today was only one relative / friend in front of...

I am writing this review on behalf of my friend Ash from the Post Office. He popped in to buy 2 omelette wraps on Monday approx 10.30 am he was given a receipt by the server who already looked flustered. At that point there was only one other person waiting who looked like a Uber driver. While Ash waited more people came in to order,orders were coming in over the phone as well. Ash said he had looked at his watch waiting for the Uber drivers to collect their orders. 8 mins had passed and he asked the server where his wraps were.The server turned to the kitchen staff and asked them and replied 2 mins. A lady called Sona(?)appeared and they served the customers and gave the orders to the Uber drivers at this point Ash was still waiting for almost 15 mins. He spoke to Sona and said that he was going back to work and to leave the omelette wraps had it had taken so long and that he would be back on his lunch break for a refund. Chaiwalla then sent a customer not long after Ash had gone bk to work with the 2 omelette wraps to drop them off to which he refused and gave the receipt and said he didn't want it. The lady took the receipt and omelette wraps and came back with the refund. It was completely unacceptable to send a customer into Ash's works place as he had already said he didn't want the wraps because it had taken too long. It seems that the Uber or Just Eat delivery drivers are prioritised over walk in customers. Ash went in when it was quiet just to order 2 omelette wraps which shouldn't take 20 mins. Ash was very disappointed and will take his custom to Chaiiology where service and food is...