Pushkar Cocktail Bar & Dining — Restaurant in Birmingham

A scenic journey through Pushkar on a Tuesday night. ⁣ Verdict: Good food in a quiet, yet now slightly dated venue. ⁣ Décor: 6/10⁣⁣ Food: 6/10⁣⁣ Service: 8/10⁣⁣ Overall: 6/10⁣⁣ ⁣ Background:⁣ Pushkar opened around 10 years ago on Broad Street in Birmingham. It was proprietor Rai Singh's first endeavour into fine dining (his second being Praza, see our other post for that review), serving traditional Indian dishes with a creative flair. ⁣⁣ Food & Drink:⁣ We chose the "Vermicelli Williams" and "Dahi Puri Chaat" to start, with the "Paneer Makhani" as a main, and "Vegetable Korma" and Kofta dishes as sides, with Butter Naan to accompany, all to share. We opted for a "Masala Indian Chai" and "Hot Chocolate" in place of desserts. Having visited the restaurant several times before since it opened, the food has always been of a high standard, as it was this time, however other establishments with a similar proposition have opened in Birmingham since and it feels like Pushkar has been left behind somewhat. ⁣⁣ Service:⁣ We had originally booked to visit another restaurant in Brindley Place the night we visited, however they phoned to cancel last minute because of a gas outage. Pushkar kindly offered a table on a walk-in basis therefore; the restaurant was quite quiet for the evening that we spent there (Tuesday). Service was prompt and polite, and very efficient; certainly we did not feel that we were left wanting of anything. ⁣ Decor:⁣ Pushkar was originally decorated with a luxurious fine-dining vibe using fine leathers, linens and plush furnishings. The restaurant hasn't been refitted since 2009 however and it is starting to look a little dated and tired. Further, the toilet facilities are shared with "Jury's Inn" (next door) and are somewhat unfitting of the decor style adopted throughout the main restaurant. ⁣ Timing:⁣ We arrived at about 6:15pm and stayed until around 10:30pm. This was plenty to finish all courses ordered, and we were allowed to stay for as long as we wished without...

Recently dining we left feeling disappointed. The food was average and very overpriced. We were the only people in the restaurant and still did not feel the staff were attentive. We were sat in the window which was very cold. Staff did ask if we wanted to move when we were 1st seated but said no as assumed it would warm up. It did not. We were offered water and poppadoms but not told this was at a charge. £4 for a bottle of water is steep poppadoms where £5 which with dips we felt was a fair price and very good. We ordered cocktails which were good. We ordered our food with a different waiter (we waited 20mins to place the order). Starters arrived and were ok nothing special. We had table cleaned and asked would we like mains now or to wait 10mins. We said now but still waited over the 10mins. Mains came and were disappointing. The butter chicken was more tomato than creamy and sauce was thin also 6 small pieces of chicken £18. My wife had lamb shank which was a very good size portion and very tasty £22. We did wait a bit for table to be cleared and then a dessert menu brought. We waited 15mins to have the dessert order taken. All 5 staff were stood around the bar talking. 3 having a conversation with 1 person. Due to the delay I did not order a dessert or drink. My wife had a black forest martini and gulab jamum. The glad was very nice but 2 balls and 1 scoop of ice-cream was small. The martini wasnt great. The menu did not mention cream and this took always from the taste. We had 50% off food and still paid over £100. The 12.5% service charge is added before discount was so it's more like 20%. If the tip was discretionary I would not of been tipping near that amount. For the price we paid I feel food and service needs a big improvement. We will not be back in a hurry. Also the toilets are a fair distance from the restaurant and shared with the...

Staff are pushy with food choices & overcharged on several items. We were charged for water & poppadoms that we were led to believe were complimentary. Several side dishes were also brought out and added to our bill, despite us not requesting. In summary the staff saw that it was a company outing and from the get go were intent of making as much money as possible from the evening. There was a group of 12 of us, not everyone wanted a starter, those that did had choices in mind, however the waiter pushed us into shared platters, thinking he had our best interest at heart and that this made more sense cost wise, we reluctantly agreed. Later we found that we were charged £22 p/p for this option, which contained 1 small kebab, 1 chicken piece, 1 prawn & 1 golgappa. Further upon checking our bill the day after we noticed that some items were charged to us way above the quoted menu prices.

Some colleagues were left very upset from the whole experience. There is never an issue of paying for a fair bill, we would also have tipped at the end of the night as is custom for our group, however when there is a clear intent to add to the bill/manipulation at every opportunity we draw the line.

Our bill came to £875 for 12 colleagues, (this did not include any desserts). On the night we only stood our ground on the side dishes that were added without our request, which resulted in a £75 credit being added, leaving £800 to pay.

Unfortunately, we will not be returning to this restaurant...