The New Masala Merchant — Restaurant in Birmingham

Worst curry place ever! Do not recommend this place at all... Our order was: Vegetable samosas, mixed Biryani, Rajasthani Butter Chicken, Tandoori Chicken Bhuna Masalla, Lamb Tikka Masalla. All this came up to a total of £37.50 for Takeaway (incl. 10% on all collection orders). To add, we clearly specified that all dishes were to be made MILD.

For the Rjasthani Butter Chicken - description on menu mentions: (Marinated Chicken Pieces cooked in low fat Indian butter and cream). Now, have you ever heard of sweet Cherries in butter chicken? Yes Ladies and Gentlemen, Cherries in a savoury dish. Not 1 but THREE whole cherries. Nowhere on the menu did it mention that cherries were to be added in the dish. This of course added a lot of sweetness to a dish you can never go wrong with..

For the side curry that comes with the Biryani, it was extremely spicy we couldn't eat it. To remind the readers, we clearly stated when we ordered for everything to be mild.

For The Lamb Tikka Curry, it included pieces of chicken with it. Silly mistake made by the chef.

After calling the manager and complaining over all the dishes we've ordered, he mentioned that cherries are added on all butter chicken dishes as decoration! I laughed over the phone and mentioned that this is the FIRST TIME I have gotten cherries on my butter Chicken and that it wasn't mentioned anywhere on the menu. Manager kept brushing off the mistakes he had made, such as the spiciness of the curry, chicken piece in the Lamb Tikka Masalla and the cherries in the butter chicken to mention that all dishes are supposed to be spicy - which is extremely off point! Chef's only ingredient seems to be COCONUT too! You can just imagine the sweetness of all curry creamy dishes were.. such a shame

Hope manager is happy that all the food has SADLY gone in the bin. Extremely...

Im afraid we did not have a nice time. The meal was for my sisters birthday and yes we were a big table but having sat down for 8, we didnt even get poppadoms until nearly 9. Starters appeared about 9.45pm i think. And mains came out after 10pm. We had young children with us (who the restaurant claim to welcome and provide for) and as you can imagine after 2 hours without mains they were all tired and upset. The noise levels were ridiculous. Horrible music stuck on repeat in the background, customers packed in and yelling to one another across the music. We were waiting on soft drinks for 45 minutes. When the mains did come out one waiter on particular was being extremely rude. A young man with a deep voice who was practically yelling the food orders at us before putting them down. They had mixed up some orders and when one of our table commented that the service wasnt good enough he became ruder and quite agressive stating that he did not take the orders or cook the food he just brought it out when ready. Ive worked in food and hospitality for 15 years and never known such rudeness from a member of staff in what was clearly a tense situation. The food, when it came, was nice but nothing outstanding which it would have to have been to make up for the terrible service. By 11pm our 5 year old was miserable and crying so we went over to pay our share only to find they had no electronic receipt ready and we had to tell him exactly what we had. He charged us for a poppadoms each which i thought was ridiculous after the amount we had spent on such poor service. I am afraid we wont be back. Perhaps cut back on customer numbers until you can cope with...

Tonight (3rd November) my partner and I visited your establishment with the intention of dining with you for the evening. Unfortunately we were met with appallingly rude and discriminatory service from the moment we entered. After being met with an unwelcome look from the greeter and guided to a table in the corner, we were shocked to be told by two members of staff that we would not be able to eat with you unless we kept our jackets on.

We can only presume this was due to our tattoos or choice of garment, neither of which could be seen as offensive to any fellow diners. I have seen from your social media that you frequently allow others with similar clothing and tattoos to dine with you without being instructed to keep themselves covered up. There is also no ‘dress code’ stated on your website or anywhere in the restaurant that you may have decided to apply to your premises in recent months.

My partner and I have been repeat customers with The New Masalla Merchant, both in person and via takeout delivery, for years. Neither of us have ever witnessed this discrimination based on our appearance before, and as such we shall no longer be dining with you. I left shocked and disappointed by the attitude you have shown us as customers tonight, and I feel compelled to inform my friends and family about this experience, as well as anyone who may ask for my opinion on where to dine...