Harbourside Desi Kitchen & Bar — Restaurant in Bristol

I have been to many curry houses in my time. In Bristol, across the UK and aboard. This was without doubt, one of the worst curry houses I’ve ever been too. The food was crap and it was expensive. Hardly surprising the place was almost empty on a Thursday night. The quality was quite frankly, shocking.

On the surface, the curry house looked impressive. Colourful décor, authentic music and fairy lights created a slight bohemian curry house vibe. Fitting for Bristol.

The service was fine, the menu looked good and the pint of Cobra was, acceptable.

It was downhill from here.

Poppadom. This was a strange experience. 1 very spicy expensive poppadom each. Not what we expected, but fine.

The starter of lamb chops was completely overdone and there was also very little meat on the bone, which at £8:90 was very disappointing. It was really poor. Did we complain, no we did not.

The main course arrived. Despite ordering a Desi Chicken Curry, it was only on reflection that I’m adamant I got a Chicken Saag, as there was no mention of spinach in the Desi. My friend ordered the Desi Lamb and his was the same – a Saag. Not what we ordered. I wouldn’t have minded, but it was completely bland. And I mean completely bland. No spice, no flavour, just a dull curry gravy. This was awful. I was very hungry though and after the lack of a filling starter and because of the price, I did eat most of it but trust me when I say it was dreadful. Side dishes – went for the usual Garlic Naan and Mushroom rice. Both were terrible. The Garlic Naan didn’t taste like one fresh out the Tandoor, but like a supermarket packet Naan that hadn’t been in the oven long enough. The rice itself was ok but the mushrooms were barely cooked, so it just wasn’t enjoyable. How do you get rice wrong?

On querying the bill (which even for Bristol Curry Houses was very expensive for what we had) we complained and said we really weren’t very happy, particularly with the inclusion of a 15% service charge. We asked what they would like to do about it but were met with “we asked if the food was ok and you said yes” – actually, we said yes with the starter that we’d barely touched, but didn’t answer for the mains – he just assumed and walked off before we could speak.

Anyway, there was no reduction – despite the threat of a poor review, he simply said he’ll remove the service charge if we write a good review.

No sir, I will not write a good review. This was a woeful excuse of a curry house and far too expensive. If you can’t get the basics right – poppadom, rice, Naan… what hope does the main dish have?

If you are a curry connoisseur, avoid at all costs. Bristol has so many better curry houses in close proximity. This was without doubt the worst I have been to and one of the more expensive. A...

Woeful.

Turned up to an empty curry house to a flat pint of cobra

The layout of the curry house looked class, they had ‘Bollywood classics’ on the Amazon playlist, a strong addition.

One. Tiny. Overly spicy. Overpriced. Poppadom. Enough said.

Starter, I opted for the paneer; which despite some confused looks, turned out to be a solid shout, it was decent. Nothing to write home about, but tasty and compared to the lamb chops, which had absolutely no meat on, it was a good option.

The mushrooms in the rice were added raw, to which was almost certainly a packet of microwave rice.

The main event; I’m still trying to process this (not just because it’s been repeating itself for the last 45 minutes, but because I can’t work out if I ordered a bowl of spinach drenched in oil, or that’s just what I recieved? Woeful.

Service was average, but he didn’t seem to understand that we weren’t best pleased at the end.

At very best it was a 1/10!!. Woeful

Turned up to an empty curry house to a flat pint of cobra

The layout of the curry house looked class, they had ‘Bollywood classics’ on the Amazon playlist, a strong addition.

One. Tiny. Overly spicy. Overpriced. Poppadom. Enough said.

Starter, I opted for the paneer; which despite some confused looks, turned out to be a solid shout, it was decent. Nothing to write home about, but tasty and compared to the lamb chops, which had absolutely no meat on, it was a good option.

The mushrooms in the rice were added raw, to which was almost certainly a packet of microwave rice.

The main event; I’m still trying to process this (not just because it’s been repeating itself for the last 45 minutes, but because I can’t work out if I ordered a bowl of spinach drenched in oil, or that’s just what I recieved? Woeful.

Service was average, but he didn’t seem to understand that we weren’t best pleased at the end.

At very best it...

Dont like to knock anyone if I can but the owners response to my partner about never serving cold food contradicts a few of the previous reviews on here. Just to summarise, we were here on Saturday night just past, at around 8.30 in the evening. We both ordered the Biryani, I ordered the chicken, my partner the veggie along with onion Bhajis as starters that never appeared on our table. The Biryanis arrived about 15 minutes later, they were actually cold to taste and the veggie Biryani had some pieces of chicken mixed in with chunks of paneer. I certainly felt uncomfortable in the restaurant, we were paying customers subjected to what can only be described as an awkward questionable dining experience.

I feel I have to make a slight edit here due to the response received: Other online reviews confirm that indeed you have served cold food previously to paying customers, and in regards to your lively atmosphere, even though the restaurant was only about 1 third full we were seated behind a table of rather loud gentlemen to whom the ringleader was being quite boastful about his success with bitcoin trading to the point me and my partner couldnt have a conversation. We felt intimidated from the moment we walked in the door, the gentleman that asked us to wait until places could be set for us was unfriendly and made us feel unwelcome, additionally the restaurant itself had a cold feel, like the heating had been switched off and there was a subtle odour of drains. We were willing to give you a try despite all of this, we noticed that everywhere else was fully booked and tables were unavailable without a long wait, so this is why we found ourselves at your door initially. I would never try and be directly critical of anyones business if it can be avoided but your patronising response would suggest that perhaps you aren't that concerned about my...