The Clove Indian Restaurant — Restaurant in Bristol

We have had their take out which was good, but our in restaurant experience wasn't so much. The service was just OK. We had reservations and were seated immediately, but after that service was spotty. They overbooked so attention to each table suffered. We had to ask for the drink menu, ask for silverware, ask for linens, the 2nd round of drinks took to long to put in. Understandable and yet no as it was their own doing. The staff were very friendly though. It's really not the bulk of the rating though.

Overall the food was not as good as the takeout we had. First the good. The aloo chat starter was to die for. In hindsight I should have ordered a couple of them and called it good. The samosas on the other hand were bland and made from wonton/dumpling wrappers. They looked like frozen pre-made from a box. Not what I expected. On to the mains. The korma had far too much sugar. It was so unbalanced. It tasted like a sweet rather than a decadent, rich dinner. The biryani was not biryani. Their biryani was nothing more than a giant bowl of their vegetable fried rice with a tomato based slightly sour side. I liked the side very much, but vegetable fried rice is not biryani. Unacceptable to not understand the difference or worse if they knew, but ran out and made the substitution without giving me a choice for something different. The garlic naan was ok. They use a garlic butter. It did not taste freshly made. I'd prefer butter with fresh garlic mince because it is so easy to make. Either way I doubt we will be back in...

Ordered online with Deliveroo. Food arrived 50 minutes after the first estimated delivery time, the updated expected time just got longer and longer. When we opened the bag both curries had the lids half open and these had leaked all over the bag. The actual curries and rice were quite nice . However, both of the nan bread were freezing cold. I called The Clove to complain. I was advised by the person answering that this was the delivery drivers fault. I suggested that the lids not being on properly is the restaurants responsibility. He passed me to the manager who was rude and dismissive. He stated that refunds would have to go through Deliveroo. I wasn't asking for a refund but merely for the restaurant to take responsibility for a mistake that is easy to make. 100% will definitely not be ordering from here again. This is mostly due to the shocking attitude of the staff when I phoned. A customers services training day seems...

I rarely write one star reviews but I have never been so upset by a meal at a restaurant. The staff were careless and inattentive. I ordered a chicken tikka masala and they served up a bright red curry that they said is chicken tikka masala but it tasted exactly like a chicken korma - coconut-y overly sweet and full of almonds.

Just for context I have a tree nuts oral allergy. After one bite, I stopped immediately and notified the staff. The infuriating part is that they were trying to gaslight me when I told them this is a korma and not a tikka masala. They kept repeating it’s a sweet chicken tikka masala.

I have never heard such utter rubbish. Having doubled checked at home with our multi Indian cookbooks and consulted a few Desi aunties - there’s no such thing as a sweet chicken tikka masala.

Anyway this is the worst of our experience and I wish I can tell you the starters and sides were better but...