The Ancient Raj — Restaurant in Canterbury

I had a takeaway at the Raj, from when I called it was about 40 minutes to collect. I arrived about 3 minutes after the 6:20 time given over the phone.

I ordered chicken tikka Biriani, Bombay aloo, butter king prawn, plain Nan and garlic rice.

The food; as with most places I use in Canterbury, was lukewarm, which doesn’t bother me but my wife uses the microwave.

The butter king prawn had a couple of mutilated prawns in it, which seemed like an attempt to make it look as though there was more prawn than there actually was, I’d say there were about 4 king prawns if I’m being generous. It was very sweet and I couldn’t have coped with a whole dish to myself because of the sweetness. It was nice to start but quickly too much as it got colder, mixing it with the garlic rice helped. The garlic rice was a similar temperature, it was garlic rice, what can go wrong?

The chicken tikka biriani was also lukewarm, the rice that contains the chicken was nice, the chicken tikka in the rice was a size that’s lends itself more to being snorted than eaten. The chicken didn’t really influence the taste of the rice because it was so small, I’d like to chew a bit of chicken tikka not see it being just bit bigger than the rice grains itself. The vegetable curry that comes with the biriani was pretty much oil with a few small vegetables in it.

The Bombay Aloo were lukewarm and were unsatisfying, the potatoes were pappy and not at all waxy, the taste was lacking.

The plain Nan bread was ok and would have been nicer if it was hot.

The price was £28.25

I genuinely think most Indian restaurants are going this way, I believe, and I could be wrong, that ingredients are no longer prepared on the premises, just brought in and warmed up.

The Ancient Raj seems to be trading on what used to be a good reputation in Canterbury but has now fallen foul of trying to keep prices down and along with that has gone the quality of the food, and in a busy restaurant with under pressure cooks I can’t see this changing.

If I’m going that way next time i fancy an Indian I might just keep on driving past and see what Sainsbury’s has, better price and...

My wife and I dined at The Ancient Raj last Saturday on a weekend visit to Canterbury, and it was nothing short of exceptional. Kitch, the manager, was incredibly communicative and welcoming from the start. When I emailed to book a table, I informed him that me and my wife are vegan - he enthusiastically informed me about their dedicated vegan menu, which was a wonderful surprise. Throughout our meal, Kitch and his team provided outstanding hospitality. All staff were friendly, helpful and knowledgeable, and a special mention goes to Kitch himself, who entertained us with fascinating stories about famous past guests and engaging discussions on Indian politics and history. It added a unique, personal touch to our experience. The restaurant setting is remarkable – the warmly-lit building, over 600 years old, is charming and cosy (on a wintry evening), and the photographs on the walls of the British Raj (and the audio recordings of interviews with Raj personnel played in the bathrooms!) add weight to the name of the restaurant; a peek into the history of why we love Indian cuisine in the UK today! Being vegan, we are often limited to vegetable side dishes or mock-meat curries at Indian restaurants (the latter of which are not our preference). However, at The Ancient Raj, many vegan options of traditional curries were on offer served with a great mix of vegetables (as well as sides, rices and breads - Kitch explained they use vegetable ghee in place of animal-fat ghee). Our food was beautifully presented and absolutely delicious. We had such a special evening - it was a major highlight of our weekend! Thank you so much to Kitch and his team for taking such good care of us; we’ll be back! Very highly...

So, I've always heard great things about this restaurant so we thought we'd treat ourselves. First let me say curry is my favourite takeaway so we've tried all the local ones, I've even eaten in this restaurant many years ago and the food was much better quality. I feel mean writing this because the man who we spoke to on the phone was so polite and courteous, however, and I hate to say this, the food was bad. Only one dish had any real flavour. The other three dishes we got tasted so, so plain. The saag aloo honestly tasted of nothing...not even spinach. The korma was bland and...just so average. The naans were nice, I'll say that, but the samosa were soggy and bland. The delivery took ages, which is fine, it's Saturday night and busy, so that's fair enough but honestly there are so much nicer takeaway curries in Canterbury. Food is so expensive currently! Please spend your cash wisely and avoid if you...