Mumtaz Mahal Benfleet — Restaurant in Castle Point

Came here for an impromptu midweek curry after spotting the place a little bit down the hill was empty. The food and wine were both nice but not stunning, and reasonably priced but not cheap. The thing that let down the visit for us is we waited a little longer than would have liked to have order taken, (having to summon their attention). Worse though was how long we had to wait for food - we did not order poppadoms or starters so expected a bit of a wait but only got our food about an hour after walking in, (only two of us), when we'd prey much finished the wine we had ordered. Will quite happily have takeaway in future but won't be in a rush to visit again!

Returned again in a group of 20 on a Thursday night. We had booked so they knew we were coming, and sat upstairs. Downstairs wasn't too busy. All i can say is service was shockingly slow (2.5 hours enter to leave and didn't have desert), bad (mixed up/forgot dishes) and actually rude. My dish (chicken juliet) was a dry sliced chicken breast with no hint of flavour, (or moisture!). Others around me also complained about their food.

Really want to like this place but can't bring myself to do it! Only gets two stars rather than one as food was OK on...

Bland, bland, bland… no taste what so ever I had to politely ask for my curry and Bombay potato to be removed off my bill as it was completely tasteless and I wasn’t the only one to say that at my table but I was the only one brave enough to ask for it to be removed from my bill… didn’t eat any of it, when the bill came they hadn’t removed my curry i AGAIN had to politely ask for it to be removed as they could clearly see I hadn’t eaten it everyone at my table said how my curry was completely bland no flavour I was then confronted by a guy who said I had the butter chicken curry it’s meant to be bland…I always order butter chicken wherever I go and have never had something so tasteless I then said I’m sorry but it was horrible like eaten plain mush…he was arguing back with me like I was in the wrong refusing to take it off the bill I refused to pay as I didn’t touch my food. In the end he removed it and I got death stares until I left. will not be returning and I would...

Mumtaz is always my first choice for Indian dining - the food is superb and the staff are very friendly. I've been going there for 10 years but my last couple of visits have been marred by poor service and waiting for 40 plus minutes for food (hence only a 4 Star rating from me).

The last time the waiters apologised for the incredibly long wait for food by telling us that they had a lot of takeaway orders to deal with! Bearing in mind that restaurant diners pay a premium for food over takeaway customers restaurant diners really should be their priority. By the time our food had arrived I was nearly passing out and a bit bored.

Hopefully the management will realise that restaurant diners should take priority and not take on too many takeaway orders and let the restaurant service suffer in future.

Overall it's a 5 for the food but sadly a 3 for the restaurant service which never used to be a problem...