Indian Lounge Edinburgh — Restaurant in City of Edinburgh

I have to say sadly this was the worst Indian meal I’ve had in my life and indeed the worst meal anywhere.

Spent entire day as only there for one day from Essex choosing meal place. Hugely fancied Indian. The pictures on the wall before entry are nothing like what is served both in the bowls or the food so am doubtful it’s their photos. The onion bhajis were carrot pakora mushy and horrid especially when expecting a crispy onion you receive orange flat mush. The mint dip was potent and bitter I believe def off as sour. I’ve been eating prawn biryani since my teens now in my 50’s , it looked awful like somebody’s left overs (I found 7 tiny rock hard frozen prawns) I left it completely .. my companion had mushroom rice there were literally no mushrooms in there, he said he thought it was just white boiled till he discovered a few tiny tiny little pieces at the bottom. The Peshawari was fine as were the poppadoms (but who can get that wrong). His chicken passnda was standard no comment good or bad just filled a hole. Nothing was displayed nicely the bread was actually on the table not a plate. We rushed last minute to a show then checked bill at the hotel after as realised not way could what we had be £70. It was one drink each too. We checked website and FB page there were 3 differing pages 3 lots of prices and every one added up to £49 total. I mailed them when I returned to Essex to confirm I needed refund as we must have had another tables bill, email returned saying menu inside is not the same all the others are takeaway, this was not headed up as such. This is all false advertising both by the lovely displays and photos on the door and on 2 websites !!! And pricing for sure. Sadly worst meal paid hugely over the top for a dreadful meal, have never in my life left an eatery feeling hungry as couldn’t stomach the food. There was just far too much to complain about while we were there it was just pay and leave fast and get to our show. The final straw I feel was a takeaway pot being bought to our table with murky water and a dirty sponge to wipe the table before we finished our drink. I appreciate we all have different standards but having run food establishments for many years I feel to pay so high aswell for something so bad has to be mentioned. Were it one thing fine no need for a rough review but literally 98% of this experience was just the worst. Feel this family/company need to raise their game a) standard and presentation b) honesty in pricing and public info sites to be updated . Sadly not used to giving bad reviews but so disappointed at such a high price too for such an awful meal. Nice enough people and I’m sure others are perfectly happy with their local but feedback of all kinds in my experience also once in my role as a mystery shopper can only enhance and improve. Sadly I also notice this company does not accept criticism from other reviewers which is dreadful business sense I notice they are said to be ‘lying’ or ‘exaggerating’ dear dear .. wish I’d taken photos to show extent of poor quality and lack of truth in pictures displayed but hey ho it’s done and insulting clients is worse than any comments...

2024/7/15 Update:

I am deeply sorry to see your reply, but it also proves that you are unable to listen to the true feelings of customers and cannot accept negative reviews. You will only refute or even attack these comments that are not beneficial to you.

This was what really happened, first of all, I hardly write reviews even in my country, because I can empathize with the hardships of the service industry, but this dining experience was truly the worst of my life, so I write these comments. See, just by replying to clearing the plates, you can say that we don't like to help others because we are from another country. It's not that we don't want to help, but that your service staff didn't even ask us for help. Is it polite to just tap the table with one hand and then gesture to ask us to hand it over? It's ridiculous that you charge a service fee but provide such poor service, and you don't even think there's anything wrong with it

As for racial discrimination, your service staff kept asking if my friends are from China? Although they have replied no. And not all Asian faces are from China! Moreover, we noticed that the person who served us had a bad face from beginning to end. On the contrary, he was kind and full of smiles to other white people.

Touching my friend's hand without permission did happen, I didn't have to make up a story. Why don't we report it to the management? Because we were just tourists and already felt so much malice, we just wanted to leave as soon as possible after eating.

Since you don’t want to face real comments, then just continue living in your world. Really pathetic!🤗🤗 The following is the original:

This was my worst experience, I don’t even want to give it one star.

If you are NOT white, please do not come to this restaurant, the service staff in this restaurant are RACIST towards Asian faces, even they themselves are Asian.

The service staff was very rude! Touched my friend's hand without asking and stopped her asking questions.

In the end, the server even knocked on the table when clearing away and asked us to pass our plates to him.

After looking at the way the store responds to other reviews, you can definitely know what level they are at. They don’t think what the problems they are and even don’t want to improve at all. The only reason I left the comments just want to let anyone who will check reviews first to decide whether eat this restaurant or not and help them...

We booked a table of 10 people, months in advance. I arrived with the first 4 of our party, around 6:55pm, with our table being booked for 7pm. Standing behind the chain across the door, we were greeted by what I can only describe as one of the rudest people I have ever met. He said “we tried to call you 15 minute ago, 3 times”. We had not had phone reception so did not receive these calls. He told us to wait where we were. No explanation as to why they tried to phone us. After 5 minutes the rest of our group arrived and we were eventually allowed into the bar area. After one of our group asking when our table will be ready we received no response. We were then told the people were just finishing their drinks at the table we had reserved. However, fresh drinks were then served to them!! They were taking walk ins and moving people tables half way through their meal to accommodate the walk ins!! At around 7:20pm, after waiting over 20 minutes we commented on the fact the table of 10 we booked was actually a 4 and a 6. The rude member of staff was standing at the bar with his back to us piped up with “the 4 and the 6 are close together”, not even turning around to speak to us. If we had been made aware of this at the time of booking we would have gone elsewhere. After 30 minutes of waiting, no apology, no communication from staff we decided to leave and find a table elsewhere. When one of our group informed the staff member we were leaving he said “we tried to phone you to let you know the table was ready”. So our table was ready 15 minutes before us arriving at our booked time of 7pm, however they chose to give our table away to someone else in those 15 minutes!! I have never experienced such atrocious customer service in all my life. AVOID THIS PLACE! We then went to The Golden Dragon Chinese just around the corner and our experience couldn’t have been better compared to what we had just been through at the Indian lounge. The service at the Chinese was amazing and we spent £400 in total which the Indian lounge missed out on with their horrific customer service and attitude. Looking through reviews you can just see the terrible customer service they have with the response they give to bad reviews. Maybe listen to the criticism and give yourselves a big...