Omar Khayyam — Restaurant in City of Edinburgh

As we entered the restaurant, we were met with quite an odd sight. One of the staff was wandering aimlessly through the restaurant holding a large platter of food seemingly with no goal. To add more mystery to the situation, there seemed to be a total lack of other employees. Eventually, with the platter dealt with, me and my mother were ushered towards a small waiting area by the manager, very reminiscent of being put in time out as a child. Slightly humiliating as there were loads of open tables—something we should have taken as a sign to escape before this utterly horrible experience. We were eventually sat by the manager of the restaurant when he, before we sat down mind you, offered us popadoms and a chutney tray. We did accept, under some duress, however delivery was swift and the chutney was good. What wasn’t swift, however, was the rest of the service. Waited far too long for a restaurant this empty, just to get our drink orders in. When we asked for water, still water, the manager offered to bring us a bottle to share. Now, seeing other tables with unbranded stopper bottles of tap water, we were happy to receive one as well. Unfortunately the manager brought back a bottle of Evian water, something that would cost us £5 if we had not declined and SPECIFICALLY asked for tap water.

Now the most agonizing and awful part of the night. My mother has been to India many times, she loves Indian food and considers herself to be somewhat knowledgeable about it. Unfortunately, it seems the chef isn’t. She ordered the chicken biryani, a staple food, and one of her favorites. This was a disappointment not remotely comparable to the real thing. It was served without yogurt sauce, and instead had a puréed vegetable sauce. When she asked for a yogurt sauce, something most Indian restaurants should have, she was given plain greek yogurt. Do you know how viscous greek yogurt is? It’s like ice cream. That is not a sauce in the slightest. Not to mention she found a solid chunk of some foreign object, most definitely not meant for human consumption.

All in all, this place was terrible. The service was slow and rude, the food was abhorrent, and there was no semblance of respect or decency. I recommend looking through the one-star reviews to see the many angry people complaining about the authenticity of this stuff they call food.

Thank you!! I’m...

Pathetic experience we ever had in any restaurant. We ordered Daal Makhani, Handi Gosht, One Omar Mix, with a Peshwari Naan, Garlic Naan and tandoori roti. It started with a papad, I can say with guarantee that papad was 4-5 years old and so it was stinking badly, but they were serving same to all the guests. Because guests never had experience with real papad so they are eating and enjoying....great . Next we received our daal makhani, I wished to sue them because from any angle it was not daal makhani, however, we started consuming it with handi gosht (Two cubes Chicken + 4 Cubes Potato, not sure if its a gourmet restaurant or what). Both the items were so tasteless and without any spices even after repeating specifically that we will need desi style food. When we raised this point, attendant was so rude and unprofessional.....no words for him. As per him why we have consumed it if it was not good, bhai we were 4 person, we took one spoon each and it was over both daal as well as handi gosht, Omar mix starter had just 3 pieces, and Peshawari naan was over sweet so we left it as is. On top of everything, one waiter is suggesting us to add salt which is available on the table. When we started telling him that we had told multiple times that we need spicy food, he again started suggesting us not to shout......it was total mood spoiler....I know they are making food for English people but should not forget about their own people, it's not just disrespect for us but also hurting seeing such behaviour towards our desi people. Alas, He could have realised our problem but instead he started blaming us so rudely which was evident that he is thinking we are zero value for them because their main business is coming from local people. However, Wish they serve good and authentic food with honesty instead of robbing people by serving potatoes in the name of handi, and service one kismis and badaam on top of peshawari naan...For sure it's over rated restaurant where waiters are thinking they are the king of England.....so rude, so unprofessional...really I'm not finding a good word to...

So I don't normally write reviews however on this occasion here goes. We travelled from Glasgow on my birthday for dinner. Was greeted by a gentleman who told us to wait for our table even although the restaurant was almost empty and considering we also phoned in to book 2 hours prior to arriving. Anyways after 10 minutes we were seated and asked if we want poppadoms? We took them. Dips tasted old. We then told the waiter we were ready to order, and he would delay coming to our table to take the order. We ordered the fish tikka as our starters which tasted okay however dripping with oil and very greasy. We then moved onto ordering our main dish of chicken balti and it was clearly stated this was their "traditional curry", being indian/pakistani we were looking for their traditional spicy style balti curry and went onto ordering this along with their chicken Biryani. The order arrived and looked quite poor in terms of presentation. Both of the dishes had very little chicken, perhaps about 3 pieces in the balti curry and very small pieces in the biryani. There was no use of spices (hardly any), the rice tasted old and the chicken curry sauce looked and tasted old too! Upon ordering my husband was explaining to the waiter as to how we like our curry and to make it "spicey , traditional" to which he stopped my partner half way stated "just don't worry we know how to make it"! Rude. We were not once asked as to whether we enjoyed the food or not. Possibly the worst meal I've had in my entire life. Food that doesn't even taste as described in the menu and certainly not of Indian punjabi tradition. Everything was so bland and tasted old. And then they took their money at the end and waited for us leaving. Just an unpleasant experience and I will not be visiting ever again nor will I ever be...