Rustom Restaurant — Restaurant in City of Edinburgh

With a name like Rustom and the fact that they are one of the old players in the restaurant scene in Edinburgh one expects a certain level of service and a certain level of quality of food and ambiance when it comes to dining.

We wanted to have a nice dinner and decided to give Rustom a try, there is a manager who was standing at the entrance like he was a gatekeeper to the place, stood there with a grim face when we approached him for a table, he nodded his head like he was doing us a favor.. We proceeded and sat down at the table only to wait for another 15 minutes before a waiter decided to turn up at a table.

We asked the waiter if we could order starters first and decide on the main course later for which the rude waiter advised us that they were busy and they would like us to order the meal at once, again to our observation almost 50% of the tables visible to us were free and there was not too much hustle if you know what I mean in the restaurant..

We ordered for Mango Lassi- I would say this variety of Lassi is something that no one can afford to mess up but Rustom proved us wrong, the lassi was not sweet, did not have mango flavor and tasted very artificial. Trust me I have had enough mango lassis all around the world before I am commenting on this quality.

The next order in was Malai Panneer Tikka ( I assumed that this was a Tandoori dish) however to my surprise we got 4 paneer pieces toasted on a pan along with few veggies sprinkled with chaat masala like it was a minefield. Was the chef thinking he was a Michelin star chef trying to plate a great plate. The paneer was not soft so it was all the more disgusting... This starter was more like an end but we were brave for the next set of orders to be served.. During this time no waiter came up and asked us if the food was good or if we were waiting for anything.

Later another waiter comes and asked me a dumb question - He said that they had run out of hot plates and if this was good with me.. what was he thinking asking me this question - A restaurant should have hot/warm plates or it is not that hard to get some ready before service..

We agreed for the same and moved on, the order was a pulao rice with Palak panneer and Dhal Makhni. The spinach dish was ok however could have been less oily and the panneer was softer compared to the tawa tikka served as starters. The dal was pathetic.. there was no taste, just loaded with butter and very bland and horrible, we decided not to taste anymore food, we decided to eat the spinach and rice and decided to call it a night... While we were waiting for the bill, finally another waiter observed that we had not had the dal and he took some steps to get some feedback, he then brought the manager who again was amused that we had bad things to say about the food and he also urged us to come back again and try another version of the daal which would be better than what was ordered ( Tell me if you know that only one dal is good then wont you remove the other one or advise the clients on some ideas).. He also made a statement that he was thinking if he should compensate me for the issues noticed.. to which my reaction was that I was not wanting a refund of sorts but just wanted to be heard clearly of the issues I saw in the food which was way below the bar and at most 1 star level.. there are road side stalls in the sub continent and some big cities who serve better quality of service.. We least expect is empathy and waiters who are not too loud,, the waiters of Rustom need a class in being grounded.. get a service attitude and think that the customer is important at every...

Extremly greedy, unwelcoming,unaccomodative,impatient and rude head waiter/manager. I visited this restaurant along with family for evening dinner. We were waiting for an other family to join us who were on their way and less than half hour away. We informed the lead waiter about it and requested to give us table of 8 for both families(including 4 of us already there).I also informed him clearly that we're sure they'll definitely be here soon till the food cook/prep. time and we'll order now for all i.e. both families. We had flight in few hours and no intention to keep waiting.It was 6 pm yet ,a quite early time for dinner,not a busy time and only leass than 1/4 of restaurant was occupied yet, more than 50 seats still available and most not reserved at all.The head waiter refused to give us table of 8,started making faces, showing gestures,talking sarcastically in urdu as we were talking in urdu,advising me to either wait outside and come again with all or sit on table of 4 and order immediately without delay. The explanation he gave was, it's their business time as there is some sports/match today,he'll give seats only to the people coming there and can't reserve seats for my guests, although a lot of seats yet available. I told him that I should have pre booked but you still have a lot of seats and it'll give bad impression that there are no seats when my guests arrive. But rather than accommodating, he continued his gestures,advising my family to go to other restaurant,one across the road Omer Khayyam,saying that is always empty and available.I left, just said to him politely you need to be bit patient and welcoming. We went to Omer Khayyam, they were already full but they asked us to wait and they'll accommodate us.They treated us very well,altough other family took 15-20 min to arrive, although their food was average grade.

Just to answer your response to my review, I appreciate that you responded, and I hope you'll try to improve on that.I understand that we should always pre-book if we're in a large group. But if you go through it again, it's only about the attitude/behaviour/gestures that your many guests have to face when they enter, not...

Personally owning an Indian restaurant myself, I was very disappointed and taken by surprise the service given. Me and my wife had reserved a table on 20th June at 8:30pm. As we walked in we were made to wait on the doorstep for our table to be ready which was being used despite the fact that they had plenty of other seating available I just don’t think they could be bothered to do the extra work which being an Indian restaurant owner myself I do understand it’s extra work but customer service is very important. Moving on, we were taken to our table, as we sat down we were given sticky menus followed by a drinks list that had curry stains on it. Later on we placed our order which arrived very quickly first of those being the 2 x peach coolers which was over poured and the waiter that had served us dropped some over our table. I thought I’d just clean it myself anyways only to realise that we were not given any cutlery or napkins. So our starters arrived and the waiter said ‘enjoy your starters’ however we had no cutlery or napkin so had to request for some cutlery and napkin. The waiter serving told us to wait whilst our starters were getting cold only for him to help his colleague serve food. After that we had our mains which were absolutely awful. I’d hate to have that chef for my restaurant lol I’m sure they have rotation chefs but wow the mains were worse than the starters. Overall for the size of the restaurant and the stylish interiors, it did not match the service nor the food by miles not to mention the prices of the food for the portions given. Every business has its ups and downs I know that, I’m not saying avoid the place, give it a go but it really needs an upgrade on the service that the waiters give. As for the food it will never taste the same so maybe you will have better luck than me who knows! But for me personally unless there’s been a change in service levels and better touch on the food I’d potentially come back but for the current time I shall stick to going to...