The Indus — Restaurant in Doncaster

I booked a table for 8 people at 8:30 for the New Year’s Eve. We ordered our starters and mains, one of the party was advised after ordering he couldn’t have tbone as the machine wasn’t working - the starters arrived and on a whole the food was good, on to mains where 7 of the 8 meals came out, we asked about the other and the staff scurried around to find out where steak no8 was - the waiter came back about 10 minutes later and told us the steak ordered is no longer available and that another choice needs to be made - 3 options later (as other food choices were unavailable) meal no 8 was ordered after the other 7 finished eating came out. We were then left for a long period of time with plates and no assistance and nobody asking if we required more drinks/deserts (we had to shout somebody over eventually who was passing by) bearing in mind there were only a couple of other diners at this point and was around 11pm. Our original server came back and told us the available desserts which were ordered and eaten with no problem - we then asked for the bill. At this point we were annoyed and a little frustrated with a catalogue of hiccups including drinks not being available from behind the bar and being told they ran out of peppercorn sauce (the horror) we asked the staff for the manager to remove the steak from The bill for the person who ate alone because of stock/ordering - the manager came and said he didn’t deal and sent in a woman (I’m presuming restaurant manager) who said because the steak had been eaten she wasn’t prepared to remove it from the bill - we explained at 10pm where’s a man to go for another steak on New Year’s Eve of course he ate it - she then blamed every other member of the staff in the restaurant for the mistakes never once said sorry which is all we were looking for, an apology. She then told us “It’s New Year’s Eve, wherever you go the service won’t be great” this woman proceeded to tell us she was a hospitality veteran and there’s people all the time who try to get free food (while two of the party were ordering more drinks in the bar spending more money in addition to the £400+ bill sat on the table) we explained we were more than happy to pay for everything else like we had done the drinks purchased at the bar before we were seated but not the steak - this woman then said the staff had been discussing that having colleagues who had passed away through the year there really were bigger things to worry about she then said “if you want the steak removing I’ll take it off the bill after all you could have bigger problems” now saying this to a group of customers you don’t personally know and almost blaming your rude service on your customers because they have the nerve to complain when bigger things are happening is disgusting- one of the party was in floods of tears due to their own personal loss and of course started to raise their voice and call rigs woman rude whilst others swore at the situation! This woman then said we were abusing her and off she popped after saying she was calling the police for being swore at. I have to say at this point the original lady who seated us, served us the majority of the time, took our food and initial drinks orders was INCREDIBLE and an absolute credit to that restaurant. We made sure she knew our concerns were in no way reflect in her or her service just that wretched excuse for customer service they sent to deal with the bill! we spent over £600 in the establishment (including a room for two of our party)left with half the party crying and upset, accused of complaining for the sake of getting free food and guilted into raiding our concerns because staff had passed away earlier in the year. I’m glad I have video recording of the bizarre situation to assure me we weren’t being irrational drunks - utterly outrageous comments classed as...

Lengthy review.

Tldr - Very disjointed service, below average food, management that quite literally hide rather than supporting their young daughters in the restaurant.

Decor is a decent conversion from the St. Leger Hotel. Initial greeting and service from Terri was pleasant.

Starters. 1 starter was incorrect, which we didn't want to waste food so had it instead, charged for the higher price dish with no dispute. Onion Bhaji was beyond ridiculous in size. This meant that it was undercooked in the middle. I tried to give feedback about it just generally being uncessarily large but the manager/owner hides away in back room snickering with his 2 young daughters/servers. We were offered no side plates and had to ask to be able to eat out starters not off the sizzling plates.

Mains. One in our party ordered a med rare Indian steak which came out overdone, this was perfectly rectified by exchanging and cooking fresh. The main issue was sat with our mains on serving plates with no serving cutlery or plates until we found someone in the back to bring us them. Naan bread is a no go, it comes out genuinely like pizza. It's a congealed, microwaved disaster. They would benefit from buying in naan rather than attempting to make their own. Currys just flat tastes although chicken kebab dish was tender and nicely spiced.

Service. It's evident it just lacks leadership. There's no manager in the restaurant to make decisions. It's a male owner, his wife running the kitchen, and his 2 daughters serving in school uniform. Theres no communication or leadership given we were constantly asked the same question by each member of staff. 'E.g is your food okay?' at least 5 times about mains. I asked to discuss with the manager as the young server had already had to deal with many complaints that evening and you could see it was getting to her. We were told the manager has stepped outside and will be back in 20 minutes. We obviously had point of discussion about the bill due to the fact we had barely eaten anything, and we were being charged for a starter we didn't have. Generally we just wanted to give this review, in person to the manager to improve the restaurant.

Here's where the real 'red flag' problems arise.

We were forced to pay for the full bill, including the incorrect starter as the manager is the only one that can authorise discounts. We were given an email address. Throughout the meal the young girls in school uniform were laughing and staring at us when coming out the kitchen. When we left we could see the owner in the back overflow restaurant, laughing with his young daughters.

Not only is this an issue to me because he refused to come and speak to his paying guests, but because he cannot support and back up his team. They needed his support not only to ensure service ran effectively, but to deal with the 4/5 tables that complained about their meal.

He instead quite literally hid, laughing about the complaints to his daughters about complaining guests as he took full price for their meals which given his demeanor through the window, was more than happy to do.

Family restaurants deserve all the support in the world after the pandemic, this place does not. I urge the members of staff not related to the owner to find other hospitality positions as your manager unfortunately does not care for your well-being...

First visit yesterday for the first time. Alarm bells started to ring immediately no covid 19 warning signs does don'ts anywhere to be seen. No sociial distancing advise.Hand sanitizer was the only indication that we are in this terrible situation. Asked to see a wine menu to be told we dont have one. Chose a bottle of wine recommended by staff which was a very nice and reasonably priced. Ordered 4 x starters which again were very nice. Ordered 4 x main course of which 2 had to be sent back due to being undercooked. After 10 minutes wait we eventually recieved our main courses. These were served on cold plates. We decided this was not acceptable and returned these to the kitchen. So a most anticipated enjoyable evening was spoilt with only 2 of the 4 people receiving an edible meal. We asked to speak to the manager to be told he was not in the building whilst i could see him in the kitchen. All we wished to do was give constructive feedback to help return this restaurant to the icon it once was. The front of house staff were excellent on the night and very embarrassed about the situation. Had the Indus spent a few minutes listening to our feedback on the night would have stopped me writing this unfortunate review and considering wether to make my feelings known to the HSE for its lack of Covid 19 advise and...