Bayleaf - Indian Restaurant & Takeaway — Restaurant in England

To complete the rain ritual, went specially for the combo of tea and pakoda after having early dinner (somewhere else). There was no tea, disappointed! Then, a weird conversation about something written on their menu- no service charge above 20 £. The gentleman said you have to spend minimum 20£ per person. Upon asking specifically what does this mean? Does it mean you will not serve food if the order is not or equal to 20£? Politely replied yes, but don't worry we will consider one person for your order. Later realised what he meant, he will make our order more than 20£ anyways! While ordering food (which was anyway more than 20£) the gentleman gave us water options of still water or sparkling water (no option of tap water was given), we said still water and thought it would be normal tap water as usual. He came back shortly and bought a water bottle opened and served us the water! Soon enough we found he charged us 7£ for 900 ml water. Being vegetarian there are limited options- food we ordered (paneer pakoda, paneer lajawab and garlic naan) was utterly disappointing. We would have appreciated the honesty and transparency of gentlemen who was taking our order and charged us 7£ for just water! Surprise, surprise they were asking and giving other customers water options which include tap water. We will not recommend anyone (specially vegetarian and non drinker) go to this place again for bad food of course but also rather poor and...

Not great overall and very expensive for basically just about standard, unexciting or even well seasoned/spiced/marinated food. Ordered Lamb Chops, Tikka Massala ( sickly sweet to the point that I had to scrape the sauce off of the chicken - had I of known it was going to be that sweet, I'd of just got plain Chicken Tikka ). The chops were well cooked, to be fair, but lacked any proper seasoning, so pretty tasteless beyond a small amount of sourness from the yogurt marinade. The Nann was fresh, but couldn't use it because the sauce of the Massala was inedibly sweet, as stated. Rice was fine, if a very, very small portion indeed. The Bayleaf is reflective of the overall poor quality of food served up by many Tandooris in Brighton, in my experience - and I've eaten in numerous places there over the last 8 years . With the exception of 'Eastern Eye', 'Chula's' and the 'Chilli Pickle', the other 30 or so places eaten in have offered poor, sub-standard and often over-priced food. The curry scene needs to seriously get its act together in Brighton - the one thing the vast majority do have in common is that they were all supremely disappointing. London absolutely wipes the floor with these places !! Try Murgh Masala in Norbury if ever you're in South East London 😉 Oh, the one positive I can state is that the staff...

We went to the Bayleaf because of it's (almost) 5 star Trip Advisor rating, so were expecting good food, with excellent flavours an textures. Nice atmosphere, lots of customers, plenty of seating, so we were looking forward to trying this highly rated restaurant.

The staff could not have been nicer, friendlier or more attentive, it was the food that let this place down.

I L-O-V-E Dal, it is one of my favourite Indian dishes so ordered the Takha Dal (lentils with spices and herbs) as sook as I spotted it on the menu. Unfortunately this was not a good choice, it was incredibly bland, an sloppy, (it tasted like it could have come out of a can) certainly nothing about it said fresh or home made. No flavour at all. He ordered the Chicken Dupiaza (A medium dish prepared with chopped onions, tomatoes, green peppers, ginger, garlic and fresh coriander) and said similar, mushy, flavourless and did not have any texture at all. I liked the Nan - he didn't saying it was too doughy.

The Chicken Tikka was ok. Enough of it, cooked well, and was tender, it came with a side garnish and the same sauce on the side that came with the papadom's.

At over £60 for the two of us, I would not go here again. Expensive and underwhelming food...