Haweli — Restaurant in England

I don't understand how this restaurant has had any positive press in the last few years, it literally is the cheapest of cheap food served by very rude staff. The owner clearly only cares about giving away a free scoop of ice cream whilst forcing you to sign a nomination letter for a restaurant award, it really does put to shame all of the other hard working restauranteurs who are in the same competition based on merit.

On a Friday night, we waited over an hour for our main course. When it finally arrived, my curry was luke warm at best. After persuading the very rude waiter to take it back, he returned with a freshly microwaved tikka masala. i.e. the bowl was very hot but the curry in the middle cold, with it slightly boiling around the edges. I complained again, only to be completely ignored whilst the waited bumbled something (I assume an insult) to me in his native language, possibly Bengali.

After a word with the owner after our meal, he offered us a free ice cream dessert, and suggested we nominate the restaurant for an award. It took me a few seconds to realise he was actually serious, and after consideration, I politely declined. I don't think I would be out of line to label the owner a crook, who serves cheap food and tries to cheat the competition by aggressively pursuing customers to generate positive press. It's clearly a tactic that appears to be working as the restaurant is busy, but they are quickly gaining a reputation of serving low end microwave meals, with the owner seemingly not having a clue about running a...

Most excellent!

Haweli did a really good job with the food, service and atmosphere. They also offered a place in their sort-of-secret parking area, which in the end I didn't need since I found a free-to-park area on a side street. Parking is likely to be a problem for those who don't know this area, partly because the restaurant is located at a busy intersection.

The food? I gave up on reading the menu almost immediately - since our fellow diners know the place well, IMHO it was worth leaning on the wait staff for their recommendations rather than deciding for myself from the menu. They chose the Jadhpuri Venison for me - it's very smokey, just as the menu states. I perhaps wouldn't have chosen the venison by myself, which is why I'll defer to the restaurant staff and ask what they recommend there. The venison tasted just like beef, which is probably not very surprising.

We also started off with gigantic onion bhajees - a classic for my dining party!

Finally, the restaurant staff were clearly happy to see us there. That makes a lot of difference to this reviewer. I follow Latif's Inspired, a YouTube contributor working as a chef in Stoke. They 'knew' him, and our back and forth conversation had a way of keeping the evening flowing. ...

5 star food, 5 star service, 5 star people.

Food is delicious, Haweli never fails to impress! The service is impeccable, and the people are warm and accommodating.

My brother who has spent a lifetime cooking and eating curry said it's probably the best curries he's ever had.

Good for families, date nights, little ones, every occasion.

There's a completely different approach to the way they do things, you can tell the difference when someone takes their craft seriously.

They also look after the little ones very well.

During the lockdown when everyone panic bought all the food I was pretty desperate and ended up placing a large order, something like 7 mains + 7 rice + naan, it came to like roughly £76 and I was like.. hold on a second.. I have 14 meals here, half rice half main. Average price £5.50. That's street food prices but much better quality.

I was profusely thanking them for staying open because well I was struggling to buy food, when Ali said they were told that the hospital workers were putting in double shifts because of COVID and not eating properly or being able to buy food so they were donating meals to the hospital.

I was like... damn you.. right in the feels.....

Like I said earlier, 5 star food, 5 star service, 5...