Indian Taj Restaurant — Restaurant in England

Our first visit tonight, to celebrate my husband’s 40th, following reccomendations from his colloeagues.

We arrived about 5 minutes before opening (without a reservation) and they opened the door with “Sir, Madam, Young Sirs, please come from the cold”

When we told them we had no reservation, the manager checked the bookings and said “I squeeze you in, we have til 6.30 my friends.”

We never felt rushed - service was prompt and respectful… I even had to ask the chap to backtrack when it came time to pay the bill because he bypassed the gratuity section (where so many businesses now hand the card reader to you with the gratuity options as a “taken for granted you want to tip”).

The other tables filled up very quickly, and everyone was smiling and laughing… I never saw a single table sending a dish back or waiting for service.

Light background music added to a relaxed and joyful atmosphere.

My husband commented that he’s never had service to this level anywhere - they quickly learned the names of our children and addressed them by “master x” throughought, whilst we remained Sir/ Madam. Hats off to the manager - he was completly aware of every table and either adressomg their needs directly or quietly directing a colleague to help so nobody was left waiting!

Soiled napkin? No problem - a fresh one was presented before you’d set the dirty one down. Cold child? A portable radiator was quickly set up (again, without us even saying our youngest was chilly sat by the door) with “for you, young master x, be warm”

The food was beyond phenominal- perfectly seasoned, promptly served - neither so fast that you felt rushed nor so slow that you felt abandoned. Beyond impressed with the price - I genuinely expected the bill to be 50% higher than it was for the quality of the food and the size of the portions. It’s nice to find a local place that doesn’t overcharge and take advantage of their customers and still deivers 5* service and food.

Will definately be heading back - it’s our new go-to place for...

Called to order and said press 1 for 10% discount and order online. Did this and took the time to complete, entered the code and received a message that this code is no longer valid. Called the restaurant and they said this offer is no longer valid (they need to remove this from their phone options). They said don’t worry we will take your order and give you 10% discount. I gave them the exact same order and they then applied the discount but it was £4 more than the non-discounted online price. They proceeded to tell me that when you call it’s a different menu and it’s the restaurant menu which is more expensive than the online menu which is why it was more. My order was over £60 and they wouldn’t move on the price. They are a con and use the discount to get your attention then try to use an excuse or a different menu. Will never try them again and will discourage people from going. There are other Indian restaurants that are cheaper and have the same level of food so will be going back to my usual place. Avoid TAJ unless you want...

Now seems to be under new management. I had reserved a table a week in advance but when I turned up they had to move other guests and push two tables together to make space for us. This would have been ok if the tables hadn't been then extending in front of the main entrance to the restaurant. We regularly had groups of people crowding around our table whilst we ate and they waited for their tables to be ready. At one point we had 10 people standing around our table because their tables also weren't ready for them. This blocked the entrance/exit and customers and staff were finding it hard to move around the restaurant. Certainly not the surroundings you would want for a nice meal out. This was mentioned to staff who gave a half-hearted apology but didn't really seem to care.

The food itself was also poor. There was no depth of flavour and as someone else said, it seemed like they had just added a jar of sauce to some chicken. I've had better Indian meals from the supermarket ready...