Kashmir Restaurant — Restaurant in England

I have visited The Kashmir ,on and off, for 22 years ( as have my whole family )......today( Sunday) I was left bewildered.....I went in to book a table for the following Friday for a family birthday celebration. I said I thought 10 people would attend.....the waiter said there was a deposit of £5....I was surprised by such a small deposit ( although I have often been there in a group I have never paid a deposit there before ) and went back to my car to get the money and actually offered the gentleman £10 ( thinking £5 was too small if they insisted on a deposit). By this time the taller gentleman ( who I now know is the manager and Mr Miah's grandson) had arrived. I was informed that the deposit would actually be £50 and not £5 ( the smaller waiter ,who struggled a little with his English, must have originally meant £5 per head ) ...I didn't have £50 on me so, after some confusion, I used my credit card to pay. I asked if there was any sparklers or whatever for a birthday...the Manager said "No". He asked me for my phone number but by then I felt quite nervous and couldn't remember my own home number ....I gave him my mobile number...I said, meaning to be friendly and helpful, that I would phone on the day to verify the exact number of people coming....his response was that I would forfeit £5 for each attendee less than ten. By then I felt confused by the whole business and upset by the generally strange and unwelcoming attitude so I asked for my deposit back, which they chose to give me in cash, and left.....quite bewildered that something so complicated had resulted in simply trying to book a table. It was 5.30 pm and before the restaurant was open for food and as it was cold outside I was wearing a winter hat...could this have been why I was treated with such suspicion ??? Sad :(

I feel that the rules regarding the deposit for bookings should be carefully explained correctly ( I was told £5 not £5 per head ) and not the chaotic mish-mash that I encountered....maybe a sign making it clear....I now see that there is a warning on this site but even that is a bit vague. Customers should be treated as well-meaning contributors to the business and not with suspicion. The rules are the rules but they should be...

I was absolutely craving Indian food so I decided I'd finally give Kashmir a go. I noticed that it was an extremely cramped/tiny room with about 7 tables. None the less we sat down at the table we booked- but that was only where the nightmare began. As soon as we entered we ordered Papadoms-my favourite! I questioned the first waiter of what he would recommend but he seemed worried and spoke in some other language and it was clear that he spoke no English. After 20 minutes had passed they finally arrived but slightly damp and not crispy like they should be. During the 20 minutes of waiting people who where expecting take away queued through the tiny gap in the middle leaving no space for your personal bubble. In fact a small kid was able to stand on my dress- that's how close the queue was to me. After, we ordered some curry which couldn't even be compared to the delicious food in the chutney corner; it was frankly disgusting. I decide to call it quits for desert and waited a whopping 25 minutes for a rude ill mannered waiter to appear. He was very tall and darker skinned but extremely rude. I politely asked for the bill and told him that I'd seen something running across the floor with a pink tail and a furry brown body (appearance of a mouse much) while he screamed down my throat that they had no mouse- yes I know it should say mice but he was illiterate- and that he would increase the bill if I dared to utter anymore "crap" (in more explicit terms) about their restaurant. Astounded at this behaviour, I paid my bill and left around the side to go to my car. I realised that there were two massive bins and surprise surprise there where two more mice underneath the big blue bin feasting of what looked to be meal scraps. In total I wasted a large sum of money and time to visit the chaotic Kashmir and I wouldn't even rate it worthy of one star. Do your self a favour and avoid the hassle of visiting. I do not recommend this so called "restaurant" to any person including people with children as it is not a child nor adult friendly environment. I'm completely baffled of why a such disgusting place would...

The worst Indian meal we have ever had, it was a disgrace, to start with the Poppadoms were not fresh, the relishes were awful, salad was tasteless chopped lettuce and onion, Raita was yellow, tasteless and stale, the mango chutney was not good at all!! The next course was mixed kebab, it was horrible with some lettuce thrown into the bottom of a dish and 2 cubes of chewy lamb, 2 cubes of tasteless dry chicken and a sheek kebab, then to top off a disastrous meal, the main course arrived, this was an absolute disgrace, the worst curry I have had in my life, it was supposed to be chicken madras which consisted of a watery sauce that hadn't been spiced at all, the chicken was dry and plain with no spices or herbs whatsoever, I took one taste of it and sent it back!!! Needless to say I will never be going back to the Kashmir Indian Restaurant in Christchurch. Continued: Just to clarify the owners reply, we are not liars just truthful honest people wanting a decent Indian meal, we spoke to the waiter with our complaint and he took the madras meal back to the kitchen to show the chef, then returned saying the chef was very sorry and proceeded to refund a portion of the bill, also to clarify we didn't book a table, we called in at 6pm on 14th November 2023 and asked if they could fit us in on a table for 2, the waiters reply was yes and he proceeded to give us a menu. I take offence to being called a liar, this just proves to me that you are very rude and have very poor management skills!! A word of advice, accept criticism from your customer's, they are your bread and butter, take their comments on board to improve your business, to drive them away by being rude is not a good...