Khans at the Waterloo — Restaurant in England

Used to be a really good Indian restaurant but sadly has seemed to have gone downhill. Worked hard this week to earn my pay and decided to treat my partner to a meal out on a Saturday night. The food was ok, portion size was ok, but not all items tasted like genuine Indian cuisine, as sadly seems to be the modern way things done for sake of ease and profit margin. Food 7/10

Service was ok from some staff but not from others. All young staff and no mature, experienced front of house to give it the feel of being well run. One young girl in particular gave the impression that it was beneath her to serve and wait on people and that she didn't really like the job. When asked about thw wifi we were told there was something at the bar that needs scanned to login. Should be at the table your eating at and you shouldnt have to walk across the restaurant while you and others are eating their dinner for it. A signal is important to some people. We'd finished our lime and soda (which was flat?!) And our wine while eating our meal and would have liked another drink, but no one came to see us. God knows how long wed have been sat there waiting for drinks and our bill. We ended up finishing our food and leaving. When we went to the till for our bill there were 4-5 members of staff sat round on phones and eating. Customer focus should be the top priority of any business. Without satisfying customers there will be no business. Service 5/10

The atmosphere/ambience was strange. It felt like we were sat in someone's house. We were the only table in at just after 9pm on a sat night. We could hear 2 lots of different music. The lighting was too bright. The kitchen door makes a strange noise every time it opens and closes, and someone was cleaning all the cutlery behind us in the room where we were eating. Our chairs weren't comfortable either. Ambience 5/10

Food was ok but sadly not a relaxing, enjoyable experience overall. It being empty at 9pm on a Saturday night spoke volumes. Im not a difficult customer at all and try my best to remain a positive person but my review and opinion is based honestly on my experience of eating here and hope it helps others make a more informed choice when organising and looking forward to going out for something nice to eat. Can't see how without some changes being made the restaurant side of the business can survive. It may be busy as a takeaway, but as a restaurant, it needs to improve. Seems to have kept going of the the back of its hard earnt good reputation from years past but now there's a sense of arrogance and lack of attention to detail about the place as if they don't care how your time there is for you or whether ull be coming back or not. From experience, i just answered fine when asked how everything was when paying to leave. I felt i'd be wasting my time telling them all the things that made us feel that we won't want to go back. I don't work hard all week to earn the money to spend on hopefully a nice meal to end up disappointed and in a heated discussion with a manageress about how unprofessional her business is and how it lacks customer focus. It doesn't seem she's the type of person to take on board constructive criticism. It reminds me of one of those tv show places where people like Gordon Ramsey goes to a failing restaurant to tell some home truths and give the business a chance and a makeover before it goes under. It used to have a good reputation and it has a good location situated on the A69 with decent parking but it just feels like their (the staffs) house and not a quality, professionally run, ordered, customer focused resturant and business. A good restaurant needs to have good food and good service and be an enjoyable environment to dine in. The food is ok, but everything else needs effort to be better,...

I want to start this review by talking about the good things at this restaurant, because it would be disingenuous to ignore them. Firstly, the food on the whole was absolutely wonderful. I got a chicken tikka Bhuna that was far better than what I've had at other Indian restaurants/takeaways, with much nicer chicken. As well as this the Naan bread was wonderful. The staff were also very nice and very personable.

In terms of the negatives, there were only 2, but they were disappointingly large in the grand scheme of things and made the dining experience less good than the food deserved. Most minorly, the mixed kebab was incredibly poor and didn't taste very nice at all, although for £5 in a £90 dining experience, wasn't the end of the world.

What was particularly disappointing was the speed at which we were served. We arrived at 7:45pm on Mothers day for full disclosure, and the restaurant was decently busy on arrival. This being said, it took 20 mins for our drinks to be taken, and a further 15 mins for our food order, leaving us just beginning to be served our food at ~8:55pm. While we did order a lot of food (4 starters + 5 mains between 5 people) and so I can understand the wait between ordering and food, it is somewhat unacceptable to take so long to have our order taken, resulting in over an hour wait from sitting down to eating.

While I enjoyed the food, and certainly found the dining experience enjoyable, the long wait means I likely won't ever be back except for a takeaway. I'd like to give this restaurant 3.5* if I could, but in lieu of...

I visited back in 2018, not long after the family took over the restaurant and still to this day, it is the best Balti I have ever had. Unparalleled on spice and flavour, I can say that day I truly had an authentic experience.

I've been chasing that experience ever since and was hoping to repeat it, alas it was not to be. I would describe the food as having "changed to occomodate a British palette". I was met with slightly stodgy Bahghi's along with poor and very few cuts of lamb in an under spiced and under flavoured balti. This may be exactly what the public want and if it were my local I probably wouldn't complain. It also might mean that my problem is with the nations approach to the cuisine rather than the restaurant itself. However, this is my experience.

On a happier note, the service was impeccable. The eldest sibling clearly leading by example and doing a great job of it.

I would also like to note that it would bring benefit to get rid of the stationery pot of cutlery from the middle of the table. I hand it to you it was spotless, but it comes across as tacky and unsanitary to have the cutlery on the table prior to a customers arrival, especially in a communal pot. There are some very low cost and effective ways to up the customers experience that if you looked into I think would bring great benefit to your business. Also, responding to positive reviews as well as negative ones is another great positive change you can make. It encourages repeat custom and improves your appeal...