Lal Khazana — Restaurant in England

Ok so let's start with the positives. Good layout, nice clean and well presented in the village of shilbottle. Family run with dad as the head chef and brothers running the front of house. Staff were really engaging and dam could one of them chat :) There were four of us and we all started with poppadoms and chutney. Lime pickle was good, as was the mint sauce. Mango chutney looked as though it was bought in, shame as they could have made themselves and kicked it up a notch. Wasn't bad overall but just didn't have a wow factor still the poppadoms were a good size nice and fresh and not overly salty. Opted for the chilli sauce as well which on the menu says it's made with 10 kinds of chilli. Was asked if I had had it before, no when a member of staff asks you that and tells you it saves you putting your jacket on on a cold night well it must be hot. Was it hot well a matter of perspective I guess. I found it overly peperry and it had a very bitter taste from the capasin, needed something sweet to balance it and when mixed with the mint or lime it did lift the flavour whilst retaining the heat. Not the hottest chilli sauce I have ever had, there is a nandos sauce "vusa" which is hotter ( need to do a taste test ) but can again not bad just lacking some refinement. Then came my starter it was a mixed kebab dish and was beautifully presented all three elements were nice tasting,not to hot, food depth of flavour, with the lamb being exceptionally cooked. Then the mains. I opted for a dish I had never had before, zaal jahl with tika lamb. It was red very peppery with what I could almost say was a Frank's hot suace in it. No real flavour profile as such and just meat and sauce. Overall very disappointing. One of the others had a passanda, it didn't taste like one any of us have had before ? One of the group had a Madhu malai which had a fab flavour very mild but the honey in it really came through with the nut....

Driving home to Edinburgh from Newcastle, we decide we were getting a little hungry, and had a look on our Google map thingy to see what was available. Saw this restaurant, in Shilbottle, and decided – why the hell not – live dangerously! And we were glad we did. A very nice place, well kept, and just off the A1 – quite east to miss, as the red sign announcing its presence is hidden from view on the left, until you are almost (or, in my case, quite a bit) past it. But we made it – and glad we did. Very friendly staff – the maitre d’ chatted with us for a bit – food was quick, good and plentiful, and, rather than being ‘burn your mouth off’ hot, was ‘tasty hot’ – some of the flavours quite subtle. I had onion bhajis, and they were about the size of tennis balls….my wife had a very full plate of mixed tandoori – again, lots of it, and very nice. Main courses were standard fare, but hot, filling, and presented beautifully – a nice touch was the waiter asking if we wanted our mains straight away, or if we wanted to wait for a wee while….. All in all, a positive experience – if the circumstances allow, we would definitely go...

Disgusting. Horrible food and rude service.

Supermarket frozen vegetables used in vegetable curries and all biryanis, including green beans, carrots and even sweetcorn! This shows that the chefs are not only extremely lazy, but know absolutely nothing about authentic Indian food. All curries also tasted bland.

Worst samosa I’ve ever had (mushy and flavourless - even looked completely different to every authentic samosa I’ve had). Pakoras we’re disgusting and again not crispy and didn’t taste of much. Paid £12 for the starter “platter” you can see.

Chicken tikka biryani was a small portion with tiny pieces of chicken. The only decent thing was the poppadoms and pickle tray, which means they probably aren’t homemade. The naans were also okay.

Vegetarian was given chicken by mistake. When they realised their mistake, they just snatched it from the table and said they would bring another in a “few minutes”. No apology whatsoever. (This was one of the male waiters)

I am very confused about all the positive reviews. Maybe they have recently changed chefs or changed ownership. Avoid...