Papaya, Indian Restaurant, Kettering — Restaurant in England

One star is too much. Hi, this is a long read but it was a very poor experience. Only eat here if your in no rush to eat, enjoy tasteless food or dont want a drink on a Saturday night. hope it helps.

I called here last Wednesday (13/8/25) to book a table for 12 people for the Saturday (16/8/25). I spoke to someone who booked me in for 5pm for 12 people. Saturday evening came, I walked in to the restaurant said i was here for the 5pm booking. The lady who saw me in showed me to a table for 4 so I said i had booked a table for 12. She had no idea what i was talking about as no booking was wrote down for 12 people, luckily at that time it wasn't busy so a couple of tables got pushed together. Everyone had arrived by 5.05pm and we were sat and handed menus. As we looked at the menu we were asked for our drinks order, when we started to order, beer was the first to be denied. we were told they didn't have any bottles or any in draft. Next was the wine, they didn't have any of the 4 different bottles on the menu. Prosecco was next, they didn't have any of the big bottles or the Moet and Chandon but maybe 1 or 2 bottles of the small 200ml prosecco but these were just under £9 each. They only had 1 type of red wine to choose from or they could make a cocktail. A pina colada was ordered a glass of red wine reluctantly and the rest soft drinks. This order was taken at around 5.25pm We all continued to read and decide on what food to order and our orders were taken at around 5.40pm at which point we still didn't have our drinks. The drinks came at 5.50pm apart from the pina colada this was still being made is what we were told, It came at just before 6. We sat talking for a while and realised that some time had past since we had ordered, it was 6.30pm now, nearly an hour after ordering. The food eventually came out at just before 7pm but not all of it we had to keep reminding the lady what we were missing. Once the mains were all out we had to remind the lady again that we had also ordered 2 keema naan, a garlic naan and a plan naan. we were told these would be another 15 minutes and they were.

The meals were a good portion size and that's all that was good here. The meals were all next to flavourless and only just warm like they had been left on the side for ages. The curry's had no spice. My brother and I had a bhuna, tasteless and not spicy, my mum had a biryani, same, my uncle had a vindaloo also not spicy. My wife had a korma this tasted and looked like the korma sauce had started to curdle and seperate, this was put to one side and wasn't eaten. The kids noodles were spicy and too spicy to eat these were also left. There was some egg fried rice ordered, this was massively over peppered to the point that this was the only flavour. The naans were burnt on the bottom and under cooked on the top like they had been forgotten from the order and rushed into a too hot oven. These were dough-y and heavy and also almost tasteless. The bowls and plates were cleared and we were asked if we wanted to look at the dessert menu, we said yes and it took a while for the lady to come back with the menus. As she handed them out she said they only had coconut ice cream and no other deserts at this point it was 19.50pm, 3 hours since we had turned up and we had only had a main meal each. It's not like it was busy either there was only one other couple in there at the same time as us.

Poor service, worse food and nothing in stock. I will not recommend going here. What a...

Disappointed with Dishonest Delivery Charges – Not What It Used to Be!

I’ve been a regular customer of Papaya Restaurant, and always appreciated their fair delivery charge of just £1.50, even for orders under £10. But today’s experience was really disappointing.

I placed an order worth £16.47, but was told the minimum for delivery is now £20 – even though their menu clearly states £15. When I pointed this out and asked to cancel the order, the staff member said she’d check with the owner. A few minutes later, she sent back a new bill with a £3.50 delivery charge, clearly inflated just to bring the total to £20.

At that point, I had no choice but to cancel the order myself. It’s frustrating to see such inconsistency and what feels like manipulation of charges. If there are new policies, they should be updated and communicated clearly – not adjusted on the spot to force higher payments.

Really disappointed with how this was handled. Loyal customers deserve transparency, not surprises.

Reply to your response

Thanks for the reply. However, I’ve ordered from you more than four times before, and every time, I was only charged £1.50 for delivery, regardless of the order value. So claiming that was a mistake now feels unfair.

Your menu clearly states a £15 minimum order, and my order was £16.47. Suddenly being told it must be £20 and then increasing the delivery charge to match that amount seems misleading.

If your delivery charges vary by distance or order value, that should be clearly mentioned upfront, not adjusted mid-order. I had no choice but to cancel because of this inconsistent handling.

I like your food, but transparency and...

We ordered from Papaya for the first time, today. The business has been a part of burton latimer for some time, so suspected that there should be a reason why they've stuck around. For starter we ordered the chicken 65: it was a deep red colour, it looked amazing, garnished with some lettuce and cucumber (wish I had seen that on the menu as I'm an avid cucumber hater). The first bite was great, crisp succulent, I waited for the burst of flavour.. and waited.. and waited. We decided to have a mismatch of 'Chinese' and Indian. So for main we had Mongolian chicken and a chicken passanda. The Mongolian chicken was had a pleasant ginger taste to it but the texture of the chicken was off. We had the dish with a side of noodles, which were claggy and stuck together like they'd been boiled for days.The passanda was a passable passanda. We also had a cheese naan; this is where the experience really fell down. The naan was dense and undercooked. There were patches of gray, where there were no air bubbles in the dough. On the whole I would not rush to order from Papaya...