Passage To India — Restaurant in England

I was working in Crewe yesterday, so, as is frequently the case when working it was a solo meal.

I found the staff offhand to a stranger or solo customer. It seemed that the rest of the clientele where regulars, and i felt uncomfortable as an outsider.

My choice of aperitif was questioned three times, and when it arrived it appeared to be a short measure.

The menu clearly stated under the balti section that you could choose your style and add extra ingredients. Well, ordering a jalfrezi with extra potatoes proved a difficult affair, again with my choice being repeatedly questioned. I had the waiter repeat back my order to be sure he had understood, which he did. I specified a jalfrezi to help keep a threatening cold at bay. When it arrived, there was zero evidence of any hot chillies of any kind, and it was in fact a very mild curry, which i ate anyway not wanting to encounter any more xenophobia. The overall service was pretty poor, and whilst the food itself was ok (excellent pickle tray which they kept trying to remove despite the fact i was paying for it and had asked for it to be left), it was not what i ordered so eventually i complained. Here we go. Another one of those scenes which only occurs in England. The whole restaurant can hear, they want to make a big deal out of it wanting the complaint repeated in public to the next person up the chain of command and who knows how long or how embarrassing it would have continued or been had i not refused to pursue the complaint, simply that i had ordered jalfrezi, the waiter had understood as had i heard him order it in the kitchen and they had served up something completely different, presumably on the assumption that i wouldn't know the difference, despite having lived and worked in Birmingham England.

I paid at the bar, mentioning this dissatisfaction, to which the reply was that next time they would see to it that it didn't happen. No recompense beyond that.

There won't be a next time. It's a place for the locals and not somewhere to ask for something requiring a little attention. Not that a jalfrezi balti is normally a difficult accomplishment, nor uncommon, and I'm sure that most "Indian" restaurants keep a stock of chilli peppers and the like. I was particularly annoyed by the staff attitude to a solo customer asking for particular and far from unusual items and refusing rice, instead opting for the more traditional plain...

I am posting this message as a review, as requested by the restaurant (Ali), as they say they don't have an email address. This is the email I would have sent: Order 1079775065 Dear 'Passage of India', We are regular, if not frequent customers and until yesterday, were very satisfied with the food and the service that you provided. However the order I placed just after 1700 yesterday which you said would be delivered at 1920 actually arrived at 2041 - see attached picture. I phoned many times between around 1940 and 2015 but could only get through once (No doubt because other people were calling asking where their order was). The reply I got was 'We are very busy - the order will be there soon.' By this time our evening had been spoilt and I was quickly preparing another meal as my family were hungry. By the time of your delivery we were eating our own food.

Now I understand that even in the best run organisations things sometimes go wrong for reasons that may be outside your control. However the mark of a well run business is how you react to customers who complain that the service they received was not up to the standard you would expect. Ali has offered me a 50% discount on our next meal which I think is fair and reasonable but I would like some confirmation of this so that when order again in say 3 months time they have not...

Went to this restaurant last night with hubby daughter & son in law.. hubby & I are fairly newly vegan been vegetarian for 35+'years though. Daughter & son in law are vegetarian. We've been here as vegetarians many times & had takeaways deliverd too.. never a problem.. up til last night I asked if our meal could be made vegan & said no ghee etc.. they said no problem. So the meal arrived.. looked & tasted great as usual until my husband then found a piece of chicken tikka in his meal.. we had barely begun eating thankfully.. & he never ingested the chicken! We we were so distressed.. we called the waiter.. he agreed it was chicken & apologised.. & asked if we wanted anything else.. of course we did not as it was a sickening experience.. .. I might be mistaken but I feel it was done on purpose as we had asked for vegan dishes..somebody thinking it would be funny! ..whereas before we were vegetarian so just picked from the menu... so it was not an issue Suffice to say all vegans & veggies beware! They insisted it was a mistake but this is totally unacceptable in my opinion.. whether it was or not. We won't be going back which is a shame as the food is very good. Badly let down by this...