Rice & Spice — Restaurant in England

20/06/24 I am really sorry to say we went this evening for dinner. The greeting we received was ok.

As we ordered my son was asked if we liked spicy food, to which he replied that we do, a dish was recommended, as it was a mix of chicken, lamb, prawn & mushrooms we declined, sticking to our orginal order. We ordered a vegetable platter and a tetuly chicken as our starters. Most of mine was edible apart from a cauliflower pakora which was soggy & doughy. My son enjoyed his although he did say it was very sweet.

For mains we both chose a chicken tikka pathia with rice & naans. The pathia was very disappointing. The dish is described as hot, sweet & sour, this is a dish we have ordered and enjoyed many times previously. However, what was served was overly sweet & lacked any depth of flavour. The chicken bared no resemblance to chicken tikka, it seemed more like pre-cooked frozen chicken breast and as a result was dry and overcooked.

Eventually, about 20 mins after we had finished, leaving half of each dish, we were asked if we wanted to take what was left away. I did say that we found it to lack taste & mentioned how sweet it was, almost like a chicken derssert, only to be told we should have said that when ordering we liked it spicy. On paying the bill, this was reiterated, and we were further blamed for picking a mild dish, despite us trying to explain that we have had the Chicken Tikka Pathia many times before and the very same waiter that was taking payment, having been the one that asked us if we like spicy food and my son saying clearly "yes we like it very spicy"; we were still told that we were wrong in everything we were saying, regardless of the menu clearly stating it was hot, sweet and sour and listed seperately from the 'mild section'.

We were then asked where we live, as if where we live has any bearing on how we like our food and making me wonder if we were served sub par food as it was assumed we weren't local and wouldn't be revisiting.

After this evening's experience I would not recommend, if not due to the disapointing food but for the unprofessional way in which it was handled, we will not be returning, which is sad as you can see from my previous review, which I have left below, our experience tonight falls a long way short.

The Previous Review;

Three of us ate here this evening and thoroughly enjoy it. The staff are lovely, friendly, chatty and professional. Our food was delicious. My son was very happy with the keema rice as the meat was quite chunky. My daughter barely said a word, which I can tell you is a sign that she was enjoying her meal. My daughter and I shared a garlic rice, it was light and fluffy and gorgeously garlicky. My main, which I can't remember what it was called was super, really fresh and full of lemon flavours. This wasn't my first visit and it won't be out last. Highly...

I hate leaving a bad review, but I can only be honest. This review isn't great.. Maybe this place is better on the weekend. The previous reviews compared to what my partner and I experienced don't add up.

Upon arrival, we were greeted by an army of flies before being seated. If it wasn't for the torrential rain, I don't think we would have gone in as it just doesn't look welcoming. The first thing we noticed was how poor the atmosphere was, no life in the restaurant, no music playing. The restaurant was almost empty. 18:30 pm on a Wednesday night in the holiday season, you'd expect it to have some life. We were served by two waitors, who both kept repeating the same questions, we had to say we've already said we've brought our own drinks, it was really awkward. Then they both asked us if we wanted poppadoms. By the time our poppadoms had arrived, there were so many fruit flies hovering around our table it was just annoying. Between the flies, the awkward service, and the grim atmosphere, we decided to ask for takeaway service as the previous reviews had mentioned how good the food is.

They happily allowed us to order takeaway instead, but I was slightly annoyed that the waitor still wanted to charge us for bringing our own drinks, even though we hadn't opened them. They didn't charge us, but he tried.

We got back to our caravan with the food, and I don't have anything good to say about it. The chicken tikka masala was very sweet, almoat had a fruity flavour, and the chicken tikka biryani was very bland. The chicken was quite tough, the kind of toughness you get when it's been re-heated. Adding spice wouldn't have made it taste better. There was just an obvious lack of flavour to the food.

The only part of the meal I can compliment would be the rice and the lime pickle. The rest just doesn't cut it, and I couldn't order from here again. It just isn't anywhere near as good as what we are...

I came here with my family looking forward to a lovely Indian meal after reading some nice reviews on here. Firstly (no fault of the staff) we were seated next to a family that had a child with them, showing very obvious continuous covid cough symptoms and whom never covered his mouth whilst coughing) This made me feel very anxious as well as disgusted in the family being there. So I told a lady working there and she moved us straight away, with no problem at all. I was grateful and we tried to carry on enjoying our time there. Then we were served mostly throughout the evening by a male waiter (I'm guessing reading previous reviews, it's the same rude waiter others have already mentioned). He was dressed in a black t-shirt and wearing a gold chain. There was another male waiter and he was very professional and approachable but this particular waiter was awful. His customer service skills were slack and there was rice and naan bread missing from our meal which was down to his slack attitude but then slyly accused us, as though it was our fault, when he brought them to the table. We over heard him loudly state to other customers that he was 'the main man here.' to be honest, if it wasn't for that waiter I'd have rated this restaurant much higher. My suggestion is to listen to your customers and...