Spice Merchant — Restaurant in England

Absolutely disgusting service. Went for a birthday afternoon tea , booked weeks in advance for 2pm. Service prior to attendance was great, lots of follow up calls advise of a nut allergy, and 4 vegetarians and 4 meat eaters. Table was lovely set when we arrived, I did request somewhere cool as we had a baby with us and it was very hot. The afternoon tea set layout was lovely but it went crash landing down hill: No water served so had to request this repeatedly. No tea so had to ask for this and was only given Indian tea which was not authentic towards the end of the meal. Meat samosas served on the vegetarian afternoon tea, only noticed when it was cut into. Nuts on the tray for someone with a nut allergy. No dips served, had to ask for this. Waiters were clueless and rude, asked for a tea top up and was still waiting 30 minutes later.....we are still waiting...🤔 It got to the point where we gave up asking for basic things, like cutlery and water as this took ages to arrive or didn't arrive. Scones arrived at the end with no cream, so I asked the man (who I can only assume was the manager) to provide this after he seemed surprised it hadn't come already. Waiters were laughing in full nkew of us at the fact we didn't get any extra tea and the poor service, which was heartbreaking as it was for mums 71st birthday where were all travelled from over an hour away and she barely goes out due to limited mobility. She was so excited to go and got dressed up, which made this occasion even more heartbreaking. Supposed manager was argumentative when we provided feedback and his good will gesture was to remove the "optional" service charge from the bill, where he out the bill on the table and walked off. Menu states: A CHOICE OF OUR SELECTION OF FINE LOOSE LEAF TEAS INDIAN CHILLI PANEER Batons of Indian cottage cheese tossed with spring onions and peppers in a sticky sweet sauce MIXED VEGETABLE WRAP Mixed vegetables in a masala sauce wrapped in a homemade chapati GINGER POTATO Potato cakes stuffed with lentil and topped with ginger SAG ALOO SKEWER Spinach and potato pieces rolled together with turmeric DELICATELY SPICED VEGETABLE SAMOSA Triangular pastry pockets filled with lightly spiced mixed vegetables PAKORA Spring vegetables mixed with aromatic herbs and spices bound together with gram flour MANGO LASSI Indian infused mango milkshake GULAB JAMUN A milky Indian sponge soaked in a sugary syrup BOMBAY MESS Crushed meringue, mango and cream topped with grated pistachio MACARONS Assorted tea-flavoured macarons FRESHLY-MADE FRUIT SCONES DESSERT OF THE DAY

There was NO selection fine lose leaf teas, nor ginger potato.

The afternoon tea was preagreed for 2pm, via a telephone booking, if this was an issue, staff should have raised this then as we were happy to book it earlier. We were told the staff were waiting for us to leave and the chef had left so thrown everything away. There was only 1 other group so it wasn't busy to warrant the poor customer service. I wouldn't even bother wasting your time. Lovely décor but the staff and customer service is shockingly disgusting. Go Southall where the food will be authentic. If I could give less that 1 star I would. Save your money, don't let them mess up your day and avoid at all cost....

We went here today for my sisters birthday, as we had been here before and it used to be great. However, the standards have dropped majorly. The lollipop chicken was completely burnt, when we complained to the staff, the waitress replied with “No, it’s not burnt this is how WE make our chicken” she seemed very stuck up and didn’t want to admit that the chicken was completely over cooked, nor did she apologise or even take it off the bill like most restaurants do. Secondly, the waiters were hovering around us and made us feel very uncomfortable, we couldn’t even talk privately without them standing around and listening to our conversations. The atmosphere was completely dead especially for a bank holiday weekend. When it came to ordering drinks the waiter said we don’t have Pepsi max, sprite, fanta, mocktails, or sweet Lassi. We were shocked because they didn’t seem to have anything. Even the vegetarian starters were very limited compared to most other Indian restaurants. The food was a joke, the raita was sweet, the food lacked flavour no spices or anything, the broccoli tasted like charcoal absolutely disgusting! Overall very disappointing, and it’s an expensive place so you’d expect top quality food and great service, but everything from the food, and the service and even the lack of things on the menu made it a terrible experience for us. We wanted my sister to enjoy her birthday but unfortunately this place has gone down hill, and nobody liked the food, and the way we were treated by the staff, therefore we won’t be returning...

We ordered a NYE curry for collect and prior to collecting we called twice to check for allergy information - we had a person with severe nut allergy.

When the food arrived, it was all unlabelled and we were not able to different between any of the curries.

We called the Spice Merchant and they attempted to identify the curries via FaceTime - this was unsuccessful. They suggested that our butt allergy person eats the Salmon Tikka (Someone else’s main meal). They then asked if they could replace the whole order - it’s wasn’t until I requested just the Chicken Bhuna (nut allergy friendly) be sent, they asked if we could collect it.

At no point was it suggested we could have a refund, we were not offered any compensation for the inconvenience, and were asked to collect the curry after their mistake.

The biggest worry in this whole situation is the fact that the curry house NEVER label food, which was stipulated by the owner we spoke with - I’m sure this is a violation of allergy and food standards?

We would like a refund on our experience but we were denied that.

Be careful with allergies at this curry house as it doesn’t label its food at all and doesn’t seem to care for the safety of food...