Tandem Restaurant Leicester — Restaurant in England

We first went to Tandem around the time it first opened. At that time, I recall the food being quite nice. I’m not sure what happened since Covid, but it seems to have gone downhill since then. One of the staff said it has been quite quiet, so maybe the team have lost their flow? 🤷‍♂️

Venue … The venue although nice, has a weird layout. We were sat on the ground floor in a room that was accessible from both sides. The double doors on the far side led to stairs to an upstairs seating area. Every so often customers would be walk through the room to get to the upstairs area. If it wasn’t customers, it would be staff trying to get from the bar area to the kitchen / upstairs areas. The space needs a major rethink to create the the high-end, luxurious feeling the owners are reaching for. As a quick interim fix, some screening between the walk way and tables may help provide privacy and structure. The area feels very square, and although nicely decorated, the table layout feels cold and uninspiring. Furthermore, the down lights in the corners are cold in colour, compromising the warmth given from other fixtures.

Food … We ordered the Chicken Jalfrezi, Chicken Tawa Masala, Tadka Dal, Lacha Paratha, Garlic Naan and Sliced Onions.

The Chicken Jalfrezi and Chicken Tawa were identical in appearance, and also very similar in taste. No real attempt had been made to make the dishes look appealing. Something I would have expected, especially given the price and setting the food is being served in. The dishes could have easily be mistaken for something you’d get at your local takeaway. Very colourful (artificial?), oily and overall lacking distinct flavour to separate them. The initial couple of bites were okay, probably because we were hungry, but the experience quickly became underwhelming. This might have been down to us ordering the dishes as “mild”. However, I believe a dish can be flavourful without being spicy. Spice is not flavour. Unfortunately, the chef might have have become reliant on spice to add “flavour” as it would have been the only thing to mask the overall lack of taste.

The only saving grace was the tarka dal. It was a bit salty, but it helped restore some faith in Tandem. It went quite nicely with the garlic naan. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to save the meal, and all I can taste now is a salty oily residue lingering in the back of throat.

Service … The staff were very polite and welcoming, and overall service was fine. However, as mentioned before, it doesn’t quite match up to the environment it’s conducted in.

Unfortunately, there was a damp smelling odour from one of the waiters. This is not something I’d expect to smell while ordering and eating food.

Small, but important … Once the plates were taken away, the table should have been promptly cleared before anything else was done. Even after noticing the dirty table upon bringing the bill, the waiter didn’t clean it. Instead he continued to gently lay down the leather wallet onto a dirty table.

I believe the waiter that brought food and bill must have been in training. This is fine, but basic service etiquette should be taught before allowing staff to serve customers.

Summary … The staff were nice, but the food not so. I’m not sure if standards have slipped since Covid, but after this meal, I’m not sure I’d come back. Especially considering a place like Tamatanga exists in close proximity. The food and experience would have to be much better to justify going to Tandem. Tandem does have a nicer venue, and is a lot more quieter, but the food is better at Tamatanga.

I hope the owners read the review, and take the suggestions on board. The lack of customers can no longer be blamed on Covid, as places like Tamatanga are very busy. Tandem need to bring back focus on the food, so there wouldn’t be a need to push the cocktails. It has the potential to be a great dining experience, but it needs a bit of work...

Even if this was priced more reasonably (despite allegedly being 50% off) it would still have been average at best. There were three of us, we were working and staying in the area and passed on the way back to our hotel so spoke to the fella front of house and booked a table for an hour later so we could wash and change. Covid rules and practices were in place and were followed. Two of us had starters Lamb chops apparently tasty and my Tandoori tiger prawns which were small (ONLY 3!!) in comparison to the shell-on whole prawns that I am more familiar with wherever I order this dish, the salads that came with the starters were poor and we thought straight out of a packet, really no better than a supermarket bag. Three Curry dishes, two rice and three naan breads. Both the Jalfrezi were average and appeared/tasted like regular chicken rather than chicken tikka the chicken was small pieces again almost as if from a catering bag, a little dry and almost crumbly we eat Jalfrezi everywhere we go and this did not really taste like one. Naan breads were served in small triangular slices rather than whole, we pieced them together so we could accurately see what size the Naan breads were..........very very small but they tasted fine. When the bill came we checked it and it was wrong as we had been charged £5+ for a pint we had never had!! Anywhere that thinks it can charge £13:00 for a Lamb korma, £4:00 Pilau rice, £5:00 Small Keema naan and over £5:00 per pint needs to provide both quality AND quantity, unfortunately this venue fell short. A lot of these sort of "contemporary" places miss the mark as they are fixated with their story, odd looking plates and SMALL pretty little dishes instead of a good...

Be careful when booking because they be charging 10 pound for each person if cancelled the booking. I cancelled it because didn’t know if it was halal. Also the last time i went mfs gave my vegetarian friend chicken. We ordered paneer, but there was no paneer but chicken. To the tandem restaurant: who replied. I went to this restaurant a year ago, I remember it because u guys gave a free drinks for the mistake. Check 18th September 2021 and ask ur whole staff who was working over there, and it won’t be surprising if u guys said “that theres no record” obviously protecting ur reputation and whatever. That was the first and last time I stepped into that restaurant. If i hadn’t tasted the food, my friend would have never knew about it. And i do have different religions friends, i dont care if the food is halal or not becuz m hindu and non-veg. But my muslims friends do have problems. It’s surprising how a restaurant owner can think this way and judge wht type of people i was going to bring. And who reads the terms and conditions. When we cancelling, u guys should mention it again about the charge. Becuz 10 pounds for 1 person is unacceptable. Looks like u guys are not earning much so u guys are robbing customers. And u telling me that I didn’t inform, excuse me, i did call them. And they didnt pick up. Its not my fault you guys didnt pick up. Also i saw all the reviews who gave u 1 or 2 stars, and u guys are justifying urself?!! Huh!! Like people are supposed to give their honest opinions and when they do, u be telling them, “oh no u wrong”… great service sir/madam...