VEL RESTAURANT BRIGHTON — Restaurant in England

Such a let-down. I was excited by the menu, because a lot of the dishes they have are hard to find on Deliveroo in Brighton. But the quality simply wasn't there. The word of the day is: salt. Way too much salt, in everything. To the point where it's almost inedible. The first red flag was when I opened the samosa bag... I was expecting real home-made samosas, but was greeted by the frozen kind that are more like spring rolls than samosas. I knew things were gonna be disappointing as soon as I saw those. Very greasy, not very satisfying.

The next dish I tried was vada with sambar. The vada was whatever, nothing to write home about. Was annoyed that it was shipped inside the sambar so I couldn't try it while it was crispy, but that was forgivable. But the "sambar"... was not sambar. I was expecting a savoury flavor, but it was just salty sludge. Honestly reminded me of some kind of sauce from a cheap Chinese takeaway more than any kind of lentil stew I've had. Gross.

And then there was the cauliflower Manchurian. It was the dish I most looked forward to, and I'd say it was the best of the three... but that doesn't mean it was good. Mainly, it was ruined by TOO MUCH SALT. It at least had some heat to it, but I couldn't taste anything else but salt. The breading on the cauliflower was thin and not at all crispy like I was expecting... very disappointing. It was so salty that I lost my appetite after eating maybe 1/3 of the container. I was more concerned with finding a cold drink at this point.

Please work on your menu and go easy on the salt shaker... a little goes a long way. I have a lot of buyer's remorse for dropping 16 GBP on a bunch of frozen food-quality cuisine. I'll stick to the Indian places I know from now on... definitely...

Been in Brighton for a while now, and so many people have been hyping Vel up for being the “best Indian restaurant” in Brighton! That’s a questionable label…

First off the place was packed with tons of people, and this increased my expectations for the food. You can also see the chefs make the food in a traditional sense through the glass window, which was a show to watch!

We ordered a variety of food! Just wanted to note that it’s a South Indian restaurant meaning that the options differ compared to the commercialized Indian restaurants.

We waited for more than 30 minutes to be served the food as they had tons of orders to deal with.

The daal tarka was tasteless and way too thick! It was drenched in turmeric and missed the actual tarka that was expected.

The chicken 65 was quite average and was dry. I expected it to be more crispy and juicy.

The dosa was basically the only thing I enjoyed along with the flavorful chutneys and potato masala! It was crispy but got cold really quickly.

The filtered coffee was watered down and did not carry the essence of what filtered...

The food may be good but the online booking application is absolutely woeful. I booked for a table for five, which the booking system accepted. I was charged £10 for the privilege of making a reservation, which I found unusual for this type of restaurant. A day later and before the £10 was charged to my bank account, I received a call to say they were full. Fair enough, but they still took the deposit. I emailed three times to get it returned and called twice. The 'system' was blamed, the money should have been returned within 2-3 days, it wasn't. In the end I gave my bank details over the phone and it arrived. It's just a hassle and one I will not be experiencing with them again. Update, I had another call from there restaurant to apologise. Looks like the booking system was at fault, I believe they have stopped using it. The refund should have been made quicker, but at least it has now...