Avatar Dining — Restaurant in Harborough

I ordered a takeaway over the telephone and was told it would be ready in 35-40 mins. I went and picked up a few things from the shops on the way so arrived 45mins after my order was placed and was asked to pay at the bar and then take a seat. After 25mins I asked where my food was and the waiter gave me no response just wondered off to the bar, and a couple of mins later someone resembling a manager appeared and asked what the problem was. I explained I'd been waiting for nearly half an hour having been told initialy that the food would be ready in 35-40 mins for collection. I was asked to give him 30s while he went and checked. 3-4mins later he re-appeared from the kitchen and told me if it wasn't ready in 3mins I could have it for free.

5mins later it appeared and I attempted to explain again WHY I was p*ed off; if someone orders a takeaway and are told it will be ready in 35-40 mins its not acceptable to then be made to wait for over 1/2hr for it to appear. I also pointed out the people sitting next to me were told 5mins for a table and had been waiting 15, and the people who turned up 5mins AFTER them had been told 3mins for a table and were also still waiting... The staff appear to have NO concept of time and its passing. During this discussion a waitress walked upto the manager, butted in by saying "sorry to interupt.." and then started talking to him in another language and he turned his back on me to talk with her.. By this time I'd had enough, grabbed my dinner, and stormed out!

When I got home, I was glad atlast to have some food, as I'd had a busy day and was starving! We ordered the following which came to around £30 with the take-out discount

Chicken Jalfrezi Lamb Dupiaza Pilau Rice Chilli and Cheese nan Peshwari nan Onion Bahjis Meat Samosas 4x popadums and pickles

2x small meat samosas were average, and came "reclining on a bed of soggy watercress and bean-shoots"

3x onion bahjis were nice, but lacked any real bite and again came with a strange side-salad which was more chinese than indian

The small amount of Peshwari nan I had was really good, but the cheese and chilli nan my wife ordered was so hot she couldn't eat it so swapped with me (thanks!). I found this nan weird; it was as-if someone had put clumps of chili powder in it as parts were basically just bread, whereas other parts could have kick-started a nuclear reactor!

Pilau rice is pilau rice; not sure how anyone could mess that up

My wifes lamb Dupiaza was totally bland, and again presumably had lumps of chilli powder in it because parts were ridiculously hot, whereas others had no spice at all. She eats quite spicy food regularly and wasn't being "girlie" (sorry ladies) about it; it literally was either dull or volcanic, and not volcanic in a spicy/flavoursome way, just hot

My chicken Jalfrezi was probably the worst I've had; if I had to recreate it, I think I'd start by stewing 50g of chicken in a tin of chopped tomatos and 1/4 of an onion.. ..and that would be it! Seemingly no spices, definitely no chilli's and to make it taste worthy of chewing I had to add salt and pepper

I read the reviews on this site and trip-advisor for a few indians in the area before ordering, because we've struggled to find a decent take-away since moving out of the city-center. This place came pretty highly recommended, but was a major disappointment for me and my wife.

At this point I'd love to be able to find some good to add to this review, but the only thing I can think of is that their sofa in the reception area is fairly comfortable! Otherwise it was an all-around-awful experience.. I will probably drive further next time I feel the need for a curry and eat-in; you can get far better for less in...

Sunday Buffet - booked online, they put up a birthday banner which was nice. Asked for a couple of minutes to decide drinks 7-8 minutes later i had to go to fetch the waiter who was standing near the front. Made a hash of our simple drinks order, it did get confusing. The chap who came to clarify the order was apologising saying the waiter was new. Food the starters were very good. Dips good, Meat Mains good, Saag Paneer wasn't to my liking and unlike any saag i have had before, didn't try the other 2 veg. Kheer desert I was looking forward to was awful, had a strange taste which I can't place, but was not pleasant. Presented with the bill by a staff member and they put the charge for all the group (adults and children) at the adult price. So having interaction with 4 staff - Chap who took drinks, chap who served drinks, chap (manager?) who said the bill would be bought to the table, lady who bought the bill, I went to query it and (the manager?) seemed hesitant in saying there was a child price, and then the age it applied at, under 11 then under 10 - and when I gave the children's ages he was asking me how many would be at the child price? Just came over as amateurish, expected more from one of the highest rated restaurants in town! unsure if we were unlucky and went on a day they had all new front...

We booked here to meet friends coming in from a different town, we arrived early, 7.10, and were shown to our table, our friends are 10 mins later and were shown to a different table which wasn't in sight of ours. We spent 25 mins both waiting for the other! They eventually realised their mistake, and we were seated, this was now 7.45. We had poppadoms and ordered our starter and mains. Whilst the starter came quickly, we were still waiting for our mains at 9.50. Even then we had to ask where it was. I have to say my dinner was lovely but my wife and the other guests dinners were luke warm and in the case of our friend her dinner looked almost the strangest curry I've ever seen, neither my wife or friends would ever come again. I had eaten here in the past and enjoyed it and as stated enjoyed my dinner but this wasn't a good experience. They did take 10% off the bill and offered drinks we didn't accept as just wanted to leave but as for fine dinning not this visit thats for sure. They apologised by saying they were short in the kitchen and our server said he'd been working both in the kitchen and front of house that evening, but in all honestly it was a disappointing £140 spent on a poor meal with poor service. Just another dissapointing point, the beer was warm as was my wife's wine not a good...