Chaula's Indian Restaurant Lewes — Restaurant in Lewes

By word of mouth we had been given loads of positive feedback by word about this restaurant, and my partner and I had been craving a good Indian meal for some time, so we booked a table. On arrival (7.40pm), agreed we was early we were shown out table straight away, fantastic. We ordered our drinks, starters and our main courses, this is where things went slightly sideways. I ordered a whisky (Glenfiddich 12) and ginger ale. Upon having a taste, the drink smelt and tasted like curry. Not what I had hoped for at £12 a shot, but as we were having a nice evening out I didn’t make a fuss about it.

As normal we had poppadom’s and the three dips, the dips were in the smallest pots you could imagine, I guess they wanted to make sure you didn’t overeat to early, I will give them the benefit of the doubt here. Starters arrived a little while after, and to be honest they were good, and nice size portions as well. One of the staff came and cleared our table at about 8.15pm, so we sat and waited for the mains to come out.

During this time we saw at least three other couples come in and be seated, there orders taken and like us their starters turned up fairly quickly. Then the people around us started to have their main meals brought out to them. We had ordered way before them but ours did not come out. We waited until 9.25pm for our meals, even stopping staff to ask what was going on and when our dishes will turn up. We knew that we had been forgotten, and our meals were not even ready.

My partner had ordered the Thalis, this is like a sample of three small curries and other items samosas etc. and I had the Hydrabadi chicken curry, when they arrived mine was only just warm and my partner had two warm curries and one cold. All the dishes were served in cold pots, which from visiting other Indian restaurants was very unusual, they are normally hot to help keep them warm. As by this time we ate some of the curries as we were really hungry by this point. But to be honest once I had some of my curry and found chunks of bone in there I was pretty much put off and gave up on the whole experience.

One member of staff cam over and we asked if everything was okay, at which point we explained the issues and that we were not very happy with what we had received, We was offered a free drink and gave us some sob story that they were short staffed and that’s why things had taken longer than we had expected. I don’t see how everyone else had been served, eaten and had paid and left before us. As the time was coming up to 10.00pm we asked for the bill so we could leave. Mins later he returned, my partner checked the bill, and despite our complaints about the food he had seen fit to add a service charge. We requested that that be removed, which he did. We paid and left and will not return, although it’s a funky place to eat and the prices would give you the impression of a premium Indian restaurant, its far from it and I would urge others to try other restaurants first and only try here if your happy with below average service and luke warm food.

I would give zero stars if that was an option, sadly I cannot so it gets one star.

I have given a lengthy and detailed account of my experience. These comments are a full and honest account of the whole meal out. I am not in the habit of making fictious reviews, and the depth of my review should indicate that it is a true and honest feedback.

And for the owner to imply that I have lied in my review should indicate to clients what they think people who visit them and have a terrible experience. Instead of taking the criticism and improving, they call customers liars when the review isn't to their liking. I am sorry, if the service and experience is really bad, I will tell it how it is. To the owner, if you don't like bad reviews, improve your service and give the customer service we pay for.

• ZERO STARS FOR THIS...

A Evening Spoilt

We are an Indian Couple staying in South East UK. We wanted to have some Indian Food out so unfortunately, landed into Chaula’s Restaurant in Brighton yesterday evening. It was a weekday and we thought some nice Indian food would be refreshing, but our evening was spoilt by the pathetic service and below average food. When we went in there were couple of tables empty. We asked for the one which had a couch seating arrangement. We were denied that table saying that is for 3 people. The table was not reserved. So as good citizens we settled for a small table in the middle of the pass way. As soon as we sat down, two English gentlemen entered the restaurant and asked for the same table. Despite other tables being empty and being 2 in number they were offered the table with the couch which we had asked merely seconds before. We ignored the fact and concentrated on the Menu. While we were still looking the foods menu and were about to check the drinks menu, a waiter came up and without asking took away the drinks menu and passed it onto other table where another family of other nationality was seated. This was a very abrupt action and before we could realize what he did, he was gone. My husband called the waiter and asked him “Are you short of menus?’ He sounded lost and he said I will check and ran away. Meanwhile when the other family completed their ordering process, we were given the drinks menu back. I ordered for a fresh lime and my husband ordered a glass of wine. I got the so called fresh lime after sometime. The waiter served it without a tray the fresh lime was overflowing from the glass and he kept the dripping glass in front of me. I tasted it and it was I don’t know what. Never tasted a worst fresh lime. Seemed, they have taken some tap water and added some lime juice to it. Most awful thing I ever had. I lost it and called the waiter and asked is this what you serve for Fresh Lime. He took it away then another waiter came with the same glass asking what was wrong with it, I told him it was completely tasteless so took it over the bar and right in front of me added some sugar with his hand and some ice again using his hand and got it back. Then came the starters which were cold, the Paneer in my Paneer Tikka was really hard. We finished our starters waited so long to get our table cleared after a long wait he cleared our table and even till then my husband never got his wine and again after serving everyone else around us who came after us he got us our main course and then he remembered about the wine we told him we don’t want it now but he insisted and said it’s on the house. We somehow finished our meal by that time it was really difficult for us to sit there as we were feeling insulted and when the bill came he had added the wine in it, we didn’t say anything because didn’t want to create a scene and spoil others evening, but the overall experience was a disaster we are never going back there. I just want to know one thing, being an Indian if I go to an Indian restaurant, if there a difference in money that I pay as compared to a person with other nationality. We have never experienced such an awful service ever in India even. I would rate this restaurant as the most pathetic one I have ever been. The staff is senseless. I would never recommend...

Mediocre overpriced food, appalling service and disingenuous business practices.

Chaulas food is highly variable in quality, and never better than mediocre. I have tried and retried their offering several times over the years, however after tonight's shocking experience I will never be going back, and would advise anyone thinking of trying them to look elsewhere.

The last time I ordered a takeaway from here was several months ago. The order came to just under £15. On collection the member of staff taking my payment mentioned that I should order an extra sundry item next time, as collection orders over £15 receive a 10% discount.

On placing my order this evening I enquired what the total came to, and was told £15.05. On collection when making payment I was slightly surprised no mention was made of the 10% discount, which is clearly stated on the back of their menu.

On enquiring about this oversight, the owner Chaula, who was serving me, informed me that the discount did not apply as part of my order was a samosa, which apparently “came from the front not the back”.

I told Chaula that I thought it disingenuous to offer a discount on the menu, then apply unmentioned terms and conditions to it on collection. It makes no difference to me whether the samosa comes from the ‘front or the back’. If you offer a 10% discount on orders over £15, and my order is over £15 I expect to receive the discount.

Despite my protestations Chaula held firm on her position, and was rather obnoxious in her attitude. I couldn't care less about the £1.50, however I was astonished that the owner of a long standing business such as Chaulas could give such shocking disregard to customer service, and be pig ignorant enough to alienate a customer in such a way.

I now fully understand why this restaurant has received so many other negative reviews that are scathing of their revolting attitude and derogatory about their frankly extremely overpriced and extremely...