Ambala Tooting — Restaurant in London

What can I say. Delicious sweets and samosas. I first came to the Ambala in Tooting in the early 1980s as a young child with my father. I’m not sure if the shop today is in the same place buys it is certainly close. My dad came to England from Pakistan in the late 1960s and married my mother, an old fashioned English country lady. She never really took to the ambala sweets but didn’t mind the less spicy savouries.

When my father worked in London in the early 80s he lodged with a Pakistani family in Tooting during the week, as we lived in the Midlands at the time. When we finally moved to the South East he remained friends with them and we frequently paid them visits. Whenever we did, he would always stop at the Ambala on the way to get things for them.

It is many many years since I went to the ambala in Tooting but have been several times recently as I find their samosas to be of unparalleled quality.

My parents have both since passed on. As for the family my father lodged with, I know the father died many years ago and sadly I am not in contact with them.

It gave me great pleasure to take my own young son there with me on one visit. So that’s now three generations of customers.

He never got to me his paternal grandmother. He did meet my father, but he was only 9 months when my father passed. Still I know my dad would smile and probably chuckle at the thought of my son going there.

There is also a branch in Drummond Street near Tottenham Court. There was also a branch for some years in near Tolworth Tower but sadly that went a few years ago.

Anyway do give it a try if...

Went to buy some mithai today from the Tooting branch. Whilst being served by 1st staff member the 2nd one standing in front of the food, in the main shop, began picking his nose! This was not a general touching of the nose but a good digging out. He done this deep picking around 6 times each time checking his fingers to see if he had snared the prey!

When I said to the staff member who was serving me, "I hope he is going to wash his hands", the staff member smiled and said to me "tell him".

I called to the guy picking his nose and asked the same question. "I hope your going to wash your hands". He replied "don't worry, we use gloves to handle the food, there is no problem". I again said "you are in the shop front and picking your nose deeply multiple times, you shouldn't do that here and you need to wash your hands". He replied angrily to me "it's ok! Do you have any problem?"

Luckily I hadn't paid for my box yet so I told the 1st staff member to keep his mithai and walked out.

I have complained to head office on the phone and will wait to see what action they will take. I have been going to Ambala since the mid eighties, this was when it was the only mithai shop in tooting. There are now six others and Ambala have lost me as...

I had ordered "Mithai" (celebration Tins for Baby arrival ) from Ambala online in the 2018. It was delivered to Wales, Quality was very good and Sweets was fresh. BUT this time I decided to go to the shop in Tooting to buy mithai as I was driving to London anyway. Staff was very rude and extremely un-welcoming. It was about 1130 hrs, there was no other customer in the shop and all 3 of them were standing in one cornor chatting and no-one noticed me for a while. Even once I had their attention they were still intrested in the chat rather than a "customer". When mithai was being packed I asked the fella do you have "Samosas", he nodded and pointed me to the other fella in the cornor, asked him, "can I have 6 Samosas plz"?, "there are only 5" he replied and passed me the parcel. I went onto to Till to pay for the whole order and asked why there was no more Samosas, he then asked the guy to go in the back room and get more out.

When I got back to Southampton and opened Samosa bags I found 3 out of 6 Samosas were burnt from inside (happens if Samosas are not sealed properly).

Mithai quality was good but it was definitely not fresh., so overall "Not a Great...