Dilara Uyghur Restaurant — Restaurant in London

Racist staffs and horrible service. It becomes terrible after 2022.

I'm an old customer since 2021. The staffs used to be very friendly and food was brilliant. However, everything changed after 2022. The last time I went there was in the Ramadan in March 2023. The staffs treated me and my partner rudely, and the owner's husband pointed at my nose and yelled me by saying some swear words in Uyghur. Me and my partner was shocked by their unexpected behaviour at that moment. My partner even cried sadly after we back home.

This is what we experienced:

1. We greeted to the restaurant owner nicely by saying 'Salam' when we entered. They ignored us deliberately but they quickly scanned us. They probably knew we had come in.

2. We found a table and sat there. No one came to serve us, even I said 'hi' to the staff. After that we had sat there for nearly half an hour, no one came to serve us, even no one pulled water for us! Because of this, we missed the right time to break the fasting. I stopped the staff and ask for an explanation. They used an excuse that they cannot understand English???

3. A nice brother near our table heard our complaint, he and his partner friendly passed their dates to us and let us break the fasting ASAP. When we were going to break the fasting and eat, the lady (owner) came and grabbed all the dates from our table.

4. After a few minutes, the owner lady came to our table, and used an impolite and impatient way spoke to us in CHINESE? Excuse me? We don't speak Chinese, madam! We felt very strange and uncomfortable that she spoke rudely to a Kazakh and Kyrgyz couple in Chinese. We've been here before, she knows us, so it's not accidently, she was mean to us.

The most terrible thing we faced: 5) Throughout all the unfair treatment above, we decided to leave. Before, we left, I chatted with an Uyghur aunt in the restaurant, and said explained the unfair treatment we experienced to her. The rude owner lady suddenly interrupted our conversation and accused me. A few seconds later, the owner's husband used his index finger point at my nose and yelled at me and my partner by saying Uyghur swear words.

It was really bad how they treated other Turkic people. When the man pointed and shouted at us, my partner was controlling her tears and I'm using my whole force to control my anger. After a few seconds dizziness in my head, I asked the owner how dare they treated other Turks awfully. The Uyghur lady (owner) replied me, "This is our service. So what?"

This restaurant was great before 2022. The first time when I came here they greeted me friendly and gave me free snacks after meal, and no service charge. The price is getting much higher after 2022. The fact is that the higher price the more terrible service.

I've shared my bad experience to the Uyghur Communities and other Muslim brothers, and I find that the restaurant also treated some Uyghur quite rude. No matter customers from which culture, religion, ethnicity, this is not the appropriate way to people, especially it was horrible happened during the Ramadan.

BTW, the Chai (milk tea) is not authentic, it tastes like bubble tea. The authentic chai tastes salty. Laghman (noodle) is too...

Worst restaurant experience! Visit date 29th September 2023 Apparently, the lady who owns the place was serving and she said bad words about her staff whilst taking our order. I ordered lamb noodles without vegetables. Because I asked few questions about type of noodles, owner very rudely told my female Chinese Muslim companion that I am fussy and if we have kissed or we are dating and told her to be careful. How dare you lady? You can ruin people’s relationships and lives due to your big uncontrolled mouth. I was shocked by her sheer arrogance and bad manners. When food arrived, she didn’t bother to have the veggies removed and told me blatantly that I didn’t request vegetables to be removed. I again ignored as I wanted to be get n done with her place asap. Whilst trying noodles I suspected meat not to be lamb and upon inquiring she casually said it’s beef not lamb ! Surely, I couldn’t eat that anymore. I should sue her for this ! After another 20 mins lamb skewers arrived and when we were just about to leave she brought salad which was left over ( we did order salad but it should have been brought earlier not when you’re closing your restaurant and you decide to earn £6 from left over salad from customers who are already, my friend requested that to taken away as we had left table already ) I have been to many Chinese Muslim restaurants in China but this experience was beyond unimaginable. Their business is running well hence she can decide to bad mouth her stuff. She thinks she can ignore customer requests and give them anything to eat whatever she likes and interfere in their personal lives ! Very bad ! I don’t eat beef due to medical reasons and she did not even bother to apologise or let alone feel sorry for her mistake.

To owner lady;

Please respect the people who work at your restaurant. Please take food order instructions clearly, if you’re having bad mood, please don’t work. Kindly do not ask personal questions as your silly questions about kissing was beyond professional and ethical. It’s none of your business. Lastly, you could be sued for lying and serving wrong food as some people don’t eat beef due to religious reasons. It was terrible experience

After this experience, I want people to be careful from this restaurant owner, staff and customers both.

I am giving 1 star because I can’t give any lower but surely I’ll be calling your...

Blackstock Road, a rough area, leading off from Finsbury Park. An interesting mix of restaurants which close at ten, at least close at ten midweek. And yet barber shops not only open but packed.

Wednesday night last week I found nearly everywhere closed and ended up at JoJo Kitchen, an Ethiopian restaurant. The food was disgusting.

The next night, a very cold night, I looked in an Italian restaurant. The door was open and inside it was as cold as outdoors. Owner refused to close the door. I did not fancy anything on the menu and walked out. No surprise the restaurant was empty.

I walked by back up Blackstock Road, and ended up it Dilara, which I had looked in earlier.

BBC Travel (guide to Blackstock Road)

quote -

Dilara, a Uyghur restaurant and takeaway run by husband-and-wife team, Abdul and Rose Axmu. Escaping persecution in Xinjiang, an autonomous territory in north-west China, they came to the UK and opened this business seven years ago.

Uyghur food is a tantalising melting-pot of Central Asian cultures; here you'll find hand-pulled flat noodles, meat samosas, dumplings, aubergine stew, pilaf rice, chilli chicken and spiced lamb kebabs – "the best!" asserted Rose. "It's exhausting work to prepare all these dishes. But we like our customers who even come from far outside London."

end quote -

If think Chinese, wrong, closest would be Afghan.

I asked of soup. No soup, only in the morning. In the morning, I have muesli. It was recommended that I crossed the road to a grill, where I would find soup. This I did. Lentil soup. Then returned.

I asked what the dishes were. I picked what I think was lamb and aubergine. But I may be wrong. It was served with couscous and rice. To my suprise, I was also brought a plate of salad.

Portion size very generous. Very tasty. The down side, very very oily. Too oily.

I asked a table what they were drinking. Effe. I too...