Diwana Bhel Poori House — Restaurant in London

Drummond St is the non tourist trap version of Brick Lane. Nestled behind Euston Station, it is a much smaller, and more vegetarian friendly location than the famous Lane of Curry. Whilst there aren't as many restaurants, I feel there are more varied options than you find on Brick Lane, with its cookie cutter restaurants that only seem to vary in decor. Drummond St is quite popular with the office worker crowd from around the area, so do expect it to be busy on weekday lunchtimes! The Diwani is one of the older looking choices, but fully vegetarian. Its decor might be a bit old and tired, but the food is fresh and tasty. I'll do my usual pros & cons:

Pros:

1. Handily located by Euston
2. Plenty of room inside, and outside
3. Friendly service, and relatively fast too, (I guess they're used to dealing with the lunchtime crowd)
4. The decor is a bit worn round the edges, and has lots of wooden tables, and small diners booths, but is not the cliche British Indian restaurant decor, and more reminiscent of what you would find travelling around India on the backpacker trail.
5. The menu is smaller than many, but has more than enough choice, and a good selection of Dhosas.
6. The price was what you'd expect for central London. About £10 per head for a full plate of food, and not bad value imo.

Cons:

1. The food, whilst nice, was nothing to write home about imo. I went with my mother and two elderly friends of hers, after a funeral, (as you do), and we all enjoyed it; especially the one lady who hadn't eaten much curry before, and had never had a dhosa. She adored it, and the level of heat was perfect for her; but the other three of us requested it to be quite spicy hot, and were all disappointed. The mango lassi I had was ok, but reminded me more of a thick Yop.
2. A I said, I went with three elderly ladies. Though I had mentioned it gets busy at lunchtime, this was a Monday in the arse end of Covid Times, so the place was only quarter full at most. Despite this, my mother was told they were full, and all the tables were reserved, (they did have "reserved" notices on), so were told the only available space was one of the booths, right by the service counter. Dining booths are tricky to get into at the best of times, but these ones were either designed to maximise space, or for Pygmies; and were a total pain, for not only the three more mature ladies to get into, but a squeeze for me sitting on the outside edge. Most annoying aspect of this was that not a single one of the other "reserved" tables was used the entire time we were there. In fact the only people to come in were two men. The place was empty! So all that discomfort was for nothing. Not impressed!
3. Whilst the value was fair, it was no better than most. I also didn't appreciate when it came to paying the bill, the waiter didn't hand over the card reader until he had asked if you wanted to add a tip on. Whilst I always tip, (according to the service), I didn't appreciate his tactic of not leaving the customer to quietly decide for themselves, but making them say out loud to his face, yes or no, and how much! If I had been paying, it would have been a firm "No" from me!

All in all, pretty nice food, not so great experience overall. Would have gone again if it didn't still rankle about the seating issue. Seeing three ladies in discomfort for no reason leaves a bad taste in the mouth, even if the...

Short version: Have eaten here twice for dinner (1st: party of 5, 2nd: party of 2), and the food was tasty and well-priced for the portion sizes on both occasions. Even so, it doesn't justify the subpar service, especially with 10% service charge automatically added. Maybe because the 2nd time we were more minimal in our orders. No-frills decor, wooden seating. Questionable hygiene. They only accept one card per bill; if you want to split the bill, pay cash. Seen some tables bring alcohol, so I believe they have a BYOB policy.

Long version - regarding the 2nd visit in particular:

Very affordable: £22 for 2 meals + hot drinks, including 10% service charge. I had the kofta with paratha; tasty though somewhat heavy towards the end with the richness of both the kofta sauce and the accompanying oily paratha.

Bare wooden tables and chairs, not the fanciest decor, but I didn't feel uncomfortably seated. Hygiene on the other hand was somewhat questionable. My menu had oil traces on it, then the Masala Indian tea I ordered came with a spoon placed on a stained plate, not sure whether from the Masala spices or otherwise.

Service was notably dreadful. We arrived around 6pm and the place was already busy, as I've heard it's popular and lots of regulars seem to frequent it, but not overbooked either. The owner/waiters seemed to greet regulars with a certain enthusiasm, but the waiter that took our order was devoid of any and answered our questions dismissively. The moment we put down our cutlery and appeared to have finish our plate, a waiter would be eagerly over to snatch it away, without even asking whether we were finished. Generally felt unwelcome, as if the staff were trying to chase us away as quickly as possible. Had we ordered more, we may have received better treatment (as they didn't appear as rude on the 1st visit), but I don't think I'll return...

We went here today for an evening meal and it was awful. The staff were so miserable and rude. They sat us towards the kitchen area in the left partition and the noise of the steel plates being thrown in the sink or washing buckets was a joke and amusing at first. But when the food came the smiles were totally wiped from our faces. we ordered Chana masala which was very bland and tasteless. Didn't really bother us because you can always add salt and chilli powder to correct the taste. The paratha was a joke. Made with white flour it was so thick and tasted like chewy plastic. you couldn't even tear it with your hands it was so rubbery! The sev chat starter was so sickly sweet and just swimming in tamarind watery sauce. It was disgusting and we felt insulted that a dish like this should be served to us indians!! My daughter ordered indian masala tea which looked like and tasted like weak teabag tea, not your proper indian tea brewed in a saucepan with fresh spices and lots of milk. Infact the food was so bad I was really angry. I wished we had ordered only the starters first and then walked out after this. But we ordered everything so had to stay till the end. The waiters were also so grumpy and rude that they just didn't like to approach you when you called them. I honestly think this restaurant caters for white europeans who really know nothing about real indian food, as we were the only indians in the restaurant. I felt totally cheated and ripped off. How can an 'indian' restaurant be this bad? Infact its not really 'indian' but probably Bangladeshi, which explains the really poor quality of food. Save your money and don't go here, you will kick yourself and punch yourself in...