Est India - Authentic Indian Restaurant London Bridge — Restaurant in London

Est India: Left with a bad taste

I booked a table at Est India for 17:30 through First Table. The concept of First Table is ‘First Table is a restaurant discovery website offering 50% off the first table at breakfast, lunch or dinner at participating restaurants. It’s the perfect incentive for food lovers to try new and exciting restaurants while saving money by dining during off-peak times.’ This is a great idea.

I first visited Est India over 10 years ago and enjoyed the experience. I now live within walking distance of the restaurant and was pleased to rediscover it through First Table. I decided to take my daughter there to celebrate her birthday. We’d had a lovely day out in London and this was going to be great way to round off the day.

We arrived in plenty of time, as required by the First Table booking conditions and we enjoyed a reasonably tasty meal with lovely service from the waiter, even though he forgot to order one of the dishes & they arrived in the wrong order (a side dish ordered arrived as a starter and one starter dish just never came). This however was all fine.

Then the time came to settle the bill which came to £50.66. Upon checking this I found that although we’d spent a total of £54.75 on food only £18.25 had been discounted. I queried this as 50% of our food bill should have meant a discount of £27.38. The manager claimed that in the conditions of booking the 50% only applied to the main courses, however this made no sense at all as there is no combination of plates which comes to £36.50. The manager asserted that I hadn’t read the booking conditions carefully and that in the small print it’s clear that the discount only applies to the main course. I said that I’d check and leave a review as requested as I’d agreed to do so on booking the table. I paid, without the application of the 50% discount and left.

I have since checked and there are no ‘special conditions/small print’ as claimed. The First Table website appears to be very clear that the discounted rate applies to all food but not beverages. On Est India’s page within First Table there are no exceptions to this and there are no exceptions on the voucher which I paid for.

So overall, I quite enjoyed the food but was left with a bad taste feeling conned by the ‘special offer’ which is clearly a deception devised to lure patrons in but not to deliver. This is especially sad as I had been looking forward to becoming a frequent visitor to Est India, now that I live within walking distance, but now I feel that’s is unlikely that I will ever set foot within this establishment again. I have never left a negative review of restaurant visits previously and am, I believe, usually generous in my appreciation. I feel sad that Est India has changed that trend. Would I recommend this experience? I can say, without any reservation, that I would not, unless you enjoy being...

So, I and my husband decided to visit this place for some good Indian food. (Specifically Pav Bhaji) I made a reservation 1 hour prior ...we reached on time...the waiter took us to a corner table even though the hotel was almost empty with other more comfortable tables to dine at. I requested him 'can we sit there (was a sofa table for 2)'..to this he flatly denied. Okay we kept our cool and sat down to place the order. (Though we were immediately put off by his attitude). The order: As I mentioned, I wanted to eat pav Bhaji ...so initially we ordered 2 pav Bhajis and masala wedges....as soon as we ordered this, the waiter immediately replied saying "we do not take only sides as orders...u have to order the main course" Okay so we we're like ..this is a bit wierd..but we told him for now this is it..we will order the main course later...he agreed. But somehow his attitude all the time was not right..it was disappointing. Also, I requested for the pav Bhajis to be a little hot...to this he gave a v flat reply saying " it is already hot" ( the menu did had even a single chilly sign on it, that's the reason I decided to ask him). Then after some time we also ordered 2 aloo parathas and Bhindi Dopiyaza. So already we were upset by his attitude and then comes the food. Pav Bhaji - it was no.way tasting like a pav Bhaji...more of tomato vegetable. The pav was soft though...but very small.

Aloo paratha- Not stuffed properly atall no, no salt no spice. Bhindi Dopiyaza- No salt, no taste.

So, I couldn't resist my disappointment after we were served the main course. So I called him and told him, there is no salt and taste to the food. I also asked if they had an Indian chef. He said "yes we do have an Indian chef and arguably replied you are the first one to complain about it". This was very rude. I returned the Bhindi for him to add salt and ammend it. He denies ammending or or making the parathas again. He said we make parathas this way only. By this time we had lost the appetite and mood to eat. My husband simply requested to get the food parceled.

But the waiter insisted me to try the food once after he got it ammended. I tried it had salt now...little more I guess..I just tasted a bit and got everything parceled, paid and left.

So, it was a v bad experience for us both in terms of food and hospitality. And not to mention that there were no apologies.

(Also, I have already mailed at the mentioned address 6 days back, and haven't yet received any reply. Expecting an explanation though. Please let me know if you need any more details, I believe my mail and also the Zomato review is...

I don't normally give bad reviews but I have to make an acception.

So I we got here fairly late into the night and rather than being told they were closing, we were requested to order quickly. We ordered our food which some (not all) of the group ordered popadoms (the rest of this will come later). When the food came, it felt like it was thrown at us due to the staff wanting to finish quickly. The food itself was probably some of the worst Indian food I have eaten. I normally have a korma which is quite easy and can't really get wrong... It was wrong. It was bland, no sweetness to the sauce. I might as well have ordered chicken in cream. My fellow diners has similar things to say about their meals.

Knowing they wanted to leave, we received the bill where we were charged for all of the group having popadoms. We stated it doesn't say in the menu that we will be charged per table. After some deliberation, they finally took it off our bill. The best greeting we got was from a gentleman standing at the desk when we left (not behind the bar).

Fast forward to 16-48 hours later, the whole group have had stomach aches (I even write this as I sit on the toilet).

My best advice is, there are many good places around London bridge you can go for food. This is not one of them. Very pricey and sub standard food. Avoid...