Khan's Restaurant — Restaurant in London

Been coming here for years always with family and it has long been my favourite restaurant with what I thought was the best chicken tikka biryani on the planet. Havent been able to visit for the past few years so decided I would go and treat my mum for once to a mother-daughter dinner. Let me tell you what a world of difference it is when you dont have your asian dad by your side, the service was shocking. I was sitting there thinking this is not happening. This one short fat guy with a disgustingly long unkempt beard dyed with henna was standing right next to my mum as she asked to take our order, no kidding he completely ignored her. She said excuse me a few times no response, finally he quickly glances at her as she raised her voice then turned his back on her. From the outset we were treated differently, there werent many women only tables, and the ones there were in big groups, however other tables like us with only two women were given the same treatment and i could see it from where i was sitting. I was so shocked, this is not what i expected from the family friendly halal restaurant I had grown up in. There were two older waiters who sort of took over our table and we realised its because the rude fat one didnt want to wait on us although he continued to wait on his fellow bengali men on all three tables that surrounded us (we were in a corner). The food was slow to arrive and they missed some orders. Ordered my usual chicken tikka biryani and the chicken wasnt even cooked it was literally raw and gooey in the middle, i told one of the waiters and he pretended not to understand english (although he didnt realise that he has had full blown convos with my family in the past - in english since only my dad speaks urdu/hindi). Have never been treated so badly in my life, this restaurant has fallen to shameful levels, maybe management has changed since we last came a couple of years ago but lol to that they have lost years of loyal customers. I spoke to a few people who also no longer frequent the restaurant, they said it wasnt just because me and my mum were alone but the service in general is out of a bin.

Just avoid this place, its 2017 are options are no longer limited for halal, safe, comforting atmospheres to take...

I used to go Khan for years and loved the butter chicken and it’s Biryani. I haven’t been there for so more than four years and decided to take my family there telling them how great the food there. I could not believe the obvious degradation of the place. It looks unhygienic. The glasses and the cutleries badly washed as we saw a lipstick on one of the glasses, many marks on the knives, the level of noise was unbearable, kids running around the table as if it was a playground. There were like twenty unhappy waiters running around like crazy in a packed place as if the place was like a canteen rather than a smart restaurant fir the prices they were charging.

Then we waited 45 minutes for our food. While waiting my daughter in law and I observed an old server who was facing us and with one tissue he cleared his nose, then wipe his face then his hand all with one tissue. It was discussing. Honestly, we were about to leave if we did not place the order and waited that long. Then the butter chicken tasted nothing like the one I had in mind and used to eat before. This one was too oily and plenty of tomato paste the taste was ok.

My family were talking how disappointed we all felt and start guessing the prices and all agreed that maximum charged price should not exceed £67-£70 max. We had 3 butter chicken, and one prawn biriani (the prawns were frozen and dry tasted like plastic) and three Nan bread and one uncleared glass jar of tap water. To our surprise the bill came to £87. The food was too pricy for what it is. It should be a take away place and for the rice and butter chicken I would not pay more than £10-£11. Anyway that’s the last time I put foot on that unhygienic felt place. Honestly, I believe that the dad use to sell alcohol in there, the place was so clean and the service was very nice. When they decided to change it to %100 halal. (El hamdullillah) it got degraded.

Khan has lost its style, interested in making money. And the management needs to seriously work on upgrading their hospitality skills. Until then it’s a no return for us...

I was a regular visitor to Khans about 20-25 years ago. Back then it was a very popular spot and the queues would be out the door no matter what day of the week. Over the decades though the landscape of Indian cuisine in London has progressed remarkably and in recent years I have viewed Khans as nothing more than a tourist trap living off the fame from its glory years. When it was chosen (by someone else) as the venue for a family gathering I braced myself and came in with pretty low expectations.

The venue has been through a refurb recently and looks a bit fresher although has still retained the old look and feel. As a group of 16 people we decided to pre order and this process worked efficiently. We tried the onion bhaji, samosa chaat and chilli paneer to start, followed by the mixed grill, sweet & chilli prawns, butter chicken, saag paneer and a few types of naans for mains. A few people tried the brownie or the chai to finish off with. A lot of the food was fairly mediocre but credit where it’s due - I did enjoy the onion bhaji, sweet & chilli prawns and the paratha. The rest of it was all quite forgettable.

Service was quite good initially. They were quite adept and getting out the pre ordered food on time. Afterwards though it became quite difficult to get the attention of our server and things progressed much slower. The restaurant had become a bit busier by then but still was perhaps half empty. This was on a Thursday evening. The bill for our group of 8 adults and 8 kids came to £400 excluding service charge (not automatically added), of which £23 was spent on drinks. It was a large quantity of food and we packed quite a bit to take home. Overall the meal was in line with my low expectations and I can’t see why anyone would come here when there are so many better...