Koh-I-Noor Palace, London — Restaurant in London

Ideally, I'd give 4 1/2 stars (more about this later), but I'd rather round up than down. Staying literally two minutes away, we ordered food for collection, and the estimated time of 16 minutes proved correct to the minute. I can't comment on the restaurant itself, not having eaten there, but the impression formed while collecting the food was of a neighbourhood community place - all to the good. The manner of the person at the counter was warm and welcoming, again encouraging. We order three different biryanis, a chicken dish, a couple of spinach-y side dishes, and two types of bread. I'm giving four stars for the food as the lamb in one of the biryanis (the other two were chicken) could have been much more tender - perhaps overcooked by a few minutes. That aside, the food was superb, full of taste with generous portions, and superb use of spices. I have been to a few countries in the sub-continent, but sadly not Pakistan (so far). My sense is that that what we ate was akin to home cooking, for which in these days when restaurant food can be excessively fancy and, yes, pretentious, there is most definitely a place. If you're anywhere near NW2, do try this restaurant, but do bear in mind that alcohol is not served and is prohibited on...

2 star - waiting time, and disrespect

I was a walk in and ordered takeaway.

There was nobody in the restaurant as it was a Tuesday evening. I was told it would be 20-25 minutes for my order. So I paid and left. I came back after 20 minutes not expecting the food to be ready so I took a seat. After a further 25 minutes still no food, the kind waitress told us it would be 5 more minutes.

I then heard one man who I assumed was a co-owner/manager give him a free drink (in Hindi which I understand), I was flabergasted, instead of coming over and saying sorry they thought my time was worth a free coke. At that point I was really annoyed, by the lack of respect shown. I got the food probably a good 1 hour after ordering, and told the owner that offering me a coke was a complete insult, even an apology would have done.

Unfortunately the food was also oily. I really wish the restaurant good fortune but a lot of improvements needed.

Communication Food quality Speed If you have an empty restaurant make your customer feel like they mean everything to you.

Good luck to the team, I...

The food was delicious, but we had an unpleasant experience that is forcing me to rate this restaurant only two stars. Immediately after we sat down, the waiter brought us a bottle of water (which we hadn't ordered) and two glasses. Of course, the idea was to get us to pay for the water, but he brought it without mentioning the price so that we'd think it was "on the house."

Since my friend and I were already aware of this trick, we decided not to open the bottle at all, so that we wouldn't have to pay for something we didn't consume. However, once the bill came, I saw that the restaurant had charged us for the water anyway. (Attached is a photo showing the unopened bottle as well as the receipt for our meal, with the water listed at £2.95).

I brought this to the waiter's attention and he apologized, and refunded us the money in coins. But why did he do this to begin with? I found it quite deceptive and cheeky, and...