Maru's Bhajia House — Restaurant in London

If I could give no stars or negative this place deserves it...

I am very disappointed even before I opened my take away today but you already get where this is going...

A real sad state of affairs with what is literally the veg equivalent of a fish and chip shop with bad attitude.

We ordered a take away and agreed that we would collect the order in 30 mins. I arrived to pick up the order and was informed in "what was an empty area"; that they had not even started making the items we ordered. I then waited for another 15 minutes on the road as there was no parking available and went back in and waited for another 5 minutes as they packed it ....I noticed that the individual (at till counter) had not put enough tubs of chutney and requested that they put in two small extra tubs. The total bill was for about 80 pounds and adding two small tubs should not have been an issue....I was told that those little tubs would be extra and I had to pay for them ....I did protest as my day was rapidly going from.bad to worse and asked him to not be so stingy in respect of two tubs....the gentleman (if you can call him that) did not like that and what may be considered as an impolite discussion began which I put an end to in 30 seconds by remaining quiet.

The boxes and other items were packed in super thin bags( yes we all would like to recycle bags etc) and I could see those bags were not going to hold the quantity at which point the gentleman asked if I would require extra bags which I said yes and courteously asked how much that would cost as I already had enough and considering the present tier 4 conditions this was rapidly becoming an uncomfortable environment as other customers walked in.

So issue 1: IF one is purchasing a larger order please stop being so stingy on the chutneys (I purchased 4 double size portions of Maru Bhajias among other items.) We SIR ARE doing you a favour by purchasing your items and keeping you in business in these times.

2: I later checked with other consumers all of whom.agree that the gentleman in question appears to have a chip on his shoulder and this is the normal attitude.

This is a direct appeal to Maru's Bhajias ..your staff at the front especially the gentleman who calls himself a manager needs a full course on how to deal with customers courteously and quickly....I do not think the man has ever heard the phrase, " The customer is always right"; especially if you want repeat orders.....now we move onto the food..... This is a Nightmare in both management, customer service, and food.

I cannot even begin to express my disappointment with the Maru's Bhajias which were thick like a quarter inch ..... to top it all some of them had a garlic chilli chutney and the batter was dark brown instead of golden which means they were pre- prepared and refried and ABOVE all the fresh corriander was, "as the ethos seems" stingily added albeit reluctantly. They were salty and trust me wild animals would have considered it a SALT LICK. They were lumpy and the batter recipe has changed.

Does this get better?... NOPE it goes from bad to worse.

Let's deal with the speciality chutney with loads of chilli's cucumbers carrots no maasala and tons of salt, my tongue protested and tons of water later I was placated to drag my self to the fried tapioca...which was lumpy plain and at best pathetic... With no accompanying chutney I was afraid to try the bhajia chutney again.

I finally managed to take courage to try out the spring rolls which were the only item that was crispy and the vegetables crunchy WITH NO SWEET CHILLI sauce ...without this the spring roll is plain and boring.

In a nutshell ....MARU'S has spoilt this wonderful but simple dish which they created and could have become iconic and set a standard for others to follow and diverted to the other norm dishes of other restaurants and that just does not cut it. Either owners changed or a terrible mistake has been made. Whatever the case....this is the last time I will ever go to this...

Being a fan of “Maru’s Bhajiya House” its very hard to write this review but I had to after witnessing poor outcome from our visit.

On the plus side; got a table straight away. Menu’s were handed out instantly. And the Bhajiya’s were nice. Thats all for the plus points.

Now for the serious need for improvements:

1. while giving our order the waitress / host got a phone call so she went away and then came back. Not really what you would expect in a restaurant.

2. we requested if the Chai (Tea) can be mild and not strong and could be with more milk. The reason why we specifically asked for this was because we have had tea there before and it really was not to our liking. So double checked if they can make as we requested and the waitress said yes and then when the tea arrived it was nothing like what we asked for and instead it was exactly the distasteful tea we had previously experienced. So again we didnt feel like we got what we asked for. If they couldnt make it as we asked then they should have said its not possible and we would have happily not ordered tea.

3. the menu is very short and lacks options and not very children friendly.

4. They could be more respectful towards customers with allergies. I overheard a conversation where the husband asked if they have anything his children and wife could have to drink to cater for their allergies and wanted to know which options were safe. Instead of providing options or seeing what they can do, the waitress clearly said in that case don’t have anything as we cannot make anything. When the husband questioned her further she said I don’t know but we have been told to tell customers not to order anything if have allergies. I understand allergies are important and so restaurants are cautious but there is a way of addressing the situation and appropriately handling queries is something that the staff can be trained on. There is a way of talking to the customers.

5. The atmosphere in the restaurant felt more quiet than Silent Meditation Room. It was such a dull light and felt right out of place. If it wasnt for my love for Bhajiya’s I would not step in there again.

6. Ordered Mogo and they asked if we wanted Masala Mogo or Plain mogo so we asked if we could order Masala Mogo but with masala on the side. Again the waitress said its fine so we ordered and then after a long wait we got plain mogo and when queried about masala on the side she brought us a bowl with red chilli powder. Also the tamarind chutney was brought about 15minutes before the Mogo Arrived. And the Tomato Chutney for Bhajiya was brought 35mins before the Bhajiya’s arrived.

Overall Bhajiya is the only thing we enjoyed and the rest was really a definite No Go for future visits or atleast until they improve their menu, their taste of food and...

So just to quickly give you my food critic review. I try all sorts of cuisines and was looking forward sampling a Gujarati/Indian place to discover what the deal was with this vey popular restaurant.

Chawalla in Green St, is extremely good and has queues like Nando’s all the time so I thought I’d see how a Indian place in the hub of Ealing Road would dare compare to east London where it’s more predominantly Muslim, Pakistani/bengali community

But I was shocked that it didn’t do anything for me. It’s a place I probably wouldn’t go back to even which has surprised me even as I’ve heard endlessly how popular the place is. I saw people only buy and eat huge portions of the bhajjias and ordered that alongside some paneer samosas and chips.

The texture, taste and look of the bhajjias was bland and too salty, even the sauce which was mediocre, couldn’t save it. The menu is very limited based more on snack bites then a proper meal meal. Whereas chawalla the texture colour and taste is so much more richer. Sauce is brilliant and there’s so much more variety on the menu. Their chips are soaked in soggy chilli sauce and delicious to eat, but Maru bahjjias literally sprinkle a bit of peri powder and serve you the supposedly chilli chips, dry as a bone. Service was poor, I didn’t get everything I had ordered on the menu, forgot to serve me my drinks and the waitresses didn’t speak English. I was baffled that such a famous place was running with this level of service. I also had to pay service charge for.... poor service. Unfortunately I won’t go back or recommend, something which I love doing amongst...