Masala Essence Indian Restaurant — Restaurant in London

quaint and cute, but far from the best Indian i’ve had. the service was very friendly but not attentive at all and even ignored me at several points. they were also quite slow.

the mango lassi did not have enough mango in my opinion, and was a bit watery. too much yoghurt in the ratio!

the butter chicken was well-spiced but there was very little chicken, and the sauce was a bit too sweet for my taste. it could be balanced with something more acidic.

the lamb dish was quite good as it was filling and thick, so i recommend ordering that if you’re here.

the naan had a lovely herby garlicky touch and i enjoyed the sweetness but it was burnt in an unpleasant way.

the rice was probably the best part, i like the cute colours but also it had the perfect texture and salt level!

generally it was alright if you really want indian food, but it did...

The food was really nice but it turned out to be much more expensive than we anticipated. At the beginning of the meal they brought us papadums while we were looking at the menu. I thought it was complimentary (as you would get titbits like olives) but in fact they charged us. And they brought and charged 4 whereas there were only 3 of us and we ate only 2. When they brought the note they had included service. I asked about that line and they just said "it's a compulsory 10% gratuity, 10% is the least, in other restaurants it will be more". It was our first meal in this country and we were tired with traveling so we let it go, but it was easy to see that it was more than 10%. Maybe it was just all misunderstanding but in the end, quite expensive and upsetting for food that is indeed good but not...

Probably the best Indian food I've ever had, and we have Indian routinely. Service was fast, attentive and friendly but we felt a bit pressured to keep paying more with an already big order. But, again, super friendly and sincerely caring. We vacillated on 4 or 5 and the pressure got service and total to 4. Very tiny space, gets physically crowded quickly but it's manageable. Lack of a liquor license was a bummer, I'd been looking forward to some Flying Horse. All that said, we'd go back again anytime for the food and I suspect they're new, so the rest will work itself out as they get...