Masala Grill — Restaurant in London

WORST EVER I'll start with the only positive, The draught Kingfisher was fine, however my wife's first glass of wine was nasty (her second was better). With hindsight alarm bells should have rung with The Masala Grill being the only Indian restaurant in Havering that takes the Tastecard on a Saturday night.(I wonder if the use of said card contributed to the appalling quality of our meal?) Nevertheless we had all been working all day and just wanted to grab something to eat, surely can't be that bad, how wrong I was! The papadum were clearly cooked sometime earlier..not that crisp and not warm. The mango chutney was none of the sort, just a syrup (blended to within an inch of its life to make it go further). Two of us ordered Chicken tikka biriani, the chicken pieces, when we found them, were no bigger than a five pence piece, were hard and tasteless,definitely not freshly cooked.(Recycled?). Vegetable curry... tasteless (although it was as requested madras hot). My wife chose Karahi Chicken, served lukewarm on a skillet,( the waiter didn't have to warn us about the skillet being hot...it wasn't). She commented it was just Chicken casserole! But worst was my son's(he's 19 and insisted I didn't "make a fuss") Lamb tikka masala. The meat was absolutely appalling he couldn't even cut through it much less chew it, it made him physically gag! He was certain that it wasn't tikka. Oh and the Bindi was without doubt from frozen ... mushy. Despite my son's protestations I would have said something during the meal but no one asked how it was until the end. Which was when I let rip! If the excuse for an owner does attempt to reply I've no doubt he will say that we ate most all of it, well yes, we were there,we were hungry and with the exception of my son's was not inedible, just bland, very poor quality and badly cooked. I have eaten Indian food literally all over the world,with many 'interpretations'. I can honestly say this was absolutely THE WORST I HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED. I own a local business and be sure that 'word' will be put around as well as posted on all...

Considering the generally poor selection of restaurants (and Indian food in particular) around Upminster, the food at the Masala Grill is OK. From what I could see on our table (consisting of both carnivores and herbivores), the food appeared to be reasonably well made and pleasingly free of e-numbers that are all too often used in so called Indian restaurants, to produce garish sauces that could easily double as glow-in the dark paint!

However, the lack of effort with regard to vegetarian offerings on the menu was disappointing (especially for an Indian restaurant) and many items are over-priced. For example, charging just under £10 for a lack lustre, less than generous portion of karahi paneer, where you had to go fishing for the paltry slivers of paneer was really rather a cheek. To add insult to injury, the equivalent meat / chicken karahi's were actually cheaper!

Service wise, there is also room for improvement. Firstly, the manager / supervisor seemed genuinely peeved that we did not want to order any alcoholic drinks and that we had simply requested a jug of water - something that (contrary to popular belief in the UK) is actually quite a normal thing to have with an Indian meal! The breakdown in communication between this gentleman and the waiting staff also meant that (despite repeated reminders) I was left sitting there waiting for an extra naan that I had ordered, whilst the others on my table had finished and were having their plates cleared away! By the time my request actually reached the kitchen I was more than a little peeved and had lost my appetite and ended up having to get the longed for naan and now cold paneer curry packed. There was no attempt at an apology or even an acknowledgement that a mistake had been made. Maybe it would have been different if we had been sitting there guzzling pints of beer or over-priced bottles of wine. So, anyway, to conclude, the food was edible, with some dishes even being pleasant, but the overall experience (and bill) could have...

Out of the four or five restaurants on this road, this is the only one with five star hygiene rating. The waiter wasn’t particularly friendly when we entered the restaurant, we hadn’t booked so maybe he wasn’t expecting four adults plus two kids to turn up on a Sunday evening. The second waiter whom was a young lad, seated us and within five minutes asked us what we wanted to drink. No menus were handed to us until this point. I mentioned that I’d be using my gourmet society card and the other waiter shouted across that it would only be for four people. The kingfisher was on tap and it was decent. When we ordered food the waiter stated that anything with an star would be part of the deal. I asked him if the mixed grill would be served with a naan bread and he said it wasn’t part of the deal to which I replied I wasn’t asking about a deal, I just want to know if the mixed grill comes with a naan bread as other restaurants offer this. We ordered chicken madras, methi lamb, mixed grill. Three naans and a keema naan. The kids had nugget and chips. The mixed grill was really tasty and also fresh the chicken was succulent and seasoned just right. There were two pieces of lamb chops a kebab and chicken tikka which all tasted really good. The chicken madras was nice and spicy which we all enjoyed. The methi lamb may have had a little too much haldi but it was still tasty. The naans were nice and the keema naan was very good. I have been to other Indian restaurants in the area and this place could be my new favourite as we will...