Masalchi by Atul Kochhar — Restaurant in London

My sister and I found ourselves in Wembley unexpectedly, and decided to go for something to eat. Coming to the end of Wembley Way, I saw Masalchi, and knew that it was connected with Tamarind and Benares, and was excited to try their newest place that night.

As we walked towards the restaurant, through the windows we could see many empty tables, and at 1915, on a Wednesday night, thought we were in luck for the second seating. Yet, as we walked up the steps, we were asked, without a hello, or anything resembling courtesy, whether we had a reservation, by the two surly door security they have working there.

The taller of the two, said very coldly, "Reservations only on event days", just like that, curt and without any apology, nor an offer of an alternative. Still smiling, and knowing these two didn't have anything to do with reservations, either for then, nor a later date, I asked, "May I speak with the girl on the desk", and he then moved sideways, so as to block my path, and with an intimidating look on his face uttered a simple "No."

I was quite taken aback, was this how a Michelin starred chef was choosing to welcome his guests? Not wanting anything further to do with these brutes, we both walked away and my sister made an online reservation via telephone, which was immediately confirmed.

After passing the gauntlet of the doormen, with a "We've reserved", I asked to speak with the manager before taking the table. The doormen must have seen me speaking with him, still at the front desk, and they then proceeded to shoot us filthy looks. The manager did apologise, and took us to our table, only for us to find the doormen had now moved to the windows either side of the door so as to leer at us. I asked the manager, "Will we have to endure their stares all evening?" and he went out to tell them whatever he told them.

Despite that completely shoddy welcome, and the fact that we were both no longer hungry, we did stay and tried to enjoy the meal. My sister said, "It's going to be fun when we leave." and that thought was hanging over us throughout.

All the while, the restaurant was a panoply of empty tables (see photos) and yet their staff (I presume hired by a 3rd party) see fit to turn away paying guests, and with a sneer at that.

I've had a long career in hospitality myself, and would never have allowed such behaviours from any member of my team. It came as a great shock to me on the night, as I've been fortunate enough to eat at both Benares and Tamarind, and I certainly expected better.

I shouldn't need to say it, but even if there was no chance of a table, the information should have been imparted with civility, and not the aggression we faced. That they were wrong, and that a table (and many others!) was available is just galling. These men have no business being the arbiters of who should gain entrance, and are they not in place purely to deal with the chance of any trouble? What trouble did they see in a brother and sister in their mid 50s? All in, a very ugly welcome, and I will say that we did not enjoy the experience, and probably only stayed so as to spite them, not how an evening out should be.

Perhaps our appetites were ruined, but the food we had was not memorable, the vegetable curry was thin on vegetables, and mostly sauce, the parathas were dry, and without that lovely stringy texture. Portions are small and vastly overpriced. We both ordered a soda, but only one came, and so on. When we went to leave, the doormen were absent, but, we did see the manager off to the side smoking a cigarette, and he didn't think to say good bye or ask how the meal was. All in, a very disappointing experience.

I wrote directly to the restaurant about what happened, but nearly two weeks have passed, and they've not seen fit to reply, so obviously they don't care about such things. No matter, my sister and I agreed, we'd not be interested in returning, in any case.

A poor show from Masalchi, and I wonder if that's why the place was so...

The restaurant is open plan that lets the light in. This 120 seater doesn’t feel cavernous at all, the opposite really, its a warm and very social space. Cool tiles adorn pillars and walls around the kitchen/bar, creating a busy focal point for the restaurant.

Overly spicy food doesn’t sit well with me as I find it only impairs my tastebuds rather than enhancing them for savouring the spice. I had nothing to fear here at Masalchi; every single dish was incredibly and beautifully prepared and felt like much love and time had gone into preparing each dish.

We were trying out the Spice Masters menu, which is probably ideal as it means you don’t have to worry about making those dreaded dish decisions and then end up with food envy.

There’s always poppadoms to start but here’s what we ate dish by dish.

MIYAJI SHEEKWALE - Family recipe of lamb seekh kebab from Lucknowi household. This was my standout dish. Succulent lamb with soft spices that kicked in on the last bite.

PUNJABI SAMOSA CHOLE (V) - Proper Punjabi samosa with spicy chickpea curry. The pastry on these samosas was tremendous, slightly buttery yet firm, almost biscuit like but lighter and stuffed to the brim with lamb and potatoes. A dish of two halves; if you needed the spice hit, then scoop up the chickpea curry.

CHICKEN 65 - Crisp chicken tossed with curry leaves and chilli. If only all the chicken in the world was cooked this way. So succulent, packed with flavour and a really nice kick of heat at the end.

MACHHI MASALA - Fish in South Indian spiced sauce. Another stunning dish offering decent sized chunks of flaky fish in a nice spiced sauce.

CHICKEN MAKHAN PALAK - Classic butter chicken with spinach. I’m a fan. Simply delicious. A bowl of creamy softly spiced chicken that I could have spent the next 3 hours scooping up with their fluffy naan breads.

The three sides were PEELI DAAL (V) and the PULAO RICE and NAAN.

This fantastic menu was accompanied by a wee cheeky house red and then their in house Lassi’s of Mango and Pineapple & Coconut.

GULAB JAMUN - Cheese dumplings in rose syrup. The wording of cheese and rose syrup gave me the fear, but these were so so good. Not one ounce of cheese as we know it, was tasted or visible. These dumplings are light, almost cake like in texture that’s been saturated in syrup. An absolute delightful way to end your dining experience here.

This meal, end to end was faultless. There is nothing I would change at all and I’m going to happily confess that this was possibly some of the best Indian food I have ever eaten.

My advise to you, is to go. Make that booking...

We came here for dinner last night, and the service was good, had a nice decor, and is very nicely located. However this was sadly let down by very small portions, and very expensive prices.

We were told by a waitress beforehand that their food is designed for sharing (tapas style, 4-5 plates) we ordered prawns, chicken wings, masala fries, and onion bhaji. The masala fries were just wedges put in batter and fried, and there were just 4 small prawns both with sauces that didn't have much seasoning at all, the chicken wings were okay but once again only seasoned on the skin. Our crowd of 3 have all been to tapas before, and even their portions were bigger, and not as expensive as Masalchi. For drinks, we ordered Nimbu Pani, half ginger tea tea, pineapple & coconut Lassi and Mint tea. The ginger tea as well as the lassi were quite nice, but the mint tea didn't even have any mint leafs in the cup and had a very faint taste. The Nimbu pani just tasted like plain Lemonade.

We also ordered mains, both jack fruit curry as well as the Lamb Biriyani. Both dishes were salty, oily and had no spice in it at all. I don't think we have ever had biriyani's that were salty as well as having no spice. The only saving grace for the lamb biriyani was that the lamb was cooked nicely but once again for a mains dish as well as the jack fruit biriyani the portions were small.

We had checked the Google reviews of this place beforehand, and I have to say they are spot on with complaints being about small portion size, food being salty and very expensive.

It is a real shame as we were looking forward to coming here since it's opening, only to be let down by what I have stated in this review in the above.

To conclude, there are better places around than Masalchi, in terms of value, price, portion size and taste. Unfortunately, we will not be coming back here, nor could we recommend this restaurant to anyone. I really do think Atul and the team need to look at the reviews and change a few things...