Mawlana Restaurant — Restaurant in London

Firstly, Freej Swaileh is a gem of a restaurant in Kuwait and doesn't cease to please the masses and the elite. This restaurant in London is in no way related to the Original and Awesome authentic made-from-the-heart Kuwaiti restaurant. I had a very bad experience. I had gone there for dinner with my wife. They had a very rude hostess who showed us to our table in a manner which showed that she was least interested in working there and we felt like we were bothering her with our presence. She just waved us to our table. We chose a nice seat near the far corner of the restaurant ride beside the window. As the restaurant manager informed us that they had run out of Chicken Machboos, the staple of Kuwaiti Cuisine, we decided to wait an hour for it while we had out starters and soup. Our lentil soup was nice, warm but average. Our kibbeh were over-fried, oily, had less meat in them and were garnished with beet while they were still sizzling which made the beets to melt and interfere with whatever flavour the kibbeh might have had. As we took our sweet time to finish the kibbeh while waiting for the machboos, our hostess took away our half filled plate of kibbeh without checking with us. Being used to more polite manners in this country, it happened too quickly for us to realise that we could have asked her to leave the plate. Anyway the kibbeh weren't worth fighting for and we were anyway waiting for the machboos. The hostess may not have been informed that we're waiting for the main-course because after a while when the restaurant manager came to our table to inform us that our main-course is ready, the hostess sighed and spoke to him in Arabic: "Lissa ma khallas?" - "Aren't they finished yet?". Ofcourse, in their defence they didn't realise that I knew both Arabic and Arabic cuisine a tad better than the average Joe in London. I don't know why but I really didn't feel like making a fuss about it. She was clearly being forced to work at this what K can assume a family-owned business living on the name of the original Freej Swaileh and utilising all the Arab and Muslim tourists and locals who are just too hungry to care due to minimal Halal options in the UK. Our machboos arrived with all-yellow rice that didn't have any machboos flavour, chicken that was dry in the inside with soft soggy yellow skin rather than a crispy brown texture. To top everything else, when we realised that there was a hair in our Machboos and that was enough for my wife. I pointed it out to the manager and he was sort of apologetic and offered to have the dish replaced. It is well-known that Gulf Arabic restaurants that serve rice dishes like Machboos do not cook once upon each order. Instead they rely on economics of scale and cook as much as they can and server throughout the day. I wasn't going to get sucked into that while he would just replace that dish with another from the very same pot. I declined the offer and requested that the dish be removed from the bill. That was the end of our hungry evening that left us even more hungry and dissatisfied.

While I'm here in the UK and until I find a better place, I'm going to have to cook my favourite Machboos at home, which btw is atleast 20 times better than whatever that was but far far away from the what the original Freej Swaileh has to offer in my...

Overall terrible experience. As an Arab myself and a big fan of Arabic gulf cuisine I was so disappointed by the service and the food we had. We were 4 and ordered 2 chicken majboos and 2 lamb majboos. The rice was less than average and the chicken was old and not tender, and obviously just been heated in the oven. One of the lamb dishes was ok and the other was overdone and tough to eat. The female waitresses were good and professional but one of the male workers/ owners was such a rude and arrogant boy that we felt so intimidated. The other slightly older male manager was ok and professional. The sides were terrible and hummus that we ordered never came ! None of the 6 items on the desert menu exist. The interior design was less than ok and cant really differentiate the seating area from the one you can find in a regular chicken shop. It's a shame to note this bad experience is not the first one. I booked a table few days ago to go with my wife. We arrived 15 minutes earlier and encountered at the door the same young arrogant and rude boy who informed us that pre-booking does mean nothing and we have to wait long time until everybody in the walk-in queue gets seated. Of course we just walked away and I do regret not picking the signs and red alarms of an overrated and unprofessional...

Since day 1, when the restaurant just opened I said that it's my favourite restaurant by the way it looks, it's amazing (I was daily passing by). Of course I had to try also their food to convince myself that it is indeed my favourite restaurant, hence I did so. I have to say that once you enter there the staff it's fantastic and genuine, they make you feel so welcome, always with a smile on their faces. It's great to have a wide variety of cuisine native to India and Egypt all in one place + seafood and charcoal grill. Unfortunately, I can't have spicy food, however I love falafel, so I had to try that first and it was beautiful. Not to forget to add that whilst waiting for the meal they offer you an aperitif of aubergine and tomatoes (I don't really like aubergine, but those ones I love them). Secondly, I have tried the 'Butter Chicken' recommended by the lovely gentleman serving us which was very professional, therefore it was delicious. In consequence, if you are looking for a fancy restaurant with delicious food and a variety dishes this is the right place. Thanks to the lovely gentleman who delivered a great service I had a wonderful experience and I will definitely come back. Now is absolutely my favourite restaurant....