One The Avenue — Restaurant in London

The quality of the food is good, for example, Lamb is always very tender, but the sauces are quite bland.

They are always busy, but like most Indian restaurants these days, they just just cater for the masses, the "chicken tikka masala brigrade" who enjoy free poppadoms and even a complimentary drink..which is a nice touch.

But I've tried their specials, and I've tried their "traditional" dishes...like Madras and Vindaloo..the Vindaloo is very very disapointing. Their Vindaloo is a very basic curry stew, yet done properly it's such an amazing curry if you cook it yourself and follow an authentic recipe.

If you're a foodie and know your curry, then this place will disappoint..like most high street Indian restaurants, it's nothing special, and not really worth the money anymore to me.

I need something far more authentic, something that is not made from a base gravy but prepared from scratch as an individual dish, and I'm prepared to pay a premium to find it. So after a meal from the avenue tonight which was watery and very bland..I'm giving up on all of the local Indian restaurants and takeaways in Woodford, Chingford, highams Park and beyond...and I've tried them all.

It's not fair to compare what I've had on my travels to India to what we get here, or what I've tried in some modern Indian restaurants in London, but there is very little comparison.

The service at 1 The Avenue is excellent and like I said, the quality of the food is good. But I crave something better so it's...

The starters were fine. Then one of our party got a long woman’s hair in her rice! In it, not on top. It ruined the night for myself and my Sons girlfriend. The worse bit was the manager sort of trying to deny it. Like a half accusation of foul play. Then I’m eating my king prawn dish which was a special but pretty tasteless and I think it’s the vein from the prawn but it’s another hair. A short one!! I didn’t think too much what type of hair it was. It made me feel sick and the food wasn’t that good in the first place, but I couldn’t eat any more. Very bland apart from the chilli chicken masala. Felt like we were in a barbers shop!! They took the cost of two mains and a side off the bill but I think the only thing that would have stopped me writing this was a full refund and an offer to come back for a complimentary meal at another time. That still wouldn’t have been enough. Really really disappointed and to top it all they forced a cheese nan on us, saying it’s better than Dishoom and it was vile. Soggy nan with mild cheddar. Where does that belong in an Indian? The bill still come to £35 a head with a few non drinkers and shared starters. The complimentary drink at the end just kept us there longer. Must...

We visited this restaurant today. It had been recommended by two people. I didn’t eat that day so was hungry and was looking forward to a delicious meal.. The waiter kept on hurrying us to order & kept trying to end ordering before we’d finished selecting our food! Then spoke to me when asking questions about menu, as though I didn’t know what I wanted. You just got a sense of being hurried which was irritating. Ordered a pineapple juice but it didn’t taste right so they took that back and I ordered another drink. Overall that atmosphere was positive but I cannot understand the 5 star reviews as the food was bland and tasteless (unfortunately I feel that their food wasn’t authentic tasting and Indian food from supermarkets could be said to be better)! We spoke to the owner or manager to give feedback. Although he says in 21 years no one has complained he agreed to only take payment for starter and drinks, though neither was anything to write home about, the bill was still £31! And they were already hurrying to clear the table before bill had even been paid, again feeling hurried to vacate! A real waste of money and our first and last visit and sadly you couldn’t pay me to return! A very...