Paradise Indian Restaurant — Restaurant in London

Booking for 3 to celebrate a friends birthday, we was seated and given menus to look through. We waited around 10 minutes for anyone to ask us for our drinks. We ordered 3 cokes and we was asked about food which we wasn’t ready to order. Our drinks took around 7-8 minutes to come to our table forcing us to ask if our drinks can be brought over. We again waited ages for our food order to be taken which all seemed very rush rush. We we still giving the order while the waiter was taking the menus back. 45 minutes we waiting for our food to come over. One of the dishes was cold and there was a small hair perhaps an eyelash, (we was told the eyelash wasn’t an eyelash but a seasoning) after we made it clear it was an eyelash we noticed that one of our naan breads wasn’t delivered. We asked if it was ready but told we only ordered 1 naan between 3 adults. Obviously this wasn’t the case and one was brought over to us promptly however we was told we would have to wait 10 minutes for it. At this point we did ask to speak to a manager just to ask what was going on. We counted 9 members of staff on the floor of this small restaurant and 21 customers including us 3 inside the restaurant so they wasn’t rushed off their feet. The manager apologised and you see him speaking to our waiter who started to be verbally abusive about us just meters away. We are local to the area and have heard great things about this place however the team are shockingly bad and the food is very basic… nothing extremely special. The meal that was cold and had an eyelash in was replaced in a takeaway container for my friend and we was then given a pack of after 8 chocolates from the manager to further his apologies. The chocolates was out of date chocolates! We of course left after we paid (full price) of the bill. We wasn’t going to argue the fact that the service, food or drinks wasn’t up to standard. Oh I was also asked to stand up while I was mid meal for the waiter to bring some food past! Honestly I’m not a Karen I’m 24 with a basic job in customer service but please avoid this place at all cost so many better alternatives to a traditional Indian restaurant around that’s cheaper and...

Well, I'm going to do the slightly edgy thing of reviewing a place while I'm still sitting in it!

The location is ok, and central. The overall ambience is ok. The food's actually very good.

But the service.... look guys, if someone comes in on their own on a Sunday night, asks for a table for one, and watches a couple of things on Netflix... What do you think? They're there in your restaurant for fun? Or maybe they came to London just to p**s you off for some reason?! Or maybe consider, just for a moment, that maybe they are there on business for the next day, and just needed something to eat. A little home from home... a little friendly face maybe?

So why the heck treat them like they've just walked in, and crapped on your granny's living room carpet?! Sneery, unsmiling service... "is that all?" when they've actually just ordered enough to give them IBS on School Night.... and a general total lack of friendliness even when I've smiled at all of you so hard my cheeks are hurting, just trying to make a connection.

As one of my former bosses famously one said... "If you don't like people, don't get a customer facing job; go and work as an undertaker - the money is great, and the clients don't tend to complain..."

To the older guy who was fairly friendly when I came in - sort your staff out. You're in a premium location and you're not cheap. If these guys can't find it in their egos to deliver a decent Customer Experience - fire them and find a bunch of guys who can.

Simples. Or you won't be around for long.

Cheers for now. Just finishing my (exceedingly over priced) pint of Kingfisher - and you can be sure I won't be back even though I work in the area...

Paradise is a decent little Indian restaurant in Pimlico. Whilst I wouldn’t call its interior a stereotypical curry house, it is very much old school and on the extreme other end of the likes of trendsetting Dishoom. That said, dim lighting and spotless white linen coved tables offset a wooden floor giving the restaurant a respectable ambience…of sorts.

The Paradise menu is a combination of veg and non-veg dishes which are easily recognisable to the local audience. It’s not like in Dubai where most Indian restaurant menus are aimed squarely at Indians and include many indigenous regional delicacies. I felt spice levels, particularly chili heat, were similarly toned down to suit the English palette. That said, except for the Mulligatawny Soup (which was a bit awful) our meal was not bad. In fact, the Tandoori Chicken was quite nice.

Service was for the most part friendly and accommodating. Whilst I enjoyed my meal at Paradise, much of it had to do with the excellent company I was in and the wine. The food, by my high Dubai standards, was simply average. Judging by the packed restaurant however, I am quite obviously in a minority where my opinion is concerned.

Hey! Now read this – Xerxes physically visits each and every venue he reviews and pays full price for whatever he eats and drinks. Xerxes accepts no money, gifts or free meals in return for reviews. What you have read was not influenced in any way by the venue. Join me on Instagram @ravenousxerxes or email me on:...