Rayyan Restaurant - Arabic Cuisine, London — Restaurant in London

This was posted previously on the wrong restaurant page Al Rayyan instead of this one Rayyan which is where we eat. Please note we eat here about 10 months ago now but the following is my original review. Had dinner here a couple of days ago with three other friends following a recommendation. They seem to serve a mix or fusion of staple dishes from the middle east, Persia and India. First of the location is pretty good for London, on one of the side streets next to Baker Street; actual restaurant itself is clean and they also have a dedicated single large room downstairs, with traditional floor seating, ornate cushions and crouched seating benches. This dedicated majlis room is for group bookings and is similar to that found in Eastern, Arabic or north African culture; is a nice touch especially for this area. I think they mostly book this space for groups only of around 10-20. Because there was only three of us, we happily eat upstairs next to the window.

We had some rice mains including a biriyani dish, another rice dish and a lamb chop main then also some other mains to act as shared starters and we ordered tea. The food and tea itself was underwhelming and below average it has to be said. Prices are certainly not cheap, but in fairness not that expensive, especially for the central London location, and the portion sizes were it has to be said also massive, perhaps too big (quantity over quality). But, even so, frankly, the food tastes itself was poor and did not taste good which was not helped at all when you take into account it actually took beyond a reasonable amount of time to actually be served the food at our table - even though the restaurant was barely busy at all. This was annoying, even more so, when once it actually arrived it was not that good. The biriyani did not taste fresh to be honest and lacked any real depth of flavor, although, the actual amount of lamb included was quite a lot in portion size and seemed to be decent quality lamb and was quite tender it was the bland taste and overall freshness of the dish which was forgettable and not very good.

In their defence, they were I think pretty new at the time and most reviews, including recent ones, so far for them seem positive, so not sure if ours was a rare bad experience or if they will take this on board, but my experience was not good and I will not be in any rush to return. Especially also because for the Middle Eastern / Indian cuisine they serve there are any number of other tried and tested long standing restaurants in the local area that serve that type of food better in my experience.

They seem friendly enough and the location, facilities and that downstairs majlis room give this place potential and the fact that they give you decent portion sizes could be construed as them trying, I guess, otherwise, on the food and taste alone they would have gotten one star from me...

I do not know how they’ve high reviews on Google, I doubt that they have paid people to give them a 5-star rating. I wish I could give a 0 star rating. We were a group of 5, went to have “Kuzhi Manthi”, on the last sunday, after we saw a promotional video of an Instagram influencer, which was quite misleading. First of all, they do not know what a kuzhimanthi is, whatever we ordered didn’t taste like one. They’d take atleast half an hour to bring the order to the table, 4 among us got the order after around 25mints, and for the last person in our gang, received a wrong order, which they then apologised and offered to change. We obliged to it, yet they took another 20 minutes to bring it - by the time other 4 almost finished their food. We spent around 1 and a half hour at the place. By the time we finished lunch, we ordered a Lemon Tea “Jug”. The waiter wrote it down on a paper and went to the kitchen, he didn’t show up with the order afterwards. Another group of customers showed up by then, as they were a group of 5, the same waiter came back and offered them our seat, while we were busy to wash our hands in the only washroom available with no hand wash liquid in it. So by the time we got back after the long to wash hands, we realized the new group is waiting for our seat. We then asked the waiter (he was among the only 2 waiters we saw in the entire restaurant), to cancel our Lemon Tea if it isn’t ready yet. We then asked for the bill - which also took another 10 minutes!!

In overall, we felt very disappointed, poor quality food, bad service, and expensive, not worth our time or money.

I wouldn’t recommend this...

I recently had the pleasure of dining at Rayyan Restaurant in London. The restaurant is located in the heart of Baker Street, and it offers a wide variety of Arabic cuisine, but they also do Kerala food! I had the Alfahm, Malabar Dum Biriyani, and Kerala Porotta, and all of the dishes were exceptional.

The Alfahm Chicken was a delicious and cooked to perfection. The meat was tender and falling off the bone, and the sauce was rich and flavorful. The Malabar Dum Biriyani was also very good and flavourful. The rice was perfectly cooked, and the spices were perfectly balanced. The Kerala Porotta was a nice addition to the meal. It was a soft and fluffy flatbread that was perfect for soaking up the delicious masala sauce from the Biriyani.

We also got a Malabar Dum Chicken Biriyani as take away too! 🤤

The service at Rayyan Restaurant was also excellent. The staff was friendly and attentive, and they were always happy to answer any questions that I had. I would definitely recommend Rayyan Restaurant to anyone looking for a delicious and authentic Arabic and Kerala meal.

Here are some additional details about my experience:

The restaurant was clean and well-maintained. The atmosphere was warm and inviting. The prices were reasonable. I would definitely return to Rayyan Restaurant.

Overall, I had a wonderful experience at Rayyan Restaurant. The food was delicious, the service was excellent, and the atmosphere was inviting. I would highly recommend this restaurant to anyone looking for a great...