Rishi's in Slate & Grain Brasserie and Bar. — Restaurant in London

Harish knows me through WhatsApp chats already, and I would like to highlight his food quality through my reviews as a local guide.

Few days back I was very annoyed with his constant persistence to convince me why its alright to have Beef at Indian restaurants because all Michelins have it. He also thought of patronizing me on various other issues including food wastage, on which I need to step up to stop him sending more messages.

As spiritual Indian I might not go there again, unless he removes 3 of beef items from the menu (my WhatsApp chat also tells he mentioned his lunch menu has only 1 item cheeseburger, but skipped mentioning 2 other items including beef roast and an Indian style beef wrap), but his food quality seems much BETTER than any other Indian restaurants around. At least he is putting his 100% effort in it, which is visible, even if he and I disagreed on few things.

Food Presentation even for takeaways is alright and as a MasterChef UK competitor myself, I have always enjoyed his food. I am not here to ruin his reputation by giving him less stars, I am just here to give my 100% honest opinion. If you care just about the food, Rishis is the place for you.

I have few additional feedback here:

I never like when Indian restaurants put 10 to 15% service charges on top of actual bills during dine in. We were a small group of 4, and I can still understand if you do it for a bigger group. But try to defend this activity in any way, it doesn't matter, period! That's why I stopped visiting Grange too even if I crave for good Indian food. You might say I could just ask the owner to remove it once they get me the bill, but its a whole psychological game where the owner also understands that the client wont do it because of so much "I will be considered cheap if I do that" pressure on the spot in front of server and friends on the table. I ALWAYS give 10 to 15% tip if I really enjoy my experience (being living in the USA for 12 years has made me used to tip culture) but this habit of adding the service charges by restaurants itself is very annoying. (Dine-in experience few months back)

Restaurant owners really need to work on it and understand the clients psychology on why they feel "betrayed" on the spot after seeing those charges. That's why I don't go for dine-in at places again whosoever does it even if they sell good food like Harish. I hope he takes it with a pinch of salt & a positive attitude rather defend it again.

He also tried to convince me how most such restaurants use separate utensils and equipment to cook beef, but I have also seen hospitality industry from very close (my family has multiple very famous ones in India too) and I know how chefs could unintentionally cross contaminate the food even if the owner has very clear policies. I am sure he is always working in the Kitchen so he could do better quality control himself, but I still never believe on restaurants not having cross contamination.. specially after he highlighted only 1 beef item instead of 3 based on my personal chats with him. (Diff Take away experience)

You can find another review from "PP or Mr Patel" where he complained how he was served food cooked in Calamari oil, so it completely debunks about the rant he provides as "we respect religious sentiments etc" all around. Also I am not sure if they have separate cutlery or plates for beef eaters to serve the beef dishes on the table.

To not ruin Indian clientele further, its best to highlight it clearly for Indian community about as I somehow was very upset about it that my favourite Indian place serves beef too. He constantly advertise the food in local Indian groups and as trustworthy Indians, we never expected this to be the case.

Beef and service charges are my personal issues and opinion. And if you are fine with it (people who aren't in that Brahmin/Vaishnav spectrum), the food is actually very good and in my TOP 3 list for Indian food in the UK, even to the date. Hope I organise bigger events and groups at his venue, and we come on some...

Went to the restaurant and ordered chilli paneer, gunpowder chips and chicken tikka. We were then asked if either of us have an allergy. My friend has an allergy to shellfish so told the waitress of this. After some time, the waitress came back and let us know that the chilli paneer, chips etc are cooked in the same oil as the calamari. I expressed my concern that although I eat meat, dishes that were labelled as VEGETARIAN were cooked in the same oil as animals?! It cannot be classed as vegetarian if it is cooked in the same juices of animals?! The waitress was very dismissive of this and kept saying that due to allergies they let us know of the situation with the oil. She then offered to cook the food in fresh oil but that it would take some time. Having waited a considerable amount of time to be given the menus in the first place and the fiasco with the oil, i was not in the mood to wait even more. I told her to cancel the whole order as we would go to the Grange (a fabulous authentic Indian restaurant 3 minutes drive way from this restaurant). The waitress was shockingly okay with this and even commented to say ‘if you don’t mind’ 😳 she did ask if i wanted to speak with the manager on the phone but i declined because i was already unhappy with her lack of willingness to acknowledge the issue at hand. I will never go back and will be telling my Indian friends and family to avoid this place as a large proportion of Indians are vegetarian and may eat at this establishment without knowing they are eating something contaminated with animals! It is a shame as they have just lost a large proportion of potential customers. As Indian owners of an Indian restaurant, I would expect them to have this knowledge. I would like to know if they would class something halal if it was cooked in the same oil as a battered...

Update .Google will not allow a new review and I don't believe it is ethical to remove the previous one

18-10-24 Today I would have given Rishi's 5 Stars apart from the above restriction by google. Returned for lunch and had a fantastic meal and experience. The food here is sensational and the team are passionate about delivering a great experience.

12-10-24 This was my second visit to Rishi's returning because the food I was served during my first visit was simply amazing. The return experience was horrendous in the extreme .We waited an hour to be served any drinks only to find that they were so low on stock that they could only offer one wine and one ale. This was not in fact true as the cobra beer we had been told was out of stock was then wheeled past us and taken to the private dining area. Our complaints were ignored,dismissed and we had no alternative but to walk out without being served. I have never walked out of any other restaurant in over 40 years !, Such a shame as the food can be amazing if you can...