Sai Restaurant — Restaurant in London

Disaster! Or a joke?

We had take aways from this restaurant few times before and liked the food. This time we decided to have a dine in experience as my parents were visiting us.

We booked a table for 7pm, arrived at 7:10pm. We were 4, asked for a table next to the window and were told it was for 6 people; it was later given to a group of 4.

We ordered food and drinks at about 7:20, we only got our starters at 8:10pm, mains at 8:45pm. So 1.5h wait for the food... Sai has 10-12 tables, only few tables full when we arrived, 3 floor staff, 2-3 chefs. Unfortunately it wasn't just the waiting time.

One of our starters (veggie samosa) which we waited for 50 minutes was barely warm and frozen inside. Ok, a lot of chain restaurants warm up food in microwaves, but we were hoping our local restaurant wasn't like that. The waiting time made it worse - not sure warming up small samosa takes 50 min.

Mango juice my husband had was fizzy. He first thought it was their special take, with sparkling water or something, but when the rest of us tried we realised it was just a juice gone off. We asked the waitress if it was supposed to be fizzy, she looked surprised, took it away and 15min later brought a new one which tasted good (if not for that experience the latter mango juice tasted nice). No apologies, just awkward smiles.

My mum has recently had stomach ulcer and cannot eat spicy food. So we specifically asked for 1 dish, lamb, to be cooked mild, "zero spicy". When it arrived 1.5h later waitress said "lamb, not spicy". The rest of us started with veggies and tikka massala, which were tasty and mild, while my mum had lamb - when I suddenly saw her turning red. When I tried it, it was spiciest meal of all... after which other dishes tasted hot too.

They excluded samosa and mango juice from the bill but we rather pay full price and get an adequate service and fresh food... £67 for a chance to get into hospital - not worth it.

Really gutted as I recommended this place before to my neighbour...

After a disappointing first visit to Sai a year ago, we gave it a second go as it is a popular local restaurant. Sadly, it failed to deliver again. The food is the main disappointment.

Surprisingly, there are no side dishes on the menu which most top-end and local Indian restaurants do serve. We decided to go for a starter, a meat main, a vegetable main, a salade and a naan. All together.

The paneer starter was a feast of sugar and sodium glutamate which would put most cheap Chinese takeaways to shame. It was poor. Very poor. The chicken in Rajasthani sauce was bone dry. The sauce was flavoursome but the chicken like plasterboard; it sucked all moisture from one’s mouth. The saag paneer looked like it had been reheated several times and had a disturbingly fatty/buttery taste; odd taste and not recommended. The cucumber salade constituted of a few slices of cucumber with some spices sprinkled on top. Rather uninspiring and not worth ordering. The naan bread had a lovely meat filling but sadly, it was barely noticeable. The papadums on the house were good but sadly, somewhat forgotten after a £70+ per person bill.

The atmosphere and decor is pleasant. There is a good 'vibe' created by the open doors, good lighting and local guests.

To finish, the service was hesitant and seemingly inexperienced. The owner/manager swanned around smiling at a few tables but disappeared at 8pm to leave his staff to thumble along.

Second visit to Sai and last...

We have lived in Wimbledon since 2004. Before this my wife a I lived in Tooting. I am half Indian and have lived and traveled all over the world and am very fussy about Indian food. If it isn’t as good as I cook at home I am not going to eat it. Tooting has a few gems but often chefs use too much oil, pre-ground spices or a few pre-made sauces for everything. We were so happy to find Sai back when it first opened and have come ever since. It is one of the few Indian restaurants I can take my mum where she doesn’t complain about the oil, colouring or added sugar. The owner prides themselves on only using fresh whole spices. You just need to look at the Pilau rice to understand this. Over the years the decor has changed but the ethos is the same. I especially like the new specials board which is introducing the owners Kenyan origins. Even my wife has agreed on occasion to move away for her chilli paneer, butter chicken and sag paneer combo. For starters you can’t go wrong with the chilli paneer and the lamb chops. Yes the place can get crazy busy and the staff under the watchful eye of the long-standing maitre-d can be running around like crazy, but this is because it is the highest quality, freshest Indian food available anywhere. I hope they...