We were here for Mothers Day as my mother loves Sakonis usually. We hadn’t been to the Wembley branch for a very long time, maybe 3-4 years ago as we go to the Harrow branch usually. But as we needed to do some Indian clothing shopping, we decided to incorporate a visit here. To simply put… we were left disappointed.

For Mother’s Day it was Buffet Only. There was a lack of choice I felt especially for such a busy in demand period. We had expectations the choice of dishes would be on par if not better than the Harrow branch. For example - They had their main dishes, chilli paneer etc. However we have somewhat been accustomed to having a wider choice as the Harrow branch has Chilli Paneer, Mushrooms, Tofu as well as other dishes from the menu.

There’s a difference in price too by a few pounds with Wembley being more expensive for one person. Not sure why? With the lack of choice.

Now, more specific to our experience. There was literally no food at long durations of the buffet. No food at all. Being told by staff it would be 10 minutes, another saying some of the food had finished. It got to the point where staff had to tell us and other patrons that they have closed it for a few minutes so that they could replenish. I actually felt sorry for the staff as it was busy and they just could not cope with the amount of customers, and the amount of food they needed to turnaround. The staff were generally accommodating and the ones we interacted with, including the duty manager were positive under pressure. We were also told that Wembley and Harrow are under different ownership too at this point when I raised with the Duty Manager who was also generous enough to discount our bill due to the food experience which we weren’t expecting. We went back and they had replenished the khichri and fried poppadoms. The paneer eventually came, although the wait was long, it was tasty and fresh. But £17 for Chilli Paneer and some other mediocre dishes? I’m not sure if Sakonis Buffet is that great anymore. I would go again, but only as A La Carte and will amend the review once I visit again, perhaps one of the other branches in Hatch End or Kingsbury.