Sipson Tandoori Indian Restaurant — Restaurant in London

I visited Sipson Tandoori yesterday with my family after reading good reviews on Google, thinking it would be a good place to dine. Unfortunately, our experience was far from it.

When we arrived, the restaurant looked nice, but from the moment we sat down, the service was poor. We noticed that our table didn’t have a candle lit, but we didn’t take it too seriously. The real issues started when the waiter came to take our drink order—he didn’t make eye contact, was fixated on his tablet, and gave us one-word responses. When my grandma asked what "a pint of soft drink" meant, he couldn’t understand the question, even though we read it straight from the menu. We ordered two lemonades, but only one arrived.

The starters were disappointing. The onion bhajis were cold and tasteless, like they had been sitting out for hours. Some plates had salad while others didn’t. Our Royal Paneer never arrived, despite me asking another waiter to check on it.

When it was time for mains, things got even worse. To avoid confusion, I wrote my order down in my notes app and read it out to the waiter. I even asked him to read it back to me, which he did. Yet, when the food arrived, they brought garlic naan instead of tandoori naan. Normally, I wouldn’t care about such a mistake, but given the lack of attention throughout the night, I was already frustrated. When I raised it with the manager, the waiter who took my order blamed ME, saying I must have ordered garlic naan. After I called the manager over and expressed how ridiculous this was, the waiter suddenly changed his story and started apologizing. They finally brought the tandoori naans and gave us the garlic naans on the house since they couldn’t take them back.

The food itself was below average—small portions, bland, and watery. Not authentic Indian food at all. There was also a language barrier, which was odd. The staff struggled to understand English, yet they also didn’t understand Punjabi or Hindi, despite this being an Indian restaurant.

On top of that, we had to ask multiple times for our water jug to be refilled, and they kept ignoring it. When the bill arrived, they had charged us for the Royal Paneer that never came. It wasn’t a deliberate attempt to overcharge us, but rather evidence that we had ordered it and they simply never bothered to check whether it had actually been served. I had to call them back to fix the bill.

To make matters worse, the restaurant wasn’t even busy—we were one of the only families there. There was no excuse for such poor service.

Very disappointed, especially since my family members had come from abroad and I had chosen this restaurant based on its good reviews. The staff urgently need to be retrained in basic customer service. I wouldn’t recommend this...

I usually don't write reviews, but . . . we dined here while on our last night of vacation in the UK. We made a reservation for 8pm, arrived on time and were seated right away. We got our drink orders within a reasonable amount of time, but things went somewhat downhill after that. Although the waiters were nice, there was some confusion because at least four different people came to our table, but didn't take our order (we were a party of two). We were eventually able to order an appetizer; to my surprise, the waiter actually told us he wasn't going to take our main course order yet.This was a Tuesday night - there was one large group (there before us and they received their food before we ordered our starter) and two other tables - one with a couple and one with four people. In other words, not that busy. We got our appetizer at 8:54, which I know because I checked my watch. 54 minutes for two small lamb chops. They were okay; somewhat overcooked and under-seasoned. Long review, I know. Main courses were decent (lacking a bit of salt), although the whole process took much too long. They also never came to ask if we wanted another glass of wine, etc., despite the fact that we saw at least two waiters standing at the ready throughout the night. Very odd and rather disappointing. Hope you have better service than we did.

Update: OMG, I'm amused. We chose this place partly because of the reviews. I think I figured out the algorithm (and sorry for insulting any Brits out there) . Non-Indians think this place is great, Indians think it's not. I'm neither Indian nor British, and the food wasn't bad, but it certainly wasn't...

A nice out of the way restaurant close to Heathrow. The staff were extremely friendly. The waiters happy to recommend dishes based on your requirements and they’re very hands on and quite efficient. The starters took under 10 minutes which was great as it was Ramadan so food was ready by the time it was maghribs Azan. The mango lassi is to die for! One of the few places who know how to get the consistency right! Their salmon biryani and lamb shank are super delish! As for starters, we nearly ordered half the menu. The lamb samosa was extremely crispy and full of meat and it was quite a big samosa. The lamb kufta was a bit too dry and chewy to my liking. The piajo/onion Bhaji tasted right consistency wise but the shape was that if a big burger which I think made it loose it’s crispiness a bit. The paneer was lush and absolutely delish. Their Channa was a bit over spiced as it was quite too strong to eat by its own, however, the accompanying puris were looked fresh and tasted just right. The chicken sheesh kebab was done right but one of the four cutlets tasted a bit odd. We were not sure if it was an undercooked chicken piece or just an odd texture. Also, defo say yes to papadums, the sauce selections are Amazon. I’d also like to mention that I’ve ordered chapati with the lamb, and to my surprise it’s been the closest thing I’ve had in uk to poran dhakas romal chapati! Something about it made me quite nostalgic! So overall, it was a great experience made even more so by the hospitable staff. Will defo visit...