Tamila — Restaurant in London

I was really excited to try Tamila for my partners birthday after reading such amazing reviews and loving Indian food, but unfortunately our experience wasn't the best. Firstly I would like to say that upon arrival the staff were really nice, attentive and took our orders quickly. Drinks arrived in good time and they were really good, although I think £9 for a mocktail Is too steep. The food arrived staggered which they did tell us about, for the food ... Onion bhaji- crisp on the outside but lacked flavour and were salty and served with a salty chutney dip. Chilli cheese dosa - this was a well made dosa, but again was really salty and served with more salty dips. Chicken curry / lamb curry - I put these together because they tasted the same except the lamb was spicier, the meat was tender but only about 3 pieces in each curry and the Portion was small. 1/2 tandoori chicken - this was reccomended by the waitress and I'm sad we ordered it. It was just chicken and the marinade tasted like the spices had not been cooked out enough , again very salty with another salty dip. Roti - this was a good roti. Rice - good enough but again a small portion. Naan- the naan was really good and probably the best thing we had. It wasn't a terrible meal, but not something i would choose to eat again. It has potential to be really great but the food needs to be more balanced in saltiness, sweetness and spice. Lastly, the biggest letdown was that I had put on my reservation it was my partners birthday, now I appreciate that restaurants have no obligations to birthdays, however whilst my partner was In the loo, one of the staff came over to me to confirm it was my partners birthday and said they would bring a desert with a candle out which was a lovely gesture. After waiting a good 20 mins for our plates to be cleared, I kept hovering whilst my partner asked questions and sadly nothing came, we waited quite some time and we then asked for the bill and left. If I hadn't of been offered anything it would have been fine but we were, and I also saw others being brought out a desert with candles which my partner saw ( the restaurant is too small to have asked the staff without my partner seeing). All in all a...

After having some great meals at Tamil Prince and Tamil Crown, it was now time to try out Tamila. We were a group of 4 adults and 2 young kids that visited on a Saturday evening. First impressions - this place was busy! We arrived just after 6pm to a totally packed restaurant and had to wait around 15 min for our table to become available. Not only was it busy but it was excessively loud (bad acoustics I’m guessing).

Anyways onto the food. There was some overlap in menus with their sister restaurants but quite a few new items as well. Our group ordered the fried sweetcorn, onion bhaji, chicken lollipops, prawn varuval, a few dosas (mutton curry and chilli cheese), the tandoori chicken, lamb curry, dahl, several rotis and some rice. We finished with a few gulab jamuns. The food was generally good but we enjoyed the (fried) starters the most, these had a real spicy kick to them! The dosas were also excellent, in particular the chilli cheese variant. The lamb curry and the dahl were decent enough without standing out. The rotis were very nice but no longer the headliner they once were given this style of roti is on offer in quite a few places nowadays.

Service was very friendly. They were quite apologetic about the delay in seating us and proactively comped a round of drinks. With an ambitious turnaround time of 1h45m for a table of 6, I expected the service to be speedier though. It wasn’t overly slow but there were a few delays waiting for food or trying to get the attention of servers. I presumed they were struggling to keep up with a packed restaurant plus numerous delivery/takeaway orders being prepped at the same time.

The bill for the 6 of us came to £218 of which £27 was spent on drinks. Overall while the concept is now starting to feel a bit familiar and therefore less exciting, it continues to be a solid option for South Indian cuisine in London and the food combined with reasonable pricing nudges them...

Went here for their 1st-year anniversary. We didn’t have a reservation, so I called ahead to check if they were taking walk-ins. A guy at the front picked up and said yes, it’s first come first serve - completely fair. I even asked if there was a queue, and he said no, so I told him we’d be there soon.

We arrived about 20 minutes later (around 6 PM), and he suddenly said they couldn’t seat us because there was now a waitlist - which hadn’t been mentioned on the call. When I asked if I could at least put my name down, he said “sure, but very unlikely you’ll get in” in a surprisingly dismissive tone. It felt unnecessarily rude, especially since I’d gone out of my way to confirm earlier.

We decided to hang around, thinking we might get a table by 7:30 since they said they’d stop taking new guests after that. When I walked past around 7:10, there were empty tables outside, so I went in to check. A lady told me that some people hadn’t shown up, so we could have sat, but now it was too late to order since the kitchen was closing soon. As she said this, another group of four walked in and was seated — she explained they had a reservation and would get priority, even though we all would’ve been ordering at the same time.

Honestly, it felt disrespectful - not because we didn’t get a table, but because of the lack of clear communication and the dismissive attitude. If walk-ins weren’t being accepted or the kitchen was closing earlier, I would’ve appreciated being told that upfront.

This used to be my favourite restaurant in London - I’ve loved both Tamil Prince and the Crown and have been recommending them to everyone. As an Indian myself, the food feels like home. But this experience left a sour taste, and I really hope the staff handle things better...