Tarim Uyghur Restaurant — Restaurant in London

This is the first time I’ve ever eaten Uyghur cuisine and I’ve always wanted to try it. The location is great, the shop has ample seating and as we walked in, we were greeted very warmly by the gentleman.

There were three of us. Myself, my wife and my son.

We chose menu item 1 Gosh Legmen (chicken), menu item 4 Qoruma Chop (Beef) and menu item 7 Uyghur Manti.

The dumplings were soft and the meat was really well cooked, seasoned well and tasted fresh. The sauce it came with was absolutely lovely with a kick but not to lo overpowering with spice or chilli. It was just right. I wish there were more than 6 pieces as the three of us gobbled them up very quickly.

The Gosh Legmen came in a large plate and you knew everything was freshly made. The noodles were quite long which took some time to put them on our chopsticks and forks but it was all part of the fun. The chicken was cooked to perfection. The dish was seasoned really well and not too hot. It was bursting with flavour. I absolutely loved the sauce and couldn’t get enough of it. The veggies were also cooked amazingly well and the dish was really really nice.

The Qoruma Chop was for me the star of the show. I think it was because I was craving a beef dish. The beef was cooked again to perfection. The noodles with a combination of the vegetables tasted like absolute perfection. The sauce is what really gave it that extra lift. All dishes were incredible but that was my personal favourite.

I loved how they gave us a free rice pudding dish at the end. For those who have eaten “kheer” which is a south Asian dish, it’s a slightly less sweeter version but very tasty and perfectly suited for the food we ate.

Other things I noticed were the Turkish (I think owner) serving us beautiful Uyghur and Middle Eastern food with 80’s classics playing subtly in the background. I’m an 80’s kids so that went down well with me.

The cost of the food was worth every penny. Considering the part of London you are in, it’s actually very good value for money. In fact the owner told me he’d given me a discount due to a special offer. Even better.

The only suggestion I have to the owners is to maybe serve the food all together and not dish by dish. This is just a suggestion but didn’t not take away from the overall experience.

Will I be going back?

If and when the opportunity arises I will go back and I would recommend this on your places to eat. Fantastic food, good value for money, and great staff.

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with this company and not being incentivised to write this review. I’m a first time customer who came across this eatery randomly and wanted to share...

I really didn't want to give a negative review but I feel that I have to. My family (including elderly father) and us travelled 1.5 hours to this place. We ordered lots of different dishes and they were mixed, between good and bad. We chose to have both birthdays of our family in one dinner here because they have nice decor. We booked on the phone and were told that they don't do bookings but gave us a booking for Saturday 7pm, saying that they'll only hold it for 5 minutes, otherwise theyll give it to someone else but we will still probably have to wait 15-20 minutes if we arrive on time. Fair enough, I thought they're very busy. When we got there on time, it was mostly empty and later became half full. We wanted to sit next to the good decor but were told that that is reserved (I thought they don't do bookings???) and instead were given some rubbish seating. They had no space in the fridge for our cake nor anything to light our candle, but fair enough. About 1.5 hours later, they seating near the good decor was still empty and restaurant was more empty. We asked to move there for the cake cutting but the waiter declined and said that it would mean they have to clean up again... we complained that we had asked to sit there earlier, so she called her manager. The manager came and we explained that we travelled very far to come and it was 2 people's birthdays but the manager said it was reserved (thought they don't do bookings) but we can just cut the cake and eat in our original tables. So we did that. I regret having chosen this place for such a special occasion and don't plan to come again. Actually I had come before and had another bad experience before but that was due to some crazy customer who was listening to some loud lecture and disturbing us for most of the time, without any staff...

I used to be a very loyal customer who came frequently but we had an extremely unpleasant dining experience today.

My friends and I (a party of six) sat down and waited for almost 20 minutes for someone to come and take our order. My partner asked for a jar of water for five times.

After that, it was another long wait for our food to arrive, much longer than usual. The big pot chicken (大盘鸡）tasted so different from previous times with weird spices (we suspect it came from too many anises).

After almost an hour, one of our dishes (lamb rice) still did not arrive. We politely asked the staff and told them we would not want it anymore if it is still not made. The staff said it is on the way. It was another extremely long wait until we finally could not stand it and asked for the bill - the lamb rice never came, even thought it would take less than half an hour previously.

We were very disappointed and asked to speak with the manager, with whom I asked to remove the service charge, due to the poor service. I was shocked that the manager said they cannot do that (is this even legal??) and can only apply student discount for us (we can get student discount anyway so this is of no difference).

As an old customer, I was so upset after paying the bill and explained to the manager once again about this awful experience. I also told him the big pot chicken tasted worse than before as a feedback and with the hope that they can improve.

Now comes to the funny moment. The manager said (his original words), “go try somewhere else next time. After all, you are the customer.”

I can’t believe he actually said that! No apologies, no...