Wah Bey — Restaurant in London

In an unassuming corner of Gants Hill you will find Wah Bey. I had the opportunity to visit for a Meal with my Wife and Newborn. I have to be frank, open and transparent on the dining experience, service and the quality of the food. I was naturally apprehensive about visiting this place given the mixed reviews.

The Building We went midweek and occupied table 3 at around 4pm in the afternoon. We were greeted firstly by a rather heavy door which was not power assisted but we were assisted by a member of staff with door opening and for the pram and finally made our way inside.

This is something the restaurant owners need to address. The door needs vast improvement

Front of House The front of house manager was polite, professional and friendly (Khalid) and engaged in pleasantries and allowed us to pick our table. We pretty much had the whole place to ourselves so picked a spot to park our pram next to. He is clearly experienced and holds the helm.

Cleanliness The restaurant was clean and tidy and there was also a cleaner working in the background sanitising surfaces and menu's etc which was good to see. Cutlery and napkins were all laid out on the table with crockery. I have to question the choice and design of the crockery though.

The grey plates were okay but the white ones have a design that appears to show rust spots which to the untrained eye or from a distance can look like the plates are dirty. Again, very easily overlooked and didn't bother us. The dishes were clean and sparkling.

Music The music was at a comfortable level and playing old school desi tracks for the ambience. The AC had been on so we wrapped up little one in a blanket and asked Khalid to increase the temperature which wasn't too much trouble. The lighting was adequate even though it was dusk. The decor is crisp and modern, with a non alcoholic bar for your Mocktails and Beverages. A choice of Mango Lassi, Sweet Lassi, Pina Colada and your usual beverages are prepared in a small Mocktail bar by the waiting staff.

Menu & Food The Menu has plenty to choose from the traditional dishes like Karachi Gosht, Tarka Daal, Butter Chicken to chefs specials such as Haleem and Nihari.

We ordered

1 x Sharing Platter for 2 1 x Karahi Gosht 1 x Tandoori Roti 1 x Garlic Naan 1 x Jug Mango Lassi

Sharing Platter This was a good start to the meal, lamb chops were tender to touch and eat and full of flavour and not just heat. There was a depth of flavour with hint of ginger and spice wrapped around them. The lamb boti was succulent, the grilled wings and chicken tikka were also very well seasoned and flavored.

There was however a distinct taste of Ghee which I think may have been drizzled on after the protein was placed on the sizzling platter. Not offensive but not to my liking to what was otherwise a great platter. The lamb kebabs in appearance were light and didn't taste dense, the keema (mince) was well ground and spiced. This was a good start to the meal.

Main Dish We asked for the starters to be brought out first so the waiter was attentive throughput and asked us if we were ready for mains which was brought out promptly.

Shortly after starting the mains the front of house brought out a 'Chefs complimentary' dish which was being developed and trialed to be put on the menu. This was absolutely DELICIOUS. Protein (Lamb possibly) cut into tender strips, mixed with peppers and chilli pepper with an explosion of citrus.

After trying this, the Karahi Gosht felt a bit flat and lacking flavour with little gravy to mop up the Naan with. The portion size for £12.95 also was a bit of a slap in the face. I've eaten full size flavour packed Karahi's for this price in other establishments! £8.95 would be more reasonable for the dish.

Mango Lassi The lassi for my liking was too thin and not sweet and lacked depth.The jug size however was more than generous.

Roti & Nan Both freshly made.

Food 4/5 Service 5/5 Cleanliness 5/5

Wah Bey has an opportunity to be phenomenal with some tweaks. Will be back during a busy...

Was really looking forward to this place but ended up leaving very disappointed. The restaurant is just outside Gants Hill station. The restaurant from the outside looks dark but once you go inside its nicely decorated with some modern touches within the space. The seating area is generous with comfortable chairs and seating. We came with a party of 12 people. The restaurant was very busy with lots of customers. Once seated staff were friendly and gave our menus. The menu had a good variety and range of food from starters, mains, platters and drinks, fizzy and mocktails. We ordered all our starters and mains meals together. A single mixed grill, 2 x Lamb Dum Biryani, Lohari Lamb on the bone karahi and Lohari chicken on the bone karahi, palak paneer, tarka daal, tandoori rotti, steam rice, pilau rice, chicken tikka, Jug of mango lassi, Mango Daiquiri, Pina Colada and some chips for the kids and fizzy drinks and water.

We waited around 30 minutes for food arrival which was normal for any restaurant on a Saturday evening. All the food arrived one after the other but we have to wait another 25mins before our rice items arrived. We requested the staff twice to check on rice order and eventually after several request it arrived but we had to request the karahi dishes to be warmed up as they had gone cold by the time the rice arrived. We then waited a further 10 minutes for the reheated karahi to come back. Tarka daal came after 30mins wait after again several request. Sadly several of dishes were very disappointing. Firstly the lamb Dum biryani only had 2-3 pieces of small meat in both of the Dum Biryani. This was shocking and very disappointing for what we had paid. The palak panner you would normally expect several pieces of panner but we could only count 3-4 pieces of panner again disappointing. The Lahori Lamb karahi was given in a smaller dish than the chicken and this size of the dish was never for 4 people as advertised and £40 price tag we had been robbed. The Chicken Lahori was in a larger dish. The dishes tasted lovely, fresh and hot after it had been reheated. The grill platter lacked spice. Mango lassi was full of ice cubes which was weird. It was like the ice was filling more of the jug than mango lassi. All food we received was tasty and no one had an issue with this. I spoke to one staff from the drink section about the food issues and he said he wasn’t sure what happened and would talk with manager but no one came. After 20 minutes of waiting we again ask him about the food and he apologised and said he would give us a new Dum biryani but it was too late because we were ready to leave. I had informed the same staff that I would like good service as it was my daughter birthday and showed him my 5.2 million views on goggle reviews but this didn’t change anything or what we got. I wasn’t expecting anything special but normally you get excellent service and food. The staff member was apologetic but it did not help the experience. We packed away the left over food in takeaway container the staff provided. When going to pay we ask the cashier who said he was manager and informed him about the issues and that he was not informed of problems and was very apologetic. We took him to the table and even he admitted the Lahori dish was in the wrong size dish and the Dum biryani should have had at least 6 pieces meat at the least. He also said the palak paneer should have had more pieces of paneer. He was very apologetic as we went back to cashier point. As a good will gesture the manger deducted 10% off the bill. Considering what happened and admitting to their errors a 10% deduction and the admission was a slap in your face. If in his positions I would have deducted more considering he was fully aware of their errors. A real shame and disappointing experience considering some good reviews about this place. Guess it was one of those bad days for staff in the kitchen and poor...

Honestly…. We drove 1 hour to get to the place as someone had sung its praise to us. Upon arrival we were seated at the table directly infront of the place where the chefs cook through Perspex. As soon as we sat down we noticed it was very dark and we could hardly see anything. However the lighting on the left and right of the restaurant was normal. We had pre ordered our food before we reached as we were super hungry family of 11. We sat down and the waiter came they brought out popadoms and 1 tray of sauce which has about 20ml of sauce x 3 in a tray. For a table of 11! That one tray would be enough for 2 people not 11. We had to chase the waiter for drinks… He asked what drinks we wanted so we told him. To which he then replied “so what was that? How many in total” we were a bit shocked as that’s usually the waiters job! Anyhow. Moving on … we ordered the biggest platter on the menu, 2 separate curries, naans, rice, paneer, chicken lollipops. They brought out a platter with the rice in the middle of the meat and the curries dumped on the rice in the platter. Note… we had to use our phone torches to even see what was what on the platter!!! Obviously the platter wasn’t enough as it was mostly a line of wings, frozen ready made kebabs lamb chops drowning in heart burning masala. So we ordered another different platter whilst eating. Still no drinks at this point so we again had to chase up. Baring in mind we were the biggest party there. There was only another 2-3 small tables of 3/4 max. He brought the drinks and we asked the manager in the following words - “would it be inconvenient if we could kindly ask to be seated at a different table, it’s just that we cannot see our food at all and having to use our torches” to which the manger held his hands together and replied “yes, yes it would be. we cannot move you. The other table is booked up” my jaw dropped at the shocking customer service skills this guy lacked so I said ok you know what, cancel my second order we are leaving. To which he replied ok sure and walked away!!! Absolutely awful attitude!! We ate what was left (heavily covered paneer in box masala) I know this because my dad is a restaurant chef and he immediately said the kebabs were frozen ones and the paneer was covered in box masalas. We went to pay for the 1 mix platter and the spoon ful of curries which they dumped on the rice and all our drinks and naans. Totalling £120. We are high spenders on dining and we were shocked that was the price for such abysmal food and service. Non the less we don’t cause scenes so we paid and left. I have attached a photo of the platter which was taken in night mode on an iPhone 12 Pro. Which even the iPhone couldn’t brighten up the picture because of how shocking the lighting was. The table of 4 next to us also complained about the lighting to which the waiter shrugged his shoulders and akwardly laughed!!! Totally shocking!!! So sad that the owners have hired such rude and untrained staff members. Very poor service and mediocre flavourings by cutting corners. Please review your training and teach ur staff how to be...