Watan - Afghan Restaurant Southall — Restaurant in London

Visited Watan in Southall on the evening of Friday 8th November 2024 with my family. We ordered a mixed grill which we have had before with no issues. When our food finally arrived after a long wait, we were served with the below which is supposed to be a lamb chop, this piece of meat looks like it’s been eaten before it reached our table. I raised this with two staff members and one of them looked shocked and asked had we eaten it !!! When I said no this is how it was served he said wait, I saw him go back to the chef, although I couldn’t hear what was being said, it appears he was telling him off as he was pointing and waving his hands. We were unable to speak to the owner on Friday so on Saturday afternoon at 12.24 I called the restaurant and advised the staff that I wished to speak to the owner as I had a complaint. The person who answered the phone was very rude he said his name was Fayz (he spelt his name) he kept asking ‘what do you want’ because the owner and manager was not there and then another person came to the phone saying he is the manager and his name is Abdul. I asked him who he was and he again said ‘what do you want’! He then said I should call back in the evening which I did and the person who answered the phone kept saying the owner is not here, he then asked are you the one who complained about the food yesterday and again said ‘what do you want’. I asked him to get the owner to call me urgently. The owner did call but was very defensive and kept repeating ‘I’ve been in the business for 20 years so I know how the food is cooked’ he said there is no way someone ate my lamb chop before it was served and if they did they would be sacked. He said it’s difficult to get good staff in the Southall branch. He then advised the lamb chop was cooked on a skewer and because the chop is thin it fell off the bone …. How is a lamb chop cooked on a skewer and how does the meat fall off the bone and look like someone has eaten it? He was defensive throughout the call and was not willing for me to share the below picture with him. I leave it to individuals to make their observations and share your opinions. I told the owner I was not happy and would take this further. Having been eating at the old Watan and now the new bigger premises, I can honestly say the service is not the same. We have always enjoyed eating at Watan as the food is tasty but unfortunately, our last visit was a very bad experience. The owner said he would look at his cameras and let me know, he said his staff are feed so there is no need for them to eat...

I regularly dine out in Watan ilford and that branch is million times better in all aspect than the main branch.

The service is manic as the waiters are bopping around doing nothing or chatting in groups and the white shirt supervisors are clueless on how to manage or know anything about service themselves.

I ordered the special mix grill platter , Nihari and Mantu with few other extras. The special mix grill platter came cold. The naan, rice and few other items were cold. I told the white shirted supervisor and he still questioned me even though the waiter just brought it to the table. The supervisor double checked with Manager to get it reordered again.

While we waited with the Mantu and Nihari the white shorted supervisor then randomly threw a naan which we didn’t order to the table without saying anything and not even on a plate just a stainless steel lid. Atleast have some courtesy and say “I am sorry for the issues with the special grill as it had the naan you would have used but as I reordered it so it can take some time but please here is a naan which is chargeable or on the house so you can eat with the nihari”, at least that would make some sense rather then say nothing and dash a naan on a lid randomly on the table then walk off.

Once our main came it was ok as everything was warm not hot. Overall the decor is ok or mish mash of interior design clash in areas with it the seating arrangement so close making the ambiance frantic/ invasive.

The front of house asked how many and I explained that we have a pushchair so seating with pushchair space. He totally disregards and gives us a table with steps and no pushchair space. No attention to detail or they don’t want to hear anything just rotate as they see fit.

Buckets of raw meat comes from downstairs to the restaurant level where there is open cooking / grilling but the person does not have lid and it goes past the toilets to the kitchen.

I understand there is a lot said here but I happen to fine dine and eat out at various restaurants to know expectations etc. I don’t mean any harm by my comments but perhaps an improvement for all to...

[SEE EDIT BELOW] My family and I love coming to this resturant; everything is made fresh and customer service is great e.g. orders taken quickly, hot freshly cooked food on arrival, and friendly staff. Thank you especially to Shuaib (and another male worker present today - sorry, we forgot your name!) who corrected an incorrect order promptly (which hadn't happened to us in the approx. 10-15 times we've been there, hence a genuine mix-up with no bad feelings from us) and made everything fresh for us and offered dessert at no extra cost due to the mix-up. Thank you & we look forward to coming to the resturant again :)

Update: 25th July 2025. I previously gave the resturant 5/5 stars for food, service, and atmosphere. The resturant appears to be under a new cook and management. Food was subpar compared to last time; portion sizes have reduced and the rice was oily. The special platter was less flavourful and the variety of rice given had reduced too. The only positive was that the naan was not as thin anymore. However, the service was really bad. They now have a handful of servers that don't check in with you or talk when you have questions. We asked about ordering takeaway and they let us sit there for 40 mins until we asked them where our order was, and they said it had been made ready. When we asked why we weren't told, the server (name starts with F) shrugged. We went to the till and saw that the cooks were yet to pack our food because they weren't aware we had wanted takeout now and so had to wait more. The only good communication we had was with a worker (server or manager) called Bilal. We complained about our experience and he apologised and said he would follow this up with the main server. While he was very accomodating, the family are really disappointed by what's happened to the Southall Watan. The Watan in Ilford excells in both taste, service, and atmosphere, and reflects how the Watan in Southall...