Kismet Indian Restaurant — Restaurant in Metropolitan Borough of Solihull

What happened? Came for my birthday with the family, food itself was lovely but the experience as a whole has made me not want to come back for a sit down meal. The waiter was miserable and didn't look like he wanted to be there, everything looked like it was too much work for him. We didn't even sit down before he started to ask what drinks and how many poppadoms did we want - can I not sit down and get my coat off first? Starters took forever to come out, they put 3 plates of salad on the table without saying anything (we assumed it was for the 3 starters) but they sat there for ages before they finally brought out the starters to be put on the plates. The waiter that was serving us kept leaning over trying to grab plates and asking if we had finished even though people were still clearly eating. Found that a bit rude, it's not like they were busy and needed plates back. Starters were beautiful, so was the mains. Couldn't fault the food. Put a bit of a damper on my birthday as I picked that place and was a little embarrassed how the staff were towards us. Felt like we weren't good enough...

My friends and I arrived here around 7 pm on a Saturday evening. We didn't need to book in advance, there were plenty of seats. What you don't realise is there is another seating area behind a door at the back of the building. Around 8 pm it got much busier, but it didn't seem to affect the level of service. The service was honest and down to earth. The waiter's recommendation of the Special Fish Balti was spot on for a seafood lover like me, the white fish was delicious and flaky. Each course was delivered in good time and served piping hot. My mates had beer to accompany their meals, they had Carling and Guinness on tap. My only reservation with Kismet is the lack of space, I felt crammed in at my table. Overall, food and service were great. If they could reorganise the seating to offer more space the punter would have a more relaxed experience. Getting change from £20 for a main, nan, rice, poppadums and a drink also makes the visit an...

Oh dear. Not good. Before you even get in the place, parking is a lottery. But once you do, there is a pleasant enough greeting. The manager is especially jovial, but one or two of the floor staff do have faces like smacked babies arses!

The big disappointment though, was the main event; the food. Papadums, dips, and naan bread were all standard fayre, with no real complaints. Even the shammy kebab was good, just a tad dry and anaemic.

But my main of chicken tandoori balti was simply poor. For a start, it wasn't an authentic balti, being served in a presentation stainless steel balti bowl only. The 'tandoori' chicken was no such thing, being stringy and awful. The curry sauce was generic and reminiscent of a cheap supermarket curry. Infact I'm quite convinced I was served a Tesco tinned balti.

The mushroom fried rice was OK, but it couldn't save that sad excuse for a curry. I left most of it uneaten. A very rare...