Papa J's Indian Restaurant Milton Keynes — Restaurant in Milton Keynes

I’ve been visiting Papa J’s for many years and always had pleasant experiences, so after almost two years away, I decided to return, expecting the same great service. Unfortunately, what I got was the complete opposite.

From the start, things felt off. Our server decided to open the blinds directly behind us on a bright, sunny day, letting sunlight glare right into our eyes. When we asked for it to be closed, the blind broke—no big deal, so we moved to another table. Then, when placing our order, the waiter asked if we wanted drinks. We politely declined, saying we’d just like water. He then asked again if we were sure, making the interaction awkward.

The real shocker came when our food arrived. The waiter dropped a quarter of our naan on the floor. Mistakes happen, but instead of simply replacing it, he went to the kitchen, returned, and asked if we were okay with just ¾ of our naan. I couldn’t believe it. When I said no, he smugly replied, “Making ¼ of a naan is not possible.” At this point, I had to firmly tell him that I expected a full naan, whether that meant making a new one or otherwise. Only then did they finally replace it.

When I spoke to another server about the situation, he casually admitted, “Oh, he’s always like this, bothering customers.” That alone was appalling. I requested that the original server stay away from our table, but of course, that didn’t happen. He continued serving us and, unbelievably, asked yet again if we wanted drinks—despite us already declining multiple times.

To top it off, when we asked for the bill, he sarcastically asked if it was our first time there, as if we were the ones who didn’t understand their standard of service. I simply told him I’d been there many times and just wanted the bill.

This experience was beyond disappointing—especially since I had spoken highly of Papa J’s to the people I was dining with. With so many new restaurants opening in Milton Keynes, poor service like this is unacceptable. Papa J’s is now off my list, and I won’t be recommending it to anyone again.

Date of visit: Tuesday 1st April 2025 Time:...

Well as a group we all go out every month to different places and we heard papa j came highly recommended, well I recommend don’t bother, we got there we’re sat down straight away, we all had a vibe that this place was not what we heard, actually we all nearly walked out, reason it took half an hour to get the drinks, then eventually poppadoms 1 each, with the smallest Chutney dips Ever seen, Actually, we had to ask for another set of dips because they were so small that the three they bought out was just not gonna be enough for the six of us, Anyway, we eventually got to order our food. We all quite specific on what we wanted an hour later the start turns up I mean okay the starters were okay not too bad basically I had chips. I didn’t really know what to expect. They were spicy chips, (1) got this papa dish which was basically just to poppadoms with salad on and they all and all the poppadoms were soggy anyway from the salad, And the simplest starter came out last, which was just odd two poppadoms salad and even before that was eaten they started bringing out the main dishes, Well, what we ordered was definitely not what they bought out. I asked for my dish to be madras hot. I asked for chilli rice well those absolutely no spice to it whatsoever and they bought out those chilli And to bring out some more chilli rice well that wasn’t chilli rice either it was hot but not chilli hot. It was just hot hot. All the rest of the food what we ordered it all looked the same and it had no taste and no Spice absolutely awful, Service was atrocious as well. We all agreed that we weren’t gonna pay full price for this meal because it just wasn’t worth it so we asked for a discount and to be fair they gave us discount with kind of made up for the lack Luster attempts of what was sit down. So my overall rating of this pappa J Terrible Food terrible Service and I don’t recommend this. Before I left, I did tell the fellow beyond the bar, but this is by far the worst restaurant with we’ve...

This was by far the worst experience I've ever had at a restaurant.

The food came out so slow. The waiters were all young and inexperienced and clearly had no idea how to deal with big orders. They were trying to serve multiple tables at once and kept on giving the wrong food. One waiter even spilled a glass of beer on some poor chap's coat. Half of our table got their food whilst the rest were waiting for theirs. I ate when everyone else on my table was finished which was very depressing.

The quality of food was inconsistent, some of the dishes were nice but then they go and give us chicken that wasn't fully cooked.

Everything felt disjointed, i got everything at different times. My chicken came first which was getting cold by and the time my biryani came.

Then they gave my naan 15 minutes before my main, by the time the curry came the naan was cold and I had to wait longer for a fresh one.

We were treated poorly and the service was terrible. The food came out to deliveroo orders faster than the people dining in.

The manager was very defensive when it came to paying the bill, he firstly denied that we waited well over an for our food, then blamed the slow service on the fact they had a lot of online orders, which is just not good enough. He tried to brush it aside by saying that he didn't charge us for the chicken dish that was raw (which is a given 🙄) and his maths was all over the place.

It was just a disappointment from start to end. This was during Christmas time 2022, hopefully they improved their quality since then but I won't ever be going there again to see...