Passage To India — Restaurant in New Forest

Shocking experience. Visited the restaurant with my partner on 30/12/22.

We ordered some popadoms which were stale. Despite this, we decided not to raise issue.

Then my partner was served a flat coke zero. I raised the issue with the waiter, who insisted that the bottle was opened in front of him so couldn’t be flat. I acknowledged that this may be the case, but that the issue was that Ice was put into room temperature Coke, causing it to be diluted to the point where it was no longer fizzy, and thus not how my partner enjoys it. I therefore politely asked that, if they don’t have cold coke, to serve us the room temperature Coke without the ice to avoid the dilution. The waiters response to that request was to tell me that I would still have to pay for the flat coke I had been served.

He then disappeared into the back and came out with what looked like a manager/owner. This guy gave me the same story. He looked at the glass and pointed to some bubbles to prove it was fizzy. At this point, I got a little irritated and said, “you’re welcome to try it yourself if you don’t believe me, but I am not paying for this coke and would like one without ice if you don’t have a cold one”

At this point, shockingly, his response was to say “please leave my restaurant”, so we did.

I am just very surprised that the restaurant has good reviews when the owner is this reckless and rude. I’ve never had an experience like this, and generally pride myself on being fair and reasonable.

I rarely share my dining experiences, but this was such a shocking experience I’ve felt compelled to write something. It just beggars belief that the owner chose this route of action rather than replacing a small glass Coke Zero which to him would cost no more than a few pennies. Sad to see such a short-sighted attitude by the owner which seemed to be driven purely by...

Saturday night at Passage to India and we had a table booked for 7.30, so nice and early. Unfortunately for us, we were sat on a table nearest the front door and we must have seen 30 people go in an out for collections, reservations and cigarette breaks. WE WERE FROZEN. Not to mention that everyone that goes out for a cigarette stands in the cover by the front door which means we got blasted with second hand cigarette smoke for 2 hours. Restaurant owners should ban people from standing in the doorway smoking.

I noticed that one group of 3 turned up who didn't have a reservation and got taken to a table towards the back of the restaurant where it must have been a lot warmer and didn't stick of cigarette smoke.

Restaurant owners should consider using our table for "Walk In" customers and not reservations.

Our date night (first in 9 months) was ruined by second hand smoke from inconsiderate smokers and having to sit with our coats on for 2 hours to keep warm.

The food was mediocre at best and quite expensive. £100 for 2 mains, 2 rice, 3 sides, 3 drinks and papadums.

I think it is safe to say that we will not be visiting Passage to India again and IF, after reading this review you end up booking a table, make sure you insist it isn't the one...

We just moved to the area and decided to have meal in for our NY celebration. The service was very poor. No real greating. We chose a nice bottle of wine, the waiter struggled to remove the cork, breaking it not once, not twice, not thrice but four times! He corked it. Total bodge. When we advised him that there were bits of cork floating in our wine, he told us to just fish it out! When I asked for a fresh bottle he started speaking another language and walked off! Awful customer service. We had to ask again for a fresh bottle, which was very uncomfortable and set the evening off on a tense note. The owner/manager finally stepped in and replaced the wine. No appolgy. Not cheap either (£27) Our food arrived promptly and was very pleasant. However, it was pricey over £80 for one rice, two mains, and two popadoms, and the wine. Not great value for money.

Once we paid the bill we were swiftly asked to leave, as they had other customers; inspite of the fact there were two tables free next to us, so our night was rushed! They need to make people aware in advance you can only have the table for a set time, if that is indeed their rule.

Overall, food was nice, but staff quite rude and not good...