Vanilla Spice — Restaurant in Newport

My partner and I came here for New Years yesterday. Our taxis didn't show so we were fifteen minutes late. Thankfully they were running late too, and very accommodating. I ordered a lamb tikka naga jalfrezi, but this ended up being the standard jalfrezi and the lamb was tough. When I let them know they were very apologetic and brought me a replacement of chicken naga jalfrezi and another special rice. This was absolutely stunning. My partner ordered a lamb tikka biryani and he said it was delicious. He also enjoyed the meat samosa to start. Service was a little slow to take our order, however it was very busy with both sitting in and take aways so completely understandable. It's super modern, we had these super plush seats which were so comfortable. I wouldn't normally rate so high with any issues, but I couldn't fault how they handled it and the second curry including replacing the rice....

I was really hoping the quality of the food would match the excellent hospitality on show this Sunday evening, but sadly it was one of the worst Indian meals we've ever had. The main problem was the disgustingly excessive amount of oil in every dish. We removed about 4 tablespoons of oil from the main courses but they were still overpowered by the sickly taste of oil. My dhansak dish had no distinguishable taste or heat and was completely underwhelming. Needless to say, this food sat heavily in the stomach for several hours. The worst part was the waiter admitting that they usually pour out the excessive oil before serving but the chef forgot. Why not just use less oil to start with? We were also promised a reduction in the bill but that didn't happen. Instead we left, never to return. It's a real shame as the staff were some of the friendliest we've...

Great atmosphere, food was good but service was awful & lacking. Arrived @ 07:30 with six of us (booked a week prior). Table was not ready and was asked to sit and wait. A table of 2 had walked in after us and seated before us. We were taken to our table and left for 15-20 minutes until a waiter asked for our drinks orders. When the female waitress then came to our table to take our order, I felt like we had made her upset. She seemed annoyed taking our orders - huffing and was rushing us. Food was good, hot and tasted fine. But again we were left to call down a waiter for additional drinks and our final bill. Not sure if waiters have set sections to tend more to tables but doesn’t...