Surma Tandoori — Restaurant in North Devon

AVOID AVOID. Where do I start. We visited last year and we throughly enjoyed the food. As we are literally staying 2 mins walk away, we thought we would visit again.

Food - the menu shows chicken tikka meat on the left hand side of the menu. On the right hand side it states chicken dishes, we specifically asked for our dishes not to have chicken tikka and have just the chicken. My sisters chicken jalfrezi arrived.

Clearly chicken tikka cooked in the tandoor thrown into a sauce. Same with my garlic chicken, plus the chicken couldn't be broken with a spoon or naan bread.

My sister advised the manager, who said he will get it replaced. He came back out again with chicken tikka in a sauce my sister refused the dish and he just walked off with it. My daughters mutter paneer tasted off sugar so she also left her food.

My sons naan was raw, so he got him another one. My garlic naan was burnt.

Manager - attitude is atrocious. Customers should be allowed to say if they dont like the food, or if something isnt right with it. He made us feel bad for not liking the food.

Service is very slow. No waiters/waitresses. Looks like a one man show. A man popped his head round from the kitchen and that looks like all the staff he has. No head covering/hat quite scruffy, if I'd seen him before we had tried the food.we would have walked out.

He has a sign in the window 10% off all cash payments except drinks. Needless to say, he gave us the full bill no discount. His excuse when I questioned this was that we didn't do a takeaway. I asked where on his sign does it say collection only. And he gave no reply.

I asked why on both occasions we asked for just chicken in the curries and not chicken tikka. His reply come into the kitchen and see it's cooked fresh. My argument was that the chicken had been cooked on skewers and then cooked in the tandoor, then thrown into a sauce. He was adamant it wasn't.

I'm indian I know what chicken tikka looks like as in chocken tikka pieces usually served as a starter or on a mixed grill.

The clue should have been how empty the place was. A family was in there when we got there, and a couple came in as we left.

Seriously spend your money elsewhere like Squires chippy around the corner which is where we went as we were hungry. Best chippy when we...

I’m not one to usually leave reviews unless it’s really needed, but this Indian is one of the best I have tasted! Please if you’re ever in the area, VISIT!

Have been staying the area when I came in this evening for a takeaway. First impressions, the owner was polite and took my order fine, made sure to try his best to cater to my order. We even had a little chat about how he came to own the business etc with his wife. 15-20 mins later my food was ready. Got back home and started to plate up. When I say this was heaven, honestly the fragrance of all the spices and the food was amazing. Opened up the first curry, the chicken madras, the pieces were huge - with around 7-8 pieces of chicken which usually you only get small rubbish pieces. The madras for myself and my partner was spicy and we’ve had a lot of madras’. This is one of the best ones! The lamb bhuna I got, the person who ate it said the pieces of lamb were so soft and also agreed there was a lot of meat. The lamb biryani didn’t get any bad views either apart from it apparently wasn’t spicy enough (said person can tolerate a lot of spice so that was a personal preference). Everything from the owner having a conversation with me to finally finishing our food, was great! I was not expecting to enjoy it that much, and we’ve still got food left over. If I ever return to Croyde, this Indian restaurant with always be a choice if this guy is still the owner and has the same...

After many years visiting Croyde and the surrounding areas, our first experience at this quant Indian curry house, was a lucky dip… We were chuffed with the prize ( The food was great) but what we got as a whole somehow didn’t quite fit the bill… It lacked, passion, charisma, charm and enthusiasm!

Role on 12mths and WOW… Surma Tandori you certainly upped your game..!

With new management taking over the venue and a manager with a passion and drive for not only the business but a shared passion for the community as a whole, we were pleasantly surprised… Yet again the food was exceptional! But this time the atmosphere, the passion and focus was customer driven… At a first we noticed the restaurant is now licensed. Secondly the ambiance as whole, albeit a work in progress, was moving in all the right directions… The authentic Indian music was a dream, to the sharp and cold tone of the previous visit… We found the new manager and his lovely wife and son very welcoming, warm and hospitable… The restaurant starting to warm, shape and take character in the 3wks of transition. We thoroughly enjoyed our evening, engaging with the manager, hearing his plans for the restaurant and his drive to make it a place to be proud of, as he was living in such a beautiful area…His words! A Great experience and one we will definitely be...