Dosa And Chutney — Restaurant in Nottingham

Alright so this my second time visiting with my girlfriend few hours delayed in writing this but here it is. My rating is based on several things.

My 3 star rating is combined from comparing to my previous visit and this visit.

STAFF : My previous visit was pleasant and more comfortable and more relaxed compared to this visit mainly due to the fact that when we arrived this time we were welcomed appropriately, courteously and elegantly by the staff member just like the last visit but the difference this time then last time was that from the start i felt like the staff were treating the business as a playground rather than a work place and a restaurant however as i was seated and we immediately asked for a cup of tea for drinks (it was cold outside so we wanted to warm up). 10 - 11 minutes in we didn't get any tea at this point we weren't complaining. So my fiancé called the waitress that was regularly visiting her table she was serving to see if we can move to different table as we initially chose the table near the window side which seemed to have a draft and she said yes that's no problem so i will give kudos to the flexibility offered. We moved to another table a little better but 5 minutes moving into moving to the new table we were still wondering where was our tea or we haven't been greeted by any other servers who were kind of walking back and forth taking pics and having a conversation amongst each other. Then 2 minutes of that 2 guys walked into the dining area and one of them was our initial server who greeted us and seated us (I do however have to say that since the time we walked in to the time we walked out he had his airpods in his ears and having a conversation on the phone). He came up to us and said you said coffee right i said sorry no we asked for tea and we requested it as soon as possible if it was ok and he said oh right sure yes. Waitress arrived to our table and i saw that she had tea and coffee on her serving tray and she was about to drop the coffee and we said no sorry we only asked for tea but since now the coffee was there and instead of sending it back we said sure we will take that too. During the whole dinner we were there some staff were too busy joking with each other sitting on the table opposite to us during the break and talking joking and sitting in uncompromising positions and eating which in all means is not a problem for them to eat but as a customer some of us come in to a restaurant to have a pleasant quite intimate time with family, loved ones, friends and business meetings and that wasn't what i was expecting from my staff where i work and nor do i want them to invade some one else's space especially in the dining area. This was all even before the order was taken from us. The waiter who did come to take our service was professional however i wish he did however have a notepad with him as much as i respect his memory it did make us question he didn't take a note and hope he doesn't forget by the time he puts it in the P.O.S for the kitchen. Other than this i had i no other issues.

FOOD : Just like my previous visit and this visit i am impressed with the food. The taste, texture, quality and the authenticity is still amazing and kudos the kitchen for delivering

CONCLUSION : I would revisit again only because of the food. I do hope however staff behave more in a professional setting without losing the humanity and welcoming side. I Would have given it 5 stars but the staff let me down with their behaviours. Next time i visit hopefully this is sorted out. Would i recommend this to others ? YES like i said for the food as of now but if you asked me what about service i am not sure what you are expecting as my 1st visit everything was done correctly this visit i was disappointed .

Hope to see you soon. And may be my employees will...

Me and family usually eat at this restaurant. At first we thought it’s just a one time case but as we frequently visited it seemed to be their day to day normal behavior.

The food is not that great compared to the actual preparation of the dish except the dosas, they are good.

All other Indian dishes just does not have the same taste and it’s suppose to be.

When we order for all members together we expect receive all ordered items together to avoid anyone waiting and looking at others who received their food, but this doesn’t happen here. We ordered food for adults and child, the food for adults were received but for a child a simple chicken noodles took an hour to receive. We did share our food with the child and by the time the food was received the child wasn’t interested. It’s a shame.

We orders for a chicken dish and received vegetable instead upon advising the server of this they went to the kitchen and came back telling us it’s chicken coated with cheese inside. I had to literally show the server the outer coating, the vegetable and the cheese for them to understand the order was wrong. Then they apologize and say it was a mistake and a misunderstanding etc. We cancelled that dish in the end as it was already an hour for us to receive it and was afraid it would take another hour.

When I initially inquired the ingredients in the chicken noodles it was advised that it’s chicken, noodles and vegetables. I specifically asked if there is egg and was told no egg. To my surprise the dish came to us with egg in it, the only reason we didn’t want egg is cause the child doesn’t like the smell of egg in food, but since the order took an hour, the child already ate and we adults had to eat it. It wasn’t great..

Finally the last issues I had is with the smell of the spray used when cleaning tables that finished their meals and left. It is so strong that I could actually taste it 2 tables afar. It did ruin my mood and family lunch experience.

My advise is if you want to have South Indian food like dosa it’s good but other Indian dishes and service experience is really poor based on my experience..

We did have similar incidents in the past but always thought that everyone makes mistakes and it could be just a one time case, sorry to say we have faced this issues before as well and I think that the management is actually not interested or careless enough to ignore these issues.

I hope this review helps someone to avoid facing similar issues and hope the management reads this and pull up...

Food: Taste good but sometimes the same meal can taste different depending on the day but generally quite good.

Portion size: Portion size is not too good as dishes such as the paneer tikka masala or some of the starters (if not all) are very small.

Environment: Decorations and overall setup are very well done. The music on the other hand is quite... interesting. Not bad by any means but.. just interesting to say the least.

Given that it's in Nottingham (a university city) I would expect there to be student discounts (or if there is, please advertise it more).

Staff: Is okay but could be better and more welcoming. However, this one time I went with friends and I needed to ask the waiter for an extra item and he looked at me annoyed and rolled his eyes. I wasn't sure why he acted like that but for the rest of my stay, he kept acting very annoyed and like he didn't want to be there. A lot of the female staff also act very relaxed as if they did not care about what they were doing, often giving off an air of annoyance and complacency.

Waiting times: The waiting times are probably one of the worst things about this place. Waiters take too long to come and ask for your order, let alone to offer you some water or any other drinks. And after you FINALLY place your order, you better have an hour to spare to wait for your food. Sometimes it even arrives cold... not sure what's going on there.

Overall, the place is quite good. I think that better management and better marketing would really help...