Nibana — Restaurant in Plymouth

Experienced very bad customer service after a long time. These people give food like it’s complimentary and make us pay for it.

This is what happened: so the waiter asked what drinks we would like while ordering the food, and we ordered a lemonade and a soft drink. Then he asked, “With that, would you like some pappadams?” and we said, “Sure!” He made it seem like they were complimentary.

Right after he left, we checked if they were complimentary because if not, we weren’t craving them enough to spend £4 on pappadams. We quickly went to the waiter to let him know we didn’t need them unless they were complimentary. This was maybe 30 seconds after we placed the order. However, another waiter (a different guy who was standing at the reception area) stalled us until the pappadams were served to our table. Then he said they were already “cooked”, so we couldn’t cancel.

The pappadams were served with a pickle tray. Honestly, the pappadams tasted okay with the different flavors in the pickle tray, so my friends and I were fine with it—until we checked the bill. They charged £4 for the pappadams and ANOTHER £2.95 for the pickle tray, which we didn’t order but was just served alongside.

I wouldn’t have minded paying if I’d known we were being charged beforehand. We spent around £70 in total, so it’s not about the money—we’re not stingy. But don’t mislead customers by making food seem complimentary and then charging for it. Also don’t stall and force customers to pay for something they tried to cancel when they realized it wasn’t free. And definitely don’t charge customers for things they didn’t order, like the pickle tray. They never asked if we wanted the pickle tray. It just came with the pappadams, and we were expected to pay for it.

This kind of practice is not acceptable. I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone. If you’re planning to go, DONT GO. If you still don’t have a choice make sure they’re not trying to scam you with extra charges for things you didn’t order or misleading with foods like showing them are complementary but charging you later. Very bad experience—extremely disappointed. Never going back...

A rare treat for myself and my wife and we decided to get an Indian takeaway from Nibana. We tried them about four years ago but, when the food arrived, it was stone cold. Ringing them about this produced an off hand response and no discount or even an apology was offered, Lightning can't strike twice can it? Well, since they are the closest Indian to us, we thought we would try them again - what a mistake that was!

Initially we were told the order would be with us at around 1845 but the order didn't arrive unti 1915. It smelled delicious and we were both looking forward to it so imagine our disappointment when we started to take it out of the bags and realised straight away that, once more, it was all cold. Touching the lamb passander and chicken korma revealed that they were only just luke warm but the bombay aloo and the naan bread were completely stone cold. We tried a little of it but it wasn't fit to eat and what's the point of putting it i the microwave? That just ruins it.

I decided that, having now had this happen to us twice, I really felt that I did not want to pay for it this time so I rang them again. Initially I made my complaint to an employee, told him what was wrong and what I would like done about it and, without explanation, he passed me to someone else who I assume was the owner. Initially he asked me what it was I had and then told me how much it would be with delivery. I realised he though I was trying to place an order. I relieved him of that notion quite quickly and stated that the order that they had delivered was cold and I wasn't happy to pay for it. He immediately began shouting at me down the phone saying that it couldn't possibly be cold since it had been cooked fresh. I invited him to come over and put a finger in to test it himself but he vigorously declined at which point it just turned into a shouting match. Realising I wasn't going to get anywhere and this must be the same person that answered the phone when I tried to complain four years ago, I put the phone down. We reheated the takeaway in the microwave and it tasted just like a cheap microwave...

We went for a nice evening out. I would rather have cooked myself.

We went on a banquet night - no banquets menu on the table, we were given just standard menus until hubby asked. Beware when you do get the banquet menu….everything leads you to believe that you get a rice AND a bread but you don’t, also the banquet dishes aren’t full menu dishes, the more expensive bits are left off.

Poppadums fine but the bits with them were odd, peppers, onions, mango chutney and the strangest raita. Special starter - so hot with Birds Eye chillies that it was inedible. The tandoori starter was decent though. One main was a vegetable balti….bland doesn’t even start to cover it, no flavour to speak off, no tomatoes or freshness and so incredibly sweet. Swapping meat for vegetables we expected peppers/cauliflower/aubergine/potatoes or similar…what we had was one very small piece of broccoli and two small potato chunks…the rest was just onions and sauce. The naan’s fitted on to a rice plate - no more than 6in around and so thin that they snapped rather than tore when they were bent.

The upshot is that we won’t be back, it was poor value and...