Essence of Bengal Restaurant — Restaurant in Redditch

Essence has been around for many years. We live a very short walk from the restaurant and we have dined in an handful of times before this incident. The meal was ok but not enough for us to return regularly. We were invited by friends to attend an reunion at Essence. We enjoyed our meal so we decided to return, which we did, quite a few times and we always left a £5 tip. On this occasion, we ordered our meal and the nan bread did not arrive on the table. We waited and waited, while eating and we realised it was not going to arrive. There was only two sets of couples in the restaurant so it was not busy. My partner told me not to say anything about the missing nan bread and see if they knock It off the bill. I normally order a chicken meal served with rice. The rice was a very small portion, not enough really so I ordered more rice which we were charged for. My partner had his meal and used some of my rice. The owner, the man who wears the waistcoat, arrived to take our payment. My partner told him politely that the nan bread,which was £3.50, did not arrive at the table. The owner said one moment I will check. He was gone a while, talking to his waiters and his chef. He returned. Slamed our chocolates on the table and said there's your chocolates and I will check the CCTV because the staff told me that you had your nan bread because they cleared away your silver tray. My partner replied and said the popodums and sauces/ lettuce were on the silver tray and the nan bread did not arrive. The owner replied, not in a polite manner, that he will remove the nan bread from the bill and check the CCTV. We were both shocked by his reply. The owner obviously did not believe us. We are both mature adults, well over 50 years of age. We both earn very good money and we would NEVER lie about a £3.50 nan bread. The attitude of the owner was very disgraceful. As we walked out, my partner, who is a funny guy, said to the owner. When you check your CCTV or if you check your CCTV and it shows that the nan bread arrived at our table, I will pay all your staff wages. We walked out with our head held high and we will...

My friends and I turned up and saw that there were only a couple of tables occupied so asked if we could have a table for 8.

Everything was fine until the manager went to take our order and I stated that I was not eating (everyone else at the table was). The manager said ‘so you didn’t need this table of 8 did you’ in a real hostile and argumentative manner. He followed this with a harsh stare and we could hear him talking about us.

We were all left in shock as we had ordered plenty of food and drinks for the table (and as stated before IT WAS BASICALLY EMPTY - if it was full I would not have gone in).

We then called the manager back over to confront him about his tone and service as he made me feel incredibly uncomfortable. Instead of apologising like any good business owner should he was extremely argumentative and essentially told us that we should leave.

All of the other members of staff are absolutely lovely but unfortunately this so called manager lets the whole team down.

I often order an Essence and just can’t believe that he was so rude to paying customers. It is the worst service I have...

DON’T USE THIS PLACE - Worst Asian food/curry we’ve ever had! My wife and I went there for my 63rd birthday following a recommendation from someone. Food was tasteless mush, couldn’t even differentiate between the onion bhaji and vegetable pakora. The chicken tikka was dry and tasteless. Not surprisingly the main course was no better. Even the naan bread was cold and dry.

I have 40+ years’ experience of eating Asian food, many of which were when working around the West Midlands in areas such as Moseley, Aston, Allum Rock and Nechells. I know what a curry should taste like. I suspect that the starters are mostly pre-cooked. For the main courses at this place I suspect that they prepare one large pot of curry sauce, pre-cook most stuff and reheat it and pour curry sauce over it. They then garnish the dish with a few bits and pieces to make them look special. It was the middle of the week with very few customers so they can’t make the excuse that it was a packed restaurant and that this was a one-off. We left most of the food and went home – couldn’t wait to pay the bill and to get...