Radhuni — Restaurant in South Tyneside

Dear Radhuni management,

As very loyal customers, I'd like to start of by saying that we never thought we'd have to make a complaint to your restaurant, however, after our experience last night it is only right that we do.

We visit your restaurant one to two times per month and although the food was delicious, the service and ridiculous pricing is what let the experience down.

We ordered off the special menu and, as mentioned before, the food was delicious. We couldn't fault it. We decided to have a drink so each ordered a double spirit and diet pepsi. The young girl taking our order must have been new as there was a mix up when taking our drinks order, meaning that a more experienced member of staff had to come to the table to clarify. We ordered a double rum and diet coke and a double southern comfort and diet coke. Initially, we asked if we could just have the drink topped up with draught diet coke but were told that we had to buy the small glass bottles. I can't understand why that is the case but we had no other choice so had to go along with it. When the drinks come out, I tasted my drink and realised that it was Jack Daniels rather than Southern Comfort. We got the attention of one of the waiters to ask to change it. He went to the bar then came back and said "I've spoken to the girl who did your drinks, she said its definitely Southern Comfort". I drink this particular drink whenever I go out for a meal so I know what it tastes like. Rather than offer to change the drink as a courtesy, we were just told "sorry about that but she's saying that's what the drink is". I'd have expected the drink to have been changed without question but it wasn't even offered. For starter we ordered 1 chicken bhuna on puree and 1 prawn bhuna on puree. When the waiter come out with our starters he told us "I don't know which one is which, if it's wrong just swap them". We thought this was very unprofessional as we had to cut open each others food then swap it over. I'm sure it could have been clarified in the kitchen which one was which before bringing the food out. Then the cherry on top was when we received our bill. Over £70 for two people. We thought surely that can't be right. 2 bhuna puree starters, chicken tikka main, and a side of saag paneer. No rice, chips, naan. Surely this meal with 2 drinks each can't come to that amount. We asked for the bill to be checked to be told that our drinks were £8.80 each! When discussing the pricing, we were told "it's because the small bottles of coke are £2.20". This is absolutely ridiculous pricing saying as though we asked for the coke to be from draught. How can 4 drinks be more expensive that 2 full meals? We have looked at local restaurants in the area to compare pricing and for example Mambos Wine and Dine charge £4.60 for a double rum and coke. How can you justify those prices? It's a shame because Radhuni was our favourite restaurant on the whole of Ocean road and now, sadly, this has tainted our experience. We have decided to email you directly for an answer or resolution, rather than leaving a public review on our experience last night.

Kind regards,...

NEVER in my life would I order a takeaway from Radhuni again. After ordering at 7:15pm and saying delivery would be approx 60-90mins (which is fine) I had to ring the restaurant to chase up the order when it was 2 hours late. After about 30 times of trying to get through, they finally answered and said “it has just left 2 minutes ago, it will be with you really soon.” 30 minutes past and still no deliver so I try to ring again. Constant ringing where it was either engaged or rang and rang then line went dead. FINALLY got through to someone and as I was mid explaining the situation, he hung up on me! Tried ringing again….and again…..and again! By this time, Joshua was starving so I had put the oven on to heat up to shove a frozen pizza in for him. Then we get a knock on the door, Jon answered it to the delivery guy. I must admit, I lost it at this point. Said I knew it wasn’t the delivery man’s fault but the customer service is APPALLING. I didn’t want to take delivery as I wanted a full refund as we had paid online when we ordered. Delivery driver gave me it and said he was the only driver tonight and that food is late everywhere. He was very apologetic and seemed upset and said that even people have been leaving the restaurant because of poor service. Says a lot when even the driver says the service is shocking.

Served up the food (by this time it was 10:05pm) and because I had ordered a fish starter it looked like what I can only describe as soggy brains. Had one taste and it was disgusting so went straight in the bin. My son ordered a plain chicken curry (only 9years old and was understandably hungry) and he couldn’t eat it as he said the chicken had gone hard and dry…so that went in the bin. I ordered a prawn curry, again it was so over cooked it was put in the bin. So we have paid approx £45 food which ended up being 2 hours and 45 minutes for delivery and ended up going in the bin as it was inedible.

I am...

Been to a lot of Indian restaurants along Ocean Road in South Shields.

This one is has a glass front with white strip light hanging down the windows and located at the top of Ocean road near the cabaret & karaoke venue Can Can.

The food is pretty good when compared to others in the area.

However I would avoid the cheese tikka starter. I thought it was grilled paneer tikka, in fact it was actually cheap plastic cheese (the square processed strips) melted over a bit of chicken tikka. Oops

Also I found my saag dish to be overpowered with garlic. Apart from that everything else was spot on.

The restaurant is split in 3 areas; the bar & waiting area, a middle partitioned seating area with nice decor (briefly reminded me of a Fat Buddha restaurant), and then a much larger room filled with tables.

Personally I prefer the more intimate middle area for dining.

Like nearly all of the other Indian restaurants in the area they also have meal deal specials so why not pop in...