Indian Tiffin Room — Restaurant in Stockport

We as a family of 2 adults and 2 kids visited this place last Saturday at 9 pm. We pre-booked and we were told a table would be available on arrival. As we arrived on time, the place was jam-packed with no place to stand as well. We waited for like 15 min and got a table with only 3 chairs, even though we booked for 4. I cannot stand for long and so I took a chair, both my sons in each and my husband unfortunately stood there for 10 min and then my younger one for 5 more minutes until a fellow customer ( out of pity or good nature or maybe they were finished) kindly offered us a chair on which my younger one sat. The irony was, even after me inquiring about the chair many times, I was assured that a chair was coming right up, it didn't happen at all. The place is very small and cramped when full with customers. Now the food: Great taste, good quality and quantity. We had vegetarian starters ( Samosa, paneer chilly, paneer pakoda) and some street food ( chole bhature and Madurai masala dosa) with an apple juice and ginger ale. The price was a bit on the higher end is my opinion. It costed us somewhere around £40+ which I believe is expensive. Anyway, they were responsive enough to come and inquire if everything was fine or we needed something else. They did not charge our drinks, as a compensation for keeping us waiting for the table and a chair. They even told us that since it was a Saturday, people tend to spend more time than usual and so the waiting time was more than anticipated. Rather if it was a Sunday, it would have been better, which they could have informed us when we were booking but unfortunately they skipped this part! PS: Thali is available only from SUNDAY to THURSDAY.

OVERALL EXPERIENCE - Good taste, no customisation, just like how Indian food must taste, authentic flavour and aroma, but I felt it was a bit expensive.

Please try to avoid going on a...

If I could give less stars I would. Possibly one of the worst experiences I have had in any restaurant in my life.

SERVICE: Staff were rude, took a significant amount of time to even take our drinks orders (which took 30 minutes to arrive and orders were incorrect), food arrived late AND instructions were not followed.

The restaurant was also extremely hot with very little ventilation i.e. no air conditioning.

FOOD: I have had my fair share of Indian food and I know for a fact this was not good. We ordered a range of food (Butter chicken, Nihari, lamb chops, curry) and all were bland, tasteless and unenjoyable. This is also ignoring the fact that the food took over 45 minutes to arrive.

To make matters worse of this terrible experience, we found HAIRS in our food and in the dessert (which was provided for free since we found a hair in the food!).

We let the waiters / staff know about our grievances and nothing was done to rectify.

Our total bill was £290.

SAVE YOUR MONEY AND GO ELSEWHERE! ABSOLUTELY...

Excellent service. Very friendly staff. I've heard some people complain that the space is tight. I have to say, for a big guy like me, I didn't find that. Yes it's a small restaurant compared to others, but that actually contributes a lot to the atmosphere in there. Excellent food. Very tasty. The best way to describe it is an Indian Tapas. Lots of tasty affordable little dishes. We had 6 dishes between the two of us for under 30 quids. We didn't leave the restaurant bursting but we certainly we didn't leave feeling hungry either. Just perfect. Don't expect the usual Indian fair that you get in other "Indian restaurants". There's no Balti or Rogan Josh dishes here! But plenty of small authentic Indian Street food. For the Vegan amongst you, they actually have a separate vegan menu. We had that and all the dishes were bursting with great flavours. No more to say, other than, you should try it, I don't believe...