The Kerala Lounge — Restaurant in Tandridge

We order take aways regularly from the Kerala and have always enjoyed the food. Unfortunately we had a very disappointing experience with our latest order.

We placed our order online and waited an hour and a half (we were given a time of 1 hour). I contacted the chat service within the app and was told they had contacted the restaurant and our food was 5 minutes away. After 10 minutes it still hadn't arrived so I called the restaurant myself. The lady who answered was extremely rude and said 'all people are doing tonight are complaining' and said it wasn't her fault that the food hadn't turned up because once it's left the restaurant it's not their problem.

I gave her multiple opportunities to offer a discount, we would have been happy if she had, but instead she said if it didn't arrive in 10 minutes (1 hour 50 mins after ordering) she would cancel the order which isn't a solution.

After experiencing her rudeness and lack of compensation, I said to cancel the order as we did not want to pay for our meal after our experience speaking to her.

About 10 minutes later our food then arrived (clearly a communication issue with the driver). I said if they're willing to give us the food for free we will take it but I refuse to pay after our experience and a wait time of nearly 2 hours. He said he couldn't do that (I appreciate he didn't have the authority to do that though).

We then ordered from Pizza Express and received our food within 25 minutes.

After reading some reviews after our experience, there seems to be a running theme with customers experiencing rudeness from a lady who works there. It seems the company need to consider some staff training to avoid future issues as this is clearly putting people off.

We will not be ordering again, and our friends and family are also aware of our experience so unfortunately they have now missed out on multiple...

I went there with my family. I have eaten Kerala food at different places. The atmosphere and food taste seemed okay. It was also served quickly. However, I had mentioned to the waiter that my elder daughter is allergic to milk/dairy, eggs and nuts. I asked at least 3 times that the items ordered for her, namely (kerala style) fish curry and (kerala style) chicken curry did not have any of these ingredients. I and my daughter have eaten these above dishes in other kerala restuarants near Croydon, Sutton etc. and know that these dishes generally do not have any of these above allergens. However, despite this I asked the waiter and he assured me that there is no such ingredient.

Within about 10 minutes after my daughter had plain rice along with these curries and leaving the restaurant my daughter vomitted twice and also felt very sick and like going to toilet repeatedly. We administered anti-allegen medicines and rushed home.

In fact, during the meal my partner had commented that the gravy was unusually thick and I mentioned that might be merely due to addition of coconut milk (which my daughter is not allergic to). But now, after my daughter's reaction, I suspect that some cream (or some other dairy based) or crushed cashewnut was part of the ingredients. The other possibility was that some utensils were used which had been used previously for the allergen ingredients (possible contamination)

This shows some degree of callousness on the part of the staff and lack of sensitivity towards allergens. The staff are not well-trained.

The restuarant food taste was good for me. The service was also prompt and the staff were friendly, allthough the food was pricier than some of the other Kerala restuarants in Croydon or Sutton.

Will I visit this place again? The answer...

Not quite the Kerala cuisine I was hoping for.

I visited The Kerala in Caterham hoping to enjoy some authentic Kerala food, but unfortunately, it didn’t hit the mark for me. We ordered the Kerala Paratha, Kerala Lamb Curry, Calamari Rings Starter, and the Konchu Porichathu (prawns) Starter.

While the meal was perfectly serviceable, the flavours were very mild and didn’t reflect the bold, spicy character of Kerala cuisine I’m used to. In hindsight, the presence of British curry house staples like Balti and Vindaloo on the menu should have indicated that this place is more tailored to local English tastes. The only dish I enjoyed was the Kerala Paratha. I paired it with some leftover curry I had in the fridge and it worked brilliantly.

That’s not a criticism—just an observation. It’s clear that the restaurant is catering to a different audience: those who are curious about the food of Kerala rather than those who grew up with it. If you’re from Kerala or South India and are hoping for something that reminds you of home, this might not be the place.

But if you’re looking for a gentler, anglicised introduction to Kerala-inspired dishes, it might be...