Raj Massala — Restaurant in Tendring

The terrible experience of the Raj Massala Brightlingsea. we thought it's be nice to have a new year's meal at the above restaurant, well it turned out to be a total nightmare. They were clearly understaffed and couldn't cope , but what followed was totally unacceptable 1, we got there for 18.45 was asked how many poppadum's, 1 each so 5 , not knowing they £2 each , and that it was optional , this should have been made clear they table next to us warned us that service was very slow 2, Throughout the whole meal we could hear the man serving , constantly shouting in I assume Bengali , at the Kitchen staff like a scene out of Fawlty towers - dreadful 3, we ordered our main food at 7.30 , it eventually arrived at 9.30 , but they had missed my rice , so my Lamb tikka Masala, was going cold , I had to ask 3 times for my rice so I could start eating along with my family , it must have took 15-20 minutes - Unacceptable. The Food was actually ok 4, We asked for the bill at 10.00 when it arrived at 10.25 it was wrong , and he took exception when I queried it , they had charged us for Drinks we hadn't had /ordered , and for food we hadn't had , and cancelled , the difference was £34 , the hand written bill was far from easy to read , but at this point I was in no mood , to be taken for a fool and asked for it to be itemised , and broken down so that I could understand what we were being charged for , and my usual easy going nature was disappearing , after all it was new years eve , and we had been here for nearly 4 hours. 5, They admitted overcharging and took £20 off , I wanted to stand my ground , but could see the family just wanted to draw a line , and bring the misery to an end so paid ,when getting home I totaled up what we should have been charged , against their menu , and we were still overcharged by £14 , and I cant see where the extra has come from 6, Just when you think it couldn't get any worse , we left , and got about 30 yards from the restaurant, when this lovely chap came running out shouting at my wife , I was about 10 yards ahead , so went back to see what the fuss was , he wanted the Invoice (the scribbled bill he had written out earlier ) , and was asking my wife to go through her handbag , at which point I stepped in and told him we didn't have , and to not harass my wife , and we walked off , got around the corner , and the White van that had been parked outside , was following us very slowly , I stopped , and tried to look at the driver , but they just sped up and away , probably not connected , but just a bit suspect given the circumstances

Happy New year from the Raj Masala , I really...

Avoid at all costs, this place wil try and trick you out of money. When we arrived we were given a table straight away, although we'd noticed it was extremely busy. One of the waiters joked with us about this, however no-one at any point formally warned us that we would be waiting a long time for food. It took around 1 1/2 HOURS for our simple order of one main course each to come, for which we received no apology until we were so frustrated we got up to leave at which point our food was belatedly brought out. After this, astonishingly the owner had the cheek OVERCHARGE us £8.50 for the meal. We weren't given any kind of receipt despite asking for it, which I found very unusual and rather suspicious. When we added up the items we had ordered from the menu they came to much less than we had been charged. When we politely pointed this out, the owner tried to dismiss this several times, until we were eventually reluctantly allowed up to the bar to add up the meals on the calculator ourselves. Even once we were there, we were ignored for around 15 minutes, and we had to add up the meals three times until the owner eventually unapologetically accepted he had made a "mistake", however not before, staggeringly, he had told us "if you have a problem don't come back", an unbelievably rude and arrogant attitude to take towards customers, especially ones you have kept waiting (patiently and politely) for 2 hours and then tried to scam out of money. Even when we were eventually given the extra money back, it was £2 less than we were owed because the owner claimed there was an extra charge for a simple request I'd made about my order despite the fact it didn't say this on the menu and I was at no point warned about this. Worst of all, whilst we were adding up our meals on the calculator we noticed the owner and his waitress JOKING ABOUT US BEHIND OUR BACKS. We left feeling extremely disappointed and upset about what should have been a lovely experience being ruined by the unbelievably poor management of the restaurant. Would give zero stars if I could. There are much better curry houses in the area including Rose of Bengal in Brightlingsea and, especially Saffron in Wivenhoe (who deliver to Brightlingsea) who know how to treat their customers. I say this with a heavy heart as based on the quality of the food alone I would have happily returned, even considering the length of the weight. But based on the atrocious management I have to say ONCE AGAIN AVOID...

Having received starters as part of our meal, the waitress began distributing the dinner plates for the main meal and in doing so, a small dead insect fell from between the stack of plates she had hold. Upon realising that the insect fell onto the table, the waitress quickly attempted to remove the insect however in doing so, removed the body but left the head of the insect.

The waitress then disappeared to the kitchen and returned with a male member of staff who then attempted to serve the main course. At this stage the waitress was asked whether she was going to inform the other staff member of what had occurred, however disappointingly she stated that nothing had occurred.

The waitress was then further questioned by diners as to be honest, she again replied that nothing had occurred however she apologised for any concern raised.

This was shortly followed unfortunately by the presence of another albeit alive insect that flew onto our table.

The visit concluded with the restaurant reluctantly agreeing to reduce the overall cost of the meal by 20% which was inclusive of the meals ordered by the guests whose appetite had...