Turmeric Gold — Restaurant in Tunbridge Wells

I first went to Turmeric Gold in 2010 after it had been open for a couple of years. The food was amazing and the staff attentive and kind (they replaced, free of charge, the meal of one of my children who had been overly ambitious on the spice front when they saw him smouldering!) On my return the place has grown. Too much. It is vast and, as a result, it has lost its way. What used to be a reasonably sized restaurant selling top notch food is now purveying mediocre dishes which tasted bland, uninteresting and very similar. We arrived and had to wait on our table for a few minutes which was no major issue. Shown to our table in the newer indoor area I asked if the wine list was in the main menu. “I think so” was the reply. I ordered prawn purée which was served, not on a crisp, fried, chapati but on a thin cheap and soggy tortilla like bread. What should have been a rich and tasty bhuna with depth was a red and slightly bitter sauce in which the prawns had been poached for an overly long time making them hard and chewy. The jalfrezi sauce was similarly unrecognisable and uninteresting with a few lumps of chicken tikka lobbed in for good measure. The coco chilli king prawn looked and tasted off with no green chilli or coconut milk and was, ultimately, comped - thank you. However, the excuse that it doesn’t cook well on the tandoor didn’t seem to fly for a dish described as “pan-fried”. Even the wine was dull and thin. The ambience was absent and the restaurant brash and loud and not conducive for a sociable night out. So many people packed in creates an high level of background noise compounded by a bizarre muzak coming out of the sound system. Far better restaurants exist nearby where they still have a passion for their food and an interest in what they serve - Blue India at Langton, The Spice on Camden Road or Junahki. My advice would be to return to core values of passion for your food and service although I feel this juggernaut of a restaurant may be just too big to...

Was here on 25 June, we were offered 1 or 2 pappadums each, we were all hungry so had 2 each for 6, we had 12 paddadums and 1 set of sauces that ran out very quickly. We were asked to order the '"journey", we asked how long that would take, the server said 2-3 hours, so we said we were too hungry so no. It took 2 hours for the starters so they gave us a "free" amuse bouche (mouthful of cauliflower) to try to placate us. Then there was another hour to very ordinary mains, bowls of generic sauce with unrecognisable protein (I had fish and my partner chicken, I couldn't tell the difference). I asked for the bill but gawked at the 330 pound bill. A business partner paid instead. When you are out on a business dinner you cannot complain, but this is the worst indian we've had ever, and we have eaten at many indian restaurants in the UK, and India, and this is hands down the worst. And on top of all that, the gentleman who paid had scallops and was very sick the next day. I expect this restaurant to disavow everything I say, as they do this to all negative reviews including one from my colleague for the same night but heed our warning, this place is awful and not worth the money. This is as far removed from fine dining as you can get, and the worst indian...

Gold Sahi grill was one of the dishes in the specials for about £25 if I remember correctly. Quality was awful! My husband couldn't cut the meat with the knife, a grilled "prawn" which was like purred mashed with no texture, chicken wings coated with thick sauce and grilled but you couldn't really separate/tell what was edible. Garnish was a small salad with no dressing at all. Straight from the supermarket's pack with nothing added. We said the special dish wasn't edible especially if you take into consideration its price. Waiter didn't know what to say but said he will tell the manager. No-one came to talk to us after that. Only on the way out, we were offered a free bottle of wine which we didn't accept. Very bad quality of food for a very expensive dish. This combined with quick service, made us feel really awkward, almost unwelcome. As if the only important thing was to sit, order quickly, eat quickly, take our money and leave. That was a quiet Monday evening with just a few tables so really not a busy day. Not happy at all. Not sure we are going again. It used to be much better in...