Vegetarian Food Studio — Restaurant in Wales

One of the worst Indian Restaurants in the UK. I am always in hunt of good authentic Indian Restaurants here in the UK as I am vegetarian Indian so have a good experience on different restaurants. The owners are Typical Gujrati Indians who are extremely rude to Indians and extremely mellow to White people. All the good reviews of this Restaurant on Google are from Non Indian people as an Indian will never give more than 1 Star. We went with 5 friends and the restaurant wasnt packed. Even then the food took more than an hour to reach table. My friend was extremely hungry so he decided his menu that was a Vegetarian Thali and in the meantime as we were deciding the rest of the dishes, we requested waiter to bring his thali first but straight away an extremely rude reply came from the waiter that she cant take individual orders only call when the group is ready. I mean what? Typical Indian rudeness. White people who came after us got the food before us but we were just taking follow ups and everytime assured that food would be in 5 mins. Nothing came for an hour. And the friend who was most hungry got his thali in the end which different curry as promised when asked before ordering. The daal was a joke and we straight away returned. The owner was rude enough to not admit it wasnt daal but pure water, rather she kept telling us this is how daal is made.

Saw one family arguing on the bill that was charged to them as they were charged more.

One of the worst experiences of my life.

Never...

PLEASE DON'T GET FOOLED WITH GOOD REVIEWS

Good things:

Ambiance is very nice. Liked wall painting of rural India. Hosts are polite and very friendly. Food is served in good quantities. Vegan options , gluten free option available. Complete lacto vegetarian compliant food. Family friendly environment. LGBTQ friendly and very inclusive.

Bad things:

They may be good at Gujarati Indian food(Western state of India, Gujarat).However, there ia no authenticity in flavors of North Indian food, South Indian and Indo-Chinese food (they wrote "Oriental" food which is not a word for that cusine!).

Their food contain excess oil - not healthy for your heart. I am writing after my 2 dine in and 3 take away experiences.

Their chefs and cooks need to learn recipes I think- South Indian "sambar" or lentil soup is different from Gujarati Dhal or Gujarati style lentil soup. Spices, veggies and other ingredients in both of them are different.

Talking of Indo-Chinese dish, Vegetarian Manchurian balls should have more vegetables and less corn flour. I didn't see even use of green onions and garlic in Manchurian which supposed to be authentic or must have ingredient.

They serve Methi Thepla(Gujarati dish) in the name of Methi Paratha(North Indian or Punjabi dish).

Mango Lassi - you have taste of preservative. I do understand you have used that canned mango pulp but that would spoil whole taste.

So, to conclude, I enjoyed everything except food which supposed to be core part in any...

On a recent business trip, I really fancied a Gujarati meal. A Google search brought this place up and the reviews looked great....so I thought I would give it a try. (FYI I am Gujarati).

The server was efficient and friendly, the resturant has a sort of charm about it. Sadly the food was a let down. I ordered a plain dosa and a mixed platter of snacks, with salted lasi. The lasi was nice (it's really hard to get that wrong!). The plain dosa was not crispy at all. In fact you would expect a dosa to hold up its rolled up shape, not the one that I got.....it was flat, not crispy, and the flavour was only just passable. The plate of mixed small bites was awful....I left most of it. I think the waiter must have thought I was full and offered to pack it for me to take away - I said no thanks. I was genuinely so disappointed, I was looking forward to some homely food, I can't see myself coming back here.

I couldn't work out why the reviews were so high, I think all I can put it down to is the the large majority of reviews are from non-gujarati customers, the lack of other options in Cardiff for similar food...... come on Cardiff, you can and should do better. And as for the owners of the resturant, I know you cook better than what you serve at home, do the same in your restaurant so others can appreciate the wonders of Gujarati food like we do at home.

I had to grab a subway on my way back...