Ajwa Restaurant — Restaurant in Wells

Originally posted a five star review immediately after eating. Downgraded it after some nasty after effects and the review now doesn’t seem to be visible. Trying again as it would be nice to know the management have taken notice.

• Nice restaurant, nice staff, very very unpleasant food poisoning. *

Finally went here on Wednesday 20th April after meaning to go for ages. Friendly staff and delicious food. And we can walk there! You take your own alcohol too so that’s also a fab bargain and you can drink what you like best rather than what a place has. The inside is really nicely done out, even though the outside looks very basic.

However, towards the end of dinner my wife started to struggle to eat her chicken bhuna. We always have the same favourite dishes and I’ve never seen her not finish one before. In the end she had to go outside for air. As she had left some food I finished that off as I don’t like food getting wasted. Paid the bill, left a tip (£70 all in) and went outside.

By the time we had walked the ten minutes home my wife had to go straight into the toilet and suffered violent simultaneous vomiting and diahorrea. It was just horrible. To add to this, about an hour later the very same thing happened to me.

We then spent a sleepless night, getting up five or six times each to be significantly ill again. The following two days, neither of us could go to work as we were so rough, continually throwing up or running to the toilet…or generally both together. Coupled with a temperature of 38.8 degrees it was all very unpleasant indeed.

Our two children who were with us (and ate a different meal) were absolutely fine, and the only common thing my wife and I ate on the day in question was the chicken bhuna, plus it was a very quick effect so I am pretty sure it was that dish.

Unfortunately I honestly don’t feel confident going back again now. I think it would be good for the owners to look into this incident to ensure it doesn’t happen to anyone else. Such a shame as the place really is nice and the staff are genuinely lovely. And the food is delicious too…but we evidently got some that...

We only went here because the Indian restaurant in Shepton was closed but what a stroke of luck!

I will always come here in future when I am in the area!

The exterior is absolutely nothing special but once you step inside it's another story. It's bright and calm and the waiters were brilliant. Not from the falsely overly friendly mould that so many are nowadays. They were respectful, kind, friendly, available without being intrusive. I suffer with anxiety and I did not feel uncomfortable for one moment.

They do not serve alcohol, but you can take your own. They don't even charge corkage! Of the drinks they do serve, I had a sparkling mineral water and I was so pleased to find that it was local (from Cheddar) and in a glass bottle!

As for the food, what can I say? It was the best curry I've had for a long time, perhaps ever. We order 3 curries between us to get a variety along with mushroom rice and Bombay aloo. Everything was perfect. The mushroom rice was incredible. We completely over ate but it really was so delicious.

My only concern is that, without the large profit margin which many restaurants make on serving alcohol, and with such reasonable prices on the food, they won't make enough money to sustain them. That would be a...

I moved to the area recently having lived in London for the last 15 years.

Researching indian restaurants in the area this place seemed to have quite good reviews so I thought I would give it a go.

I’m not one to write negative reviews (or in fact reviews all that often) but I feel this is very warranted.

I ordered two curries, three side dishes and a starter.

One of the two curries literally tastes like a tomato stew and totally bland, with quite a strong taste of canned tomatoes - albeit it had a few few fresh tomatoes in it too. The other curry the only taste of spice was the tikka marinade on the chicken.

Every dish tasted like spices are on ration at this restaurant !

I thought maybe they are having an off day so I called them up…. The manger told me there is nothing wrong with any of it and put the phone down on me !

The onion bhaji were soggy, tasteless and just tasted of oil, the channa was fairly tasteless and the chickpeas were undercooked, and the curries as mentioned were very very bland indeed.

If you enjoy a tasty curry I would not recommend and the attitude when I raised this was awful. I don’t believe for a moment that the guys who work here would be happy to eat the food they are...