Raj Garden — Restaurant in Welwyn Hatfield

I grew up in Welwyn Garden City and have family here, yet I have never been to the Indian restaurant in Haldens, but had always wanted to. So I was very excited to visit after a snowboarding lesson in Hemel Hampstead at about 18:30 on a Saturday. Myself and my friend walked in to the restaurant and asked if we could be seated, the place was more than half empty and it was early so we didn’t expect to be turned away. We were asked if we had a reservation, we didn’t, and we were shown to our seats, and despite being in an empty restaurant, we were sat right beside the front door. It’s late October, and the weather has turned, despite this we sat and didn’t complain. Our orders were taken, I’m a flexible vegan so I ordered vegetarian and asked a few questions about the inclusion of cream or butter to get the sense of whether it would be worth troubling the cook to prepare a meal without ghee, it wasn’t. And then we sat for a very long time with our drinks and no food. We sat there for another 15 minutes when a group came in for takeout. The reception area for Raj Garden is small, and it is where people wait for their takeout, the overspill of this area resulted in a loud group stood immediately behind the first tables in the restaurant, of which one was mine. I could no longer hear myself or my friend speak over the din of the takeout crowd so I asked if I could be moved, to which the reply came: “You’re lucky to have a seat at all, you cannot move.” I could see clearly that the restaurant was still half empty and we could still be seated in a number of places not surrounded by people or in the cold of the opening, closing, opening, closing front door. The reply from the waiter was so brusque and dismissive that I wanted to leave there and then, but my friend insisted that we stay, we had been there for quite some time after all, so our food must (surely, please) be ready! I asked another time to move and thankfully a more reasonable waiter overheard my request, we were moved immediately into one of the many spaces we could have been occupying all along. Soon after that the food came; my peshwari naan had become a keema naan and the rest of my meal was bland (vegetable rogan, cauliflower bhaji)... but I couldn’t get the bad taste of the waiters poor attitude out of my mouth, despite the very best efforts and competence of other staff. I couldn’t wait to get out of there... I won’t...

Firstly I'm from Leicester and I have worked at 2 of the top 5 restaurants in the late 80s.

We walked in and the first thing we were told was we close at 2.30. ( man with stubble) From the start we were felt rushed. Then on asking if they do hot drinks I was told no but I'll come back to that later. He bought a straw for my granddaughter, after dropping the straw he still gave the same straw. This leads me to believe, if dry food was dropped it would still be served. I'm a reviewer and I do review good or bad. We had a different person taking our order ( older chap with less hair. He was more helpful and did not rush us. Food ranged average to below average. Prawns were very tasty. When we finish the first person bought my granddaughter chocolates. I paid at the counter to the third person. Just before I left I saw a coffee machine. I asked him if they did coffee and he replied with a yes.

Originally I was scoring a 1. The person who took our order improved the score.

If they don't want customers in the last hour they should...

Great food, with excellent service.

Went out with friends who live in the area after they'd been a few times. It made a nice change from the usual (pizza/burger/pasta) chains in the area.

A massive variety on the menu, you will take a long time to try everything, even if you're a regular.

The staff and service was excellent, they even accodate my friends wife who doesn't do really spicy food. They made sure her dishes were milder than normal. I wanted more heat in mine, and they gladly did that too.

It's not the best Indian food I've ever had, but it's very good. Not sure what else is in the area, as I'm not there often. It could easily be the best Indian restaurant in the area, I've only been to a few that are better. However the staff and service are one...