Ma'ida — Restaurant in West Devon

I ate here with three of my friends, the service was fair. We ordered two poppadoms (one each for me and my partner) we were served 4 poppadums and four dips to go with which we weren't expecting and were charged £6.40 for the privilege when we thought we would be charged for just two poppadoms. This could have been clarified with us when ordering.

The food was well presented, for starters three of us had Chicken Malai Tikka which was tasty and well cooked. One of us had Chicken Chat which was almost like a pancake, he said this was tasty and better than his main meal.

For our main two of us had Murugh Makhani which was really tasty, fairly sweet and the chicken was cooked nicely, I had mine with pilau rice which was also good. One of our group had Korai Gost as his main and he was disappointed with the lack of spice in the meal, he is a chef himself and said that this particular dish was bland. The other member of our group had Chicken Moi Malaya which he thought was tasty, he liked it a lot, I tried some too and also thought it was good.

My partner and I shared a keema naan which I really didn't like having tried it for the first time, the smell reminded me of a butcher shop. My partner thought the bread was thin and the meat in the naan wasn't spicy enough.

We each had the banquet which was a starter, main, naan or rice followed by coffee or one scoop of ice cream. The banquet info wasn't displayed in the menu so it took us a while to remember what would could order bearing in mind the exclusions. Only one of group remembered that coffee or ice cream was included but only after the waiter asked us if we wanted any coffee, he didn't mention pudding which would have been helpful and we felt a little like he deliberately didn't mention that it was included.

The food was very good value but a pint of coke was £3.50 and we felt the poppodums were missold to us. Our cutlery and generally the restaurant were clean and tidy although there was a white dirty mark on my side of the table cloth which was a little off putting.

This is probably the better indian restaurant in Okehampton but I'm not sure I would go there again on...

REALLY DISAPPOINTED We had food from this restaurant, and honestly, it was one of the worst dining experiences me and my family have had. I’m someone who genuinely loves food, any cuisine, any style. It doesn’t even have to be exactly like Indian food, but it should at least taste good. This had none. Being Indian, and someone who has travelled across India and tasted food from countless places, I can confidently say this wasn’t Indian food. Even here in the UK, I’ve been to many Indian restaurants,some stick to authenticity, some add fusion touches but at the very least, they deliver flavour. This place didn’t. No salt, no masala, no aroma,just bland dishes overloaded with artificial food colouring, which is honestly concerning and there is still the food color on our fingers.

The naan and paratha- Tasted like raw dough,no salt, no texture, no proper cooking. The mains were equally flavourless. And on top of that, they charged a ridiculous amount for poppadoms and their sides. definitely not worth the price. Speaking of price, the overall bill was shockingly high for food that didn’t even meet basic expectations. Every item was overpriced for the quality served.

Please don’t let this be your impression of Indian food. Real Indian cuisine is full of flavour, soul, and richness- this was the opposite of that.We are really disappointed...

Just moved to Okehampton and we had 2 weeks without an oven, so decided to get a takeaway. I was so glad we did! When we got back I initially thought they'd forgotten the ‘sag’ part of our sag aloo, but it turned out to be spread across 2 tubs! The naan was properly covered in chilli and garlic and very soft, but not doughy, the chapati was one of the best I’ve had too. The aubergine we had was also chargrilled as it should be and really deliciously smoky and rich in flavour. Probably the stand out though was the chicken shatkora, with the slightly sour citrus fruit in - it was really gorgeous, complex and the chicken was tender. Unfortunately I have a condition which doesn’t mix well with Indian food (no chickpeas/gram flour or any legumes in quantity due to G6PD deficiency) so I can't have it very often, but this was better than any of the Exeter restaurants we're tried and will definitely be back again to try some of the other chefs specials at...