In a small village in the cotswolds is an Indian restaurant with a huge range of food. I say a huge range because there dishes can mostly be made vegan if you ask. Just down the road from our air bnb is where the Raj Mahal is located.
We booked in advance to avoid disappointment. When booking they were very friendly and even tried to pronounce my usual surname. The building that could of once been a house has been converted into a restaurant with very flamboyant decor. From the light purple shop front to the colour changing ceiling lights.
When we arrived we were warmly welcomed at the front desk and shown upstairs. Unfortunately there did not seem to be disabled access so take this into account. I think the gentleman also misheardme when I said 3 for 7pm. They started putting tables together to make room. Luckily I asked and them the confusion was gone.
The restaurant had 2 or 3 tables full already but was not extremely busy. There were about 5 different waiting staff, which worked out as one per table for the night. We often got a different person each time which did a get a bit confusing.
First were the drinks a wide selection to choose from. We were then informed like a lot of places of some of the shortages. With only one beer being on offer for the night. I opted for a mango juice instead while my friends had the kingfisher pints.
When asking about the food the one server I was very impressed with. He knew his allergens which I was amazed at. He knew which breads, rice, curry and sides could be made vegan.
We opted for the starters of some poppadoms and chutney. The chutney was very nice and the poppadoms very crunchy. Surprisingly they are not vegan due to the way they are cooked. But this did not stop the waiter accommodating for my friend. He went and baked one allowing her to join in.
It was then time to move on to the mains. We all opted for a curry dish. They had some house specials which could be adapted to add your, meat, fish or vegetable of choice. They ranged in price from £10 up to £16 depending on choice.
When the food came over it was pipping hot with a reasonable portion size. I had opted for a prawn tomato based curry, which came with a random olive in it. The curry was fragrant and aromatic but not too over powering. My friends vegetable curries were also to the same standard of flavour and quality.
The breads we had where nice and fresh. The naan I had was a reasonable size. I had opted for the garlic naan and it was just the right amount without being too oily or over powering.
We finished our food and had time to have a breather and let our food settle. The thing we found odd was the server then cleaning our table with a cloth while we were still there. This is then where it went a bit down hill.
We were then asked if we like a hot drink, it had been a long day so we needed the caffeine. The older server who asked us made a joke about Irish coffee and my friend laughed and said no just an americano. Our drinks were then brought over and my friend had been given an Irish coffee. We thought maybe he had misheard that she had said no. The drink had a few sips but mostly went to waste.
When the bill came it was so unclear to what was what that we had to ask. We had spotted a sign on the wall that had stated that £1 or 50p had been added to some items. This soon added a lot on to the bill. The food was great and the one server had great knowledge of the food. The night though had been turned a bit sour with the Irish coffee and the really confusing bill. So we just paid and left swiftly.
תגובות