Benares - London

A complete disappointment! Service was subpar. We had to tell them to bring a menu after waiting around for 20 minutes. We also had to tell one of the waiters to come and take our order after waiting another 15 minutes. The food was underwhelming, we had to send one of the dishes back due to the lack of freshness and poor quality of the meat. When we tried to explain the issue to the floor manager, he took a defensive tone arguing that he knows for a fact that the meat is fresh. Over night, both myself and the other party started developing... surprise surprise... food poisoning!!! We called the restaurant to let them know about this, we were promised to be contacted ASAP by someone to discuss the issue. No one ever got back to us. Wow this used to be a good restaurant, no wonder it has lost its Michelin star.

STOP what you’re doing right now and book a table here!!! Upon our arrival, I was given a lovely scarf (in celebration of Diwali I think) . The ambience, decor, service and food was AMAZING. They even gave us a power pack to charge our phones and altered the menu re likes/dislikes and allergies. Possibly the best restaurant I’ve been to. We had a set menu. Will be returning to try other things. Divine experience. Wish I knew the name of our waitress loveliest girl ever but all that served did so impeccably!! Private function rooms available too as well as a chef’s table type of thing. Check out my photos the food tasted even better than it looks and it looks fabulous!!!! DEFINITELY going back. Deserves multiple Michelin stars!!!!

First off I booked this place like 3-7 days earlier, not exactly sure when. They kept forcing us to stay in a private room which we obviously don’t want and after like 20 minutes of complaining they moved us to the main dining area, bearing in mind they said the whole restaurant is fully booked. After our whole stay, there were 5 tables fully empty the entire night despite being ‘fully booked’. Service is terrible. Onto the food, very average Indian food you can make at home, nothing special about it, not even any good presentation. Many better Indian places to choose from. Do not recommend at all. I don’t see why the reviews are as good as they are.

Loved the experience, it was a girly hen party, in August, the food was lovely. A great fusion of flavours, complimentary tiny snacks arrived with our starters. The mains and the dessert were extraordinary, with great company, would certainly dine here again.

Really good food, atmosphere and service. As usual with these more expensive establishments however, portion size was microscopic.