Good food, poor service

Tamarind has a Michelin star, which presumably means they do everything well. So I wonder what the owners think of their off-shoot Tamarind Kitchen.  Sitting on Wardour Street on the site of the much-missed Imli, Tamarind Kitchen is attractively decorated and presumably has a menu designed by the Tamarind chefs.  But in a demonstration that you need to get everything right, the poor service means the place leaves a lot to be desired.

It’s not as if it is busy.  The four of us occupy a nice table in the window, and there are just two other people in.  The staff are friendly, but having to apologise for extremely slow service over and again, and delivering lukewarm food doesn’t make for the greatest  experience.

Our table is laid for 6, but for some reason the waitress only clears one place setting. And though we say we don’t want water, the water glasses only get cleared when we pile them all together on the side.

The menu is divided into Starters, Grills and Mains, but the grills are described to us as not being a meal in themselves, despite being priced as if they were.  There’s soft shell crab as a starter, so B and T both have to order that. K goes for the Pav Bhaji and I have the lamb mince version Keema Pav – some time later.  Maybe the oven isn’t working properly and they can’t produce more than one dish at a time: the Pav Bhaji arrives and is almost completely finished before the soft shell crab is served, with my dish bringing up the rear.

To be fair, the Pav dishes are both full of flavour, with K’s having quite a kick. B is less impressed with the crab, which is predominantly batter.

It’s a similar experience with the main courses. They did manage to get three of the dishes and the rice and dhal to arrive together, but T’s mixed platter of chicken tikka, lamb kebab and prawns followed some way behind.  My bhuna gosht was rich and very tasty, but not warm enough. B’s prawn curry was good and K’s chicken rezala (a curry with yoghurt and cashews) excellent. T’s platter was rather average and was as suggested not that large.

The side dish of 24 hour cooked black dhal was again tasty but not hot enough; the spinach was fine. We also had a steamed rice and a couple of naan breads.

We chose a SA Chenin Blanc (at £34 one of the cheapest wines on a list that shoots up quickly), and the first bottle arrives promptly enough. But when we order a second, the waitress drains the first one and seems to decide that that’s enough for now, and then to forget all about it.  She’s a bit better with the third bottle.

So with service charge that all comes to £270.  If the service and temperature of all the dishes had been OK, then that would have been fair, but it feels a bit much for what we experienced. I suppose we could have taken off the “discretionary” service charge, but one rarely does.

We’ve had a similar experience, though with ruder staff, at Cinnamon Bazaar once, but on a second visit it was fine. Perhaps the same may be true here.  In an evening when it is busier maybe the A-team are on duty and things go smoothly – but I’m not sure I’m going to rush back to find out.