Sardar Rasoi

My Sardar Rasoi experience was very average. Certainly nothing wrong with the place but it didn’t excite me either.
The décor fits very well with the rest of Grey street and Little Stanley street which in and of itself it quite unusual for an Indian restaurant which typically is full of warm vibrant colours and a homely atmosphere.
Our waitstaff were slightly annoying — mainly because the place was dead on a Monday night and whilst I was obviously engaged in conversation they would constanlty ask if I’m ready to order or would like something else. Don’t get me wrong I would prefer over attentiveness compared to being shunned in a corner but well it doesn’t aid a healthy flowing conversation with my dining partner.
The menu was quite comprehensive and I was delighted as always that there was a whole page of vegetarian delights for me to choose from. The useful descriptions next to many of the items definitely helps when you don’t speak any Indian dialect!
I also noticed a buffet option but wasn’t offered that as an option so can’t really comment on how good or bad it is.
The quality of the food was again good enough albeit slightly cold for my liking — which is generally an issue for me anyway since I talk far too much during my meals!
The prices were reasonable for south bank and the portion sizes hearty enough.
Overall a good enough restaurant, nothing special or fancy but good enough.

Sardar Rasoi is a little different from your usual Indian restaurant as it offers buffet-​style dining as well as a traditional menu. I visited with a friend on a Friday night and the food was good, but the buffet style serving didn’t always highlight this, as several dishes were allowed to run low and weren’t refilled.
The service was a little slow and not quite smooth. When we were eventually seated and the process was explained, we waited quite a long time for our bottle of wine to be brought out before we started eating.
The problem with buffet dining is the freshness of the food is always a little questionable. While this wasn’t such an issue with the curries, entrees such as deep fried pakhoras were a little tough and chewy which indicated to me that they’d been sitting out for a little while. The rest of the entrees and the naan were quite plain, but the curries were tasty and hot. The butter chicken was missing any chicken by the time we got to it, and wasn’t refilled at all while we were there.
This is a fun place to go, especially if you’re a big eater and want an all-​you-​can-​eat style meal, but at this stage there are several issues to be ironed out. I’d like to go back and try the food from the menu, as I think this would be quite good. Fingers crossed.

This Indian restaurant is a little different from the usual homely looking Indian restaurants around town. It’s very trendy looking, with black and red décor and casual outdoor seating and seems to be from a younger generation than the rest. I loved it for the uptempo bollywood music playing in the background (quite loud) complete with televisions showing Indian music videos. It was funky and cool and definitely a change from slow mournful sounding Indian music and faded posters of Vishnu. Even the food is different; though they have delicious classic Indian curries and the like there were also some interesting dishes on the menu which I’d never heard of.
The one thing which wasn’t great was the service. The waiter and food was a little slow and the waiter wasn’t the friendliest. We also had to ask several times for a jug of water but that happens to me all the time for some reason! I’ll still definitely be going back there.