KoolBa

Went to KoolBa with family for my Dad’s birthday. The food and service were fine but if you order poppadoms and don’t specify they will bring lots of dip, which is quite expensive.
We didn’t mention that it was a birthday party on booking but we were asked if it was someone’s birthday in the restaurant (because we were quite a large group I guess). They then brought a cake for my Dad which we assumed was on the house. The bill arrived and we were quite shocked to see a £6 charge for the cake! [see edit below] I now feel like we should have done more than just not give a tip — we should have argued about the unanticipated addition to our bill! I have been to KoolBa recently and liked it but don’t think any of us will be going back in the future.
[EDIT] KoolBa later called my sister to let her know that this was just a mix up with another group and have offered us a credit note for £6.

I’ve been here twice recently and both times the food has been delicious. A nice twist on your standard Indian with the Persian influence. The fish pakora is very fresh. The staff are very efficient and polite. The service is quick and unobtrusive. I definitely recommend here.

In my previous review, the dated interior and styling didn’t impress me, so i was keen to go back along since the refurbishment that happened recently so, with KoolBa under new ownership (Hardeep Singh Kohli, better known as a Scottish comedian) this was my first visit since the renovation.
If you’ve visited before then have no fear, the food is still the same, delicious, the waiting staff are still as helpful, friendly and attentive as ever!
If you’ve not visited KoolBa before then read on…
For me, the sign of a good speciality restaurant, especially one which offers regional cuisine, is the adaptability of the chef. I’ve eaten here a few times with colleagues from various regions of India and each and every request has been met, many times with the chef coming out to talk to us to make sure we get exactly the dish desired (for the weak of stomach, I will warn you that if you ask for extra spicy/​hot you will get a tasty dish that will really challenge you!).
They offer a variety of familiar Indian style dishes, as well as some delicious Persian kebabs. It’s hard to make a recommendation as every dish I’ve tried has been excellent. From the fish pakora, lamb dopiza or chicken and prawn nentara, through to garlic or peshwari naan, I’ve enjoyed it all. They have a good beer/​wine menu as well, with a range of Scottish and Indian beers on offer.
I mentioned it before, but it’s worth mentioning again that the staff are superb and very knowledgeable, making smart suggestions on sharing platters or breads, and steering you towards new dishes that might suit your palate, they are a credit to the restaurant.
I’m glad there has been some investment, and it seems like they’ve tackled the things that needed sorting out, whilst leaving the things that were working alone. Can’t wait to get along again!

It’s been some time since our last visit here when our experience was disappointing, but what a transformation: the menu has been scaled down but still offers Indian and Persian fare; the Portonian and I were there in the early evening and it was soon pleasantly busy, always a good sign, we will certainly be back.

We decided to try somewhere new as when out for a curry we have a few old favourites, including Dhakin, next door to KoolBa. First impressions weren’t great and we immediately wondered if we’d made a mistake when we walked in and were ignored by 3 members of staff chatting at the bar area in front of us. We immediately felt like we were intruding, despite making a booking for 9pm, when we arrived. Eventually we were seated whilst we waited for the third member of our party to arrive, but we had to practically jump up and wave to get drinks served whilst we waited! There had been a miscommunication with our friend, who didn’t arrive until 9.40, and we had communicated this to a waiter who said it would be no problem and not to worry. About 15 minutes later another waiter arrived and asked us if we were sure our friend was coming as the kitchen would close at 10.30pm, which was odd seeing as it wasn’t quite 9.30 yet. We assured him our friend was coming, and when he arrived we felt like we had to go straight to mains as we were being pressured for time. The result being we ate our meal and were out of the restaurant in about an hour, after our friend arrived. There were still plenty of tables eating when we left, and usually for me the experience is a big part of going out for a curry — filling up on poppadum and pakora, ordering plenty to share and taking your time over too much food! The food was good, which is why I give 3 stars. They have some Persian choices on the menu, which I haven’t seen before, and some of the kebabs looked really nice, however we went for Indian. Good food, bad service, so back to Dhakin next time I think!

We were going to a show at the nearby Tron Theatre on Saturday night and looking for Indian food in the Merchant City beforehand so decided to check out KoolBa. My beer was served in a glass that had lipstick on it — no apology but they did take it away and pour a new bottle into a fresh glass. We decided to have the 2 course pre-​theatre menu. Don’t bother saying yes to the offer of poppadoms unless you’re happy to pay £7! We both opted for the vegetable pakora to start — 4 large pieces of pakora each with yoghurty dip. Not the best pakora I’ve had but it was okay. Next up was our mains of saag paneer and chicken bhoona. We were pretty disappointed — both dishes were quite bland and lacking in flavour, and a bit soupy/​watery in consistency. The naan bread was spot on though, which helped me get through about half of the dish! Safe to say, KoolBa was a big disappointment for us.

Tricky one to review to be honest. This is a place that gives off some mixed signals. On one hand it is offering Indian dishes and in the past it might have been famous for them, but now there are some very good other Indian restaurants in Glasgow to compete with.
They also do «Persian» BBQ style dishes, that are not available so widely in Glasgow. These dishes are the thing that make Kool Ba worth visiting in my opinion.
Firstly décor wise it is very dated, old style Indian. However the service is very quick and attentive.
The beer list I thought would reflect the dated style, but instead it was biggish and varied. Beers from across the globe and they stocked Quilmes from Argentina which I love.
Now the food. This is a review for the Persian options they have available. Not the Indian that I have not tried. First to start, I love Houmous and they have plenty on offer. Along with pitta bread it went down a treat. For mains I had the big mixed kebab option. It is expensive but is lovely and huge. I really enjoyed it and to say I was stuffed afterwards is an understatement!
I have been twice this year in big groups and both times I went with the BBQ options and people at the table who chose the traditional Indian dishes have had clear food envy! Sadly for them, «Austen does not share food!!».
Worth 4 stars for the BBQ Persian options I think.

I had a delicious meal at Koolba and I must say they do some of the best curries I’ve ever tasted. They differ slightly from your usual Indian curry but it is very, very tasty!

This is one of my all time fave restaurants. Delicious food, great customer service.

Plastered across the front of this Indian Restaurant is the award it won in 2009, being the «Best Indian Restaurant in Scotland» that year.
I’m not sure the décor lives up to this mark, as it looks from the inside like a greasy-​spoon. The service was good however, so we were quickly shown to a table, given the selection of menus — which included A Wine List, A Beer List, An A la Carte Menu and the Pre-​Theatre Menu! A lot of paper and wooden-​bound books to be on a small table.
A lovely bottle of wine was served with a cooler, for a house wine it was definitely a very nice smooth white. A good choice for any house wine!
We were brought poppadoms and a select of dips, which were just missing a lime pickle — but the homemade spicy onions and raita where extremely tasty.
Prawn Poori was my starter, and it was extremely tasty and definitely fresh. I had a Prawn and Chicken Nanpara for my main course, and were the king prawns were succulent and juicy — the chicken was dry and took a while to chew. The sauce and the accompanying naan were good though!
Something which many would see as service, but I saw as a moneymaking scheme, was the waiter who kept pouring the wine in to our glasses before we’d even finished one. They seemed to realise they could make a lot of money from selling more than one bottle of the £15 house white, but it did seem a bit rude.
Nice atmosphere once you relaxed and got over the fact it looks like a greasy spoon, and the curry was nice. Not sure it lives up to the Restaurant of the Year status — but then again that was 2 years ago.

I have to say I LOVE middle eastern food — this was a major disappointment.
The waitresses ‘tried’ to pronounce and explain the dishes — they obviously had no idea.
Tasteless — thats the food AND the décor!
The only high class was the HIGH BILL!!!

great tasting food! Love the lamb Rogan Josh, YUM.

It appears that Koolba is popular for birthday celebrations as this is where I went for dinner with some friends for my last birthday!
I had never heard of Koolba before but came across a good deal on 5pm so I thought I’d give it a go. We went on a Saturday night and the place was absolutely jumping. The service was a little bit slow but I think this was a combination of it being so busy and the fact that the wait staff didn’t appear to have designated tables to look after. We were asked if we wanted more drinks by about 5 different guys in the space of 5 minutes and then it was a 6^th guy who actually brought our drinks too us so I’m not sure what system they’ve got going on here!
Despite that though I have to give this place 5 stars. It is the best Indian food I have ever had ever! In fact it was awarded Scotland’s Best Indian Restaurant 2009. Usually when you eat Indian food you feel like you are being a bit naughty but Koolba’s food just tastes so fresh and healthy that it simply can’t be bad for you! I had the Kashmiri Korma and it was divine. I am actually salivating thinking about it right now! I had a little bit of everything my friends ordered as well and I would have been equally happy had I ordered any of their dishes.

I would probably have walked past KoolBa in the Merchant City if i hadn’t been invited there for a birthday dinner, dismissing it as ‘just another’ Indian restaurant which Glasgow seems to be full of. I was presently surprised when i found out that KoolBa comes under the rather more unusual bracket of Indian food with a Persian twist, making it a bit more exciting than the run of the mill chicken tikka masala joints which often leave me disappointed.
The exterior gives off an aura of quality, and the interior is lovely. Simple and authentic yet modern and stylish whilst managing to retain that warmth you would expect to find along with the spicy foods on offer. I loved the fact that the menu stated that they believed in fresh, GM free ingredients only, sourced locally where possible. This always makes a meal taste better!
The waiters were nice enough, if perhaps a little slow. The chicken pakora we ordered for starter was gorgeous, really crispy and the chicken cooked to perfection, the nicest i think i’ve ever tasted.
For my main, i decided (after much deliberation) on the nantara chicken tikka with prawns, which sounded amazing on the menu, and turned out to be just as yummy when it arrived. The nantara sauce was superb, although it didn’t tell you what was actually in it, which makes it a bit special, like a secret recipe. We divided a few portions of rice up between us all, and there was plenty to go around. I was stuffed!
My nantara and rice came to around 12.00 which is pretty pricey for one course, but worth it. The drinks are averagely priced for Merchant City, which to me, is quite expensive. Spirits average out at about 2.50 (without mixers) and a bottle of Tiger beer just over three quid. You expect to pay more for alcoholic drinks in places like this though, so it wasn’t a surprise. I would definitely come back, maybe during the day, as the lunch menu looks good at under ten pounds a head for three courses, fantastic value for something a little bit different than your average Indian.

My friend loved this place so much that she decided to hold her birthday party here. Well-​sized for parties, our group fitted in nicely amongst the other customers, and the service was quick, friendly and helpful — if not a little overbearing…
Yet, I can’t really understand my friend’s love of the place — behind the assuring in vogue ethics; the extensive locally sourced menu, gm friendly, freshly made food etc etc, there was just something missing… The food was good and quite affordable, the naan breads especially gorgeous, the décor was warm, inviting and quite authentic feeling, yet again… something was not quite right; something that turns a good restaurant into a great one.
Perhaps I had too exotic expectations of KoolBa, but alas, to me it just felt like another good indian — which was disappointing considering it’s a Persian and Iranian themed restaurant. I guess the Indian dishes on the menu is to the pull the punters in, but Glasgow has enough Indian restaurants as it is — and better ones at that.

been a few times and food was nice in the evening
but went today for lunch and service was slow and only two covers yet took order from table that arrived 10 mins after me first, the lunch menu is very limited especially the starters and curries come at a extra 1 – 2 pounds
the pakora was average and came without any salad and with a raita type dip instead of a chilli one, which made the whole dish very bland and not a trace of spiciness, for main i plumped for a basic chicken curry £1 extra .it was again ok but not special, as for the drinks £2.40 for a small bottle or irn bru is nothing less than profiteering

I think its two words Kool Ba, travel the world and you wont find a better Indian restaurant, great staff Kool atmosphere.

I cannot comment on the food at this restaurant as I was refused service on a Saturday evening because I had my children with me. It did not suit the type of clientele they were encouraging!

gorgeous iranian food, helpful staff, very filling. good alternative restaurant.