Hason Raja

Food was good, but our waiter was obnoxious and annoying. Creepily flirting, and was passive aggressively rude. Will not come back, service was just too awful.

Went here for lunch got here around 12. The server says we can wait for 20 mins but if we want they have the same branch just around the corner. Went there didn’t find anything went back to the restaurant and the guy says, he feels sorry I didn’t find the other restaurant, I started to think that this guy is fooling around because clearly there is just one branch here. He said if we are willing to wait 20 mins. This was about 12:15. We just walked away. The guy is pretty rude. Very disappointed

Their service is friendly and helpful, and their food is flavorful and delicious! This is definitely on my london itinerary from now on. Highly recommended!

The food was pretty good: Salmon tikka starter was quite a wonderful surprise, and the Malai Kofta was lovely, but quite a small dish for its price. We also ordered a King Prawn Biryani and while the rice and vegetable curry were okay, the prawns were chewy and disappointing.
The service, while fairly quick and professional, felt a little aggressive, as if they really wanted us to order, eat and leave already. The waiters all walk around wearing ear pieces, which gives the whole experience an FBI operation vibe — not the most relaxed atmosphere to dine in.

Really bad and overpriced indian food. We were served and charged for a expensive bottled water even though we requested tap. Food tasted horrible, portions were small. We ordered some dishes to share between friends and were scolded by the server.
It was recomended by our hotel, and I am sure they get all their business like that. I can not imagine anybody that will visit this place twice.

We are honeymooning, and worked up an appetite roaming all over London… hoofed it over here after an afternoon spent ogling artifacts at the British Museum, and what a great choice we made! The service was impeccable and ultra pleasant from the minute we walked in the door. I was a little nervous that it was not crowded, but we were a little early for dinner, and it filled in while we were there. Beautiful restaurant; very clean, nicely lit. The food was awesome. My husband had lamb tikka, and I got garlic chili chicken. The spice levels were exactly as they described, and the flavors were amazing. They were ultra generous with the papadum and chutneys, and their naan was pretty much perfection in a basket. I feel like it was also very well-​priced, which was an added bonus. Great atmosphere, food, and service.

Food was delicious and spiced at the correct heat. Not too little, not too much. We had chicken tikka masala and palak paneer. One thing we appreciated was that it was not overly creamy.
Service was excellent. We have been to many Indian restaurants around the world and found this one above average.

Absolutely awful. Food was terrible, and the service was worse. I love Indian food, and I ordered my favorite dish – Salmon Tikka – but this was beyond redemption, not even edible. I struggled to consume two pieces before giving up and left the restaurant hungry. The salmon had no easily discernable taste except butter (or oil). I couldn’t figure it out. I’ve never had anything like it. Then, when I clearly had stopped eating and was determined to move on I sat and sat and sat. There were several restaurant personnel nearby but my waiter was nowhere to be found. I asked for him but was told he was «downstairs.» After waiting for quite a bit longer I implored one of the other personnel to please take my card. It wasn’t until after I paid and was half way out the door that my original waiter returned! He asked me what was wrong, I told him… and…he…shrugged! I said that was no way to respond and no way to run a restaurant and he said they had been running this restaurant for many years. Quite obviously, my opinion meant absolutely nothing to him.

Essen ist ok — aber wurden selten so unfreundlich und herablassend bedient. Dabei ist das Essen nicht mal gehoben. Außerdem hat das ständige Abräumen richtig genervt. Da es in der Umgebung genug Auswahl gibt, definitiv kein Tipp!

I’ll make this simple. We were looking for a lunch bite near our office and found this place. No customers were inside at the time… prime lunch hour time with many offices around. This should have been a sign, but we went in anyways needing vegetarian options for the group.
Ordered one of the chef’s specials: Bengal Tiger Prawns cooked with ground spices, sautéed in tomatoes, mixed peppers, shallots & green chilli. Tasted good, but was super spicy. Needed the additional naan and chapati. Sadly, immediately after having this my stomach was not acting right. Got back to the office and nearly blew chunks. A colleague of mine also had the same problem, but he actually blew chunks later in the night.
Sickness got us for a couple days and our adventure in London was dashed for a few days due to this experience and made us fear going to Indian restaurants for the remaining of the trip.

A few weeks ago, I went to Hason Raja to have dinner with a friend and his girlfriend. There were definitely some good things from my experience, such as the host who convinced us to come in by going through the menu outside the door to help find a vegetarian option for one of us. Many times during my meal, I saw the host go outside to greet people who were convinced to come in and try the food.
And the food was alright – it was certainly standard chicken tikka masala, which really can’t be messed up. However, there wasn’t much to make the meal stand out in my mind, and my friend’s girlfriend wasn’t pleased with her meal, but I didn’t try it to see how it was. It certainly looked good, and their menu was quite extensive, so it would be easy to try lots of different things to find what you like.
All in all, Hason Raja is a pretty standard option in the Holborn/​Russell Square area for getting Indian food. It’s, as the three stars suggests, A-​Ok.

I stay at the nearby Grange Holborn hotel about 4 times per year. This nearby restaurant is always on my to do list when i visit. Enjoy a Tiger beer, the lime pickle, and calamari starter — one of many interesting appetizers that are atypical of a London curry house.

As an Englishman living in the states I’m always looking for a good Indian meal when I fly back home to visit and this place near blew me away. They have a sign outside claiming they are the best Indian restaurant in London, frankly I think I believe them.
The food was delicious and everything I wanted, I’m definitely going back on my next visit.
I didn’t have any of the pushiness that other reviews talking about though I did see they added a service charge onto the bill which is a bit cheeky for a place in England so watch out for that.

Came in for a late-​night dinner on a Saturday night as everything else was closed around 11pm. It was quite busy for that time of the night.
We ordered a Chicken Tikka and Chicken Curry. The quality was nothing over the top — but here’s why only 2 stars:
— Price: around 10 GBP for a main dish is alright but they charge you 4.50 GBP extra for a small bowl of rice that should be complimentary — really!!!
— Service: Waiters are pushy and try to cross-​sell appetizers and deserts. Plus, we were never informed that the bowl of rice was for an extra charge.
— Food: Taste was okay but the presentation really cheap. Put some chicken and curry on a plate, mix it up, and charge 10 Pounds.
After all, the restaurant advertises itself on the street as the «Best Indian Restaurant» in London. After this experience, even the worst rip-​off places on Brick Lane would do much better than this one. My recommendation: Don’t go.

My sentiments pretty much echo what the others here have said. Waiters are extremely pushy and basically keep asking if you want «x» or «y» with your starter or meal. Little did I know that these «options» were actually a la carte add-​ons. $ 70 mistake I won’t be making again.
As another reviewer mentioned, the hovering waiters is beyond annoying, especially when they are starting right at you while you eat. I will admit the food is great and the presentation is excellent, so that gives them 2 stars rather than 1.
Also noticed that they took away the itemized bill and didn’t return it. Can’t comment on if the itemized receipt says something about tip being included, but wouldn’t surprise me if that’s why they took it away. Pretty shady.

Food tasted pretty good to me. The waiters were extremely pushy and like posted in the other reviews hovering around. Also, gratuity is already included but they remove the receipt that says that and hand you back your credit card slip with a blank line for leaving (another) tip. Overall felt more like a high pressure used car dealership than a relaxed evening meal. Sounds like the lunch buffet for 10 pounds might be a better choice.
Between 2 and 3 stars, wouldn’t go back for dinner, but might try lunch…

Oh yeah first international Unilocal review!
I’m here on vacation with the missus and we’re staying at the Imperial Hotel (review to follow) where it’s near a plethera of places to eat and buy groceries at. As we were walking back from the grocery store I remember many of my friends state side telling me to try the indian food, so Hason Raja was the first to catch my eye, and I’m glad it did. The food here is some of the best curries I’ve had around. Good portions, not too pricey and plenty of people to prove that the food here is aces. I would however sivkke one star for service, I’m not sure if its common in the UK to have to ask for everything during the dinner (drinks, place an order, the bill) or were we just being ignored?
In any case the Chicken Tika was good, but not the same as what we have in the states, it has some more sapphron in it. Also we had the Lamb Shashki which was amazingly good and somegarlic naan. All delicious, very differnet from our Hurry Curry in Venice.. .
If i live in central London I’d probably make this a regular spot, I mean 5 hours after and I’m doin fine: D
So if you’re in the area come on by Hason Raja, order a Tiger and enjoy some curry!

Food quality: meh. It wasn’t plucked from a rubbish bin but I wouldn’t say anything was more impressive than merely meh.
Hovering waiters: obnoxious.
One waiter starting to stare on top of already hovering: creepin’
Price tag: ouch.
Two stars means I would come back if I was in the area, but under strenuous protest. And only if you are paying ^_^

We tried this place after reading all these positive Unilocal reviews, and… well… it was basically the worst experience we ever had in any restaurant, ever. Now, I’ve read my fair share of negative reviews, and I’ve noticed they tend to pick one particular flaw and harp on it to the exclusion of any positive aspects of the meal.
This will not be one of those reviews.
There was not a SINGLE thing enjoyable about our experience at this horrendous restaurant. The servers were downright hostile and extremely pushy, trying to get us to order more than we needed. Over the course of the meal, they also hovered near our table, not five feet away, making it very awkward and difficult to have a conversation.
We ended up with a large variety of food, and it was uniformly bland and forgettable. One dish, the Kalonji Sitafol (spiced butternut squash) had absolutely no flavor whatsoever — I mean nothing. It was like eating cubes of unflavored, stringy gel. Only the naan actually had a good flavor, and we’re talking about bread here — everything else was awful and tasteless.
So, in short, we had a wretched meal under constant observation from rude waiters, a lot of really bad food, and over £40 extracted from our account. We actually went to a nearby café afterward, because we were both still hungry and wanted a place to relax after the most stressful and infuriating dining experience of our lives.
I cannot stress how much this place let us down. It makes me sad just to think about it. Avoid at all costs, for your continuing mental health and happiness.
Gah.

We ate here on our last night in London. Really good food, but I was hoping for a bit more of a menu to choose from. Don’t get me wrong, there was plenty there, but there wasn’t any Vindaloo offering (but I didn’t ask either, which could be my fault).
Top service and really good quality food.
We went with a pretty standard meal. Poppadoms and sheek kababs for starters and Chicken Tikkas for dinner with naan breads.
I really liked the feel of this place and everyone who was also there eating was having fun and enjoying themselves. Great location and will come here again if we’re back.

This is one of my favorite restaurants in London and clearly the best in the Russell Square area. The food is just unbelievably delicious. Their lunch buffet for less than 10 pounds is also a very good deal. I have been to London 7 – 8 times and I never leave without visiting this restaurant. And when I am in Russell Square I don’t go anywhere else.