Kensington Tandoori

I had the lunch special: chicken curry. The waiter was cold and abrupt, and the food was just ok. The atmosphere was nice though. Little dividers between tables give you a bit more privacy.

Great cheap Indian food. Great service add well.

Briefly: Catatonic service with passable, if unmemorable, food.
Tip: Head down to Old Brompton Road @ Drayton Gardens for a good selection of restaurants, including Indian.

I was advised that I had to try the Indian food while in the UK, so I went on a mission to find a restaurant that I would be happy with. I do depend on Unilocal advise so I of course searched for a place. To be honest there were not many reviews or choices by our hotel.
We did find this restaurant as we were walking down the street. Unfortunately it was closed so we had to come back. I am so glad we did. The food was so yummy. We had the butter chicken, chicken tika masala, pilau rice, and garlic nann. The chicken was tender and the spices were just perfect. I was so satisfied with this choice. I hope this is read and help make the choice to try it out. Yummers!!!

The food is terrible. The channa masala was completely dry. When we complained, the staff said «That’s not your style, it’s my style». Every reason to avoid this place.
One star is only because we didn’t get sick from the food.

What can I say? Our favorite Indian place. Enough said. It’s a hole in the wall off of a side street from High Street Kensington. The service is great, place is quiet and the food is great. If you want something that is not on the menu they would be happy to oblige as they do with my husbands request for potato naan… every single time we have been. It’s a must visit every time we return to London.

I am a reasonable person and my review is based on TRUTH, i will never exaggerate and im not from a nearby similar restaurant. This is the only Indian restaurant in the area so please trust my judgment and review.
I came here on 7^th JSeptember 2013 because i saw a special lunch deal offer on a signboard outside.
The offer included rice AND naan bread but halfway through bringing my food the waiter told me i could only have rice OR naan bread. !!!
I said yeah but the sign says rice and nan bread and he said it was a printing mistake. To be fair there were two signs of the same offer and one did say rice or naan but the other one I saw said Rice and naan I pointed this out and the waiter did admitt it and said sorry.
At that point i think it would only have been fair and professional to give me the rice AND naan bread but they refused. Please bear in mind at this point that this is Kensington, the customers and standards of restaurants are HIGH, this is a rich area and to be told no and not given a piece of bread worth about 40p in bulk to a restaurant did make me a bit disappointed.
My other complaint, is that the appetizer was ONE SINGLE samosa, to be fair, it does say samosa on the description but i wasn’t actually expecting only one!
Even then, i subconsciously had anticipated that if it will be just one single samosa then at least it will be a good size or well filled inside but NO, a single samosa was brought to my table on a plate.
In its defense, it was crispy and nice, but it was TINY (smaller than the 79p one you get in most newsagents in the fridge) and there was BARELY anything inside it (not even half as filling as those 79p ones in newsagents). I almost felt like the waiter felt embarassed bringing me this plate which had such a tiny samosa on it and then taking it away 30 seconds later when I finished it. I was a bit embarassed for him and felt like this is a cheap look for a Kensington restaurant. I totally appreciate that this is a lunchtime offer, if i spoke to the manager he/​she might say this in their defense, but i would definitely not cut corners like this because it just makes the experience feel cheap and tacky.
Then my rice and lamb came out. The rice was fine, they also bought me vegetables in sauce which i hadnt expected and was very nice and appreciated. But my main meal (spicy lamb curry) was disappointing. I asked for spicy and then i heard the waiter and cook having a conversation in their language about spicy which from the tone gave me an impression that there would be a problem with making it spicy. I was suspicious of this but thought to myself «relax, its an indian restaurant theyl just add some chilli and it ill be spicy).
BUTwhen I tried my lamb i knew my intuition was correct, the lamb curry was sooooo mild! I dont eat spicy foods, its not like im resilient to chilli, im telling you literally– this curry was mild. If i wanted a mild curry Id get one from Tescos or M&S and get it cheaper and with more meat content which brings me to my next point:
As per many indian restaurants there was HARDLY ANY LAMB in the curry. I think there were 4 – 6 pieces and each were about the quarter size of the lamb cubes you might find in any average butchers in London. I can excuse this partly because its a lunch time special at a good price, but still i think this is unacceptable because its the main meal and its Kensington– you expect higher standards. How can my main meal– lamb curry– consist of such a little bit of lamb? I felt embarassed on the restaurants behalf.
I was very pleased with the mango lassi it was delicious, i was happy with the service, the cleanliness and the price (but it as NOT good value for money) and i was very happy and felt justified that i wasnt charged extra for service like other reviews said on google.
I wont be coming here again, but the staff are nice and if I saw or heard of an improvment I would go back as its my local indian and i would delete this review.

Great food. However, after waiting and then subsequently having to ask for the change from our bill, we were lectured on the appropriateness of leaving a tip. I know service was not included but were they really expecting 30% tip?
There are way too many great Indian restaurants to need to go back there again.

So I am from the states and all Indian restaurants there bring out papadum and chutney. This place does not do that, so slight disappointment there. The menu said this was Indian and Bangladeshi cuisine so I am not sure if this is the explanation. In terms of the food, I had a Balti dish. This was new to me and was basically a thick medium spicy curry with vegetables that came accompanied with Naan bread. Good for an Indian fix if you are in South Kensington.

Kensington Tandoori is a fairly typical Indian restaurant — and that’s a good thing for me, as I’ve recently come to like Indian food.
In fact, the only difference I found between Kensington Tandoori and the Indian restaurants I’ve visited in the US is that they start out by bringing out a platter with some papadum and four dips/​chutneys/​relishes/​something to start you out with. These dips were interesting and offered a wide variety of flavors.
I got Aloo Gobi, one of my favorite Indian dishes, and enjoyed it quite a bit. My wife got chicken tikka masala and also liked it pretty well.
All in all, Kensington Tandoori offers pretty standard Indian fare — and that’s a good thing for fans of Indian food.