La Porte des Indes

I'll keep this brief... over priced and over rated, this was one of the most disappointing meals I have ever had. Bland, watery sauces, small portions, and £8 for a bottle of Kingfisher? Never again.
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jofan - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 0
Friday, July 03, 2009

Went to this resturant on Sat 06June. Ambience and decor is amazing. Food is very disappointing. Normally I dont go to Indian resturants. This was the one I was going to after 2 years but It was not worth the money. Too pricy for the food you get. Food was cold. Hyderabadi Biryani was horrible. Rice was over cooked. Lamb in that was hard like rubber. Grilled prawns were bland no flavour at all. We ordered 6 different things but not even one of them was up to the taste. Only the tamarind margarita was nice.
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Gaurav
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 2
Monday, June 08, 2009

i went to La Porte des Indes last night with my husband as a special treat. We come from the North West and are used to the Indian restaurants of Rusholme in Manchester. I have to say I know where I would go again and it wouldnt be La Porte des Indes. We tried the selection of starters then the Thalis as we wanted to try lots of different foods. There was a good selection on the Thalis but as previous reviewers have commented, the sauces were excessive, bland, watered down and in my opinion seriously under seasoned, ie salted. I was hoping for food packed with flavour (not necessarily heat) and these seriously disappointed.

What a let down!
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Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 2
Saturday, May 09, 2009

What a shame that the management do not pay heed to the comments posted here.

Apart from the person stating no one understands fine dining I must agree with every comment.

- The waiter seemed out of his depth when asked to suggest dishes

- The food was interesting but certainly the flavours seemed "watered down"

- I could go on, but, the main issue is the price. £120 odd quid for two people for the taster menu with water and lassi. They are not interested in long term business
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Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 2
Thursday, April 23, 2009

Even though the food was ok, this place is a rip off. They tried charging us for dishes and drinks that we did not order. When I asked for the "optional" service charge (12.5%) to be removed from the bill the staff became outright hostile. For a place with these kind of prices the least you could expect is honesty.
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Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 4
Monday, April 13, 2009

The food was pretty good but not exceptional and pricey. I was annoyed, however, because we were a group of 7 that had dinner at the restaurant on the evening of Friday March 27. I asked the waiter about special offers and he pointed me to the "Maison de cuisine" in the menu. However, online there is a special offer of 18 pounds for 2 courses and 22 for 3 courses, which the waiters seem to be unaware of. We paid a lot more even though one of the reasons why we had selected the restaurant was the special offer.
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Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 2
Friday, March 27, 2009

Over the years I have eaten three times at La Porte des Indes. The first time nearly ten years ago was a memorable experience and the food was stunning - and the service to match. The second time (two years ago) the food was also good but the third time (last night) I was seriously disappointed. Let me explain!

I started with the Rubiyan Jhinga - a good dish with three large prawns correctly cooked with delicate flavours. My dining companion went for a simple dish - Bombay Chat which was excellent.

For my main I had Kohe Kashmiri - spiced shank of lamb. The lamb was tough, stringy and fatty. The sauce - of which there was a prodigious quantity - tasted of cornflour and little else. I have to say this was the worst dish I have ever tasted in any restaurant! The reaction from the staff was bizarre. On complaining that the waiter should let the chef know my disatisfaction (after all he did ask how my food was) - he disappeared and did not come near our table for 45 minutes.

My dining partner ordered Samudri Thali ('A galaxy of seafood'). Not bad but not that good either. The quantity of fish was limited however the sauces and spices were tasty enough although the bombay aloo tasted dry and very pre cooked.

I left further feedback with the restaurant and will wait to see if I get any response.

Whilst I am picking holes(!) the cloakroom staff were very offhand - in the middle of handing me my coat she ran off to welcome new diners leaving me short of one item. Of course she came back but not the way to treat a departing customer.

Not sure if I would go again given the quality of competition on the average high street - which seems a shame.....
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Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 3
Saturday, March 21, 2009

I am part Indian and I would never ever recommend this place to anyone. The food is not authentic Indian and it was awful. I took a visiting friend, thinking it would be good as I have been to their sister Thai restaurant, the Blue Elephant , which was very good. I don''t know where their cooks come from, but as far as I'm concerned they can't cook Indian food. I had samosas to start which were so bad that - if they had had any spices in them perhaps they would have covered up the awful taste, but as they didn't seem to have any Indian spices in them at all, they were dreadful and inedible! When I complained, I was told that the chef would be told, but nothing came of it and they still added them onto my bill!

The vegetarian curry consisted mostly of carrot, with hardly anything else, and was pretty tasteless - you couldn't really call it a curry. My friend's curry was pretty tasteless too and she said the best thing she had was the tea!

The place was mostly empty, not surprisingly. They probably rely on their central position and indian type decor to attract tourists, but that's all they can offer as far as I'm concerned!

I would never go here again and don't recommend trying it.
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Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 0
Friday, March 13, 2009

Atmosphere is great and the food was also very good. Not the usual indian though. I found it is basically a washed down, milder version of the real indian. But good, nevertheless.
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Stefan
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 7
Thursday, March 05, 2009

I would never recommend this restaurant to anyone, as being an Indian myself I know the dishes that I had is not authentic at all!

To my dissappointment, the vindaloo dish that I ordered wasn't spicy at all! Vindaloo is one of the spiciest indian dish, but to my surprise this one wasn't. It's not worth at all. For £35 I could have had more than 2 dishes , for a real authentic indian cuisine. This restaurant is good for it's service and exclusiveness only , and not the food , unfortunately. The service is so good that the waitors kept asking if everything is ok several times , while I was eating!.
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Jasmine
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 0
Friday, November 21, 2008