Gaylord Restaurant

My husband and I ate here recently. We had been here about five years ago and it was much better then.

It appears to have been very much neglected, it was shabby and I hate to say it dirty. The wall next to our table was splattered with old food. Very off putting. The waiter was pushy and rude.

The cover charge for a poppadum is cheeky as is the 15% gratuity. The mains were very, very disappointing. The dish my husband ordered was grey in colour and tasted odd. The quality of the lamb was very poor. My dish consisted of scrappy bits of very poor quality chicken and to be honest I did not feel that confident eating it, especially as I am 7 months pregnant.

The pilau rice tasted like it came out of a packet. Overall it was a disaster. When we complained the waiter was unresponsive and they did not care, even the couple at the next table agreed with us and proceeded to complain also.

It is expensive and in my opinion a complete waste of money. Do not go here.
Comment on this reader review

Leather girl
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Wednesday, September 17, 2008

I also had a terrible experience with the service here. It was a relatively busy night, Friday at about 9pm. Our table of six people ordered within about 20 minutes. Another 30 minutes went by and we hadn't seen the appetizers yet. We were sitting right next to the kitchen, but every time we tried to get a waiter's attention he would look away. After waiting about an hour, maybe more- two appetizers came out. The waiter told us to share these because the food was still not ready. We didn't end up eating until about 10:30pm. Such a disaster. The food was edible, but the service really ruined the evening.
Comment on this reader review

- View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 2
Sunday, July 20, 2008

I have not written a review before in any guide, online or otherwise, but felt that I should about a recent experience at the Gaylord in Mortimer Street. I had eaten there before a few times, in the 1980's and 1990's, and I had very positive souvenirs of a special place.

I was taken there a week ago for a treat by an old friend who also knows London from way back. It's clear that something has failed in how this place is now run, compared to how it used to be.

First, the table we had booked, although free (no other diners) was not ready for us to sit at, and took a long time to be set up for us; a "Lazy Susan" (circular tray on ball bearings) was installed and it was quite obviously not clean. Old food was smeared all over the top surface: this was eventually disguised by the simple expedient of two napkins being laid over it.

Throughout, the service was rather inattentive; a number of things that we asked the waiter for simply never arrived (e.g., tea at the end!); and when it came to the food, we received dishes that did not correspond to what we'd ordered and the explanations provided as each dish arrived at the table were perfunctory - at best; to make it worse, the pilau rice only arrived 10 minutes or so after the rest of the main courses. The food itself was however good - but not exceptional. It was odd that there no ginger tea, chamomile tea or even decaf coffee available at the end of the meal.

A number of the waiters frankly looked a bit of a mess (seedy) and made us feel that we did not belong, they had better things to do than provide decent service.

I cannot comment on value provided as were treated by our friend: and the fact that he was our host made it hard for the rest of us to make any complaints ... we were there to meet up as old friends, after all. This place really is not at all what it used to be and I'm not sure that I can see any reason to return or to recommend it to others. Sorry.
Comment on this reader review

Tony
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 5
Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Restaurants..even the best of the best have dissatified customers..and we all write a review based on that ONE visit..that ONE experience..and some places are not meant for some people.....that definitely happens when you have an indian restaurant outside india... my many visits to gaylord have been awesome...its a restaurant which has survived..rather flourished under the same management for 42 years...believe you me its a difficult task... Its a traditional restaurant and with traditional food...and yeah definitely lacks modern ways of operation but i guess thats the charm.
Comment on this reader review

Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 7
Sunday, June 29, 2008

One of the worst dining experiences I've had in London. The food, the service, the prices all add up to it.

Lets start with the food. Well the starters were hardly worth a mention esp the vegetarian selection. We ordered 'Onion Bhaji', and it was worse than the worst 'Onion Bhaji' that I've ever had. Moving on to the main course, I found stones in my 'Daal Makhni'. Need I say more ?

As for the service, the waiters were fumbling and spilling food all over the table. Neither the waiter nor the manager were apologetic about the fact that I got stones in my 'Daal', in fact they were justifying that its ok to expect such occurances; beat that.

And lastly the prices, a 1pound 50, cover charge for a popadum? And a 15% gratuity that was pre-added to the bill, was definitely not justified given the food and service.

All in all I'd say, dont go there unless of course you want to take a foe out to dinner.
Comment on this reader review

Rahul Bakhshi
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 0
Sunday, June 08, 2008

I have never written a restaurant review good or bad but I was so appalled by EVERYTHING at the Gaylord that I felt I had to warn peoplenot to waste their money here.

The food isn't even worth mentioning. It was very poor and overpriced. And the drinks - £5 a pint of Kingfisher!

Anyway - my friend ordered a chicken korma and waiter number 1 suggested she might like something else instead. When she asked whether the suggested dish was as mild - he told her that he was only telling her about food not trying to sell her a computer, so she did not need to make such a fuss.

My friend and I had not seen each other for months so really wanted to catch up but were constantly interrupted by over eager staff with a very rude attitude. At one stage waiter 2 knocked the contents of the flower vase on to my coat and bag without apologising. Shoving a napkin into my hand for me to wipe it.

Finally the bill came - exorbitant! WIth a 15% tip added on. We were so disgusted with the attitude of the staff that we queried the service charge - clarifying that this was in fact discretionary. The waiter 3 then rudely told us that there were 10 people working at the restaurant and that tip was divided between them as their pay was so low. We all know I think how the tip system in restaurants works but in this case we just did not want to leave a tip of nearly £10 for a dreadful evening of food and service. When we said we did not want to pay the service charge the waiter still looked angry and said he would have to check with his manager if that was OK. Of course the manager could not say anything so we paid our bill and were ushered out of the door.

Don't go there. There are hundreds of decent Indian restaurants across the capital with excellent food and service.
Comment on this reader review

Clare Harrison
Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 0
Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Awful, awful, awful. Went there with 5 other friends on Saturday night and truly regretted it. Only 2 dishes out of the 10 we ordered were good. Others were too salty, too spicy (and I eat hot ), or cold. Ordered the Salmon tikka and when we complained that it was too salty, the waiter took it away and returned with a washed down version arriving 10 minutes after we finished the other starters. Even this was too salty. King Prawn Masalla was awful, something not quite fresh about the prawns. Mixed basket of bread included stodgy paratha's. What annoyed us the most was the lack of customer care. Despite having sent the Salmon back twice, it was still on the bill.

More atmoshere on the dark side of the moon. Wanted an adult night out, but ended up seated next to a family with 2 screaming children - I could have had that at home.

Decor lacks any elegance and needs to be updated. Could have been a local curry house. Going to the toilets gives you doubts about whether you want to eat in this establishment.

Overall, no, no, no.
Comment on this reader review

Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 2
Monday, March 17, 2008

Very dissapointing experience. Service is so sloppy and poor. Food very average. I would not recommend this restaurant.
Comment on this reader review

Sanjay kumar
Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Saturday, February 16, 2008

This place has the absolute worst Indian food served anywhere in UK

I should know as an Indian.
Comment on this reader review

ashok
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Wednesday, February 06, 2008

This is the finest Indian restaurant in London, this is coming from an India who does not particularly like Indian food. Is also one of the few authentic Indian restaurants in central London (others being Bombay Palace, Chor Bazaar, and the former Viceroy, which used to be on Gloucester Place).

To drink it has to be a Johnnie Walker Black Label with soda, in true Indian upper class style, they know how to do the stereotypical Indian drink.

Chaat or Behl puri are both perfect, but of course these are not hard to do.

Seekhs of either chicken or lamb are both of the same quality one would expect in Delhi.

Murgh zaffarani from the tandoor is also great.

Champen are not the best, but still good.

Murgh makhni is perhaps the best in the world, even including India.

Aachari ghost is excllent.

I did not like the Lamb passanda, but it may be to some people's taste.

Tandoori roti is acceptable, as is the lacchuni naan, but the laccha phranta's are excellent.

The best pudding has to be gulab jauman, which is not on the menu, but they will do it for you.

The service is also excellent once they get to know you.
Comment on this reader review

Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 7
Wednesday, January 16, 2008