Amaya

So I finished up a project for one of my clients and as a thank you he took me to lunch at Amaya which is an Indian bar and grill in Knightsbridge.  Amaya is part of the MW Eat Group collection of restaurants which includes Veeraswamy, Chutney Marys and the more affordable Masala Zone chain of restaurants.

First impressions of Amaya were good, my client and I were meeting up for lunch and it was quiet when we arrived up soon filled up with people as time went on.  With the dark, modern interior, your eye is immediately drawn to the kitchen at the back of the restaurant where all of the magic happens.  Huge tandoor ovens (see picture below), a grill or 'sigri' section where food is cooked over a coal flame and the hot plate where food was griddled.

We went for the £29 Business Lunch menu which let us try 8 different tapas style dishes made up of various types of meats, fish and veggies cooked on the three different stations.  Each dish that came to us was a work of art and tasted amazing.  The nan bread was lovely as were the chutneys on offer.  Stand out dishes in particular were the chicken biriyani and the venison kebab which was filled with a lovely spicy sauce.

Dessert was a shared platter of small desserts including a rose sorbet, a lime tart and coconut brulee.  The desserts were not as good as the mains in my opinion and lacked imagination and flair, although they did look lovely on the 'Polo' plate.

Overall, the food was great, if in my opinion slightly overpriced.  However, the helpfulness and friendliness of the staff and just the general ambience made this lunch quite special and I would definitely go again.

Food: 4/5

Service: 5/5

Price: 3/5

Ambience: 5/5

http://www.amaya.biz/

Panna's What a Palavar!

My family and I have been going to Pannas's Indian Resturant for a few years now and until our last visit was a restaurant that we have enjoyed going to.  Recently, we decided to take my cousin, his wife and my nephew there for our annual Raksha Bandhan celebration.

We booked a table for 8 people for 18:30, however when we got there we were shown to a table suitable for 6, we brought this to to the staffs attention and were told that the table was all that was available due to the fact that we needed wheelchair access.  We had a few issues with this statement:

1. The restaurant was almost empty,
2. The people that were sitting at the end of the table given couldn't tuck their legs in as there was a bar going across the bottom of the table, and finally, 
3. With 8 people around the table there was hardly any space for food.

Eventually, after threatening to leave we were told that there was a bigger table available, however we had to finish by 21:00 and there were a couple of steps up to the table.  This was fine for my family and I and with a bit of manoeuvring we finally settled down to order our dinner at 19:00. 

We placed our order around 19:15 and then proceeded to wait 45 minutes for our food to arrive.  Another larger party of people arrived after us and were served before us, so as you can imagine we were starting to get a little twitchy!

Then to top things off, the highchair we were given was filthy and there was dust on the window ledge behind us.  I don't mind a bit of wear and tear but I do expect the places that I eat to be clean!

The Food:

So, we move on to the food.  Overall the food was OK but nowhere close to as good as what we have had before, this may have been due to the fact that we were so hungry and wolfed the food down.  The chilli chips were as good as always, although the portions were a little smaller than what we have received before at Panna's ditto the Garlic Chilli Paneer.

The only thing were unable to eat was the Vegetable Manchuria which had far too much lemon in it.  The Chole was nice and tasty and the naan nice and fresh.  A special mention goes out for the chutneys that were served with the Fried Popadom, the chilli chutney in particular was great with just the right amount of kick and spice.

Overall, we left Panna's a little deflated and disappointed and we are uncertain whether we will make the effort to go there again.

Food: 3/5

Service: 0/5

Price: 3/5 

Ambience: 0/5

http://www.thecitypavilion.co.uk/pannas.asp