On a dark, wet and windy night in late December, we arrived at Café India in Albion Street, in the Merchant City area of Glasgow with great anticipation. I had heard good things about this restaurant and wanted to try it out.
On entering the restaurant, we were asked by a waiter to take a seat in the reception area (in our wet coats) and he would be back in a minute. Although I had made a reservation, this seemed to be of little or no interest, as there were plenty of vacant tables. We were quickly shown to a table, but before we could sit down, we had to ask if there was somewhere we could hang our dripping coats as we didn't want to keep them on! The coats dispensed with, the menus arrived at the table immediately.
Our first impression of the restaurant was that it seemed fairly new, of modern design, but somewhat lacking in atmosphere. We struggled to read the menu, as the wall lights next to our table were too dim (although the centre of the restaurant was well-lit). We placed our drinks order which arrived promptly - a bottle of wine which was plonked on the table with glasses and it was left for us to remove the screw top and pour our own drinks. As we had not been to Café India before (the waiter didn't know that) we needed some time to peruse the menu. While we were deciding what to have, the waiter returned 3 times to ask if we were ready to order. After about 5 minutes, we were.
The menu offered a good and interesting selection of dishes without giving too much to choose from - some traditional Indian dishes with a blend of European. We ordered a selection of starters which we could share: oriental prawns, pakoras & onion bhaji. They arrived in superfast time and were delicious. When we had finished our starters, the waiter asked if we would like to wait a little while before the main course was served and we said that would be fine. Less than 5 minutes later, our main courses arrived: King Prawns, Chicken Chasni, Sea Bass which were all very good indeed.
While we had been eating, the restaurant had become busier and I had the impression that one or two tables were occupied by regular diners. We enjoyed the food very much - it seemed to be freshly prepared and the flavours were good. Unfortunately the welcome was not a warm one, the ambience was definitely lacking and the staff seemed to be racing against the clock to see how quickly they could reclaim the table. While we were still eating, a waiter came to clean the table next to us which had been vacated. He sprayed the table with some pungent scented chemical cleaner which did nothing to enhance our overall enjoyment!
After we finished the main course, we felt that we had eaten more than enough in a short space of time (less than 1 hour) and decided to ask for the bill. When the bill arrived, it was incorrect, as we were entitled to a discount (we had booked online) which hadn't been applied and we had to point this out.
Starters range in price from £3.95 - £6.95 and main courses range from £8.95 - £16.95 on the A La Carte Menu. There are also Pre-Theatre, Lunch and Bistro Menus available. Café India has a very informative website: www.cafeindia.com where you can download the menus and make online reservations.
We appreciated that the restaurant is called Café India, so we didn't expect a leisurely meal which would last the whole evening, but we did leave feeling that we had only just arrived! I can't say that I will be in a hurry to go back but I probably will sometime as we all enjoyed the food.
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Eating at my hubby's fave Indian recently I was pretty narked when they came over and sprayed cleaning fluid on the table next to ours whilst we were eating. I am sure it's not good practice to do this and I did actually make a loud comment to my husband to show I was annoyed. The waiter just carried on regardless! Enjoyed your review! x
claire1terry 16.01.2008 16:20
Good review.
Maestrolover 15.01.2008 23:00
Good review, one of my personal peeves when they keep pestering you to order and you've just started looking through the menu...
Jan 15th, 2008
very helpful by (100%):
