Hathi Restaurant Reviews 3

Visited Hathi Restaurant (on 30 January 2023) in Nutley on recommendation by some friends who also joined us.
Lamb starters were very small and the meat was tough, the king butterfly prawn was dry and tasteless.
Chicken masala consisted of tiny pieces of chicken, four in total, no bigger than a thumb nail a piece and a tremendous amount of curry sauce. Our four meals were extremely disappointing, we didn’t want to make a complaint at the time and embarrass our friends who highly recommended this restaurant.

6 of us eating. I ordered a Chicken Jal Jul. When I told the waiter its not hot, just very sweet, he came back with a bowl and said the chef has made me a hot sauce,"try it". So I did, yes it was hot but not from the spices, but as if it had been microwaved for 5 mins, so burnt my mouth. Cobra beers poured into dirty empty glasses by one of the waiters. Ordered some onion bajis as side dishes, they gave us 2 between 6 of us. Food was way below par of any Indian restaurant or takeaway that I have eaten in the past. All 6 of us agreed, we would not eat there again. It was the company that made it pleasant, not the food.

Went for a meal with the family after looking at the website. Decided to go for their "Gourmet Night" which is a deal available twice a week. The website lists it as "Popadoms&Chutney, Any Main Dish (Except King prawn which is £3 extra), Any Side Dish and Any Naan/Rice" and the cost is stated as £10.95 (at time of writing). We drive there, sit down, start reading the menu and discover that the Gourmet Night is actually £12.95. I'd put it down to them forgetting to update the website (not great as I've driven here based on your website deal) but then notice that the menu also states that in order to qualify for the Gourmet Night you have to buy a drink. At this stage I'm feeling a bit hacked off because it's simply not the deal they stated on the site! I figure we're here now so carry on. I order a Biryani, my side dish and Naan. The head waiter (owner?) then comes over and says that the Biryani comes with a vegetable curry so would I like to cancel my side order?!?! It's clearly either the vegetable curry OR the side dish?! Every single Indian restaurant that I've ever been to serves Biryani with the vegetable curry as part of the dish - it's not a side dish, it's part and parcel of a Biryani dish as far as I am aware?!? So why am I now having to choose between them? Daft when you think the vegetable curry probably costs them about 20p to make and is most likely not made to order.

So, whilst the food was fine and the service was ok... I won't be going back. Poor job.