Mirch Massala

[pollensafan]

First of all my sympathy goes to the folk who were in this place on the 20th of june, celebrating a special birthday. It will be remembered for all the wrong reasons. We arrived (4 people) at 8.15pm. What followed can only be described as a complete mockery and a sham. Our order was taken and we were served a drink. The couple next to us said " I hope your not hungry, we have been here 1and a half hours and have not seen so much as a popadom ". Now I guess that should have set alarm bells ringing but i'm nothing if not an optomists. I will now try and compact down what happened over the next 2 hours. Plates of food were taken to tables and within minutes removed and taken back to the kitchen. After an hour 4 hot plates were put on our table. Then starters were brought to us and we had not ordered any. The folk next to us said that they were theirs, but the waiter took no notice and took them back.The waiter then came and took our plates away amidst comments like " Well that was the finest food we never had ". Then a table had 8 plates of boiled rice put in front of them. The waiter then picked them up and took them away.While all this was going on people were getting up and walking out. One table was asked if they enjoyed their food. the chap replied " Yes even though it was'nt what we ordered ". Every single person that got bills took them back because they were wrong. People that came in an hour after us got served meals before us and others that had been their first. By 10 pm 2 currys of the 4 arrived at the table. The third one arrived 10 minutes later and my wifes never arrived at all. They had forgotten to cook it. We were now desperate to eat anything so we tucked in to what was there. When we asked for the bill it was not ours so now you had the ludicrous situation of my friend going around to other people trying to sort out who's bill belonged to which table followed by the waiter who just stood there watching him. At which point my friend put the bill down and said to the waiter " Here you do it, I'm doing your job for you " ( and i've cleaned that up ). Now i should point out that over the course of the evening, I spoke to 3 members of staff trying to get an explanation and all they did was look at us with this stupid grin on their faces saying " Sorry". In all my years of eating out i have never seen such a shambles. Not one person had a clue what was going on. I even said to the others that i thought it was their equivilent to " Beadles About " and any minute now some chap would jump out with a camera. Sadley that was not the case. Should any one reading this think I'm exaggerating. I can assure you I'm not. I've even left stuff out as i can see this review is huge. NEVER AGAIN !!!! That will be my first and last visit

 

[Rosie34]

What an absolute food disaster And I think I have read 'rave' reviews about this restaurant in the past. Wonder if there has been a change of management or something

 

[Baron de Lay]

I hope there hasn't been any change in management at Mirch. We've been regulars there ever since they opened and have always found the staff to be very friendly and the food to be excellent. Really worried by Pollensafan's experience, as we always get the urge for a 'curry fix' at some point during our holidays!

 

[Sparky]

We were there a few weeks ago and it was the same people running it, i don't know what went wrong when Pollensafan was there but it really does sound awful. I wonder if it was because they have taken on some new staff (it was just the owner and his son when i was there and only 4 tables) and they were not experienced enough .
There is always a bit of a wait but that is because everything is cooked to order, hopefully this was a one off because in my opinion this is the best Indian Restaurant in town.

 

[parsman]

I agree with Sparky - the Mirch Massala is our favourite Indian restaurant in PP.

I'm very disappointed to read about Pollensafan's shambolic visit as we're due over in 3 weeks and would definitely have visted Mirch M during the trip.

Any other recent visitors able to comment?

Mike

 

[pollensafan]

Hi Folks, I know it sounds unbelievable but i say again it's the worst experience i have ever had in a restaurant. The waiters did'nt have a clue what they were doing. The thing i found astonishing is that there was no one in charge to get control of things and give direction. Above all of this, not a single gesture was made to placate people. I could have pulled people in off the street and they could not have done a worse job. If there was a single table that got the right food i did not see it .

 

[pollensafan]

Hi Sparky, If i understand you, When you went there were only 4 tables. Well somethings changed because you could seat app 30 people outside and app 20 inside. So perhaps they have bitten off more they they can chew. ( Which is more than we did). lol

 

[Sparky]

Hi Sparky, If i understand you, When you went there were only 4 tables. Well somethings changed because you could seat app 30 people outside and app 20 inside. So perhaps they have bitten off more they they can chew. ( Which is more than we did). lol

No pollensafan i meant there were only 4 tables taken .
The owners wife is usually front of house and she keeps control, she has a young baby now so i am not sure if she is still on maternity leave. This could explain the problem, of course there is no excuse for it and as i said lets hope it's a one off because the food really is very good.

 

[fil6699]

So sorry to to read this I am sure it was just one of those nights because we eat there regularly and have done for a long time and its always been very good, and yes you have a little wait but as Sparky says that's because its all cooked fresh. Its the only place in the Port we would eat a curry. And our home in England is only 4 miles from Bradford so we know a little bit about eating Curry

 

[Great Dane]

Been off line so only just reading this.

i can confirm that Pollensafans post is correct as i believe my wife and I were the couple sitting next to them inside the restuarant.

Pollensa fan - If you're from Kent area and one of you supports QPR then you may remember us - Arsenal fans.Handsome man with an attractive blond woman ;-)
If not,then it seems this was a regular occurence that week!

It was was a total and utter shambles.There was no older staff older i saw and if you pardon the pun there was too many indians not enough chiefs.No one seemed to be in charge,only the young girl could speak good English.

The food is lovely as we've eaten there before,but the service has always been
slow in my experience but this visit was so bad,we had to laugh and make jokes,otherwise you would have cried or got very angry,as some people were.

In the end I went to the bar to pay,and saw a mountain of unwashed dishes by the kitchen door as they took 3 attempts to take my card payment.

A great shame,as the food is great,they just seem to be lacking proper management.Not sure if we can be bothered to visit in future.

 

[pollensafan]

Hi great Dane, Yep you got it in one. That was us. My mates the qpr fan. I've read comments that they must have had an off night, but how that suddenly make the staff incompetent is beyond me. As you say if you had'nt of laughed you would have cried. Pleased you confirmed my sorry tale as otherwise certain people think you have some sort of agenda against a particular place. All the best.

 

[Barney13]

We have experienced problems with the service at Mirch in the past but when we were in last week the service was great and the food as good as usual even though most tables were full. So maybe they are getting their act together. Plan to go again this week!

 

[Stephen]

Extracts from my post from almost 3 years ago.
_________________________________________________________________
Unfortunately I have to report (I feel it is my duty as a lifelong Indian Food fan)on our Saturday night at Mirch Massala,the Indian near the Flora.
........My first impressions were that it felt a bit like a cafe and didn't have a good feel about it.........After a few minutes the very apologetic owner/chef asked us whether we would be prepared to wait for half an hour as he was very busy.......

Complimentary popadoms and chutney etc arrived to ease our wait......
... mango chutney was of the cheapest watery kind,the onions prepared days before it seemed,and the raita the most insipid,lifeless gloop.

..... rogan josh contained no more than 10 tiny bits of lamb in a tomatoey sauce that had probably had a teaspoon of curry powder sprinkled over it.The Biryani was an absolute disgrace - a dozen tiny frozen prawns and the same miniscule scraps of lamb mixed with some rice.....
We didn't create a fuss.We paid and left.It would have been a scandal at half the price.
This meal was not only the worst we've had in PP over the last 6 years it enters our top 3 worst-meals-ever charts.
Possibly at Number 1.
_________________________________________________________________
It looks like not much has changed

 

[parsman]

Update on Friday 20 July.

In the light of potential for reported chaos, my wife and I decided to eat early to minimise risk! We joined approx 8 other diners at 19:40, opted for 2 courses from Menu B, received excellent food and service and were on our way by 21:15 after a paying our timely and accurate bill. By then, the headcount had risen to 30+ so I can´t guarantee that level of service was maintained.

I did notice that the former´front of house´ lady was in attendance so maybe that was the difference. We may visit again during the 2nd week of our holiday and will include comments in my subsequent trip report.

Cheers
Mike

 

[Barney13]

We also went in last night when it was a bit busier and they had a party of 10/12 in this obviously slowed things down a bit and I saw one family ask where their food was. Once they had the big party served everything seemed to be fine. We got our food relatively quickly and it was good Indian food. We will go there again nect year.

 

[pips]

Was also there large group beside us service good food good also saw front of house lady at the bar but their english is a little lacking but that will come

 

[Jilly]

We went on Friday evening, table of 7 , and about 7 tables busy, couldn't have been more than 25 customers in total.

Service was random, 2 waiters who constantly seemed to be hiding in the kitchen never out front, food arrived in fits and starts and those collecting takeaways seemed to be the priority.

This was always a favourite of ours but doubt we will be back because of the service

 

[fil6699]

Lyn and I ate there last night it was fantastic food was wonderful service was best I have ever seen there . And we noticed they were making sure every table was being looked after. Please remember when you are going to eat here the food is all cooked fresh so takes a little time specially if you are a large group. Relax and enjoy, the food is worth the wait and the staff try as hard as they can.