Mela

Visited Mela on a Saturday evening. Read all reviews and seemed exactly what we wanted after going to a Matinee performance nearby. Wasn't very impressed at all. Food was mediocre at best. Hardly any meat in each dish, mainly sauce. Vegetables and breads were good and the service wasn't bad, but sat downstairs and felt abit tucked away. Some of the clientele also spoiled the evening. I know a restaurant can't help it if some people get rowdy but it wasn't just one table, one group treated the staff badly and just threw their money at the staff, another group seemed to jump down the stairs bouncy of the walls. Maybe its location is why it attracted this type but it was only 20:00 so not late. We didn't go for a quiet meal, we wanted a restaurant with a buzzy atmosphere and quality food, but felt let down on both counts. Only good things were that it was cheaper than we expected so didn't feel ripped off as well, also the staff were polite considering some of the people they were having to put up with. Next time we will push the boat out abit more and try The Mint Leaf or the Red Fort.

I took my parents and my nephew (4.5yrs) to Mela for their first Indian meal ever. We've chosen our meals from the set lunch menu – a very good variety of food for everyone: lamb, chicken, fish or vegetarian. For my father as a lover of lamb and me as a vegetarian – excellent!
The service was very attentive and enormously friendly to my little nephew, who is likely to be very energetic, as well.
The food was authentic and really nice – plenty as well: dips, starters, the main meal was served with dal, naan, rice and a delicious vegetable side dish; in the end you can choose between chikoo or mango flavoured ice cream! Also, they cooked an extra non-spicy sauce for my nephew – out of charge!
All in all, one of the best restaurants I've known – and my mum's a chef herself, my parents run two restaurants.

Highly recommended!

I went to Mela on the back of the review on this site and really enjoyed it. The food was delicious and fresh and it has an open kitchen which is always a good sign for me! The service was friendly and our waiter was excellent. They had run out of a well known beer served with curry, and the waiter gave us our next round free of charge which we didnt expect at all! The menu was not over bearing, yet varried and interesting. It was busy and has a good atmosphere. The naan breads were beautifully fresh. They do some curries from Kerala which I will definitely try next time I visit! Very good value.

Booked a table for 4 for 8pm on Saturday 28th feb 2009 with the special 50% off food offer.

Arrived at the restaurant a few minutes after 8pm and was told our table was being set up. Asked to wait at the bar; this area is designed for serving drinks to seated customers so no real room to stand and we definitely felt we were in the way. Our proposed table was then given to another party! Some twenety minutes later we were finally shown to a table.

Service was quite slow; not an issue for us as we were in no hurry, but if you are then be warned. Our waitress looked extremely miserable throughout the evening and certainly was not concentrating as she served each of us with the wrong meal. Our bottle of white wine was warm when served. Following quite a wait after finishing our main course we had to ask for the desert menu.

When the bill arrive the 50% discount had not been given and we had to ask for the bill to be re-calculated.

Overall we enjoyed the meal, but felt if we had paid full price it would not have been good value for money, especially with the poor customer service.

Having searched high and low for good Indian restaurant serving home food in London, i finally have it!!!
The starters reflected the street foods in India, be it the bhalla papdi chaat or the kachori and my favourite curry turned out to the achari lamb with plain rice. So many flavours came into my mouth (cannot compare to my mother’s cooking as she only did vegetarian) though the side order of the potatoes reminded me of my mother’s cooking
It was just a fantastic experience and I look forward for more. But guys improve the service a notch to complete the experience