Tamarai

Have been reading very good reviews about the new menu at Tamarai which seemed like a value for money deal, 3 courses at £15. The mains and desserts were fabulous. Me and my friends had a great time as this place is really stylish, perfect for a cold winter evening. Give the new menu a try cos its really worth it!

Dreadful place! Dark and moody like a teenagers bedroom, and stinking like a Weatherspoons on a Sunday morning (presumably because it also operates as a bar/club too) – the decor could not be more naff!
Went for the 3 courses for £15 deal – and they really get their moneys worth for that!
Options for starters include nuts and lotus flower crisps, seriously, and when we were finally presented with our mains following a half an hour wait we got what can only be described as the meanest main course portions I have ever seen. The food was OK but not worth the wait AND it was a Wednesday evening so there wasn't an excuse.
I don't rate it, and I wouldn't bother again.

I went to this classy restaurant last week when we were in the mood to have some good thai food. While searching these dining websites i came across this restaurant based in Covent garden.Really liked this place for the ambience and food clubbed with the great offer that we availed of 40% off on food, made for an awesome evening for me and my girlfriend.Its good quality at decent price when u avail the special offers.Food and the The martinis were great.When we were about to leave we saw this group of youngsters all dressed up for a private party entering the venue, seems lik a great place for get togethers.Will go back for one of their club nights soon!

Pan-Asian for me certainly means Tamarai, the place has everything- Indian, Chinese, Thai…you name it you got it! Simply loved the food, the aromatic hot thai coconut soup is amazing! Chicken spring rolls and Indian rice cake are good too, i am a big fan of their cocktail list. A little expensive for my liking but nonetheless if one can afford good taste, then why not! I am coming back with family the next time, not to miss place!

What I felt about Tamarai personally is the PASSION this place has! Most of the places that i have been to all over the world have been very cut and dry, but this one is different! It coyly gives out warmth and affection through its food and service. Not for a minute did we feel that we have come out to a formal or uncomfortable setting to dine, it felt cozy and nice…something that we were looking for!

The staff is pleasing and they actually lend an ear to the customer is what i felt, they were ready to listen to what we needed and genuinely got around with it. The food was good but i am a bigger fan of the service. I believe this place turns out to a bar at night, with the wine list i am not surprised, loved it thoroughly!!
The only thing i don't like about dining out is the fat money that goes out but here also Tamarai surprised me, rating it 8/10 on value for money, i genuinely think it is better than many other places in this regard! I came with a bunch of friends and it was my treat…the amount was lesser than i expected so its like icing on the cake!

When it comes to Pan-Asian cuisine, i feel this one is doing a great job! So, first impression…kudos! Next time, i hope its even better!

Pan Asian funky bliss!!

Tamarai is very cool, I love the underground, blacked-out feel to the atmosphere with colourful lights scattered around the wall!

The food is so good, seriously good! If you like your Asian noodles, stir-fries you won't find better in London. I spent a bit of time in Asian a few years ago backpacking and love the food so to be able to visit a place in London that reminds my mouth and belly of my trip is great!

I really recommend trying Tamarai – you'll be giving up you usual Chinese, Asian restaurants in a flash!

I was in Tamarai over the weekend and I have to say a huge thank you to the staff. The staff were so friendly and made us feel very welcome.

Our orders were taken and the food arrived all at a good pace. We unfortunately got a few wrong dishes but the staff were very obliging at correcting this. We were also given a free round of shots at the end of our dinner to make up for the confusion.

We ended up spending the rest of the night in the cocktail bar and nightclub. It was great, the music was upbeat and the staff were very attentive, ensuring we were having a good time.

This is definitely a central venue worth checking out – the prices are average for the area but the service definitely out-weighs other nightclubs and bars.

Went to Tamarai this weekend. Really impressed – we didn't have to queue for hours and it was busy inside (well-done door staff!). They had stopped serving food when we arrived but the diners that were still seated all looked very happy (Will have to give it a go next time!). The cocktails were made really well by a really friendly barmaid. The music wouldn't be my first choice – r&b and commercial but it brought in a friendly crowd and we had a lot of fun. I would recommend it to groups who are looking to have a laugh in Central London.

I went into Tamarai last weekend for a hen-do and would just like to thank all the staff for attending and entertaining us!! It makes such a difference when the service has a smile. There were a couple of mistakes with some side orders but no-one cared becasue we were having such a good time. The food was lovely, the cocktails were tasty & pink – perfect for the hen-do and once again the waiters and barman were brilliant!

Be very aware of the service charge! We recently went to Tamaria restaurant for a friends birthday party. 21 of us decided to have the Chef's tasting menu which is normally priced at £52 per person but on offer for £26 per person.
When we received the final bill, the group equally split the total amount due. The next morning, to my amazement, Tamarai had charged 12.5% gratuity on the £52, and not on the actual per cover charge of £26. When I called the manager to explain this mistake I was very abruptly told that this is what they do all the time and that it says clearly at the bottom of the chef's tasting menu that a ‘Discretionary staff gratuity of 12.5% shall be added to your bill’. I tried explaining to the manager that no where does it say that this gratuity will in fact apply to the original amount and not to the advertised ‘offer’ amount. Come on! Charging a gratuity on an amount which was not agreed by the customer is not right!! Please be aware. Send the bill back if needs be.

The whole experience was a disappointment. We were made to feel unwelcome by the staff who rushed us through our food.

I've been a few times to Tamarai, since my Singaporean friend took me back in January. It has a buddha-bar style to it (although prices significantly cheaper) and is a great place to go for dinner in a buzzy atmostphere.

I've always found both the food & service to be consistently good, so was surprised to see that others hadn'thad the same experience.

On my last trip with my boyfried I had the mango & papaya salad to start, which did not dissappoint – but I was envious of the crisp & peppery soft shell crab that he chose. I opted for a thai green curry for my main course, and although I'm hard to please when it comes to thai food I must say it was very authentic (although it could have done with being a bit spicier for my taste!). My partner chose well again with the chinese pork belly, which was substantial and not too glutinous as some oriental style pork can be. We were pretty full by this point, but opted to share a cocunut brulee – this was amazing, and I wished I had got my own one!

Service was good & freindly, although we had to wait a bit for our main course to be cleared as it was quite busy.

I've been to Tamarai twice this year and had a great time, both times. The 1st was just with my partner and I was very impressed with the venue, and particularly the food and drinks. The staff were very nice too. I was so impressed (and it was so nice to be that impressed) that I invited a group of friends there for another meal a few weeks later. Since then I've been out of the country all summer but was looking forward to coming and eating there again.

Unfortunately, as things stand right now, that won't be the case. One of my friends who I brought with me the 2nd time, was also impressed when she came that time. So much so that she booked a meal on 20th August for her and another friend. When I came back to London recently I suggested she & I return to Tamarai but she said “never again” so naturally I wanted to know why.

She recounted her experience of the 20th August and being heavily involved in customer service, frankly I'm shocked. I won't go into all of the details but it seems the meal started well enough but later on they ordered more drinks with their meal and this took a while to come. When they did, the waitress managed to spill her drink on her so that it completely soaked her clothes she was wearing. It's a restaurant, these things happen from time to time. In my experience of such matters, the restaurant usually bends over backwards to make things right, especially the nicer establishments. What happened from then on was far from that and she and her friend ended up leaving the restaurant furious by the way it was handled. The restaurant tried to charge for the drink they spilled, nothing in particular was done to try and appease them, and when they complained about the service and the way it was handled they were made to feel even worse by the restaurant manager that night (this may even be you, they didn't provide me their name). At the very, very least I'd have expected the manager to offer to pay for dry cleaning without prompting. But they tried to persuade her that it wouldn't stain, she should try and wash it and if it didn't come out she should bring it back, show them the evidence and then they might do something about it! They ended up feeling terrible from the way they were treated and that they were the ones who had done something wrong. Nothing was done about the bill, they didn't even get a “thanks” or a “good bye”, as if the staff didn't want to ever see them again. It looks like they'll get their wish.

Consequently, my looking forward to experiencing your admittedly outstanding food and drinks has been brought to an abrupt halt. Bad customer service doesn't necessarily just affect the people directly involved, they have a habit of telling their friends too. I tried mentioning the above to the restaurant manager but no reply.

My friend has eaten in this restaurant many times and therefore chose it for his 30th birthday meal. We went on Sat 26th September and the service, under new management, was simply awful.

Drinks took forever to arrive, starters were completely mis-timed – one main was brought (no exaggeration) 15 minutes before the rest of the mains. Rude waitress, and I quote – “what do you want me to do about it”

A complaint to the manager received no gesture of goodwill nor an acknowledgement that we had received poor service.

And this was all at a 7:30 sitting when the restaurant was barely half-full. A real shame because the food was lovely but I will never go back to receive such disgraceful service.

Four friends and I dined at Tamarai, Covent Garden last night. It was a far from good experience and I was thoroughly disappointed and here is why:
The restaurant gives a fairly good first impression (70% full (at 8pm), good atmosphere, fairly nice decor) but I'm afraid that's where it ends.
The waiting staff and manager are clueless and far from professional: within our first 10mins, the manager spilt a plate of food in someones lap and on the floor which I almost slipped on even after they had cleaned it up.
The service gets worse…The menu states that each diner must order a ‘large plate’ (main meal) but fails to state that only 4 out the 6 dishes on the menu are available (the two dishes they didn't have were the only meat dishes on the menu). I cheekily asked for a complimentary beef starter (in addition to our own starters) to make up for the lack of meat/chicken available on the main menu. To our surprise, this was not available either. All five starters arrived at different times (about 10mins apart from each other) and it was quite difficult to catch the eye of the staff passing by.
I requested a business card from the manager of Tamarai so I could air my disappoint in the bad service and was given a leaflet for Tamarai upon which he reluctantly wrote his name – no apologies were offered for the evening's events and this place definitely hasn't heard of ‘service with a smile’. I would be highly embarrassed if I were the owenr of this establishment and furthermore would not recommend Tamarai to anyone in fact I would do the opposite and warn them off before they even considered dining here.
On a good note, the bathroom was quite nice.

The food was good but the service was dismal – here's why:
1) The staff were all new and didn't have a clue about the food that they were serving
2) Once we arrived I waited for 10 minutes to be asked for a drink – so opted to go to the bar, was only asked if I wanted a drink on my way back to the table 3) The Foie gras appetiser arrived after the starters
4) From what I could see, there was no allocated waiter/waitress for any of the tables – all our dishes were served by different people
5) Grabbed the attention of member of staff and ordered another drink – only to watch it slowly warm as it sat at the bar for 10 mins. Stopped another member of staff to retrieve it for me at which point the originally waitress came up to the table to serve another course asked me ‘Have you not got your drink yet?’
6) Ordered one Jasmine rice and a plain rice – was served plain rice as it comes in one bowl – although the waiter stated it was Jasmine rice (didn't bother complaining, I was happy I got something)
7) Opted not to pay the service charge and wanted to explain to the manager the reasons why – he told as we haven't paid for the meal that he didn't want to hear my feedback. I corrected him to say that we have paid for the meal but not the service charge and that it was in his best interest for his customers to learn from complaints – he still didn't want to hear my feedback – this left me fuming

The Good:
1) There was female waitress who was equally disgusted with the standards of the restaurant service and explained it was due to new staff and a lack of training – she, however was very good at her job
2) The food was good, 6.5 out of 10

Excellent food especially Chef tasting Menu which has lot of dishes to sample & taste, all in all food taste wise is very good.

Went to celebrate a special occasion. Excellent service, excellent ambience and excellent food all combined to make a magical evening. I will certainly recommend this restaurant to friends and will be returning very soon

I can't think of a restaurant that I would like to visit again less. Poor service, ill-mannered staff and rude management and ridiculous delays in drinks/food. The 50% off offer attracts in large parties which the staff are not equiped to deal with, I've been twice now, the second time to see whether it could possibly improve and it had not, in fact it was almost worse. Complaints also go unnoticed and the staff would do well to learn the art of customer service such as complimentary drinks.
The venue trys to be dark and moody, but ends up looking like a badly-lit footballer's living room.

Tamarai is a gorgeous venue – very plush and feels exclusive even when it's busy, as it was on the Staurday night. Highly recommended.

We visited Tamarai last night for a birthday meal in a prty of nine people. Whilst the food was good, this is related solely to the 50% off offer and I would not have paid full price for our meal. The pan-asian cuisine was well presented, with probably a little too much spice in some dishes in particular the green thai curry.

What let this place down was absolutely unacceptable service. We arrived and ordered cocktails which were not brought down our drinks area as indicated but after 45 minutes arrived at our dining table. This was after our starters and wine had arrived, no reasonable explanation was offered other than they were busy, offered but the drinks were unsurprisingly efficiently added in full to our bill.

We had nine people in our party, one of whom was just joining us for cocktails as they had to catch an early train. When we tried to order the tasting menu for the remaining 8 in our party, we were told by our waitress that was not possible as everyone at the table had to order the tasting menu. Eventually a more senior member of staff came over and told us that our guest who was not eating could not sit at the table and had to leave (bear in mind that the cocktails the guest was joining us for were 45 minutes late). So most embarassingly our guest left having been requested to by the management, everyone at the table was stunned at such rudeness on the part of management.

Throughout the meal, whilst the service was prompt and polite it was clear they were unprepared for the number of guests and we were left requesting more wine, water and other items as our waitress was not around.

When the bill arrived an automatic service was applied to the full bill (rather than post 50% discount) which we requested be removed from the bill as the service most certainly did not warrant the full charge. We were then approached to see whether we were prepared to pay 50% of the service charge. Again, everyone was left stunned and we refused, what was clear was that the service was being used to both fund wages and prop up profits.

The whole experience was a disgrace, embarassing and for our birthday host most irritating. I fail to see in times such as this how staff can think it is appropriate to be so rude to customers.

The negative reviews on this site echoes my experience at Tamarai when I brought a few high net worth clients to dine at the restaurant. We ended up at Tamarai on a Thurs eve as I recalled reading on their website that they offered 50% off Food Bill. We ordered alcohol worth £100++ and dined there. However, when the bill came and I had asked about the offer they advertised on the website, the General Manager dismissed it as an offer which was not valid to walk-in diners! His explanation for this was that if he gave the offer to us, others would overhear and ask for it too (how is that a customer's problem?!). After a 10 minute debate to which I mentioned their advertising was misleading, (the term and condition that Food Offer was only valid for reservations was NOT stated on their website). Money was never an issue as I've spent more in other restaurants —> it was a matter of principle and ethical advertising. I had asked for the GM to check his website and he was dismissive and defensive and said the term was stated. What would have been a good evening for my party turned out to be an uncalled for negative reference on the restaurant. We paid the full bill with an understanding with the GM that I would check the website again to prove that the reservations only term was NOT stated. If I was mistaken, no problem since the bill was paid in full. If the GM was wrong, I would have appreciated an apology and request for me to return with my party on some kind of complimentary deal. When I called the following day to inform the GM that the website indeed did NOT have the term, he was again dismissive and defensive. After, I found out that he had updated the website to include the new term.
Now, it is common sense that only the guilty would act defensive and quickly patch up the error as was done on the website. I had collated screenshots from before and after the website was updated and it was evident they were covering their tracks on a misleading ad.
Since the GM did not understand the concept of customer satisfaction and repetition of business from customers, I believe word-of-mouth is the only way to inform London that there are better places to spend your ££!! In conclusion, Tamarai's arrogant management style does not measure up to the good food put up by their chef. Even my Gordon Ramsay lowest range “pub” experience far exceeded the service levels that Tamarai can only dream about but will never reach. Fellow diners, take your money and business elsewhere !

Went to celebrate a special occasion. Excellent service, excellent ambience and excellent food all combined to make a magical evening. I will certainly recommend this restaurant to friends and will be returning very soon

My friends and I went to Tamarai for my birthday last Thursday. Though it was busy, there was appreciable service, music and cocktails!

It is such a shame that although I had one of the best meals in a long time last night, the service at Tamarai was absolutely appalling. Having confirmed a table of 11 earlier in the day we were shown a table for 8. It took at least 3 members of staff to come over before they squeezed in 3 more place settings; however, they didn't bother to bring any extra chairs and so we had to ask for them when we could finally get someone's attention. The restaurant itself is very dark, but overall had a good ambience considering it was a Monday night.

We then also had to get their attention to order drinks after patiently waiting 20 minutes. Having ordered our food we were told that the food would be placed on the table and we would have to tell the waiter what we ordered! Some free fois gras was brought to the table, but only 9 plates; we therefore asked if everyone could have one and if one person could have an alternative as they were vegetarian. We were assured that this would be no problem, however, the waiters were not seen again until they brought us our starters.

After some fantastic starters, not only did we wait an hour until our mains, but the dirty plates from our starters were not removed from the table. All the mains arrived together except for some side orders of pumpkin mash. After eating half of my amazingly tasty green chicken curry which was pungently spicy with a rich coconut sauce – without any side dish, we chased the waiters and it was clear that they had been forgotten.

Straight after, another gentleman came over to see if our food was ok and when we reiterated that the side dishes were missing – we were told that they were coming in such a manner that we can only assume that we were inconveniencing him and he walked off rolling his eyes at us.

To be perfectly honest, I am tempted to return simply because the food was fabulous and in my opinion, none of the dishes I tasted could be faulted…however, I have received better service from a well known burger chain so it will not be any time soon. To make our point clear we refused to pay the 12.5% service charge as quite simply we didn't receive any service; the waitress was not surprised and did not make much effort to argue so I can only assume that this is a regular occurrence.

Tamarai is a big hit within our group… we simply love going there. The look of the restaurant is very chic and the staff is also amazing!!… Surely recommend it to all those looking to spend a great evening out.

Why do people keep coming back here? The service is appalling. I booked a table for 7. I was never told that the table was only for 2 hours. At 8:45 the bill promptly landed on our table while we were still eating. We explained that we wanted dessert. A waitress then came up to our table, asked us if we wanted to move, as another group needed our table. My husband said no, as I am 8 months pregnant and moving is not easy. She then said 'You haven't let me finish' and then explained how whenever she asked other diners to move 'they don't complain'. I told her that we would move as we felt bad for the other diners. We were furious. We were moved to a low table that was very difficult for me to get in and out of, and dessert was served. The manager then came up and told us that there had been mix ups with the bookings, and apologised. When we complained about the behaviour of the waitress we were told it was not her fault because of the language difficulties as she was not an English speaker. When I said we would not be coming back, he shrugged and appeared not to care less. I will be voting with my wallet and never going back. Also, the food is mediocre at best. Don't go, or they will never improve their service and realise that customers are not to be treated like this.

Tamarai is a gorgeous venue – very plush and feels exclusive even when it's busy, as it was last night. Highly recommended.

I really like this place – the atmosphere is fantastic and the cocktails really really good. The food was a little late but other than that we had a great time.

Went to Tamarai last night and had one of the worst dining experiences I have ever had the misfortune to suffer. We were part of a large party and had been told in advance that we would therefore have to have the set menu. No problems, fair enough for a large group.

Due to some late arrivals we were not ready for our meals until 8:30 or so when some of us were given some of the starters, dim sum and duck spring roll. Not bad tasting although the portions were quite small. About half an hour later more starters were brought to our table, it turned out these were actually meant for the other table that was part of our group sitting right behind us who had not been served during that time. We had already eaten about half of these but the waiting staff didn't bother to top them up or bring new ones and gave them straight to the other table who had to take what were now half portions.

Roughly an hour after this (ie an hour and a half after being served our starters) the mains were finally brought out. Whilst I am told the seabass was actually quite nice the thai green curry was overly hot and there was not nearly enough rice to share properly between people.

Another hour or so after the mains had been cleared away we were brought the dessert, some sort of white chocolate ice cream which was tasty enough but quite frankly was at most enough for three quarters of a mouthful.

The fact that it took approximately three hours to be "served" a three course meal where everyone at the table was having one of three choices at most off a set menu was absolutely appalling. In particular for the mains where the three choices were the seabass, a thai green chicken curry or a thai green vegetable curry, the last two of which were presumably cooked up en masse. The starters and the dessert would also have been cooked up en masse so there was no excuse whatsoever for the length of time it took to get our meals.

This was while enduring one of the more overpriced drinks menus I have ever seen. £4.50 for a bottle of kirin (the only type of beer they had), overpriced cocktails and ridiculously expensive wine and champagne.

To add insult to injury the bill at the end included a 12.5% service charge which if we were not part of a large group I would have refused to pay, however as it was a friend's birthday I did not want to make a scene.

It may be possible that this restaurant is ok for couples or small groups but I doubt it having seen the absolutely appalling service we received. The only recommendation I can give about this restaurant is to avoid it like the plague.

I intend to post this review on as many websites as possible so that others do not have to suffer the experience we did.

We went to Tamarai to celebrate a special occasion. Excellent service, excellent ambience and excellent food all combined to make a magical evening. I will certainly recommend this restaurant to friends and will be returning very soon