thekua.com@rest

London’s pub food has improved a lot with age and although finding your typical Bangers and Mash at any pub is not a difficult task, you will also find they now offer a much wider range of cosmopolitan cuisine. One that I ate at last Saturday is The Dove that can be found on the East side of London. Not to be confused with The Dove at Hammersmith that is most well known as the smallest bar in London, this pub is much bigger that also doubles as a Belgian Pub. The menu can be overwhelming serving English food, Belgian essentials including Moule and Frites, and a surprisingly great selection of Thai food but is definitely worth the effort.

You will find this gastro pub located nearest to the Bethnal Green tube station but you may have to catch a bus to more easily get there. Unlike most pubs, this once offers a separate dining area that is also smoke free. It also has a sister pub called The Dovetail that can be found closer to the city that I have also heard about good things for this place.

Details: The Dove
Found on: 24-28 Broadway Market, Hackney, E8 4QJ
Contactable on: 020 7836 4751
Highlights: Fantastic variety of food, reasonable prices, huge selection of beer, non-smoking dining area in a pub
Room for improvement:A little out of the way for people from the West and South side of London
The Kua Rating: 7.5 out of 10

I rarely write reviews about restaurants and cafes that are simply average, or just so-so because, well frankly, there are too many of them and it would take up too much of my time. A consequence of this is that most of my reviews end up pretty positively skewed towards the higher end of the rating scale. Last night I dined at a restaurant that I thought deserved to be reviewed, but this time, not so positively.

Mahal Indian Cuisine is located almost half way between the Notting Hill Gate and the Queensway tube stations. From the outside it looks to be quite decent, with nice cloth napkins and fairly large wine glasses welcoming people to their tables. I’d walked by there a few times on my way to the tube station, and so on an early Sunday evening, my sister and I decided to have dinner there. A couple more tables were filled but by no means could you call it busy.

We caught glimpses of the poor quality of service we were about to receive when we first placed our order, or at least tried to. Despite having only two tables in the restaurant at the time, and closing our menus right in front of the waiters, it still took them about ten minutes before they came around. After another fifteen minutes, apparently the average time to pour some juice from a bottle, they finally delivered some drinks but somehow got our order confused with the only other table right next to us. We were quite pleased that the curries were quite good when they finally arrived but beware the rice and naan for which you pay above average prices for below average serves.

Despite business remaining fairly quiet throughout the night, the two waiters still managed to ignore all solid attempts at pleasing their customers. It seemed to take at least two requests before anything arrived (both the request for water and the bill) and took even longer to be able to make eye contact or a gesture at one of them to come over. It got so bad that I was almost at the point of having to tap one on the shoulder.

I highly recommend other people staying clear of the place – there are much better curry houses to spend your money in London.

Details: Mahal Indian Restaurant
Found on: 6 Wellington Terrace, Notting Hill Gate, London, W2 4LW
Contactable on: 020 7229 3553
Highlights: The chicken in the Makhini was surprisingly tender and the lychee juice was quite nice.
Room for improvement:A terrible attitude from the waiters, leading to discourteous service, and an appalling response from any requests made by customers.
The Kua Rating: 3 out of 10