Restaurant

Name: The Rajasthan III
Area: Aldgate
Address: 38-41 Houndsditch
London EC3A 7DB
Phone: 020 7626 0033
Website: www.rajasthan3.co.uk

Visits to this restaurant ...

1. 25 Aug 2005


"The Legend" attempts a 'no hands' in order to get rid of his hiccups.

Visit Report

Visit Number: 65 (visit 1 of 1 for this restaurant)
Date of visit: 25 Aug 2005
Cost per head: £31.00 (2 beers)

Serv Amb Beer Start Nan Rice Main Veg VFM Score Comments
Overall 5.8 5.8 6.1 6.7 4.9 5.6 5.4 6.0 4.0 5.63
Jeff 3 2 3 6 4 5 5 1 3.9 See Jeff's comments
Robin 6 6 5 6 6 5 3 4 4 4.8 See Robin's comments
Graeme 8 6 6 8 6 8 8 6 7.2 See Graeme's comments
Mark 5 4 6 8 3 5 4 6 3 5.0 See Mark's comments
Neil 6 5 6 6 6 7 6 7 5 6.0 See Neil's comments
Dominic (Guest) 7 7 8 6 5 5 7 5 5 6.1 See Dominic's comments
Richard 6 7 6 6 2 5 3 4 3 4.6 See Richard's comments
Jon 4 7 7 7 5 6 4 6 3 5.4 See Jon's comments
John 7 8 8 8 7 7 9 9 6 7.8 See John's comments

All Comments

Jeff - A busy place but one struggles to understand why. The restaurant is a large noisy plain featureless room. There was no draft beer and only the usual bottled Cobra and Kingfisher - and they brought refills without really asking how many we wanted. The service was poor especially around 'the mystery of the missing Madras' and the waiter asked me what I was eating when I was half way through, and then poked Rats' dinner with a fork. My starter of lamb's liver was quite tasty but the main of Sag Ghosht, rice, and veg were average. I would have been happy to pay up to £20 for the meal but £30+ amounts to legalised robbery. Not one I'd wish to or expect to revisit, ever.

Robin - The quite nice king prawn puree starter was followed by a chicken dish that was supposed to be a subtle speciality dish but looked and tasted exactly like a chicken jalfrezi, and not a particularly good one at that. Very disappointing, and judging by the comments from some of the others present, I wasn't the only one who felt that way. Not one to go back to.

Graeme - I think this was a very good meal but my memory of it has been tainted by a bout of hiccups that lasted from the starter through to the train home. After engineering a seat next to Dominic (we never seem to get to sit together), I then spent the evening unable to speak without a comic "hic" every 20 seconds. Anyway ... the food was excellent. I had King Prawn Puree to start and Chicken Jalfrezie for main - they were both well-cooked, spicy and delicious. I made a mental note at the time that the vegetable dishes were really nice - they're not something to get excited about normally. No draft Indian beer, though - which is a bit of a let-down. The price was quite high but, overall, I thought is was reasonable VFM. Two free liqueurs at the end rounded off a good evening (and increased the service mark) but my hiccups did not allow me to enjoy them fully.

Mark - What a disappointment! Why would you want to pay 50% extra for substandard fare just because someone puts on a silly red coat and offers a 'free' drink at the end. Shared the set meal with Richard and the mixed starter was very good. A few good pieces of chicken and lamb and well presented. However, the main meal was extremely poor. The Lamb bhuna (?) had little meat while the prawn dish seemed to consist of some spicy sauce to which the recently defrosted, bland, tasteless, prawns had recently been added. The overall impression was a noisy square room similar to the modern pubs where you can hear the loud geek 3 tables away but not the person sitting opposite. This may be the third in the chain but seemed to lack the soul or excitement of the previous venue. A welcome back to Diggers even if he will not be around for a while and lives up to the typical Guardinista by living off the taxes of those who work for a living. How can you seem a reasonably likeable person and yet read all about calculus or something on your train journey?

Neil - What an expensive bill for such an average meal (quantity and quality). Free drinks were nice at the end, probably trying to make up for the £10 over the odds. Compulsory negative comment regarding wine drinking aussie that sat with us.

Dominic - This was probably the most average of outings for me not helped by the quickly-put-together seating arrangement. The King Prawn Puree was OK, the Lamb Bhuna not bad but the remaining dishes were just ordinary. The wine was tasty but overpriced! The redeeming factor was the complimentary round of drinks (by two!) courtesy of the good work done by yours truly! All in all an expensive meal for what we had. PS I refrained from marking down the ambience further seeing I was stuck between 2 smokers – ye Gods!!

Richard - Rajasthan III - MAE Strikes Back - all style but no substance. I had high hopes for a classy looking place that was buzzing with people. However, tasteless prawns in the bhuna, hardly any lamb in the rogan josh, soggy nan (although a tasty mixed grill starter), should not be expected at such a pricy place. My "value" meal turned out to mean sharing rice and one naan with Mark, which was rather tight. Two freebie brandies to round things off was a nice touch though.

Jon - The Rajasthan III had a lot going for it. Recommended by a currymarks reader, close to Liverpool St and on arrival, it was busy, airy and well presented. It's proximity to the centre of the City was always going to make it pricey, but just like its sister restaurant, the Rajasthan, this place failed to match price with quality. Mind you, at least I got what I ordered before. The only resemblance between the Chicken Vindaloo I ordered and what I received was chicken. It had not a single potato and was mild even for a madras - it was the sort of thing that Griff would've enjoyed. To be honest, the waiters hadn't got a clue as they put dishes down and announced what they were, or weren't, in an ill-informed haphazard manner. Even allowing for the apparent mistake in my main course, the food was no better than average and, at £31 a head, I expect better. Even the free liqueur at the end was not enough to make me feel I'd anything like value for money. Given my experiences of the Rajasthan and Rajasthan III, I will not be suggesting the Rajasthan II.

John - Posh restaurant aimed at suits with prices to match. Started with the usual King Prawn Puree which was excellent. Followed by a traditional chicken madras which had just the right amount of bite. The veg was excellent as were the two free brandys, although for £31 a head you'd expect some sort of freebie. Travelled home with a sober Dr Diggers (a first) who did a marvellous job of keeping me awake on the train.


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