Restaurant

Name: Anokha
Area: Aldgate
Address: 2 Creechurch Lane
London EC3A 5AY
Phone: 020 7283 7729
Website: www.anokha-indian.com

Visits to this restaurant ...

1. 30 Apr 2009|2. 25 Mar 2010|3. 29 Mar 2012|4. 31 Jan 2013


A touch of cold shoulder?
It looks like a night out with the missus!

Visit Report

Visit Number: 154 (visit 4 of 4 for this restaurant)
Date of visit: 31 Jan 2013
Cost per head: £33.00 (1.5 beers)

Serv Amb Beer Start Nan Rice Main Veg VFM Score Comments
Overall 4.4 6.5 6.0 7.3 6.9 7.2 7.9 7.0 4.4 6.57
Jon 3 7 7 7 7 8 8 8 3 6.6 See Jon's comments
Dave 7 8 8 7 9 7 6 7.6 See Dave's comments
Dominic 0 7 3 7 5 7 7 5 5.4 See Dominic's comments
John 4 7 7 4 7 7 8 9 5 6.5 See John's comments
Richard 6 7 5 5 8 7 6 6 3 5.9 See Richard's comments
Neil 2 6 6 8 6 9 7 7 3 6.2 See Neil's comments
Mark 5 7 6 8 7 8 5 4 6.5 See Mark's comments
Graeme 7 8 6 8 7 7 10 7 7 7.7 See Graeme's comments
Brian 0 0 7 8 6 6 8 6 0 5.0 See Brian's comments
Tim 6 6 6 9 7 7 7 4 6.7 See Tim's comments
Robin 8 8 7 8 7 9 9 8 8 8.1 See Robin's comments

All Comments

Jon - It was all going so well, but in the end, this visit to the Anokha left me with a sour taste in my mouth which had nothing to do with the food.  The food, in fact, was pretty good.  The tandoori mixed starter was an excellent selection of well cooked meats and fish, and my mark would have been higher had the condiments provided with the poppadoms been a bit more plentiful.  My lamb shank main course was very tasty although not up to the usual standard set by the Mehek, and I very much enjoyed the veg and the special rice.  Up to that point, the service had been good, and then Dom started to negotiate a free round of liqueurs as is customary.  At our last visit, they had only agreed to provide a free round after we had purchased one, and that was the position once again set by the head waiter.  I spoke up and made the point that given we were a table of 11 and we had spent a lot of money, surely he could see his way to providing a free round.  I was perhaps forceful but I thought, not impolite.  The head waiter obviously thought otherwise, and took offence – we agreed to end the conversation.  As a result, they lost out on any service charge – the 12.5% suggested came to £63.  If that had been added to the bill, it would have come to about £43 a head – it was good food, but not that good.

Dave - Enjoyable curry with plenty of options for the diet conscious.  My Salmon Tikka starter was very nice and Chicken Shaslik main excellent.  Under my new diet regime I cannot comment on Nan Breads or Beer but the Dry white wine spritzer was very good.  High  price as always at the Anokha.  Managed to get lost with Tim and Richard on way back to London Bridge (at one point I think we were heading up the sliproad of the M11!).

Dominic - After a very efficient AGM at the pub next door (who was that superb "Master of the Agenda / Proxy Note-taker!!?) we trotted off to dinner. I decided to try something different this time especially given the good comments about the mixed starter – it was a good selection of 5 items, all tasty and fresh. And my Chicken Jalfrezi main was also good. Of the sides the "shredded" onion bhaji was quite interesting and something different. However, if there is a fault with this place it is the attitude of some of the staff. There appeared to be a willingness to almost select our food at the start and a discussion about drinks at the end of the meal was dismissed rather curtly. All of which resulted in us not paying the optional service charge and the zero service mark above. On a personal note my preferred wine wasn't available which meant a rather more expensive evening than planned. A good evening spoiled by attitude unfortunately. But on the plus side, Diggers navigated his way down the stairs without being a human "bobsled" this time and it was great to see most members in the New Year although someone seems to really be lured to the dark side, what with drinking wine spritzers!!! ... if only there was a song for that ...

John - Expensive but fairly good quality nosh. I enjoyed the Kingfisher and my trousers enjoyed the Cobra.

Richard - This place was fine – but I felt like I had been fined when the bill came around. The prices are outrageous, which is a shame as otherwise it was a good place. My lamb chop starter was tasty but rather small. The Jhinga Malabar main had plenty of king prawns (you know they are generous with king prawns when Robin offers for you to take one when trying his dish), but was not outstanding.  Mind you the waiter swiped Robin's dish when he was only 2/3 finished (maybe they recycle the prawns) which was very annoying. The peshwari nan was very good.

Neil - A high quality curry house with not much to complain about apart from the price and some pushy service. The waiters were very attentive and we didn't have to wait very long between courses but this was soured by a heated exchange over wine prices ending up with us not paying the service, which I believe knocked quite a few pounds off our individual bills, counter-productive overall! I've lowered the service mark in light of this and that they were determined to bring a half bottle of Cobra when I said I would share a full one (much more cost effective), also Graeme had to aggressively head off an attempt to bury us in spicy poppadoms which we didn't want. That said, the tandoori 'surf and turf' starter was very nice indeed and the main course (lamb rogan) was up to normal curry house standards. Cheese nan a bit average but a very good special rice.

Mark - A swift AGM in the Old Tea Warehouse and then down to the depths of Anokha that was now fairly full compared to being empty when I had popped in earlier to confirm the table. Staff all very friendly once we made them understand we wanted to order our own food rather than be forced into a set menu. Mixed starter was good with 5 various items although lacked any pizzaz. For main I chose Chicken Biryani which arrived as the first meal out but my Veg curry to go with it was the last bowl to arrive! It was well presented, tasty and reasonable sized. Seemed a bit darker hue than others but I enjoyed it overall. Good to see "Spritzer" Griff out for once but what was he drinking? Sat next to Graeme so avoided the line of fire re his spillage!

Graeme - I enjoyed my high quality meal in this smart & busy restaurant. As per our previous visit, the food was excellent. My starter of King Prawn Puree was really delicious but I gave it 8 rather than 10 as it was a bit short on prawns (only 5, I think), esp. for £7.75. Once again, I had the Garlic Chilli Chicken which was perfect (again) - spicy, garlicky(!), tender chicken - yum, yum! I thought we were well looked after by the head(?) waiter but there was a long wait after the beer & poppadoms arrived before they took our orders. I was aware of a bit of unpleasantness at the end concerning a (not forthcoming) free round of liqueurs that resulted in us not paying the service charge but I didn't actually hear what was said. I must apologise to John & Jon for knocking over my beer glass and spilling it over them both. While I am not denying responsibility, I must say that I only just touched the glass with the tip of a finger and it went over like I had swung my arm at it. It "went down easily" as they say - maybe it was the Robert Pires of beer glasses.

Brian - This place is a bit pricey, but in my opinion the food is worth the extra expense. The service, though good as regards bringing things to the table, was rude to the point of obnoxious towards the end of the meal, when the standard subject of a free drink for the party was raised, politely, and given the amount we were spending, I thought not at all unreasonably.  Dom and Jon, who were on the receiving end of the bile from the waiter and manager, were clearly taken aback by this, and in my view it's unacceptable. They can stick their scallops (which again were very good) where the sun don't shine!

Tim - Service on the whole was good: it was nice to have a proper place to hang coats; free water was provided in a jug; staff seemed generally efficient, though not willing to negotiate, e.g. free upgrades when wine was unavailable or a round of liqueurs. It was nice to see a selection of beer: Tiger, Kingfisher and Cobra; but the wine selection was a bit poor. The Malbec was unavailable ("we've run out; it's very popular" - perhaps they should order more of it then?), the Rioja was fine, if somewhat expensive, and the Chianti was a bit thin. Starter of mixed meats and fish was excellent, but the chicken dish with an unusual name that I had as a main course, was not as exciting as I had hoped. Overall, the meal felt a bit expensive, a bit slow, and not quite "special" enough to justify the price.

Robin - Not quite up to the standard of our last visit, but still extremely good. I had Lamb Tikka to start, which was really good even though I might have wished for a little bit more lamb. For my main course I had King Prawn Pathia again (not on the menu this time, but still available) - still excellent but a fraction less tasty than last time. Veg dishes were again very good, and although the special rice was right up there it didn't quite hit the previous mark. Service was good (apart from when the manager nicked the remainder of my sauce, which I was intending to eat - I told him off and he brought another bowl full of sauce a few minutes later that I passed down the table). Overall still an excellent place to eat, despite Jon's little contretemps with the manager when attempting to negotiate a free round of liqueurs. That probably did the VFM a favour - because of the manager's rudeness we didn't pay the service charge!


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