Review by Bobby Varghese on 30th September, 2009

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I had a very bad experience on my first (and certainly the last!) visit to this restaurant. I had dinner here recently with my wife and 14-month old son and although this place described itself as 'family-friendly', when I arrived there I was told rather tersely and unsympathetically that they do not have or provide high chairs for small children. When I questioned the owner (Abdul) about their claim on restaurant guides/websites of being 'family-friendly', his curt reply was - "you should have checked before you came and made the decision beforehand"!! To me this came across as an absolutely nasty shock and being particularly rude. Basically, he was implying that families with children are NOT welcome at his restaurant! Moving on to the food, I have to say that not only was the food far from authentic Indian (it was clearly Bangladeshi!), but it did not taste good either. The seafood we ordered was certainly not fresh and too much of colour and spices were used. To make things even worse, everything on the menu was overpriced (I have eaten in popular upmarket Indian restaurants in London and the prices at The Raj were around the same!). I feel that this is a really cheeky and dishonest tactic because the general impression is that if something is priced rather high, then it must be good!! Even the pappad and pickles that is served on arrival was charged at a ridiculous £3.80!! The really cheeky thing about this 'pappad business' is that as soon as we sat at our table the waiter comes up to you and casually asks you 'how many pappads you would like'. He never mentions (and I'm sure is clearly instructed not to!) that it is not complimentary, rather will be charged. This is a very deceptive tactic, as the guest is tricked into thinking that it is a complimentary item (as it indeed is in many good Indian restaurant across UK). The worst part of my experience at this restaurant was the absolutely impolite and uncouth behaviour by the owner of this place, Mr.Abdul. Not only is this person totally incapable of conversing with his guests in a polite and decent manner, but moreover he has this attitude about him that seems to suggest that he is doing his customers a favour by letting them eat at his place!! He needs to learn to talk and behave like the local people, especially those in Cornwall, who are amongst the most friendly in this country.

Date visited: 23-09-2009