Mirch Masala

If I was to break down the star rating,
Service: 1 star
Ambience: 2 stars
Food: 3 stars
We went in a group of 8 on a Wednesday night. One of us had made a booking to ensure we got a proper table. When we got there, we were greeted by a smiling Indian lady who took us to the very end of the restaurant behind the main seating area, right in front of the kitchen where the ambience was less than appealing with all their laundry sitting atop the table next the one ‘reserved’ for us.
We asked if we could be accomodated elsewhere since there were other tables in the main area which were unoccupied and could have easily been pulled together or adjusted to accomodate the 8 of us. However, the hostess simply said «No».
As we sat down, chit chatted and requested to order some entrée, the owner (also the chef) asked if we were ready to order everything. We said we just wanted some nibbles to get started, he said «no, just order when you are ready to order everything». How rude! I was taken aback but laughed it off.
The food arrived not long after ordering (it was 9 pm by the time we decidd & ordered though!). We ate family style so everyone shared everything. Food was delicious but too hot. We got Chicken 65 (extremely hot), Fish Tikka (good), Mushrooms (decent), Butter Chicken (yum), eggplant curry (hot), spinach paneer (good) and a few other items I dared not try coz my friends said they were super hot.
The desserts were a brutal disappointment. The pistachio kulfi smelled like it was stale, mango kulfi was partially melted before it reached the table, the gulab jamuns were inedible (all 8 of us wrinkled our noses after sampling a bit) and the carrot halva was only just tolerable.
If you are keen for Indian food, there are definitely better restaurants out there but if you want good food & you live in this area, maybe consider takeaway (mains only).

The service at Mirch Masala is very slow, and the restaurant is ever so slightly tacky looking. Don’t let this put you off, though, because if you really hate that dining experience then get takeaway and eat somewhere beautiful.
They do a mean goat, and I must commend their ability to actually make supposedly hot food hot. I enjoy a good mouth burn, and keep being disappointed. I think if I was going in to eat, it would be with a bunch of girlfriends so that we could have a good catchup — slow service means a lot of time to gossip over drinks!