Amaya

Comments about this restaurant :

It thinks of itself as a "tapas"-style Indian restaurant, but even the set "business lunch" was a little too small. The dishes, however, were as beautiful to look at as they were delightful to eat.

Comments about this restaurant :

everything was good green chicken grilled shrimps sweet potatoes rose sorbet

Comments about this restaurant :

Everyone says, it's not Brick Lane. It's very far from being Brick Lane. Brick Lane is big and coarse and full of flavour and Amaya is intended to be minimal and exquisite. Minimal it manages, exquisite not. Bland, yes.

We had small pieces of chicken. They tasted very like small pieces of chicken. Then small pieces of lamb: likewise. No doubt there were subtle marinades, but if so they were too subtle. To me the seasoning simply tasted thin and sharp.

There was some confidently al dente broccoli with yoghurt. The broccoli and the yoghurt did not appear to have met before. Spinach was nice. Finally some sludgy and event-free biriani. It was dismayingly disappointing.

The service was attentive but haphazard. Other people's food kept arriving and indeed waiters could be seen wandering around the room with trays evidently trying to remember where to take them. Entirely the wrong drinks arrived at one point and when we pointed this out the waiter started a discussion about whose fault it was. At those prices it was his fault - whatever.

The decor is pretty much what you expect in Knightsbridge: clean and shiny.

If my experience of the food was so bad, then, why has it got a Michelin star? Indeed why did some of my companions like it (although I noticed that they didn't finish it)?

The most obvious answer, and probably the right one, is that my palate is too coarse for such subtle flavours.

The second is that the Michelin people are seduced more by the idea than the actual food. It's not Brick Lane! It's Indian food, but it's polite!

When we left, they'd mislaid my coat.

Comments about this restaurant :

I think overall we found it to be a pleasant experience. We enjoyed the drinks that we had ordered and in particular the monkfish tikka, tofu tikka, chicken wing lollipops, half duck, lamb chops and aubergines. The atmosphere was great very relaxing and felt at home. The staff were very attentive and friendly. However we did think that some of the dishes we had ordered unfortunately were over powered by some of the spices used. In particular too much cumin was used on the wok fried spinach and the prawns which had completely spoiled the delicate flavours of the spinach and prawns, and the Lamb dori kebab we felt was under spiced. The chicken tikka was again also over spiced with the black pepper corns but the meat was very moist and succulent. We felt that although the service was very good it was not good enough for a Michelin starred restaurant where it should be unquestionably exceptional so this was disappointing. For example it was disappointing that the naan bread was not brought properly in the correct portions and it was some time after that the waiter explained that there was more en-route. Some of the dishes were taking longer than expected but again only later the waiter had decided to tell us this, however on other dishes he did manage our expectations better.The dessert we had was the Rasmalai and chocolate heaven. The chocolate heaven was fantastic, great chocolate tart and crumbly pastry, exceptional milk chocolate brownie. The Rasmalai was not as good it lacked flavour.In terms of value for money, we felt it was average and disappointing, We felt that the idea of small portions and sharing although is a novel idea doesn't really lend itself well to Indian cuisine. If one was being cynical it can be seen as being very commercial given the prices being charged [$] for the king prawns for example. We are happy to pay an exceptional price if the food was equally exceptional. Unfortunately we felt overall it did not. We also felt it a bit cheeky to include charitable donations as part of the bill as standard without asking permission. We appreciate the fact that it is optional and could ask the waiter to opt out of this but it really have should been the other way round, where we were allowed to opt in if we wanted to, furthermore we felt that the business should be making this donation themselves and not asking the customer to do so.Unfortunately and I am sorry (because I am disappointed of myself for having to say this) to say that I would not recommend this restaurant to other people purely because there are other similar restaurants that offer what Amaya does but giving greater value for money.

Comments about this restaurant :

Always great

Comments about this restaurant :

I called to make a booking for a party of four on Friday evening at 7:30. I was advised that only a booking for 6:30 could be made which I declined. About an hour later I called back to say I would take the 6:30 booking to be told that it was not available. Later in the evening I called again and was successful in making a 6:30 booking. We arrived for dinner to find a totally empty restaurant. We left the restaurant around 9:00 and the restaurant was still only partially occupied. Upon speaking to the manager we were advised that they were indeed booked but all these people had cancelled. Clearly not true. What is the purpose?
Once there the food is good but the staff tend to hover over you and talk very loudly. Nice but overbearing. They are also aggressive on the quantity of food.
Cocktails are great.

Comments about this restaurant :

Thank you for lovely food , great service and excellent experience ,, will certainly come back

Comments about this restaurant :

I would recommend this to all of the friend, If I would come again to london 60% will be to enjoy eating in Amaya

Comments about this restaurant :

Lunch during London restaurant festival

a little disappointed that the menu offered was practically identical to the normal lunch menu. We had hoped for a bit more imagination for the festival. That said, the food was excellent.

Comments about this restaurant :

The set menu for lunch is Not very taste and quite small portions.