Bikanervala is one of India's most prominent families in the business of traditional hospitality…read moreproducts like Sweets and Namkeens. They have over 88 outlets in India and abroad, serving vegetarian North Indian, South Indian, Continental, Chinese cuisine and Fast food along with a vast variety of traditional Indian sweets and snacks. They also sell their snacks, biscuits, etc abroad under the brand Bikano.
When we heard that the famous Bikanervala opened in London, we were thrilled and had to make the journey over to Southall to check it out. So we arrived, on a bitterly cold Saturday afternoon at 1pm to friendly greetings. The restaurants livery, logo, colour scheme etc were all true to its origins, which bode well. We opted to sit upstairs, which turned out to be extremely cold. The temperature outside was about one degrees Celsius but we had hoped it would be at least a few degrees warmer inside. It seemed they were having electrical issues with their heating system and several times we saw management staff and waiters come up and reset the fuse for the heating system. Not a great start! If you want to be an inviting restaurant, please don't freeze your customers!
We decided to go for starters and mains. For starters we chose bhel puri, samosa chaat, and a portion of samosas. All three were ok, but lacked heat and spice and I found the samosas in the samosa chaat were rather soggy, where as normally they should be quite crisp. The bhel puri was predominantly sweet and lacked punch.
For main course we ordered chola batura, pav bhaji and makai ki roti with sarso ka saag. Where to start with the disappointment? The chola was stodgy and thick - not at all like the chola we sampled at the Gurgoan branch of Bikanervala in India. That was the first fail. The batura was relatively ok. The pav wasn't exactly a real pav. Instead they were sesame seed buns, no doubt purchased from the local super market. Having said that, they were pleasantly fluffy and soft. The bhaji was nothing to write home about and I've had better in Bombay - hell, I've had better in my local chaat house in North West London! With two so-so/verging on disappointing dishes, I approached the makai ki roti with trepidation. It certainly looked "interesting" and just one bite out of it confirmed how "interesting" it was. Lets just say, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
To finish things off, we thought we'd get some nice hot masala chai. Having confirmed with the waiter that it really was "proper" masala chai, and not some half baked tea bag concoction, we waited..... and waited..... and waited some more. Eventually after about 20 minutes the chai arrived, steaming hot. But what's that? No sugar? OK, so we run down and ask for some, for there is no sugar on the table. Five minutes later (five minutes???) we get some sugar. But wait? What do I smell? The chai smells decidedly off - as in smelling rather like a blocked sink, or maybe a malfunctioning toilet? Once again, a big fail.
Not content with being nearly poisoned by their chai, we decided to buy some rasmalai and take it home. Praise be! It tasted amazing! If their rasmalai is any indication of their sweets, then they get ten out of ten. However, when it comes to the their food it was a huge disappointment. We were frozen, we were made to wait too long when the restaurant was hardly full and the food was not up to par - certainly not to the Bikanervala quality we had come to expect from the excellent branches we visited in India. Come on guys, don't do the brand a disservice and up your game. Maybe then you'll have a full restaurant at the height of lunch hour on a Saturday, as opposed to a practically empty restaurant.
