King's Balti

This BYOB restaurant with a delightful open-plan kitchen offers all-round tasty Indian dishes. They also do takeaway.

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This is without a doubt the worst restaurant experience I've had in Edinburgh in the 3 years I've lived here. In November, we were 10 people booked and when we got there we were shown into the side-room which was freezing cold. We told the waiter and he simply said that he'd turned on the heater (which was in the opposite side of the room) so we would just have to wait for it to get warmer. This was at 8pm mind you so you'd think they could have made sure to turn up the heat earlier. My wife was placed next to a door leading outside with a terrible draft and we were all sitting in our coats to keep warm. We asked if we could be seated in the other room which was warmer and the waiter refused even though this was a Wednesday and the restuarant was almost emtpy.

Then a waiter came to take orders for drinks. We ordered two bottles of red wine. No menus as we waited for our drinks. Then finally the wine arrived. Still no menus. We asked for menus and got 4 for 10 people. The wine was poured and it was literally undrinkable. A friend went to the waiter and asked to take the wine back. He refused. At this point we had enough and decided to leave. The waiter wouldn't let us without paying for the wine. A friend of mine was physcially held back. I told my friends that we should just leave and a man that a presume was the manager told me 'This is not your country' (I'm Scandinavian and I assume my accent gave it away). Apparently the manager was of the opinion that you weren't allowed to complain if you are not Scottish. In the end, one of my friends simply paid for the undrinkable wine of which 90% was still left on the table, just to get out and we all left without even having ordered.

Can't say if the food is good or bad as we never got that far. But if it's bad service you're after, King's Balti is certainly the place to go.
Posted by Jonas | Thursday November 2009 @ 01:04
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Same happened to me. anyways they should get http://www.commercial-plumbers-london.co.uk/commercial_plumber_stockwell.html to fix their heating...
Posted by Greg | Thursday May 2011 @ 11:10
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We had a terrible experience at this restaurant during the Edinburgh Festival (2011). After being seated and deciding what we wanted to order, the manager of the restaurant began to take our order. We all ordered a main course with a side (rice and naan) with the exception of one friend who had already had dinner so just wanted some naan. The manager's response was "No, you must order a main course". He explained that we were lucky to get a table and that he was "There to run a business and to make money" (not to give customers an enjoyable dining experience?!). We were shocked and told him he was being rude and that it was our right as a customer to choose what we liked. He was, after all, going to make a lot of money from our business! He then got very defensive and said he was a humble man and that "young people are just too quick to judge these days" !! We spoke to him in a civilised way but we were disgusted at the way he treated us. We got up and left and, on the way out, spoke to some other customers who also described him as rude (he had apparently spilt curry on their friend and had't apologised for it).

We understand that restaurants are busy at the time of the festival but we were not treated as valued customers. We are Edinburgh locals so will be quick to dissuade friends from going to this restaurant. I would rather have given a zero star rating.
Posted by Anonymous | Monday August 2011 @ 00:21
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