Soho Wala

I am so sorry to say that I was left very disappointed by my evening at Soho Wala. Before I begin, it is not my intention to bash anyone or cast blame. But I have to be honest and hope the restaurant will take action after reading this.

My dinner guest and I arrived and were seated by the door. The place wasn't busy, so we asked if we could sit at a table inside. We were happily moved to a better table further indoors.

I ordered a table snack, the truffle phulwadi, and shortly after that placed an order for soft drinks and starters. Twenty minutes later and nothing had been brought to the table. I politely asked the waitress who was very helpful and rushed the order along. The phulwadi had run out and the waitress admitted she had been informed and forgot to pass on the message. She kindly offered a free drink to make up for this, but we were set and thanked her for the offer.

Our food arrived, but one of the dishes was wrong, which meant waiting a further ten minutes for it to be rectified. At this point, the restaurant was half empty, and one of the waiters was stood chatting with the barman. I tried to get his attention three times before standing up and going to ask him for some extra cutlery.

The food itself was fine. Nothing really stood out and the portions were meagre.

The pani puri was nice and served in a lovely way, with the pani in shot glasses on a model Indian cart. The flavour was good but could have done with some tamarind chutney and some mint.

The clay oven prawns were in a lovely spiced pickle sauce, so I wish the portion had been larger. It was more of a starter size and it might be my error, but I thought it was a main dish. When we received the gilafi (lamb) kebab, it was tasty but there were only two pieces served with no sauce, just lemon. Traditionally, this would be served with a mint and yoghurt chutney. But by this point, we had waited so long I wasn't about to ask for yet another item to be delivered.

The chicken Chettinad curry lacked any deep flavour. I don't know if this was just the wrong dish, but if the curries are the main dishes at a restaurant then surely they should be executed correctly. We asked the waiter what the best dishes were and he simply could not tell us. He just suggested we pick from the menu, not helpful at all. Again we asked which of the chicken dishes he could recommend and he finally said that the Chettinad was the more spicy one which led us to ordering that dish. But there was little spice and little flavour. I will say that the naan and the choor choor naan were both great, but it is a shame that I can only really sing the praises of the bread.

While at the restaurant, I got the news that my sister got engaged! My diner and I were so thrilled we decided to mark the occasion with something sweet, as is a tradition within the Indian culture. We sweeten the mouth with good news. So we ordered the jalebi waffle to share. The friendly waitress to ook our order and disappeared. Another 20 minutes later she returned, and my fellow diner asked if the dessert was on its way. The waitress confirmed it was, but as the waffle was made fresh, it takes some time. Five minutes later, we were presented with the saddest looking dessert. A quarter of what looked very much like a shop-bought waffle, with a couple of jalebi around it and some syrup on a cheap-looking vanilla ice cream, The ice cream had melted, but it wasn't because of any hot waffle. The waffle was tepid, bordering on cold and certainly not fresh.

By this point, the meal had been ruined and I just wanted to leave to celebrate my sister's engagement elsewhere. We asked for the bill which the waiter rudely dumped on our table, with no apology or explanation for the delays all evening. Unfortunately the 50% offer was not included, so I had to get up again, go to the waiter by the bar and get this rectified. The kind waitress came and dealt with this and we quickly left.

I hope this is just a blip, and that Soho Wala can up their game. I hope their food generally has more flavour, is more substantial in size and that the service usually is better. But I don't think I will be rushing back to find out.

Fantastic, really good food, good variety, innovative menu, good service. Really no complaints. I very rarely go to restaurants twice as London has so many options and I like to explore them all, but I will be going back here

Good value food and nice restaurant, would recommend

Wonderful food, attentive service & fab ambience. Highly recommended and can't wait for our next visit! especially for the 'bullet nan' and 'gulabjaman cheesecake' :)

Food was absolutely amazing and service was excellent. Will definitely be going back and would definitely recommend.

Brilliant food

An outstanding experience! Loved the food, decor, service, ambience! It’s just going to be my regular hangout place!

Fantastic food, the slow cooked lamb and the raita are delish.

Its an excellent place to go for very warm welcome, delicious food and excellent ambience. All the staff are always above the expectation standards specially Ravi Kumar.

Never knew this place was here! Really nice restaurant. Service was great and the small plates were particularly delicious. My partner is Indian so he said the main dishes weren’t as flavoursome as he would’ve liked but overall really nice food and experience.

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The contents of this review have not been published as it breaches our review guidelines.

Food was very tasty although portions were smaller than your average Indian restaurant. Staff were friendly and helpful and the restaurant was modern and well decorated.

Soho Wala was a great restaurant with delicious food and a relaxed atmosphere (Tuesday night). The plates were small and designed for sharing which allowed us to try out a lot of different dishes. I would highly recommend the Dhungar Baigen Bartha - this was delicious. Very reasonably priced and the service was excellent. Definitely try it out!

The food was delicious. Everything we ordered was tasty. Great place to share lots of dishes. The only negative was that the poppadoms were a very small portion. The restaurant was lovely and not over packed. I would return and also recommend,

We had a great evening in Soho Wala! The food was amazing, especially the small plates. Our waiter gave lots of recommendations, all delicious. I’ll definitely be back.

What a great place! We were welcomed and served by Ravi who fully explained the menu and even offered some advice on what to pick (accept his advice!). The food was amazing, perfectly cooked. The breads and dips that came with our food accompanied the dishes perfectly. The setting was modern clean and the toilets were impeccable. The final treat of the sitting was the gulab Jaman cheesecake! 10/10 would highly recommend!

The portion is much smaller than expected, but it is tasty and overall positive experience, changed my mind on how Indian food can be presented.

Lovely authentic Indian street food and the service was brilliant. Our waiter Ravi was lovely and knew loads about the food. We’ll be back.

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Great restaurant! Lively, great service & good food.

Lovely food, wide selection of dishes, great for sharing, lovely bottle of wine would recommend.

Food was great with a good vegetarian selection and reasonably priced. Great options for sharing between 2 people.

Service was quick. Great for a pre-show meal.

4 of us went here on Saturday. Food was good but the service wasn't very attentive. We arrived 10 mins early and is was not busy, and no one came to greet us, after standing the entrance for 10 mins, I went over to the bar at the back and someone came show us our seats. Can't complain about the food, good choices, and some different dishes too compared to normal Indian restaurants, the Poussin was particularly good so we ordered it another portion, it too them 20 mins to inform us that they had run out. It looked as though only one of the waitresses really knew whet she was doing. Not sure if I would go again.

We had a lovely time at Soho Wala. The service was impeccable and there was a lovely vibe to the place. We had the okra and lotus leaf and then poppadom chips to start. They were delish! The menu is a little hard to interpret but the waiters are more than happy to explain, they were very helpful. We would definitely return.

We had a great evening at Soho Wala!! The food was delicious and the service was very friendly, quick and attentive. Definitely recommend the Papdi chaat, Malai wali broccoli and achar wali gobi, and the Kurkure bhaji.

A more interesting menu than your standard curry house, and nicely presented dishes.
Clean and colourful decor.
Gulab jaman cheesecake was a highlight.

Right from the beginning the staff was helpful and accommodating. It was our first time eating Indian food at a restaurant but the waiter was more than happy to walk us through the different types of dishes and make recommendations. We ended up choosing one dish from each section and every dish was delicious. We will definitely be returning.