Traditional Indian cooking comes with inventive interpretations at this glossy restaurant and bar.

Last week I took my family out for my mum's birthday to @DarbaarbyAbdul for some Indian fine dining... Find out what I thought... Read the full review on the blog. Link in the bio. #food #foodie #foodgasam #foodpic #foodporn #halalfoodguy #halalfood #halal #halalfoodie #photooftheday #instagood #instafood #photooftheday #foodreview #review #foodblog

@halalfoodguy's review of Darbaar Liverpool St on Instagram

Darbaar Restaurant

Expensive regret. This place is way over priced, for a restaurant which aspires to be high end and premium it does not follow through with taste or service to match.

We joined the band wagon of the hype it carries and decided to try it out. We have found another game premium restaurant we will not be visiting again.

The restaurant is located off street which means you cannot drive up to it and mostly no parking unless you come outside control hours. GPS does not work well in this area to may be a little hard to find.

The decor and feel is definitely premium and we was impressed by this. Generally the service staff look like they are following a system and each one knows their role.
However the service was appalling in most parts mainly around timing. Food took ages to come out and requests for drinks took a very long time to fulfil, in one case forgotten altogether and we decided to just let it go. One would think it be in the restaurants interest to get this right as wet sales add more to the bottom line then the food in most cases.

The menu was extremely lacking. With no sense of what you are ordering. Nor was it appetizing in the least bit, had we seen it outside we most certainly would have abandoned visit.

One person ordered the set menu "thrill of the grill" and the others in the group ordered standalone starters and main courses consisting of lamb sheek kebabs, salmon tikka, a pizza looking thing and biryani for main course with lamb Rogan josh.

The starters was of a stingy size but priced extortionately. It most certainly did not reflect this in the tasting.

The biryani was dry and lacking in flavour, they served the biryani to table but did not bring the sides or curry with it. We flagged this up with the waiters on three occasions as the rice was getting cold but received a slow sluggish response. 3 out 4 biryani dishes had roughly 3-4 pieces of meat inside. Each biryani costs £18 so one would reasonably  expect better.

The tasting set menu cost £65.

6 dishes roughly. 5 small ones and a good sized main. It is really filling.

The first appetiser Tawa hari tikki chaat was decent to get you started with nice strong flavours.

The king scallops and royal prawns was overwhelmed with mustard and garlic with a strong salty taste.

The lamb chops and malai kebab was really tasty and cooked well. The size and portion although a tasting menu leaves you wanting. I can almost certainly say the portion size would not be that much better if ordered as a main.
The Bream in banana leaf was very disappointing. It also smelt overly fishy, even though 2 hours have lapsed since meal I can still smell it in my nose. Very sickly.

Leg of lamb was perfectly clocked and tender. However the flavour killed it. Far too salty tasting. Side basket of bread was really just 4 small triangles cut from 1 very small bread. Very thin. No way could you eat roasted lamb leg curry, black lentils and cumin saag with these 4 pieces. Either was I was quite fill by this point so packed it for him.

The pistachio and saffron  dessert grew on me, especially when most of my meal was too salty.

To conclude: very pricey restaurant with very slow service. Food flavours not on point.  I normally do not speak of price as I am very willing to pay for flavour rich food. However when the flavour is missing and the portions are tiny matched with slow service it becomes very significant.

Verdict: not recommended.

It's an upscale (expensive) Indian restaurant but not as good as it appears. Two stars are for the ambience & the drinks really but the food was totally disappointing. We had a 2 course dinner, and with a hope to be served with something worth visiting but it ended with a sad desert.

The only good thing about this place are the futuristic toilets. Food is very average, portion size small.

Awesome food, awesome service.

Popped in for a work dinner. The food was seriously good, so definitely recommend eating some of it. The service was also awesome, so I also recommend being served. Do not help yourself from the kitchen...

The nanza is amazing, so I recommend that, and the beef vindaloo.

One thing to note, we arrived at 7 and it was dead (on a Thursday), come 8pm it was rammed.

You could taste the different individual dishes. Full of flavour made from open kitchen.

Order from Darbaar Liverpool Street