| Venue name: | Masala Zone Covent Garden |
|---|---|
| Address: |
48 Floral Street London WC2E 9DA |
| Opening hours: | Meals served noon-11pm Mon-Sat; 12.30-10.30pm Sun |
| Transport: | Tube: Covent Garden tube |
| Price: | Main courses £8.50-£12.50. Set meal (noon-6.30pm) £9.15 2 courses, £11.60 3 courses |
| Do you own this business? |
Average User Rating
4.1 / 5
Rating Breakdown
- 5 star:8
- 4 star:6
- 3 star:2
- 2 star:1
- 1 star:1
This has got to be my favourite curry house in the city! Not only are the staff amazing, but the food is delicious and the décor is excellent, with small doll mannequins covering the entire ceiling. I would describe the food as Indian street food, as oppose to your local curry house. We even had some cocktail which were very tasty. Overall great value for money considering its central London location.
My aunt, my brother and I popped in for an early pre-musical dinner here last week.
For our starter, we had the gol guppa; a crispy cracker filled with a spicy lentil mash, which you fill up with a cold and spicy dressing and pop into your mouth. I was quite amused with its presentation – serving the dressing in a beaker – and the method of eating it. It was a light and nice starter, but I found it a little too sweet for my liking.
We ordered a regular thali with butter chicken as the main curry. It was seasoned perfectly, with all the flavours just bursting even though it was one of the more ‘simple’ curries that we ordered. It wasn’t too creamy or oily so it was nice to scoop up the curry to have on the chapatti and even with some rice by the side.
Next we had the lamb biriyani, which also came with a serving of dhal and some yogurt mixture. My brother and I both thought that it could have been more spicy but it was the spiciest dish out of everything we ordered. There were large chunks of lamb, which I really liked and they were very lean too! The rice was really well seasoned with all the spices, which made for tasty bites every time.
Our last dish was a vegetable curry. This was a rather unique curry in my opinion because it was something I had never tasted before or seen in a restaurant. I liked how the bananas gave the curry a touch of sweetness while the purple yam had a lovely texture and almost tasted like meat to me!
A delicious experience overall and somewhere I will be coming back to again when I’m in the mood for Indian or spicy food.
Masala Zone serves up authentic Indian street food at purse-friendly prices. The Covent Garden branch houses simple wooden furniture and intriguing décor in the form of Rajasthani dolls suspended from the ceilings. It’s certainly eye catching if not scary – but all 7 branches across the city have unique artistic/tribal décor which is a nice touch. Service here is speedy so it’s the perfect place to for a quick lunch respite (cheaper prices) or dinner before hitting London nightlife. I’d recommend the Thalis – small bowls served on a platter consisting of healthy, flavourful curries, vegetables, rice, chapattis and traditional condiments. The Grand Thali for example is more than enough for one. In the rankings Indian food, Masala won’t blow you away and is far from the best but it ticks several boxes nonetheless - value for money, efficient service and decent food!
Visited this restaurant during Christmas at Covent Garden, ambiance was very creative and interesting. Food was good but to my standard the food quantity was very less as compared to other Indian Restaurant considering the Price.
Liked Pav Bhaji was good and Desert Gulab Jamun was awesome.
Very disappointing experience at Masala Zone Covent Garden yesterday evening. I have allergies to nuts and sesame seeds. The waiter tried to see what dishes could be made up without nuts/sesame seeds in and resulted in getting the manager over. Instead of the manager trying to help find me something on the menu i could eat he told me I could eat the daal, which the waiter I spoke to previously confirmed had nuts in. So i queried it and asked to see the allergy chart a second time. He REFUSED to show me the allergy chart (which i had been shown by the waiter only 5 minutes before) saying it was confidential and only the staff could see it (!!!!) What a ridiculous statement. This statement is only made more ridiculous by the fact that as soon as nut allergies were mentioned a bright yellow notice was placed in front of me that basically says its your responsibility if you eat here. If its my responsibility i want to read the chart that you have so i can make an informed decision. Completley immoral and unethical. They have it written on their menus/website if you have allergies speak to our staff but they only want to speak to you so they can inform you that they are not taking the blame, rather than actually helping you to find something you can eat. Where is the customer service? For a restaurant in London in a prime location I cant even begin to think how they dont know that it is a LEGAL REQUIREMENT to provide information for every dish on the stated 14 allergens. So you are in fact breaking the law by not supplying that information. Why cant you just tell me whats in the dish? Pretty simple i think. Maybe its because your charts are not correct? Who knows. All i know is that they have got the wrong attitude AT MANAGEMENT LEVEL and it resulted in my entire family of 17 people walking out after starters. Disgraceful. P.S-NO STARS GIVEN. APPARENTLY YOU CAN ONLY GIVE MIN 2 STARS.
I have visited the restaurant many times. The food is delicious and love the authentic indian feel with all those dolls hanging in the ceiling
We have visited her many times and the food has always been good. The staff are very friendly and there is a great atmosphere. We had not booked but after a couple of minutes were shown to our table by a very friendly waiter who talked us through the menu and gave us recommendations. The decor is great with hundreds of puppets hanging from the ceiling. The wine was reasonably priced and nice. All in all we had a great night with delicious food and great service. 12% service charge was a
Bit cheeky but the staff do get a cut of it . Will definately return again.A nice restaurant in Covent Garden with an Indian touch.
The food is nice and authentic and tastes nice.
I have tried both eating and lunch take aways. They both are good.
The price is certainly affordable.
Whenever I eat here, which is once a month, I find the food consistently good and genuine. Service is generally very friendly. The wall prints are amusing. While prices have been increasing, it still remains very good value
There are 2 sets which provide salads,curry,rice and nan with very reasonable price. Around 12-15 £. Quite big portion so no need to order other things. Very delicious and we enjoyed so much. They have very nice cocktail to start
This restaurant is indeed my favorite Indian restaurant in London. The great flavours, taste & presentation of each & every dish is stunning and the staff takes complete pride in explaining the dishes to the customers.
Overall, an authentic Indian restaurant and cannot be compared to any of the curry houses in UK.
Seated very quickly despite long queues when we first arrived. Our waiter was lovely, he explained all the dishes patiently and gave guidance as appropriate. We had 3 Grand Thalis, 1 lamb chops plus 2 large starters to share between 4 people. The food was served very promptly and everything was delicious. We were stuffed and left feeling very happy. Total bill including beer and soft drinks came to £90. Excellent value for money especially in Central London.
They do take away lunch pots now! I have just polished a 'Butter Chicken' curry pot and it was so delicious, yummy layers of chicken, rice, chickpeas and a lovely garnish of chopped tomato, pomegranate seeds and crushed popadomds! Mmmmmnnnnn!!!!!!!!
Fantastic place. Great service, friendly and welcoming. Good food and very reasonably priced. Generally a fantastic atmosphere. Would defiantly visit again.
- Place was great. - Food was authentic and tasted good even though it could have been a bit spicier. - Pani Puri and the Dahi Samosa chat were best. - Would def go back. - Service and the staff were great.
Chef Karanbir Singh Bawa...i heard a lot abt him...n after visiting Masala Zone at conven garden...i realised ppl wre so true...the food was awesome..really the kitchen staff does a lot of hard work to maintain the standards...Hats off service..Thanku Mr Bawa.:)
I visited this restaurant on my friend's recommendation and was definitely impressed. The ambience is cosy and traditional with a modern twist; the waiters are more than helpful as they have complete knowledge of food items featured on their menu, so if you have any queries than u can count on these guys for correct info. We went for street food as starters and thali as the main course. In street food we had pav bhaji (spicy vegetable and potato mash with warm buttered buns) and dahi puri (puffed round hollow thin biscuits filled with chickpeas, mash, yoghurt and tamarind chutney) was very close to the one u will get in India. The pav bhaji was spicy but not too hot and had balanced flavour with prominent butter taste on the buns and dahi puri was very refreshing to eat, instead of taking bites you have to put the whole round biscuit in your mouth that burst all the flavours of the ingredients that are stuffed in it, as they say - just the right thing to get the hmmm effect. Thali is well proportioned meal with one curry selection and also has many other interesting vegetarian dishes with yoghurt, salad and poppadum. Quite filling and full of different flavours.. Good value for money.
Ate here during August 2011. This was not my first try of a Masala Zone - had previously been to the one in Soho. Thought the food was fine (not great, but fine) and service good. The second visit (to the Covent Garden branch) was a little different. We were brought breads that we had ordered, in a basket. I picked one up and noted that there was old, dried up rice stuck to the bottom of the bread and in the bottom of the basket - clearly the basket was dirty and had not been washed. I gave this back to one of the staff and told him that it was dirty. He took it away without saying a word. One of the other staff came over a few minutes later and started to apologise. However, then he told me that the basket was not dirty, and that another rice dish had merely dropped into the basket as it was coming up from the kitchen in the food lift. I asked him how the rice had ended up underneath the breads, and why it was old rice (I saw this, it was not fresh rice). He insisted that it was not dirty and that it was an accident. I told him that i was not interested in excuses - this looked like it was made up to me - and asked him to replace the breads. Breads were replaced, we went on eating. At the end of the meal another member of staff came up and said that he understood that I was not happy with something in the meal. He gave me the same excuse about rice falling into the dish. I again asked how this was possible, no answer. I said that i didn't want to hear excuses, just an apology would be enough. He kept on insisting that this was an accident and the dish wasn't dirty. I asked him to bring the bill and to leave it at that. The bill was brought. It contained items that we hadn't had. I asked for these to be removed - cue more confusion amongst the waiting staff. He again apologised, but quickly said that the plate was not dirty again! I asked him to stop giving me excuses. I would either pay the bill or not, whatever he wanted and we would leave. At this point the staff got upset, ganged up on us (three of them now standing at our table) and asked us to leave the restaurant because we were causing a disturbance!!! So we left, without paying (they told us to not pay and just leave). I'll never go back to any of their restaurants. Rude, insolent staff unwilling to take responsibility for their mistake. Dirty dishes. Mediocre food. Avoid like the plague.
