Strand Tandoori

Overall good quality chicken curry. They have a lunch special for £8.50 plus 12% service charge and you get choice of 2 apps, choice of chicken curry or something not spicy and choice of fresh naan or rice.
I also ordered some garlic Daal which was average and under salted.
Nice people with attentive service. No Wi-​Fi.

Awesome food and even better service. Thanks to Sahid, we were treated like the royalties. He went up and beyond his duties to serve us with the best food I’ve had in the UK thus far. It’s a bit on the expensive side but I am sure the food and the service will make up for it. Everything we tried was great, except that the butter chicken was a bit sweeter than expected. That seems to be a general symptom in the UK so I’ll not penalize this restaurant for it, especially when all of our other dishes were great!

Strand Tandoori… or the story of how a potential 4 star went wrong…
To be honest, the only thing that saves this restaurant (and keeps it in business), is the quality of the food. Yes, I have had great tandoori chicken, great rice and naans, and an exquisite and tender Duck Karahi. Food-​wise, only the Raita was a massive let-​down, with vanilla wishy-​washy yoghurt being used instead of the richer stuff (i.e. Greek yoghurt a must…).
But… THE SERVICE !!! So Bad ! In a few words: couldn’t take the drinks order right (served me my friend’s beer, then served the Coke I had ordered to my friend, after I had to remind them.
Couldn’t take the food order right, as we had to repeat many times what we wanted (what’s hard to understand in Peswhari naan ?
When our food was served, we got asked many times «Are you done?», even when our plates were half-​full.
Worse of all, in the background, no Bengali music, but instead, the staff yelling at each other ! And the restaurant wasn’t even full: 3 tables, who apparently had the same service quality that we had…
Alas, this is only one addition to my list of VERY POOR pakistani restaurant service in London…

We ended up here because we were looking for a reasonably priced Indian meal before a show. So we were in a rush and it was raining heavily. That’s our excuse. The food was not bad– but is was SO NOT GOOD! I have had curries in London before and been blown away by how it puts curry in most Canadian restaurants to shame.
Strand Tandoori was not one of these places.
It wasn’t the flavour, everything tasted good and they brought a nice tray of papadams and chutneys to begin. We ordered the set menu since we just couldn’t decide. It consisted of a shrimp curry, a chicken curry and one vegetarian.
Normally, when a restaurant does these set meals, the dishes offered posses different and/​or contrasting flavours. This was not the case. Every dish had the same tomato curry sauce! What? Curry is not just about the ingredients, but also the SAUCE. This was such a disappointment since we had picked the set menu to get a little variety. Essentially, we had three of the same entrees and paid over 50 pounds for it.
‘Crestfallen’ is the word to describe our mood after this dinner. Would not go back and would not recommend.

Unless you are starving to death for Indian and all the restaurants in Covent Garden are full, I don’t see any special reason to go to this place. Not really a nice décor, service friendly but very disorganized and food is okay, not too spicy, but not really special. Nan was good! My tip: check for other Indian around, you will have a better time!

Like Hannah R., I also ate here on Christmas because it was the only place open. The food was alright, but on the bland side. The service seemed good until we had to pay. I tried to pay with my Visa card because I had forgotten to bring any cash with me, but when the server swiped my card, there was some suspicious hand waving and button pushing before he told me that their machine was broken and I needed to go to the ATM and get some cash. I did this, and paid £50 cash for an ok meal. Then I got home and noticed that I also had a £50 charge from Strand Tandoori on my card. I was able to get the charge disputed through my bank, and I’m willing to mark this up as a mistake rather than an active attempt to scam me, but it still doesn’t make me want to come back here again.

Came here in November 2010 and had a pretty terrible meal. Service was atrocious and when the food finally came it had obviously been under a lamp for the last 20 minutes and didn’t even taste that great. Plates were not clean when we started and weren’t when we left either…
Avoid at all cost. There is far better food at a better prices within walking distance from here.

Very nice curry had here. Took a bit of a punt using an iphone app to find a close-​by curry house. We happened upon this, and noticed the much referenced rival next door. We stuck to our guns and ambled in. The fare that was served to us was pretty damn good, but not something to write home about. Value for money wise, it’s also very acceptable. The shame was that they asked us if we were OK to go upstairs when we first arrive. This made us feel that «upstairs» was the short straw. When we got up there, they had to unlock the door and turn on the lights and heating. Fortunately, It wasn’t so bad because a lot of people came just after us and it soon warmed up.
If you’re around trafalgar square and want a cheap but cheerful curry, then this is your best bet.

Curry house just off the strand. Unfortunately there is another curry house next door which means they engage in the same kind of salesmanship you see in Brick lane, however there its what you expect and its part of the experience, here I just found it annoyingbut I did want a curry.
The restaurant is small, I think you could say cozy and has a fish tank in the window (I like fish!)
The curries themselves were actually rather nice, definitely of a higher quality than I expected The usual smaller portions that you get in central London, but at least you can finish your food.
Thenmy pet hate. the desperate dance to attract a waiters attention when you want to pay. This is something I swear I will never understand. You’re ready to give them money and free up a table for more paying customers but you have to bust a move to get the bill and sometimes, and on this occasion, you have to do the same to get them to allow you to pay once you have the bill. I had to go up to the counter and remind them of the 20% offer (which they had forgotten) so the service really let this place down for me.
If you’re in the area, it’s a pretty good choice for a curry and not overly expensive.

Twas Christmas afternoon and the snow had not settled in lazy drifts across the London streets. The reindeer, however, had returned to the North Pole, and happy families presumably sat at home in contented spaces of time. As for my family and I, we were out wandering streets like the vagabonds we are. A motley bunch out looking for lunch. That’s when we found Strand Tandoori.
The food was glorious. Probably the best Indian food I’ve had to date in London (my Indian food dates have ranged from awkward to charming, from foods that talk only about the weather to foods that flatter you up to the high heavens). There was a 7 pound lunch special (onion bhaji, curry and ice cream). We ordered saag paneer, kahari vegetable, 2 naans and a lunch special with lamb curry. Everything was exquisite, spiced to perfection. It rolled across your tongue like warm spiced wine, smooth and delightful.
I would like to give this place 5 stars despite the fake ivy garnished in cherry-​red bulbs of light that hung from the central area, but I just can’t. I can’t. You see, the waiter kept us waiting a bit too much. Perhaps he was a Christmas day sub, but one way or another, I have a few things to say. He was nice, almost as much as the rice. However, he forgot to bring us the ice cream dessert from the lunch special, bringing out the bill first. We gave a gentle reminder and he got the ice cream. Then, one of the items on the bill was mis-​marked by 20 pence, but we decided to let it slide. We gave him cash to pay. He didn’t bring over any change. Granted, the change was less than a pound, but no matter what the change, it is probably best brought to the customer. If one wants to leave the excess change, one can, but the waiter should, be it 20 pounds or 20 pence, bring over the change when a bill is paid.
Waiting for the waiter or not, I will probably go back because the food is that delicious. I’ll make sure to keep an eye out though for any wait-​causing waiters who have not changed their habits about change.