Revisited November 2005

Oh dear!  Have had to downgrade to 6/10 after last nights visit to Jewel in the Crown which is very sad & its mainly because of the terrible service.  8 of us chose to meet here because we knew we could have a booth with a round table which is always so sociable; the surroundings are still delightful.  It was so irritating as they were not terribly busy when we first arrived at 7.30 but the waiter still kept mixing up the drinks order, several things had to be re ordered.  The wine was Tesco Finest!!  One bottle was corked but we had already topped up glasses before we realised.  They should therefore have replaced more than one bottle but no!  I was dying to make a real complaint but didn't want to upset my fellow diners.  The waiter assumed we all only wanted popadams to start with & was off before we could order various other dishes.  He messed up the main course order so we were short of several things when it arrived, again really annoying.  They were very busy by now but it was Saturday night & so they should have had more staff to cope.  I had the same chicken Peshwari as last time & it was delicious but not worth all the hassle!  Some of our friends are real Indian food fans & they were not madly impressed with the flavours.  I would go again but not on a Saturday night!

Not sure if they are now open at lunch time, never got a reply when I phoned to book at that time.

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Visited July 2003

Have heard many glowing reports of this restaurant & I was not disappointed!  Two of us decided to go on a Friday evening & acting upon the advice of a friend we went very early.  I would recommend you did the same as it filled up very quickly & when we wanted to leave at about 8.30pm had to wait a long time for the bill but this was the only very minor criticism as up until then we had had excellent service in very pleasant surroundings.

For me Indian Food is unexplored territory & so I was very happy to listen to advice from a very friendly & helpful young lady who has worked there for 4 years.  As I like mild dishes she recommended one of their specialities Peshwari Chicken.  It was delicious!  My partner had another house speciality Garlic Chicken Chilli Mossallah, also yummy.  I was told that everything is cooked to order.  As we had started with some papadams with pickles we were complete pigs as we accompanied our main courses with Bombay Potatoes, Okra, Garlic Rice, Plain Rice & Peshwari Nan!!  I could hardly stand up at the end of the meal.  We had also drunk 2 bottles of an excellent House White & when we got the bill were given complimentary Bailey's & after dinner mints!  Phew!  Well it was an end of holiday celebration.  The diet starts now!

The Jewel is always busy & does its entire menu as take away with a 10% discount.

Cost: £ £ £ £ £

Yummy Factor 9/10

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