The Maharaja, Shanklin
Matt and Cat have long been patrons of the Maharaja - long before this guide was even a twinkle in their eyes. So when they starred reviewing back in 2005, this popular Shanklin Indian was near the front of the queue. Since then, Matt and Cat have tried many other curry houses across the Island, and in 2008 they returned to re-review the Maharaja. How did it fare? Read on to find out - and then see the original 2005 review below.
Hear the full podcast review:
2008 review: it was a journey back in time for Matt and Cat as they strolled down Shanklin High Street to the Maharaja, once their favourite Indian. It had been a while, but they were more than delighted when the friendly waiter remembered them and asked after the other friends they used to visit with. One thing Matt and Cat always enjoy at the Maharaja is the service, and this seemed to be just as good as ever. Junior reviewers Bill and Jack were along to see what they thought too, and so the party of four got a comfortable table and settled down to look at the menu. Plenty of interesting dishes were on offer, and soon poppadoms and drinks were delivered to help the party choose.
Review continues:
Matt and the lads went for lamb dishes, Cat for her favourite chicken. Before long, the food appeared and was eagerly welcomed. It looked great, and tasted better - everyone in the party was pleased with their meal, and there was even some left over. Matt was particularly pleased with his lamb dupiaza balti, which was replete with chunks of tasty lamb, a tangy sauce and plenty of chunky onions of course. The menu recommended paratha instead of rice, which proved to be an excellent suggestion. The flat, unleavened bread came with optional vegetable stuffing (at no extra cost) and made a very good accompaniment to the tasty dupiaza. Cat was delighted with her old favourite, chicken moglai balti, which looked different but tasted just as she remembered it. Bill and Jack both enjoyed their meals - lamb tikka korma and lamb biryani respectively. They even tried the fiery lime pickle, pulling a variety of faces but each reluctant to admit to being out-chillied by his brother. The diners were impressed by the generous portion of vegetable curry that came alongside the biryani, making this meal particularly good value for money.
Later in the evening, the proprietor took a stroll around the establishment and paid a visit to the table to enquire if all was well - of course, it was; this was a typical example of the attentive and very friendly service that sets the Maharaja apart from other restaurants.
It seems that some things have changed, and some have stayed the same. At the Maharaja, there's now more space to relax, with fewer tables crammed in. There's been some reorganisation - the toilets are now downstairs, and still gleamingly clean, with real towels. The popular Maharaja big round tables are back - ideal for a social occasion. But unchanged is the good food, cheerful service, and reasonable prices. Matt and Cat were delighted to return to the Maharaja after too long an absence, and intend to return again soon.
2005 review: From the name you might already be suspecting that this venue is some sort of Indian restaurant. In this, it will not disappoint you. It has been refurbished, and has a modern atmosphere - gone are all the dark carpets and furry wallpaper. Instead you get air conditioning and bright lighting. Admittedly there is not so much room as there once was - the tables are pretty close together and the service is definitely not the fastest, but so long as you get on well with the people on the next table this is not a problem.
The Maharaja is the best place in Shanklin for an enjoyable evening of Indian food. It's popular though - so be sure to book, especially at weekends. You'll get nothing you wouldn't expect from a good Indian, and the food is reliably well cooked.
The particular reason to recommend this venue is the friendly service. Once, when one of a party asked for some kind of alcopop that was not in stock (certainly not the saintly Matt and Cat, who abhor such syrup) the waiter offered to mix a special cocktail just for her. Replete with food and beer another time Matt and Cat were even offered a party game to play by the staff who obviously were concerned that they might not be enjoying themselves enough. It's hard to know if they keep a special cupboardful of these to liven up the guests, but it is typical of the attention and approachability of the staff that they should have both had such a thing in waiting, and brought it out at just the right moment.
Published: 11th April 20081435 views
Categories: We like, Restaurants, Take aways, Family friendly, Sandown & Shanklin, Indian, Podcasts
16 comments
We wanted to eat Chapatis but the guy who took the order, suggested us to order something else which is either already made or fast to make. He said that 2 Chapatis will take 30 minutes. When we said that we will not mind to wait he said that there are people waiting. So we ordered naan's for their convenience. We ordered papad too. For the first time in our life, we got half of the original and conventional papad. After telling they did not charge us, but they behaved like they did a too big favour on us.
We thought of being considerate as it was an Indian joint. But these people do not deserve any consideration. When you are representing a country's food gourmet, you should use the best interior according to your budget. The paintings are so old fashioned and ugly looking. Any foreigner would laugh at it. We even saw a German couple laughing at it.The customer service was the worst. As soon as you are finished with your food, they just want you to pay and leave.
I went to them to let them know that dal tadka was either exchanged with some other dal, or it was not made in the original style. They were rude. They said that we are the first one to give such remarks and they justified that it was the traditional dal tadka. They are misleading people by writing "MAHARAJA" Indian restaurant. They have a Bangladeshi cook, who knows nothing about Indian recipes. They should rename their restaurant as a Bangladeshi Restaurant, not an Indian one, because you will never find such recipes in India. The food was an amalgamation of Bangladeshi and English style.
The worst place I had ever been to in my life.
So guys no offence to anyone's likings as you seem to have savoured the food items in Maharaja, but the food itself is not Indian. I have already suggested half of my friends not to go there and I will keep disseminating this information to all the food review sites in Isle of White.
Firstly as a visitor to many hundreds of Indian, Bangladeshi, Kashmeri and Pakistani resteraunts over the last 30 years, I can appreciate the differences. These differences will obviously be easier to spot from someone 'born and bought up in India' but not necessarily to a European where many Indian foods are cooked in a 'generic' fashion. A European has to judge his/her food in comparison to what else is on offer at similar establishments and the Maharaja scores very highly on my 30 year list compared with other British resteraunts. My only point of original comparison is from Goa, where the food was awful.
The attached website address (which I think was added to add credence to the review) is a mere placeholder and bears no relation to Indian food other than the automatic links associated with the title
The decoration of the resteraunt is far from awful or comical and following its refit last year, a very smart establishment.
As to the dal question, I shall take it up with them next time i visit as I estpecially appreciate a good dal, which I have always found at this resteraunt
Do I detect some prejudice here? I seem to recall that Bangladesh was a part of India not that long ago (before partition) and geographically it's between Assam and the rest of it, so I would be surprised if they knew nothing about cooking across either border. Or did their cuisine suddenly change with the political landscape?
Not being an expert on Dal, I looked up Chana Dal (the source of Mr Das's complaint) and found that: "With their sweet and nutty flavor, these are the most popular dal in India", which came as bit of a surprise, as it's the stuff he doesn't eat at home.
It appears that Mr Das is so incensed by the wrong sort of Dal (not to mention the decor) that he has cut and pasted his review on the Ventnor Blog, which rather suggests that he has some axe to grind that he's not telling us about.
The staff were very much confused and didn't know what to serve and to whom. The food was tasteless and far from delicacy. The icing over the cake was the service.. GOD SAVE ALL...
Methinks somebody has an ax to grind
Myself and a friend decided to eat here after having a few beers (I want to stress that although tipsy we were not drunk). We ordered our drinks (2 bottles of Tiger if I recall correctly) and meal, I went for onion bhajis and my friend went for meat spring rolls to start. The bhajis were fine but the fun started with the spring rolls.
When we tasted the spring rolls the meat inside was unidentifiable and most definately the wrong side of its 'use by' date, they were rancid. We told the waitress and said we would have the rest of the meal but that the spring rolls were off and we did not expect to pay for them. All of a sudden an older chap came out of the kitchen who I can only assume was the chef / owner / manager and he started shouting at us that the meat was fine, he had kept the restaurant open for us (9.30pm) and he had done us a favour by letting us eat there. We once again explained we would be happy to finish the meal but would not expect to pay for the spring rolls.
About 5 minutes later he returned to our table with 3 other men who I assume were also chefs and ordered us to leave, he threw a bill onto our table for the FULL price of the meal (including mains which we hadn't even received!). By this stage we were fuming, we said that if he was charging us for our drinks, starters and mains we wouldn't leave until they had been served. He insisted we pay, we insisted that if that was the case he should call the police to see what they made of the situation.
To cut a long story short we left having had a portion of bhajis, 2 bites of a spring roll and about half a bottle of beer. We paid for the bhajis. The service was an absolute disgrace and I for one will most definitely never return. If the Island is suffering from lack of tourism this year then customer service (if you can call it that) like this will do none of us residents any favours in the future.
We are all eating at the Maharaja tomorrow night, Wednesday 9th at 8pm. Fingers crossed everyone. Our reports will follow - however, if you hear nothing from us then please assume the worst and let the police know! Only joking - I hope!!
Matt and Cat reply: Thanks for your comments Chris. We'd be interested to know how your dinner goes tonight.
That's unusual - I've eaten late there quite a few times (finishing around 11) and never been hurried or hassled. Admittedly, I've never ordered spring rolls either, but it sounds like you've been unlucky.
Hope so, anyway - I'm with Chris's party tomorrow!
Oh...and we were in there until about 11pm and the staff were more than happy for us to stay even though we had finished eating and paid up a while before we left. In fact there was a couple still eating when we left. I think Colin and his buddy must have been rather more the worse for visiting the pub before hand than they recall...something we've all done but not something most of us would want to write about on a blog!
No, the Maharaja is still up there with the best in my book.
I wish I was as 'worse for wear' as you suggest, then at least I might not have remembered and been so annoyed by what happened!
Perhaps we just caught them on a particularly bad night.
I'm glad you enjoyed your meal and the chefs with big choppers stayed in the kitchen! We ate at Pendletons in Shanklin at the weekend, that was good food and excellent service without a rogue spring roll in sight ;-)
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