Raj Pavilion, Tunbridge Wells

20 Grove Hill Road,
Tunbridge Wells, TN1 1RZ

http://www.raj-pavilion.co.uk/

I've passed the Raj Pavilion may times on trips through Tunbridge Wells, but it wasn't until last weekend that we decided to visit. It was a review on Toptable that spurred my interest, so on Saturday night we popped along.

It was fairly crowded and, despite the fact that we hadn't booked, they still managed to fit us in.

The restaurant is on two levels, the ground floor and and a basement level. We sat downstairs in the basement level. The downstairs area is very airy, as the ground floor has a balcony that looks down into the downstairs level.

The menu is quite extensive. Along with the usual birianis, dhanzaks and baltis there is a large selection of their own specialities. For vegetarians there is a huge selection. All of the 'standard' curries have a vegetable option and there is also a separate vegetarian section in the specialities section.

For starters we shared Aloo Tikka (potato cakes) and Hot Vegetable Chatt (stir fried vegetables in a popadum shell). For mains I had Mali Vegetable Kofta and Brinjal Bhaji. My wife had a lamb dish. All of the dishes were well presented and and tasted really good, especially the Vegetable Chatt.

What impressed us most about the place was the service. It was a busy Saturday night ad apparently some of their staff hadn't turned up, so they were relying on a couple of temporary staff. To add to this there was a mix up in the kitchen that meant our starters were delayed. However, the staff kept us informed, made sure that we were looked after and when the bill came we weren't charged for the starter and a complimentary drink was delivered to the table at the end of the meal.

I know things go wrong sometimes and its a measure of a good restaurant if they can deal with it and keep the customer happy. The Raj Pavilion proved that they could.

Good food and great service means that we'll be back there before too long.