This was the second time we visited Potli Indian restaurant in Hammersmith. We also had a take away once before.
We are local residents and visited this restaurant when it first opened. The food was bland and nothing special. We put this down to teething problems. We also had a take away when they first opened. Most of the order had not been delivered. We waited almost 2 hours for the food to arrive even though we live round the corner. The lamb dish tasted like it had been stewing overnight in a thick gravy and the chicken was dry and tasteless.
We visited the restaurant again tonight, hoping things had improved. When the food arrived, the two different named chicken dishes looked exactly the same. We pointed this out to the waiter, he smiled and said, yes they do don't they? when we asked what was the difference, he said, oh. I think this one is hotter. Both the dishes tasted EXACTLY the same. The only difference was, one had a slice of raw tomato placed on the top. Both had dry chunks of chicken covered with a raw tomatoey tasting sauce. No taste of any herbs or spices whatsoever.
The restaurant describes it's dishes as being concocted from special recipes from a special part of India that is famously renowned for it's “street food” and uses a variety of fresh crushed herbs and spices of all kind. This claim couldn't be further from the truth. .
We were very disappointed and we both left the meal unfinished. The waiter took away the plateful of food but not once asked why it was not eaten.
The restaurant owners over-praise their cuisine and boast that their style of cooking is different from other Indian restaurants. How wrong they are.
Each time we had food from this establishment, we found it to be bland, boring and tasteless. The dishes do not have any authenticity about them whatsoever. Sadly the only place any herbs and spices were found were in the pictures on the walls.
We will not be visiting this restaurant again.