Royals Indian Resturant, Covent Garden

Appalling, wretched restaurant. Food is average but overpriced for what it is. Service dreadful... but don't tell the staff that or they'll take you hostage! We got the bill and crossed out the whopping 12.5% service charge on account of the fact that the waiters were grumpy, unprofessional and unattentive despite the place being empty. Furthermore, one waiter spilt orange juice on us, the drinks took an age to arrive, we were served the food dishes before we were given plates to actually eat from and the glasses were dirty (mine had lipstick on it). Bizarrely, when I asked to change glasses- rather than being taken at face value, perhaps receiving an apology and a new glass as you might expect, I had to show him where the marks were as if I was making it up. Nonetheless, at this point we still had every intention of leaving a service charge purely out of politeness, but an amount of our discretion, not the restaurant's. We paid half the bill on one card before the waiter realised we'd crossed out the service charge. He then got very aggressive and rude, his grouse seeming to be that we had corrected the bill ourselves rather than telling him to change it for us if we didn't like the service. We pointed out this was what we were telling him now, and he went away- we thought- to amend it. A little while later he returns with the owner, who was even more rude and aggressive. After (literally) shouting at us for not wanting to pay his service charge, the owner slammed his hand on the table, threw the bill at us, and dismissed us from the restaurant. As he stormed off, one of the waiters pointed out to him that the food bill was still only half point, at which point he swung round demanding the rest of the payment. Given that we were incensed by this point, we refused. He then locked the restaurant door and he and a waiter stood by it to block it to prevent us from leaving. In the end we paid the difference to be allowed out of the restaurant. Sadly, I can assure readers that this account is not even exaggerated, as OTT and improbable as it sounds. I have never, ever been met with such aggression and hostility in a restaurant. Please, for your sake, avoid.

Really bad food, terrible service, this has to be the worst place I have eaten in London.
I wouldn’t recommend it to my worst enemy