Hands up if you’ve been to Farzi Café in Haymarket, London? How did you find the food? I’m interested in hearing your opinion.

Date Night at Farzi Café

Last week the missus and I decided to have ‘date night’, something that rarely happens when you have kids. We were thinking of where to go, had a look on TripAdvisor and found this restaurant in Haymarket called Farzi Café. Reviews were amazing, food looked great and very Instagramable… Oh boy was I mistaken.

Let’s set the seen

If anyone doesn’t know, I’m a British Indian and have Indian food regularly. So I would say I’m kind of an Indian food snob! After reading the reviews I said let’s go and we booked dinner for date night. The grandparents had the kids and I was looking forward to a night off.

We headed to Farzi Café and the welcome was lovely. Handed in our jackets and were directed to our seats, downstairs. The restaurant looked very artistic and the dark lighting really set the atmosphere for dinner.

Our Cocktails

We sat down and ordered some cocktails, which were all named after horoscopes. The description of each cocktail was very creative and the ingredients that went into the cocktails were weird but wonderful. I went for a Pisces and my wife went for a Virgo cocktail. As our cocktails arrived, I was a little confused to whether we received the right ones as it didn’t really look like what I ordered, but what do I know… They tasted nice anyway.

Onto Starters

We then ordered our starters, which was Peppered Prawns, Pani Puri and Sweet Potato and Pomegranate Bao Buns. Sounds tasty right. Well they weren’t too bad, just lacked a bit of spice. The Pani Puri could have done with some tanginess and spice and the peppered prawns could have done with some pepper, but I ate them anyway as I was hungry. As soon as the starters were done I asked if they could make the mains a little spicier than the starters were.

Tucking into Mains

For mains we ordered a Goat ‘Sharwama’ Biryani, creative or what. Plus, a Shitake and Paneer Masala and the Flame Grilled Lamb Chops. When the mains arrived they all looked amazing and very delicious. Alongside the mains our waiter brought us chopped up chilis and green chili sauce, they said the food had already been cooked so they couldn’t add any extra spice to it. Well I guess we had to go with that and we tucked in.

I’m going to jump straight into it. The biryani was a disappointment, tasteless and not only needed chilis, it needed flavour! I thought ok,
one dish needed spice, what about the others, so tucked into the shitake and paneer masala. Have you had Heinz tomato soup before? Well this masala tasted like that. It was so sweet. Yes it was a makhni, but makhni’s shouldn’t taste like tomato soup. Two out of three needed spice, so how about the Lamb Chops…

These were definitely meaty, a plus I guess, but they too were too sweet for me! But this was expected as they were maple and fennel chops. I think it just wasn’t my day. The food definitely did look amazing.

The restaurant was full, people must have been enjoying it. I didn’t finish any of the dishes, but instead decided to take it home for my kids and they loved it. Right up their street!

So Lets Conclude

Well Farzi Café was an experience for me and another reason why an Indian shouldn’t look at Tripadvisor for reviews of Indian Restaurants. If you fancy a nice evening out and an instagramable dinner, then definitely give Farzi Café a visit.

Check out my other reviews, including Coya and Giggling Squid. More to come.