Reviews or Comments for 'The Gaylord' (8)

The service at the Gaylord is not poor - it is excellent!

The restaurant is quite small, with a lot of the central space being occupied by appliances that are usually at home in a kitchen. There's a bar, a couple of big fish tanks, and some karma sutra-style artwork on the walls. Nothing stands out. Infact, the first thing I noticed was the rudeness of the waiters. When one of my group requested some tap water with our drinks, we were prompted several times to have mineral water instead. The waiter then walked off, giving us such a look that bystanders would be forgiven forthinking we'd brutally insulted his family or something.Our drinks menus were taken away and not returned. We were presented with the main menus. The Gaylord does have quite a large range of Indian dishes available, and all six of us picked something different, with a couple of starters to go with it.We didn't manage to order for a good while though. I'd requested some poppadums to the table and where usually it's pretty universal that these are for picking while waiting for your main, I had to flagdown a waiter after 10-15 minutes to ask if we're allowed to order our meals. Infact, the food took such a long time to arrive fromthis point, that we ordered another half dozen poppadums, a request to which the waiter greeted with a frown similar to that of his reaction to the water.The samosas and onion bhajis arrived just before the main dishes.The bhajis were pretty much what was expected, nothing that'd blow anybody away. The samosas apparently had the distinct taste andtexture of being rewarmed. The curries finally arrived, being heated up on the hobs near our table before being brought over by yetanother annoyed-looking waiter. We were all passed very hot plates with no warning or thanks. The food was all passed across or placeddown,. And then that was it. Infact, despite the place not being busy, and the restaurant clearly being overstaffed, nobody once cameto our table to ask what we thought of the food or see if we'd like to order anything else. It was quite the chore to attract a waiter'sattention, and one to which was greeted by the same look that made us feel like we'd done something wrong.The food was nothing special, the flavours and presentation were nothing that'd blow anybody's mind, but it was pretty average priced in all. An employee then got us to pass our plates and cutlery across the table to him. It was as if we were all helping him tidy up, something I believe not many people visit a restaurant to do. He then reappeared from the kitchen, not to ask us if we'd like to order dessert, but to drag up the tablecloths while we were all still sitting at the table. As he moved around the glasses and wiped and removedthe tablecloth, he knocked a vase over into one of us, something which we probably all saw coming, and something he wasn't all too apologetic about.As we sat there slightly annoyed with the whole experience, we were given the bill along with some branded chocolate afterdinner mints, a generous helping of orange slices, and some hot towels (whichwere not opened for us). More unusual was the fact that each of the ladies among us were then given the gift of a red rose.This was a nice touch, but the experience up until this point had been so poor, it just made us laugh. Before leaving The Gaylord, I looked around, wondering if it was the tap water incident that had attracted the seeming hate our way. It seemed like everybody else was being treated in a similar fashion by the waiters. Either they all hate their job, or just hate people.Despite the recently consumed orange, we left with abitter taste in our mouths. The Gaylord seems to want to convey itself as a modern establishment serving a variety of traditional Indian dishes, but it's not the boasts on the literature that make a customer return, it's the service and quality of food, and sadly that's well below average. There are many excellent Indian restaurants in the Isle of Dogs/ Canary Wharf area, and I really can't recommend The Gaylord over them in any way.

damien's profile     Other reviews by damien     damien likes    

Plain and simple price like any other Indian restaurant. The food you get makes you forget the price you paid. Its got quality, taste, texture, flavoure, smell, its got that certain jeneseque.I'm not saying its the best restuarant in the world but definately one worth trying in the docklands area or if you just moved in round that area. It can maybe be better then it currently is but sometime going overboard can ruin things. It has had people like princess Diana, Bollywood and Hollywood actors and actresses dining there when they came to London, plus Enrique Inglasias still buys food from there. He even mentioned it in one of his interviews as his favourite specially because of the service and the food. I believe that if your round the docklands area or here on holiday then definately try outThe Gaylords.

m.z.'s profile     Other reviews by m.z.     m.z. likes    

I recently ate here and can safely say that I will never go back. The food was sloppy and the service was among the worst I have ever come across - half of our order didn't turn up but when we asked where it was we were accused of not ordering what we'd asked for, which was pretty unlikely given that we'd ended up with 1 beer, 4 poppadams and a Chicken Tikka Masala between two of us...There are some great Indian restaurants in London, but this isn't one of them.

This place should be ashamed of itself. It had established a reasonable reputation before the population of Docklands exploded in the late 1980s (they still have the gall to display the awards!) but has steadfastly gone downhill ever since. Will someone with a passion for good food and good service please come and save it from the grave it deserves to be in right now?

Roger's profile     Other reviews by Roger     Roger likes    

Don't ever go...They cheat too..i ordered 4 naans and they charged for 6, they had two menus, one they gave us to order and other they used to bill...Cheaters, rubbish food, rude staff, bad location...

leo's profile     Other reviews by leo     leo likes    

I used like the food here, but these days it has all gone down hill in the gaylord resaurant, maybe 1 of the factors for this is because they concentrate on fast takeaway delivery service and forget about the customers that are dining in the restaurant.the food was greasy on the last couple of visits and the service was terrible.I will not be going there again.

jake's profile     Other reviews by jake     jake likes    

"Utter rubbish! That pretty much sums up this wannabe Indian restaurant. The horrible food is matched with equally bad service. The waiters are down right rude. This restaurant charges a service charge and a cover charge which is downright criminal for what's on offer. We ordered the Dal Makhani which was more Bangladeshi than Indian. These people just have no idea on what real Indian food tastes like. The chicken tikka and rogan josh would also rank in amongst the worst we've ever hadAll in all please avoid this place for the poor food, price and poor service. I would never eat here again - even if it was free."