Malabar

The food was decent. We ordered the king prawn dansak, the dal gosht, garlic nan, and rice. The service was terrible. The establishment opens for dinner service at 6pm and we were the 1^st to arrive around 6:20pm. After being seated; both waiters sat in the seating area below, playing on their mobile phones for almost 10 minutes before coming and taking out order. When the 2^nd set of customers came in, my husband heard an audible sigh from one of the waiters. I thought customers would be a welcomed sight for a restaurant, but not here.

I had the veggie samosas, myrg dansak (chicken curry with lentils and tamarind), rice and papadum.
The food is tasty but dripping in oil. You have a 100% chance of indigestion afterwards. Also £1 per papadum? Rip off.

One of the worst meals I’ve had in a long time. Started off well, good Unilocal reviews, recommendation from friends, really nice waiter when we came in, buzzy modern Indian atmosphere, order was taken quickly. Description of food seemed to indicate modern Indian. Papadum and chutney arrived quickly (which we had to pay extra for). So far, so good.
Then, a 45 minute wait for food, and when it finally came, it was soooo disappointing. Everything had the same bland taste and used the same– yellow poussin (chicken) tandoori, yellow lamb chops, yellow monkfish curry, yellow pumpkin curry, and yellow-​ish green rice (the naan never arrived). The rice was the best part.
The tandoori poussin was two tiny legs and one breast (think small Cornish game hen size), and the lamb chops were also tiny. The fish curry had nice al dente green beans, but with four tiny pieces of fish and two big bones. The pumpkin with fresh herbs was undercooked (still hard) and oily. I still had indigestion the next day.
I had guests visiting from out of town and wanted to take them for good curry on their last night, but sadly this was not the place. Should have gone to my local. Won’t go back.

An amazing Indian restaurant hidden behind Notting Hill’s ‘Gate cinema’. Great polite and active staff as well as really great tasting authentic Indian dishes at a very reasonable cost. A great destination for couples and mature families. Smart casual is fine, definitely worth checking it out!

If you eat a lot of Indian food and like it, this restaurant is nothing special. It fact it will probably disappoint. Most disappointing to me was a starter dish (not cheap) describing itself as «Sweet corn kernels mixed with fresh green chillies and green pepper». In fact it was half a tin of sweetcorn with a tiny bit of spice which hardly gave it any flavour at all. Totally underwhelming. In the pumpkin vegetable side (again not cheap) the chef hadn’t bothered to peel the skin so it was tough and spoiled what would have anyway been a fairly average dish. Restaurants like this annoy me. They have a cool Notting Hill vibe, are expensive, and assume an air of ‘we’re better than your local Indian’. In fact they are worse!

Malabar came highly recommended so we tried to go there multiple times before it was finally open. They seem to have pretty limited hours and a very limited holiday schedule which wasn’t available on their website or posted anywhere at the restaurant.
When we finally got there for lunch, the restaurant was completely empty. The food was good, not spectacular. Prices are reasonable but portions are small. We had saag gosht, a chicken curry dish, naan, and a corn dish to start. The corn was the best part – fresh and flavorful. The rest of it was just ok, pretty greasy, not at all spicy, and kind of bland.
The service was good but we were the only people in the restaurant and the server/​owner stared at us from the bottom floor the entire time waiting for us to finish eating. So maybe too attentive?
I’d go back but it wouldn’t be my first choice for Indian food in London.

Meh. Kinda bland food and luke warm. Bread was a bit over cooked as well. Not my favorite by any means. Prob won’t return.

Malabar is a lovely, classy Indian restaurant that my friend and I enjoyed after a very long walk. It’s quite hidden away, and ended up being a nice surprise. Unfortunately I wasn’t terribly well that day, and couldn’t enjoy the meal to the fullest, but the monkfish curry with green beans was unique and inspired, and the murg dansak had some wonderfully tender chicken! Great, complex array of spices in the curry and really decent prices for what you get, especially at a nice place in Notting Hill! So many great curry places in London, but if you’re in Notting Hill and craving some Indian food, you won’t be disappointed here!

Nicely decorated, through the staff weren’t the most friendly. Menu had a good mix of items. We ordered garlic naan, pappadams, bhindi, and a chicken curry. All of the food, while tasty, was very under spiced and a bit boring. Prices were higher than I would expect as we’ll. I’m sorry to say that we were pretty disappointed.

Great food and so close to the place we rented. Will be going back tomorrow. Wish the bench seats were a bit more comfortable. Staff service was good. I might have them add a bit more heat tomorrow. The curry had excellent flavor but would like a bit more heat.

Great indian spot in Notting Hill. The dishes were well prepared with lots of flavours. The prices were really good for the quality of food you are getting and for the spot where it is located.
The décor and atmosphere is nice and it’s the type or place I would have dinner with friends or take my wife on a midweek date.
Overall, highly recommend going here and trying it out for yourself.

The food here was really tasty, and came in acceptable portions (not too tiny, not Texas-​huge), so that they were perfect for sharing with a group and trying several items.
Highlights:
–naan… soft, warm, pita-​like
–murg korma (chicken in creamy sauce… good with naan)
–tandoori wings (crack-​addicting chicken wings)
–lentils
Low point:
–Kaddu: undercooked, so it was hard instead of blissful. A small detraction on an otherwise exceptional meal
Price tag: fine
Service: friendly
Curried dishes: well specified, easily avoidable, enjoyed by those who enjoy it
Wine & beer only
Enjoy.

A must-​go if you are looking for a great Indian restaurant in the Notting Hill area. The décor is understated and elegant. The food was delicious and reasonably priced for what you get in this neighborhood.

Excellent nieghborhood Indian restaurant on a quiet street in Notting Hill. Fresh ingriedients, good sized portions and a varied menu. Food was nicely spiced, but not overpowering. Have had a variety of dishes on 2 separate visits and the food has been consistently above average. Only criticism was their lassi was rather bland & milky.

Fabulous Indian restaurant in Notting Hill.
The restaurant is in a quant neighborhood that the homes are color coordinated. Really cute neighborhood. Easily accessible from the tube.
I wasn’t a huge fan of Indian food until my trip to London. Here I learned to appreciate the uniqueness of the Indian spices that separates Indian cuisine from all others. The naan was thick, fluffy, and right out of the oven. Paired up with my shrimp tiki masala was like that perfect first kiss that you don’t want to end. It’s that GOOD! The portion was plenty and the naan kept coming therefore we were unable to get to dessert.
The restaurant ambiance is very intimate. Great for dates but not girls not our or family night unless your kids are well behaved.
Highly recommend this restaurant! You haven’t have fabulous Indian cuisine until you try this restaurant!

London has so many very good Indian restaurants and this is one of them.
The atmosphere here is very refined and on the fancier side with white tablecloths and the whole lot. But given the tablecloths and the neighbourhood the prices were reasonable.
We weren’t incredibly hungry that night so got one fish dish with multiple vegetables.
Standouts that night were the cinnamon potatoes, dal and eggplant. My dining companion had been there before and the previous time was even better.
I’d go back for sure.

Malabar. The name is cool. It reminds me my childhood. But I’m not a child anymore (Or so it seems…) and I had booked a table for us. Once we arrived, we were told there wasn’t any reservation at this name. Looks like they trusted us. We were lucky because they managed to find an available table.
Service was average. We really had to insist to get their attention. But the food was quite good, even if the korma and the murg dansak didn’t convince my friend. The Tandoori was perfect though. And I had a particular pleasure to sip the Cobra beer that I hadn’t tasted for quite a long time. Prices are surprisingly low for the location and the quality.
All in all, it wasn’t bad but didn’t deserve the buzz I heard about this place.

London has some of the best Indian food in the world, and Malabar is a testament to that.
Welshie and I shared the lamb keebab starter, spicy and perfect for sharing (four mini kebabs). I had the lamb-​stuffed naan with my meal, which was incredibly sumptuous – spicy, flaky, gooey, chewy, bubbly all at the same time. I ordered the tandoor chicken starter as my main and it was delightful. Crisp, tender, spicy and came atop a bed of seasoned onions and peppers.
The service was great, and the price was astonishingly low for a sit-​down place with such great ambiance. We made out with beers, sodas, a starter, two dishes and two naans for under 50 quid. Would definitely return.

Rien à voir avec un intérieur kitshissime Bollywood, le Malabar est un restaurant indien qui joue la sobriété et la classe au niveau du décor (gris par terre, blanc sur les murs, gris de mémoiré les tables). Par contre, dans l’assiette c’est le contraire. les saveurs partent dans tous les sens, c’est l’explosion, c’est très très bon, très bien épicé et très fin. Le service est classe, limite hautain, et l’addition un peu salée, mais ça reste un très bon souvenir londonien.

It’s been a while since my last visit to Malabar. It never disappoints.
I like the fact that the menu is less extensive than many other places, which actually makes choice much easier. Everything tastes very fresh and you can actually identify individual herbs and spices.
Today I went for the vegetarian thali which was a delicious selection of dhal, raita, sag and a couple of vegetable curries, as well as the best pilau rice I have had in ages (I love cardamom and cinnamon!) and a delicious roti.
I passed the kulfi which was also part of the deal to a friend and enjoyed the coffee while nibbling on sugar coates fennel seads.
Excellent value at £14!
… and, yes, the map above is wrong. Malabar is situated in Uxbridge STREET behind the Coronet Cinema in Notting Hill Gate.

Firstly, the map above is wrong — Malabar is in Notting Hill, in close proximity to Notting Hill tube station.
I went in here yesterday having heard good things about it from local residents, and indeed, it did seem to be full of local Notting Hillers, from families including children to older couples: it’s a million miles away from the dark, slightly dodgy curry houses that everyone knows and loves!
Split onto about 3 levels, the place has a sophisticated grey interior with tiled flooring and crisp table linen — all good signs to start and plentiful number of staff ensured service was as crisp as the poppadoms which were the first to arrive. The menu was split into different categories of meat and is relatively short, for me a good sign that everything is fresh.
Further courses, from the mild to the spicy arrived in small metal dishes that one decanted into a big metal tray — this took some getting used to, but was a good idea that ensured the rice didn’t end up all over the table. I won’t bore you with the details of the food, but it was certainly the best Indian food I’d ever had, with attention to detail obvious. Looking around during my meal, the deserts seemed rather popular, from the imaginatively named ‘Banana desert’ complete with schnapps, to the delicious Indian ice cream with cardamom, which was a light, refreshing end to the food.
Overall, there were lots of little signs here that the place was good: efficient service, good décor, rice that was fluffy and actually tasted of something (star anise), a bucket of ice left with the water, coffee in very upmarket cafetieres, etc. Proudly stuck on the front door was a Michelin 2009 sticker, which I’m sure it deserves. Although I haven’t tried other upmarket Indian restaurants in London, such as The Cinnamon Club in Westminster, I’d say this was as good a place as any.