The Miraj - Carte

"We went with a group of 7, midweek for a meal with friends. Table booked for 7pm and we arrived bang on time, well 2 minutes early in truth. The restaurant was busy but in no way full. We were seated promptly but waited nearly 20 minutes for a waiter to arrive in order to take a drinks order which then took another nearly 15 minutes to arrive! so its 25 to eight and haven 't even ordered a starter!! Gave it another 5 mins and asked a waiter walking past if we could please order, he then said the waiter who took the drinks order would be back, anther 10 minutes and we finally get to order! The restaurant do a Special Set Menu offer (Sun, Tue Wed) for £11.95 but is very limited and does not include any dry Tandoori dishes which are preferred for those watching their waistlines, as we were in a group, from the off we advised the waiter there would be 3 bills as some were drinking and some not, as well as some ordering from the main menu and not the special offer menu, this seemed fine with the waiter. My wife and I chose to order from the main menu, we had starters and mains as well as Poppadoms. In respect to the food, I chose the the Mix Starter, which whilst very nice in flavour and presentation I feel was a little overpriced at £5.50 for 2 small pieces of Chicken Tikka, 2 small pieces of lamb Tikka and a smallish Seekh kebab. My wife chose the Nargis kebab which seemed slightly better value at £4.95 but was clearly not freshly prepared as had a very 'grey ' and dry yolk in the egg, but she said the minced kabab coating was very nice. For mains I chose the Special Biryani at £13.95 and my wife chose the Tandoori Chicken Main at £9.95. The 'Special ' Biryani was described on the menu as 'Mixture of chicken, lamb, prawn and king prawn (1) garnished with an omelette on top ' however what I was served included no prawns at all, though did include the stated (1) King prawn '! this was quite a disappointment as I did expect at least some prawns in the dish and to be honest the chicken and lamb in the dish were though nicely spiced and tasty were 'very ' small pieces and very very dry meat! The accompanying 'Vegetable Curry sauce ' was quite a small portion and very bland, with very very soft vegetables which to be quite honest looked to be a spoonful of frozen mixed veg thrown into a basic curry gravy, and when arriving on the table was actually only Luke warm, overall not very impressed! On the up side the rice in the Biryani was nicely seasoned and spiced and did taste very nice. Overall it was not really what you could call a Special Biryani!! The Tandoori Chicken main which my wife was served, though brought to the table on a 'sizzle ' platter with a bed of onions from their appearance had clearly not been freshly cooked in a Tandoor, and consisted of 2 tandoori chicken legs which I guess had been reheated in a microwave and then placed on top of the onions on the platter. It was OK but really nothing to write home about, at £9.95 for the meal I don 't feel its unreasonable to expect at least 1 breast portion and 1 leg portion of Tandoori chicken which have been freshly cooked in a Tandoor. We also ordered 2 Keema Garlic Naan breads, these were actually excellent and very nicely cooked as well as having a decent amount of keema filling and nice amount of garlic, so a thumbs up for those. When the main dishes did arrive at the table we had a random portion of chips arrive which no one had ordered and caused some consternation with the waiters, running back and forth checking the order slips and eventually agreeing that no one had actually ordered chips! though it never appeared on our bill I wonder if someone else in our group of 3 bills paid for it! Drinks! Well you do expect restaurant prices however £13.95 for 2 large diet cokes and 1 glass of basic House Merlot I do feel is a bit steep for Great Wyrley! also friends were drinking pints of Cobra which are NOT cheap so be careful as a few pints of these will easily be double your food bill! It is important to note that Poppadoms are NOT included in the 'Special Set Menu ' and at £6.20 for 4 and a quite small tray of dips will quickly add to you bill if you are not aware. On finishing our meal and whilst paying bills we were offered a 'complimentary ' Brandy or Baileys, which was a nice touch, 5 chose to have a Baileys however it was not actually 'Bailey 's ' but 'Irish Cream ' (a very cheap alternative) served with ice in a very small shot glass... so a nice attempt at good hosting however fell quite short of the mark. Overall the meal was OK, but not really up to the quality which seems to be reported in other reviews and for a midweek meal out with quite limited drinks I do feel £62.50 for 2 of us was a little overpriced, service was slow, in fact very slow and the waiters were not very attentive at all, I feel they were maybe under staffed even for a weekday evening, we left the restaurant just after 9:40pm. I would certainly not consider returning on a busy evening such as a Friday or Saturday. For those looking for a 'Special Offer ' midweek meal to help to with the rises in cost of living then be very aware of what is and is not included as the £11.95 headline price as the bill can easily be doubled by simple additions! On a final point I was quite disappointed there was lots of 'Covid ' related posters, floor stickers, reminders to stand 2M apart and hand sanitisation stations still in evidence, maybe this will not bother some people but I feel its now nearly 2 years since all of the restrictions of Covid were lifted and these should have been removed long since! Makes one wonder what the cleaning regimes are like if bottles of hand sanitiser have been hanging around for all this time!"