Table Reservation - Bilash

Very nice a bit pricey but good food and a good atmosphere, would recommend, great when your in Wolverhampton for a show etc read more Very nice a bit pricey but good food and a good atmosphere, would recommend, great when your in Wolverhampton for a show etc

We were attending a concert at The Halls; the restaurant is a stone 's throw from the venue and so three of us booked an early table. It was encouraging to see... read more We were attending a concert at The Halls; the restaurant is a stone 's throw from the venue and so three of us booked an early table. It was encouraging to see that there were already people seated in the downstairs area when we arrived shortly after 5pm. The welcome was warm and although we weren 't given menus on arrival, we were offered poppadums and drinks. We ordered six poppadums and three small bottles of Cobra they didn 't have any draught lager or large bottles of Cobra. The poppadums and drinks arrived and, eventually, the menus. There was a 'Christmas ' set menu at £35 (starter, main, rice or naan) and an a la carte menu. We didn 't really want a starter as we had planned to move on and meet some other friends for drinks before the concert. Looking at the a la carte menu, we were surprised to see that we were obliged to order a starter and a main, at which point we agreed my might as well order from the set menu. We ordered three veggie pakora and three shahi paneer, two naan and a rice from the set menu. Bear in mind that on the a la carte menu, the pakora starter comes in at an eye watering £15 and the curry £22, plain rice at £5 and naan at £6, so we felt like we were getting some value for money at least. The food was nice; no better than anything I 've had from our local restaurant and no worse, just more than double the price. We ordered a few more bottles of Cobra and I had a glass of wine there is no wine by the glass priced on the menu and so I didn 't know what I was drinking, except that it was wet and white, or how much it was going to cost. When the bill arrived, we were gobsmacked. The bottles of Cobra were £6 each that works out at £9 a pint and we 'd had eight of them. The poppadoms, which as we were offered them on arrival and they weren 't anywhere on the menu, we foolishly assumed were complimentary were wait for it £2.50 each. We had spent £15 on poppadoms before we even ordered any actual food. The bill came in at £165 for the three of us; I managed to negotiate the poppadoms to be removed from the bill, citing daylight robbery. We also noted that the diners on the tables to the left and right of us were equally shocked, with one diner putting away their debit card and swapping it for a credit card and two gents splitting the bill on another table scratching their heads as to how their modest dinner had come in at nearly £70 a head. I realise that this review is mostly about money and hardly anything to do with food, but, as I 've intimated, the latter was nothing to shout about. The restaurant is tired in appearance and the service wasn 't exactly slick. The front of house/manager was welcoming and professional but not very awake to the fact that the restaurant is charging for things by stealth, in the middle of a cost of living crisis. If you 're happy to pay this much for Indian food and want an amazing night out, go a couple of stops on the train into Brum and visit Asha 's or Varanasi where the food, decor and service are absolutely outstanding. You 'll even save yourself a few quid in the process.