Eastern Pavillion, St John's Road, Edinburgh

First impressions don't count.....

I spotted the Eastern Pavilion while driving by and thought it had the ingredients of a good curry house- nice prices, decent menu, popular. I was newish in the city and wanted a good old traditional Indian. We were warmly welcomed and I was amazed at the extensive menu. Popadoms and lassi were order of the day, the popadoms fresh and crisp, the way I like. For the main, I ordered a Vegetable Pathia which had a pleasing taste but the quality of the veg left a lot to be desired. Shredded, small carrots and courgettes which had either come pickled out of a jar or frozen from Iceland. The crowning glory was two potatoes on top to make it look decent.

As the staff were pleasant, I decided to go back a month or so later and give them a second chance, however, a new member of staff was on that night. This new member of staff was from the school of hard-sell. 'Buy this, buy that, what, you don't want a starter? etc etc'. He tried to persuade us to pick different meals from the menu than we'd originally chosen. When the meals came (I had vegetable madras), the sauce tasted like last month's pathia but not mixed very well, and the same pickled veg. Their over bearing sales technique had definitely put me off going back any more.

PS if you need any further persuasion not to visit the restaurant, can I just add that when I flew back to England the following day, I was in great discomfort and I owe the toilet cleaners at Manchester airport my sincerest apology for any mess I may have made.