Lazeez Lounge

great restaurant.....great food...service friendly... really love the private room idea and very tasteful decor...was told by the owner that a sheesha area is soon to open in the car park..... this restaurant is a refreshing change from all the other run of the mill food joints in the area... reasonably priced... would recommend to all.... you would never think your dining in england once your inside this restaurant.....dont miss out on this great place......
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kappa - View all reviews by this user
Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Having come all the way from London, I was very impressed with the quality of food and service. I was pleasantly surprised by the decore as it was not what I expected from the outside. The staff were all welcoming and helpful, which is useful when your other half can never make up their mind on what to order.

On my first visit I ordered the mixed grill, which was devine, I would even go as far as saying that it beats any I have had in London. The seasoning was just right and the meat was soft and tender no need for excessive chewing!

I visit Birmingham on a regular basis and after having tried eating at other resturants it has become a ritual to eat at Lazeez Lounge.

Oh and I must recommend the lamb curry which I ordered on my last visit, the meat just melted in your mouth, and the naan's were made fresh, non of the hard stale re-heat in the microwave job.

I would most definatly recommend Lazeez Lounge to family and friends.
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Monday, May 12, 2008

great food great service and above all very friendly like the the eastern theme combined with the asian inflencnce.also like the idea of the private rooms. recommended to all. must try it out.
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choudray saab habiby
Friday, May 09, 2008

We tried Lazeez Lounge which our own by-line claims was formerly the Royal Kashmir Cottage. Indeed it was but I think it’s most recent incarnation was Ty’s Jazz and Spice, a place I visited a couple of times and liked very much. Ty’s offered an interesting if not startlingly original concept of matching decent enough Baltis with free live Jazz (admission charged for non-diners but free if you ate). I recall the main dining room in this imposing Georgian building being bright and airy and having a good atmosphere. Perhaps, like many people, I should have supported it more than I did because it eventually closed down and we now have something far less desirable in its place.

Lazeez Lounge boasts its own CCTV car park which is a rare bonus on Stratford Road except that when we arrived there it was almost full of various Mercs and vans which we assumed belonged to staff or friends. We managed to grab just about the last spot which was odd as there was only another couple of guys eating when we went in. Inside, Lazeez Lounge takes a radical departure from its former guise with the main dining area being chopped up into a warren or private dining booths (we had a look into these and all seem to be furnished with low tables and floor cushions). The colour scheme now incorporates just about every colour at the Magenta end of the spectrum with peach, yellow, pink, orange and red jostling for position. High on the walls on either side of the dining room are murals of a desert scene at night with mosques and camels on the horizon which are competent in an ‘Athena - White Horse in the Surf’ kind of way. The former stage is now carpeted and furnished with various floor cushions and one of those swinging garden sofa affairs you see in back gardens that also come with gnomes and plastic windmills, except the one in Lazeez is also illuminated by a twinkling rope light. The only other illumination comes from about 8 low voltage halogen spotlights which make the whole dining room appear dim and dingy.

We were seated at a round table in the middle of the dining room. Furniture followed the general colour scheme of the room by having chairs upholstered in a peach fabric with cheap tablecloths in the same colour. Every table bar ours was decorated with naff ‘silk’ flowers.

Menus were handed to us and we were then left for a good twenty minutes, possibly because it takes most people that long to decipher them. The design of the menus needs serious re-consideration because far too many dishes are crammed onto too small a card. The descriptions under all of the main dishes could not have been set in text larger than 4 point which Jazz could not read at all (he wasn’t eating but was still interested in the menu). We called the waiter over and asked him to read the description of a chicken karahi. He pondered the menu for a while before answering “It’s bits of chicken in curry sauce” – Clearly he could not read the menu either. The menu is also silly. For example they have two sections – Lazeez Karahi dishes and Lazeez Handi dishes. Both have the same selection of chicken, lamb, prawn and keema variations and all have the exact same description and price except the karahi comes in a balti dish and the handi comes in a clay pot. I called the waiter over again and asked him what the difference between a karahi and a Handi was. “The pot” was his reply. Out of interest I ordered a lamb ‘Handi’ but still got my meal served in a Karahi. Perhaps the kitchen doesn’t know the difference either?

To begin we ordered a Jug of salt lassi which both Jazz and I are fans of and poppadums and dips for all of us to share. The lassi was fine and refreshing but the poppadums were greasy. You don’t often get that – even the most incompetent kitchen has managed to grasp the idea of dabbing poppadums with some kitchen roll if they come out greasy. The chilli dip was at least good and fiery and the yoghurt variation no more bland than anywhere else. My main problem was that we ran out of chilli dip long before we’d finished the poppadums but the waiter was nowhere to be seen to request more. Then, with at least a couple of poppadums still to eat, the starters came out. I’ve seen this happen once before but usually restaurants wait until you’ve finished the poppadums before bringing on the next course. In most restaurants it is also customary to replenish the dips for the starters but our waiter declined to notice this needed doing so we ate our first course with just the yoghurt dip. Mike and Big Chris both ordered Shami kebab, described enticingly as ‘minced lamb seasoned with fresh chillies & herbs then shallow fried’ but to me they looked like a couple of dollops on the plate and tasted fairly dry. I ordered my customary starter of lamb chops and got a generous plate of four but unfortunately they had been crudely over-spiced. There was also a strange mix of textures with the meat on at least one chop being almost mushy in whilst the others were quite firm. All of our starters came with a salad that had a good selection of mixed leaves, carrot and cabbage which was one up on the usual meager offering of iceberg and sliced tomato. We ordered a second jug of lassi after these and the dentist drill whiz that came from the kitchen shortly afterwards confirms these are freshly prepared to order.

Our starter plates were cleared promptly on finishing our dishes and almost immediately our main courses came out. In total contrast to when we arrived to an almost empty restaurant when there seemed to be no hurry to take our order, our meal was now being given express service as if get us out of the restaurant as quickly as possible. I may be totally wrong in this assumption but I got the feeling that as the restaurant was now filling up with Muslim customers, our presence was now causing the restaurants owners and their other customers some degree of discomfort.

For mains I ordered the lamb handi (but served the lamb karahi as mentioned previously), Mike had a jalfrezi (can’t remember whether he had chicken or prawn), and Big Chris ordered a chicken tikka masala (no Korma on the menu which would have been his usual choice, so he went for the next mildest dish he could find). I also ordered our normal dish of tarka daal (no option of a side dish available so we had to order a £4.95 main portion) and we ordered two naan breads although we were served (and charged for) three. The waiter asked whether I wanted my dish mild, medium or hot and I requested a hot version which almost elicited a wince and a gasp of “Are you sure? Good luck” from the waiter. The dish I was served was in fact uncomfortably hot which I fail to understand. I know all Asian kitchens have different ideas on what constitutes a ‘hot’ curry but most would agree that it would be something of Madras strength rather than a vindaloo or phal which would come under the heading of b*stard hot. What I was served was b*stard hot but in such a situation you don’t really want to wimp out and ask for a milder version only for the waiter to smugly remind you that he did double check. The restaurant though was at fault – their interpretation of a ‘hot’ curry is wildly inconsistent with anywhere else. The curry (ordered with mushroom and spinach) was at least good quality with a rich, earthy taste but it’s just a shame very little of the other spices or herbs could be appreciated. Curiously I didn’t actually notice many fresh chopped chillies in the dish so the heat must have come from chilli powder which in itself is a fairly crude way of making a curry hotter. By contrast the tarka daal was extremely good with a wonderful depth of flavour including a nice hint of fresh ginger that you don’t normally get with such a simple lentil dish. Mike also thought very highly of his Jalfrezi rating it as better than the example he had had at Al Frash the previous week. By contrast Big Chris thought very little of his chicken tikka masalla, likening it to a plate of bland chicken that had had Heinz tomato soup poured over it.

By the time we had finished our meal the restaurant was filling up quite a bit with mainly young Asian men. I take this not as a sign that the food was good or authentic (I believe I am at least as qualified myself to judge that) but because diners were confident that halal meat was used and alcohol would not be present. Shortly before we left a couple came into the restaurant with the wife dressed in a Burkha and they occupied one of the private dining rooms. I guess this is the main purpose for such rooms, although if I were more cynical I might also hypothesize that they would be popular with young Asian men wanting to drink alcohol unseen, but I’m sure that is not the case.

Our bill for what was essentially three starters and three main meals was a fairly exorbitant £55 which puts it clearly into pole position as the most expensive meal I have had in the Balti Triangle. Close examination of the bill revealed that my Balti lamb dish (on the menu at £7.95) was charged at £11.95 after adding £2 for mushrooms and £2 for spinach. It is the custom in some restaurants to charge 50p or £1 per additional ingredient (although equally many good restaurants will not charge anything because you are merely swapping more vegetables for less meat) but never have I been charge £4! We also noticed that they had charged us £7.90 for the two jugs of lassi. It could be argued that it’s on the menu at £3.95 per jug so why complain but I’ve been to many restaurants where they refill your jug of lassi free of charge – After all they’ve made more than enough profit on fifty pence of milk and yoghurt with the first jug.

On leaving we were surprised to see so many staff milling around in the car park given that there was only two rather pressed guys working the dining room on their own. One of the guys loitering in the car park thanked us as we left saying “Nice one lads”. I’m not sure whether he was genuinely pleased that we had visited or that they had managed to roll us for £60 (incredibly we left a £5 tip) with so little effort.

All I can say of this place in conclusion is that they can clearly cook some decent food but you pretty much take pot luck and unless you are indeed Muslim and want to be assured of eating Halal food or have need of privacy there is very little reason to visit this place. The décor is dim and dingy, the food inconsistent, the service amateurish and the cost exorbitant. There are so many better places than this in the triangle you’d be advised to try just about anywhere else and forego the negligible advantage of off-street parking.
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Saturday, April 19, 2008

good food, good atmosphere, children friendly, and v good service.
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khan
Friday, December 07, 2007

best resturant ever, friendly staff, perfect atmosphere, excellent food. Highly recommended
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tahir
Monday, August 21, 2006

food good highly recommended, service quick, atmosphere relaxing, over all great satisfaction, best of all has a good eastern theme.....good decor.
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shaida
Friday, May 05, 2006