Lal Baag in Lambeth

This restaurant has gone out of business but is still taking money for orders placed online. DO NOT USE!

I’ve been a regular at Lal Baag, but after this experience, I won’t be coming back. I tried placing a phone order and was kept on hold for 20 minutes. When I called back, the line was off the hook. Later that evening, I called to complain, and someone named Ali promised a free meal for the inconvenience. When I tried to redeem that today, they claimed no one named Ali ever worked there and refused to honor the offer. Terrible customer service and misleading promises – very disappointed!

Food is always good. I love the pumpkin dish!

Absolutely delicious food. Take aways always arrive hot and on time.

Always ordered take aways from here and the food has always been fantastic, went to the restaurant last night, not very welcoming, and also live mice running around the restaurant we cancelled our food order and left.

I have been going to this establishment for over 30 years. It always delivers you don’t need to go any further. This is one of the best curry house in London very underrated and they accommodated us at the last call at 11 o’clock for eight lads and we were well fed, thank you Lal baag 🫶🏼

I've posted some pretty negative reviews in the past but, bearing in mind that this restaurant now operates a BYOB policy, my partner and I decided to give in another try. The advertised closing time was 11pm and we entered at 10-15pm. The waiter appeared inconvenienced to see us, and explained that we needed to order quickly, which we did. I ordered a chicken vindaloo + pilau rice. OK. My partner ordered a vegetarian biryani which was under spiced and mostly potato based. This, plus the fact that the staff are so unwelcoming, prompted our refusal to pay the standard service charge.

We've come here for nearly 40 years. The best curry, consistently good. Chicken tikka garlic bhuna is excellent.

Team outing after a long day of rehearsals. Venue is minutes from the South London Theatre and very happy to have a large booking. The food is excellent and it's very well priced. With a large group, it is always a challenge to get everybody served at the same time without things getting cold. It was a great evening. NB - this is a bring your own bottle.

My husband brought home loads of take out dishes from this place and oh my goodness. They gave us a free potato dish. I forgot what it’s called but it was yummy. The portions were huge and super affordable for all the dishes we got. Will definitely go back again.

I cannot overstate how much I love this restaurant. I have now moved away from London, but will be returning in a monthly basis, and I will 100% be coming back. The food is so good.

Had been a while since we’ve eaten here but thought we’d give it a go. Disappointed with the difference in the info given and actual amount of food you receive. Chicken tikka clearly stated 5 pieces but only 4 small pieces served for £5.95. 4 onion bhajis but only received 3 and a large bottle of coke quoted at £3.95 which is what I asked for to share but was given a glass of coke but still charged £3.95 food was quite good but didn’t like the things mentioned above. Afraid we won’t be going back for a return visit because of this.

Service a bit slow, which seemed like was due to lots of home delivery order.

Had a takeaway, all Anglo Bangladeshi fake Indian cuisine and not a good version of it either. Two dishes, chicken Balti and jalfrezi were identical, lamb dish no spices, matter paneer bland as was the cauliflower dish. Mixed kebabs dry, pilao rice lumpy and lacking spices. Naans OK but too much added sugar. The chef either will not cook or can't cook decent food. Real south east asian cuisine is a delight on the palate, with wonderful complex and sometimes explosive flavours, but this food was dull and bland, the opposite of delectable, so unappetising. Had I actually been dining instead of having a takeaway, I would have sent it back and left. I had my first curry in 1965, my first Indian cooking lesson in 1970 and have Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi neighbours who all give me food, they also like my food and are surprised an indigenous Englishman can cook south east Asian food like a native, so my credentials for criticism are good. Avoid this place, try your local supermarket, far cheaper and better, or try a decent restaurant serving authentic Indian cuisine.

This is the second time we were refused service within advertised opening hours. We arrived last night at about 10-20pm. The door was open and the sign said OPEN. The waiter however, on noting that there were no other customers there announced that they were closed, obviously because they couldn't be bothered to serve just two customers. The message is to ignore their advertised opening times. They will serve you if it suits them, otherwise, forget it.

Sorry but apart from the naan bread which was delicious we found the food very bland And sadly the mint sauce was not very nice I hope it was a one-off, but I'm not sure we will give it a second chance

Wrong main dish brought to table so we are separately .Early evening so we were the only people in there.

Really tasty food and very reasonable prices.

Tasteless and boring. Why not make good food and get people to come back. At least I can tick this one of the list. Back to the drawing board.

Amazing food and good portions. Chicken Biryani and vegetable curry was amazing. George

Local restaurant, I visited last week with with boyfriend. Pretty tasty food. Ordered chicken pallak, butter chicken, pulao rice, peshwari naan, lamb samosa. Good large portion. The naan was delicious! Overall food was good. Atmosphere was average, small place good for locals with no frills but honest food.

Dreadful. Both chicken dishes were basically chicken tikka pieces one was covered in a tasteless masala. The other dish ordered was chicken shaslik which was chicken tikka pieces. Sent it back & they delivered again the exact same dish. If you know south Asian food avoid because you will be severely & financially disappointed. Have thrown it all in the bin because it was so tasteless & we didn’t even order chicken tikka but managed to get loads of it & it was very dry. I would talk about the vegetables dishes but all the dishes were awful absolutely tasteless. 6-8 months ago it was goodish food but either they’ve changed the chef or they have lost their passion either way avoid.

The most blent indin food I have eaten. Trust me I know Indian food. I am Indian. Ordered from just eat 2 bryani and called the store to make it spicy. They stated ok. But when it came in. Tasted like boiled whote rice with no flavour. Really disappointed for the taste.

Had a delicious take away, good portions and great value. Will definitely order again!

Only ordered once so far. Everything was really good except for one tandoori dish was a bit weird as it came with a watery sauce.

I been living in west Norwood all my life. I’m a chef by profession so people who read this I give honest opinions as I love to eat out trying different food and cuisines and I have my go to places aswell. So let’s talk about lal baag. First of all it’s not a traditional Indian resturant. It’s Bangladeshi style food not india. I tend not to eat at local curry houses and ones that say Indian / Bangladeshi cuisines but there have been some which I have and the food is well good. Lal baag being my local never tried it and had nothing at home so decide to pop down and have a mix grill. Ended up ordering a mix grill and a couple of curries with my brother. Empty resturant at 9pm on a Thursday and we ordered food which took over 50mins to come. Asked for the mix grill first and then curries after and sent everything at once. Didn’t even have a lot of u we or Deliveroo orders either. Had the ask the guy how long is the starter going to take only then he went In the kitchen to find out. No reply!!!!! The food well sorry was not good. The mix grill for the price not worth it and the meat was all dry and seemed like it was pre cooked reheated and put on the sizzler plater. Chicken tikka no taste lamb tikka tough to eat. Lamb kabab very dry. Picture of sizzler to follow. Price £15 The curries well I love the taste of naga chilies in a curry this was way too over powering and spicy to where my ears were ringing. Chicken tikka pieces in there very tough as reheated in the sauce so already pre cooked chicken being used. Chicken tikka masala well every place has different versions of this British made fav dish. Food colour used here to the max bright red and very very sweet. No no no. Order garlic naan and I could not even see or taste garlic. It seem as if they used garlic powder and not fresh garlic. Didn’t try veg dishes but I’m guessing that prob would have been a good choice and veg will be cooked fresh. Overall if there where options of having no start rating then this would be there but everyone needs a star to look at on reviews. But the food was not great, took over 45 mins for the food to come on a empty place. Not worth the price for the quantity charged for and defo not listening to the customer about what they would like to have first. Starters or just send them everything at once.

Brilliant food and service. Nice and clean indoors. 👌

Great place to chill and eat some fantastically cooked Indian food with a special someone, or a gathering with many friends. Lal Baag caters for all, and is a top choice for me.

This is really great quality Indian food. Everything tastes perfect and the delivery is quick. The only thing I would say could be improved would be that it would be nice to have a couple more pieces of chicken in the chicken curries.

Lovely restaurant with plenty of choice of tasty looking and tasting food - we chose to have side dishes and share - in order to try more options. We had the place to ourselves as we were so early.

Vegetarian dishes are always super fresh, tasty. Great customer service

Dined there last night. Friendly staff, fast service & delicious food.

Good food. Cooked as required (mild/medium). Will come back again!

Today I ordered Jalfrezi but I pacifically said that I wanted a Mild/medium one I’ve ordered in the past and it has been fine but tonight it will so spicy and hot that it was inedible. It’s not like they were rushed off their feet with loads of customers in the restaurant and couldn’t quite make out what I was saying. I will be taking my custom elsewhere from now on

I've been going here for 10 years and eating Indian for over 40 years, now no guessing my age now! Lal Baag remains the best Indian food, size of portions, quality of ingrediants and therefore best value. Glen West maybe you've lost your sense of taste, could be a sign of something.

Ordered a take away tonight where we ordered for 10 people. We ordered 3 mixed grills as part of the order. They are ment to come with nan bread, chicken on the bone, lumps of chicken, chunks of lamb and lamb kofte. They came with just the chicken on the bone. We phoned to let them know this is all we got, 20 mins later a delivery man turned up with 3 small lumps of lamb, nothing else! Shocking, from a restaurant we use regularly (won't be using again)!

Just ordered from here, No exaggeration when I say its the worst Indian I have ever had. Chicken Tikka pieces were terrible, No flavour at all the chicken was poor quality, rubbery and was cold. Vegetable Curry was basically onions very little flavour and the Shish kebab was the weirdest tasting I have ever had. Took ages to arrives UTTERLY AWFUL. ordered from here before and it was good but awful now.

I get deliveries from here regularly and my family and I are very happy with the food. I was going to go for a change as we had a menu for Rajah Rowing club through the door and saw their 3.6 star reviews here. So I thought I'd compare with my usual I am surprised to see some negative reviews as have never in five years had cause to complain. Crispy bajis, great keema and chicken tikka.

Absolutely great food, I will definitely be making more visits keep up the good work!

Delicious food, great vegetarian options, recommend an order!

This takeaway was very good, very quick delivery, good quality chicken and lamb , free saag aloo for ordering more than £30. Would definitely recommend and order again. Would have given 5* but the garlic naan wasn't too garlicky and pricey at £2.85 , and salmon tikka for starter was on the bland side

First order , first class. Delicious and generous portions. Will be back for more.

Look: We all like Jason Statham. But Lal Baag’s Homage to The Transporter 2 has just taken it a bit too far. Dont get me wrong, the Lamb Bhuna slipped down quicker than Mr Status in his bicycle cleats but only due to the vast quantities of oil that they put into him. Wrestling with our onion Bhaji’s but unable to get a purchase on their slippery bodies, Jason slid seamlessly from plate to plate, evading us effortlessly. A lot of potential and a really moving tribute to one of the greatest scenes in cinema but sadly the execution was off. I look forward to meeting Jason again for a rematch soon.

Really interesting to see Shell diversifying their business model and venturing into curries. This is quite possibly the most oily curry I have ever consumed. Thank god we weren’t eating it anywhere near the coastline as even a small spill of the Bhuna we had would have presented a significant ecological threat to wildlife in UK waters. “We are now in the midst of a climate and ecological crisis, we have to call it what it is - an emergency”. -Some really wise words from Greta Thunberg’s review of Lal Baag and I couldn’t agree more. It’s time for Lal Baag to invest in renewable forms of sauce. Please join me in writing to your local MP and help save Norwood’s natural habitat. Thank you.

Excellent!!! Me and my partner have been looking for a good Indian food take away for a looooong time!!! We tried every place in the area, all left us disappointed!!! I don't know how we haven't heard about you before! The best food ever!!!! We ordered quite few dishes, everyone of them was sooooo delicious! Thank you guys! You will be seeing us soon again.

Great tasting food and great service. Lovely independent restaurant worthy of your support - have eaten in a fair amount as well and it's always good. :-)

My partner and I have eaten in Lal Baag several times and also had takeaways. Don’t entirely understand the poor reviews as the food (especially the chicken tikka masala) is the best I’ve ever had. We recently got a takeaway from here. The service was a prompt, polite and professional. Food arrived piping hot and full of flavour. It’s our go-to Indian in west Norwood and will be recommending to others here. Keep up the good work!

Very satisfied with food and service

Delicious food. Delivered on time. Great service

Tasty as always, friendly delivery driver.

Great food! One of our favourite Indian restaurants in the area.

Food was good but arrived an hour after it was due

My experience with this restaurant was terrible had to wait 2hours to receive my food once I received it the quality was poor and cold never order from here again !!! Would not recommend to either

The food was so late! I checked online afterwards and they’d even lied about when it was delivered. They said it was only 20minutes late when it was over an hour late! Even the delivery was terrible. We live on a top floor flat and the delivery driver just left it at the bottom of our apartment block so we had to go and collect it ourselves.

Excellent food and great value for money. Lal Baag never disappoints!

When we were putting our order through the delivery time was estimated to be 35-50 minutes. When our order was placed (7:50pm) the expected delivery time was actually 1 hr 15 minutes (9:05pm). Our delivery still hadn't arrived by 9:05pm so we called the restaurant who said our order was out and we should expect it in a couple of minutes. I then received a text saying the delivery would be delayed until 9:35pm - so the restaurant had lied. The food did finally arrive at 9:35pm, at least an hour later than initially expected. I asked for a refund for the order and have merely recieved £3 which is not really a refund as it is credit allocated to be just eat account!

Every dish we ordered was delicious. Particularly recommend the Chicken tikka garlic bhuna and the Lamb rogan josh. 👌🏼

Food was very good, rather late though with no update. Food wasn't not as hot as it should have been as a result.

We have very few restaurants in West Norwood. I would say this one stands out. I was glad we did dinner. The meat was very good but the rice portion was a bit small. This is an Indian restaurant with good quality and the prices are very reasonable. However, they take a bit longer with their "delivery at home" service.

Ordered classic Rogan Josh with lamb, tasty rice - decent poppadoms, curry lacked a bit of fire, it was definitely made for more subtle palates. Peshwari naan wasn't particularly sweet and a bit floury. A few more tomatoes than meat cubes in the curry, but overall a fair meal and one that wasn't too oily and had good flavour throughout. Would go to again, but would try some of the specials and order more hot than specified on the menu.

Starter (Reshme Kebab) was excellent, main course was nothing special (Lamb Madras).

The food was absolutely delicious

Food never arrive!!!!!!! Total of 4 hours waiting and finally didn't get the food! Never order again from this restaurant

We always order from Lal Baag. It's our local and we love it. Food came early which we were very happy about because we were so hungry!

I usually love Lal Bag but my lamp chops were incinerated to charcoal and the chicken tikka was over cooked and dry. It was way below the usual quality. Hopefully just a bad day

Food was cold and swimming in oil

Delicious love the chicken tikka biryani with kurma very tastey

We only have a 2 year lease, should we provide a forwarding address?

Food arrived cold and food was bland. The vegetable curry had an abundance of onions and no vegetables. The Chapati's were hard and seemed to be stale. Not a very pleasant dining experience.

My partner an I arrived at 10-05 pm so ample time to eat and leave well before the 11-30pm closing time. It was almost empty and as we were about to seat ourselves the waiter arrived to curtly inform us that it was cash only and that there was a dispenser nearby. He then unapologetically added that the cook would be leaving soon so rather than rush our meal we just left. We've had many good meals here so quite shocked at the impromptu no cash, eat quickly and leave policy and the rudeness of the waiter.

First time takeaway customer. Two decent size samosas but they were soggy and bland. Saag Bhaji and chicken madras also lacking flavour. Chicken chewy. The madras sauce not creamy enough and not rich in colour. Th paratha very thick. Overall not good value. Hubby had the butter chicken which he didn’t even finish.

Delicious food, good price , quick and polite service, used 5 times now and would recommend.

The chicken tikka masala was great! We had tubs of raita and onion pickle, but no papadoms ... never mind, we enjoyed our meal.

Good quality food, large portions, varied menu, including good vegetarian options. Helpful and friendly staff.

I ordered my regular order was not the same standard today. Really different in flavour and not good!!!!!

Wow just been there, excellent food , brilliant customer service and nice environment.

Really lovely food and the service brilliant

I’ve ordered from here before, used to be better I think. The main dish I ordered just wasn’t very tasty...

Food is always amazing. The delivery is shocking. They claim Express delivery 45 mins, but will always be at least an hour and 15 mins

Lovely chicken tikka bhuna and sag aloo; food was hot and fresh.

Love the food here, consistent good quality.... Not spiced to hot

Ooh 'baag' yourself a lovely curry

Lighter than usual Indian food but still good. The quality was on average and the service was nice! The ambient is perfect. Clean perception, ok!

Everytime i have been there it has been very good and i'm comparing this to tooting and other restaurants at the top end (whihc are better of course). In summary i'd say best in the wider area and better still wednesday and sunday they do a £15 starter/main/side (no drinks inc).

My family and I visited Lal Baag for their special 2 course Wednesday meal. The food was overall very good. For starters I had a two nice crispy Chicken Pakora which was followed by the lovely mains Lamb Bhuna. Both dishes were great, the curry spices were so subtle that I was not able to feel any heat from the chilli. My brother asked for an extra spicy Lamb Korma, the chefs did not fail to deliver there. The Korma had just the right thickness to it and the extra spice certainly gave an enjoyable kick. (4/5) Service was adequate, the waiter was kind enough to explain the Wednesday special menu to us before we ordered. However, they made a mistake with one of our orders. Also, the waiter did not check on us to see if we needed anything else or if we found the food good. (2.5/5) As we visited Lal Baag on a weekday we assumed they would be few people, however the restaurant had no other customers when we visit about 21:00. What was puzzling was that a sudden surge of customers arrived as we left, 30mins before closing. The overall décor is well done with illuminated glass artwork panels. (3/5) Our visit to Lal Baag was certainly great value for money with a range of Indian cuisine. We do hope to dine here again in future. (4/5) Overall rating (3.4/5)

Restaurant was empty and no atmosphere Food took a while to arrive and was ok but I would not go back as a bit bland

Restaurante indiano, que também faz entregas. Boa qualidade de comida indiana, variado menu, com várias opções de escolha. A entrega foi feita com comida quente e não houve enganos relativamente ao que tínhamos solicitado.

Had a fabulous meal here, every single dish was delicious and we couldn't fault it. Great value for money. Will definitely be back for more!

Well where to start.. Saturday night me an my family visited Lal Baag for a meal inside. Everything was well presented and the flavours were immense. Me and my husband ordered the chilli lamb it was absolutely perfect. I would even go as far to say that it’s the best we have ever had! Staff were friendly and everything was reasonably priced. Will defo recommend to others and we will definitely be returning thanks :-) ******

Lovely food, good prices. One of our favourite please to go to.

This used to be a bit of a rubbish local but it's got much better and interesting dishes as well as the regular ones we expect to see in a London Indian restaurant. It's small, not that many covers. I think it still might be suffering from its former reputation but our party would all be happy to go back again and are happy to have this as our local.

What a shame!! We always enjoyed the food and ordered and visited the restaurant many many times over the years, even recommended it for its food (yet the restaurant itself was definitely lacking in ambience and staff were not very hospitable ...) I called to order our regular takeaway dishes, to be told... that they will only add ponir cheese to our order just one last time on a weekend (we’ve ordered this for the last 3 years) and don’t ask again as they are busy ( yet to be honest the place is dead in the week) the person on the end of the phone was just damn rude, as I pointed out to him, big mistake if we are now an inconvenience after putting money in your till for the last few years, we certainly won’t be ordering again... and with an attitude like that towards customers, i’m Sure they’ll lose many more... very disappointed , and shocked at the change in there attitude because they were having one busy night in the restaurant.... Value your regulars Lal bag!!!

Rude, disappointed with no value for the regular customers that have spent lots of money in their establishment for the past 3 years... Unbelievable, won’t be getting our custom anymore, and I should think, a lot of customers will feel the same. Apparently they can not add ponir to your meal ( like they have for 3 years and always paid extra for) and don’t ask again at a weekend because they are too busy.... Pah ha ha ... Wow, aside from that they’re attitude stinks...

Food was lovely and the restaraunt assistants were very friendly

Good food with several veggie options. I am veggie but my fiance isn't, so it is great to go to a place that can cater to both of us. However, I couldn't understand why the mains didn't include sides and you had to order it separately. Obviously I understand that this is not a new concept but our waiter didn't speak English very well, so that added to the confusion. The prices where reasonable but, we got charged for a few sauces brought to our table without us ordering (we just though they were complimentary at first) - happy to pay for it but all a bit confusing in the end. All in all I would still recommend this place as a nice place to eat!

Reliable local Indian restaurant. Good veggie options (plenty of paneer dishes) and decent service at a reasonable price. Quality of food is noticeably better if you eat in the restaurant (where it is always excellent); I've had some takeaways of decidedly mixed quality.

Fui con mi familia a Lal Baag, la comida estaba muy rica y bien presentada. Nos lo pasamos muy bien, excepto yo y mi hermana nos hicieron sentir muy incómodo, ya que un hombre se mirando a través de la ventana de la cocina, la primera vez no tome ningún aviso, pero él continuó para hacerlo. Eso es lo único negativo que tengo que decir.

Very good curry, slightly smaller portions. A bit stingy with the popadoms.

Good tasty Indian food, but a touch pricey. Can take a while for food to be ready, especially when they are busy

An excellent restaurant, friendly staff and delicious food. Sunday afternoon banquet buffet 10.99