Malabar in Wolverhampton

Terrific for a family birthday meal. Food was uniformly excellent; lamb was superb. Wide choice of drinks. Just a great night out.

A big thank you to Shah Islam at Malabar restaurant Penn. Last night we had the most beautiful meal, cooked by Shah himself. Cod, lobster and clams adorned with samphire. It was all presented in a beautiful bisque. It was honestly amazing. Thank you to the staff too, who really looked after us 🥂X

Amazing Lamb Chops like last time and the Main Courses amazing again. Personal highlight was the Cheese naan so I bought another for tomorrow's lunch. Happy professional service too 🙌

Excellent quality of service and food, best Indian restaurant in the area.

Head and shoulders the best quality tasting food around! Time and time again, these guys deliver on taste! These guys get knocked for service from time to time, or for their pricing, but never on their quality of food. Those who know will chose to return because of the taste.

Not a bad restaurant.I thought the ambience was very nice and the service was good.In regards to the food I thought it was quite average it wasn't anything special. Overall not a bad experience.

Great food never disappoints from the Malabar.

Fabulous birthday celebration excellent food and service, a hidden gem ,will definitely be returning thank-you from all of us

Probably the best Indian we've been to, the was food excellent, service good, atmosphere fantastic, will definitely be back Gerald and Lynn

Went for a family meal. Unfortunately the waiter dropped curry over 3 tops one which was a stone island no sorry did not want to resolve the matter. Had to ask to speak to the manager 3 times. No care no customer service no apology from the manager or staff. In the end we had to go over and speak to the manager his response was these things happen. Really I don’t think so. Did not want to resolve the matter. So we advised not paying for the food untill you come to an agreement no offer of discount nothing. Will not be going back there

Very good place. Recommended for a wider choice and good decor.

absolutely dyobolical service waited two hours for my food and on top of that half an hour for a drink that they forgot about and made us pay for popadoms we didnt order😡😡😡

Busy restaurant on a Saturday evening, waiters were all very pleasant and friendly. Good atmosphere. Lots of choice on the menu, very well presented. Food ordered was lovely l, would definitely recommend.

Omg!! The food here was amazing all cooked fresh,highly recommend the garlic scallops for a starter. However all the food was amazing.Staff were friendly and nothing was too much trouble and your not rushed at order or eat.I recommend you book as it soon fills up.

Ordered a takeaway for the first time. Really easy website to order from. Went to collect and restaurant was busy and the staff were very attentive. My food was ready within 5 minutes of me arriving for collecting it. It was piping hot and the flavours were amazing. Great value and will be returning soon.

Over a 2 hour wait for food tonight, only ordered main courses, so disappointed. My food was oily and bland. First and last time I will spending money here.

Excellent service from the moment we walked in and the food was spectacular. Very clean and polite staff.

Always had a nice meal at the Malabar

Another lovely evening at my favourite restaurant. The restaurant looks great and immaculately clean. The service is excellent with a really good selection of drinks. Whether you’re a meat eater, love fish dishes or vegetarian you won’t be disappointed. Everything is cooked from fresh and be prepared for generous portions. The food is excellent and reasonably priced.

This place is a joke from the food to the manager! The way the manager spoke of the food, we thought we were in for a real treat, however as soon as the starters came we knew what we was in for! the fish pakora looked liked fish fingers! never seen anything like its, it tasted as bad is it looked, and the cheese naan looked like a mini cheese pizza! and the manager had the audacity to overcharge on 1 of the fish dishes! The manager has a huge ego! seems to think the resturant is 1 of best around! and was insistent on trying to order for us! the managers needs a serious reality check and his attitude stinks! Anyone who thinks this place does good food, does not have any idea on indian cuisine! I've uploaded the picture of the cheese naan/pizza, if only had took a pic of the fish pakora/fish fingers! It goes to show how good the place is, as its been there for over 20 years and me nor anyone else I know has ever heard of the place. Please avoid this place at all costs!

Really good meal with great attentive service. The lamb chops were unbelievable and the star of the show. Main courses great too with absolutely banging Naans. Would defo recommend 👌

Christmas day lunch, it was fantastic both food and service.

I’ll start by saying that we used to love this place and considered it amongst the best food we had eaten ! we went this evening and all started off well the starters were delicious but when the mains arrived both were visibly swimming in oil my wife’s was a masala style dish that had split revealing that the dish was a minimum of 50% oil mine was a fish dish that arrived on a sizzling platter which was also swimming in oil both were almost flavourless which considering the price of both meals were over £20 each ( just for the curry ) was disappointing but to add insult to injury I was extremely sick within a minute of leaving the restaurant. We are both really disappointed as this was a place we don’t visit often but have held in high regard for over 15 years- not anymore ! £101 for a meal for two left feeling disappointed and was quite ill Also the “ monkfish” in the curries clearly was cod or pollock monkfish doesn’t flake

I’ll start by saying that we used to love this place and considered it amongst the best food we had eaten ! we went this evening and all started off well the starters were delicious but when the mains arrived both were visibly swimming in oil my wife’s was a masala style dish that had split revealing that the dish was a minimum of 50% oil mine was a fish dish that arrived on a sizzling platter which was also swimming in oil both were almost flavourless which considering the price of both meals were over £20 each ( just for the curry ) was disappointing but to add insult to injury I was extremely sick within a minute of leaving the restaurant. We are both really disappointed as this was a place we don’t visit often but have held in high regard for over 15 years- not anymore ! £101 for a meal for two left feeling disappointed and was quite ill

Nice staff, good atmosphere and ok food. It was a pleasant visit and the 2-3rd time I've been. The food on my last visit wasn't great and the prices have also increased. We had the Nepalese fish starter, which was a bit oily and very bland. I had a prawn main labelled as a 'must' in the menu, it was good, just not great and being one of the more expensive dishes on the menu, it just didn't reach the expectations. The butter paratha was also not quite flaky enough and a bit bland. I do recommend a visit if you are in the area as it does have quality ingredients and a more of stylish selection of dishes.

Our first visit here for years.Four of us visited last nite the food and service was suberb.The menu had dishes that i had not seen in any other restaurants.On leaving my good lady booked us in there for next week.Today i have reccomended the malabar to several friends.

Ordered using Uber Eats as they don't do delivery! Ordered at 6.45 with an ETA of 7.40, at 7.40 they extended time by 10 minutes and did this every 10 minutes until 9.45 when they canceled, they then didn’t answer the phone, thanks!!

Extensive menu. Fabulous food. The service was second to none. Will definitely be returning with friends.

Seems to be a different experience if you eat in vs take away. I’ve eaten in a few times and as recent as a few weeks ago and it was always great. Take away was awful, swimming in grease, was unbelievably hot in temperature - almost like the curries had been microwaved. Chicken was super rubbery and dry. Very bland - again like it had been cooked previously and massively over heated in a microwave which destroyed any flavour or texture. Shame. Still not as bad as Penn tandoori though.

We haven't been here in quite a while but we're definitely going back. The food was amazing. Excellent service and beautiful restaurant. Loved it.

The restaurant is fantastic ,but food not great it’s a shame,come on lads u can do better (curry king )

Absolutely terrible after calling to book a table and bring reassured it was fine due to the time were told upon arrival they were shutting were spoken to appallingly Accused of lying saying we hadn’t called to book ruined an otherwise great night

Having tried a lot of Indian restaurants in our locality, Malabar was one all of us were yet to try. We had all heard good things so thought we would give it a whirl. The food itself was nice, but nothing stand out. Although the restaurant has won some awards, there were quite a few years ago (2013 and 2016) - 10 years ago! In my eyes that means those awards now don’t mean much. Anyway, upon arrival we were all really hungry so thought we would ask for poppadoms to keep us going while we looked at the menu. The waiter informed us this wasn’t possible and he couldn’t give us poppadoms until he had taken our main order! We were completely bemused. We have never been anywhere before where this has been the case. Did they think we were going to leave once we had eaten our poppadoms? He couldn’t really give us an explanation that made any sense! It seemed ridiculous. Eventually we had to draw attention to a waiter for our order to be taken. But they had to walk away from us to find their order pad and check their pen before they returned to take the order. My husband asked for his Tikka Masala to be medium. They said ‘it’s a mild curry’, to which he responded ‘yes, I know, so please can you make it hotter’. All the service staff lacked a friendliness and really seemed disinterested. We waited a long time for the food (it does say in the menu that food is cooked fresh so you will be waiting longer than in some restaurants). When it came, it was nice, but my husbands Tikka Masala didn’t taste any hotter than usual. My friend and I both had shashlick dishes. They asked if we would like salad and mint yogurt almost as an after thought. We said we would like it. (Again in other restaurants this is a given and automatically comes). The waiter returned with a double portion of salad on one plate for us, which was incredibly small, we were a bit taken aback. Waiters came and took various dishes away as we were still eating, which I don’t really like happening during a meal. My friend had barely finished her last mouthful and they were at the table removing our plates. We were some of the last people there, and the staff were hoovering while we were there. So overall the service and atmosphere really let this restaurant down and it is for that reason we certainly won’t be returning.

Had a great meal last night. The food was very good. We really enjoyed it. It's better to go in the week as it's not too busy.

Excellent food, only disappointment was they didn’t have the lamb chop starter on when we went, but the food is superb

Great atmosphere and the food tasted great. Slightly pricey. But I did have an upset stomach the day after. Was quite disappointed. Service good and busy!

Lovely quality food and very tasty! My only niggle is the portion sizes (takeaway) are on the smaller side for the price. Would definitely recommend though 👌

Until recently the food at Malabar has been superb, especially the lamb chops which were the best anywhere. Unfortunately, our most recent two visits have been disappointing with dry, overcooked food and lamb chops which were tough and mostly gristle. Either they have a new chef or a new supplier of produce, possibly both, but standards have definitely slipped over the last couple of weeks or so. Based on our earlier great experiences we'll give them one more go but there will need to be a dramatic improvement if they're to retain our custom.

Visit here on a regular basis food and service is always excellent.

Been coming here many years and now mainly have it delivery but love it , best Indian around

First time visit and absolutely the best Indian food I have eaten anywhere. The lamb chops are a thing of wonder. We will definitely be back very soon to sample some of the more adventurous offerings on the menu. Simply wonderful.

Rather pricey but fairly good food

The food was excellent, quick service, friendly staff. Really enjoyed it. We highly recommend you coming here for a relaxed evening of food and chat. Very impressed.

Definitely better on a weekend than on a Monday.

Lobster prawn starter 10/10. Chicken Ceylon probably best curry in wolves. Best to go in week as it gets silly busy on Friday and Saturday

Best Indian restaurant in the area.. Beautiful flavours, an amazing selection of seafood and large variety of meat options. Large range of alcohol and plenty of Indian beers

We do eat here a lot and we've never had any complaints. Food is beautiful and service is good. Really enjoy our meals and wouldn't really want to go to any other Indian restaurants it's that good

Food here is really good, but the service is shocking. Waiters can barely speak English and the customer is treated like an inconvenience. I went for dinner with a Muslim friend that had been fasting all day. She was obviously very hungry, but our food took ages to arrive. I could see the chefs in the kitchen eating their dinner because they had clearly been fasting too! While I have the utmost sympathy with them, surely the paying customer should take priority? My friend and I tried to see the funny side of this and we were laughing heartily. Unfortunately, the two bald headed men standing behind the bar didn't share our good humour. They spent most of the evening glaring at us with contemptuous rage. In addition, their dessert menu consisted of nothing but cheap ice-cream in animal shaped containers. I thought indian restaurants stopped selling these monstrosities back in the 90s. I'm sure I will go there again to eat their delicious dahl, with a side order of alienation.

Excellent food and service. A1. Highly recommend.

Food fantastic, good service, nice place

Came here for date night with my boyfriend. The service was amazing, the menu was quite extensive so it took us a moment to look through everything and decide what we wanted to order. I went with a butter chicken curry with plain naan, my boyfriend ordered a dish that included prawns, chicken and lamb he had that with mushroom rice and garlic naan. The food was absolutely delicious, I liked that the naan was a little sweet, it blended so well with the spiciness of my curry. Overall I think we would definitely come here again, the atmosphere was also so nice perfect for date night.

Went for my lads birthday, the service was good and the food was excellent Will definitely be going there again as the price is very reasonable. This is a must try place

2.5 hours for a main course and popadoms. Really busy but don’t take on more than the kitchen can cope with. Had to ask repeatedly for food, drinks, the bill and to pay the bill. Nice to catch up with our friends in a lovely...

Best Indian never lets us down just amazing had the railway madras Thai rice loved every mouthful normally eat in but had a take out just stunning

Fantastic night out. Food was faultless, service was exemplary. Although it was our first visit we will definitely return soon. Probably the best Indian restaurant in the Wolverhampton area. If you want high quality tasty food with attentive service you will not be disappointed.

We visited this amazing restaurant last night, speechless, staff, food, service is absolutely 5 star+, thank you.

Really enjoyed our evening at Malabar. We'll be back.

From the minute we walked in, lovely atmosphere, lovely looking place, and very nice staff. Would highly reccomend this place, food was amazing and another drink was on the table for me before i finished the sentence of asking. Will definately be returning to try...

Absolutely Brilliant Christmas Day meal. Thank You!

Amazing experience! Food is 10/10 and all the staff are attentive and ensure you have everything you need during the night. So friendly, calm and relaxing atmosphere and amazing food. What’s not to love?

Took my son for his birthday meal and everything was absolutely perfect. Excellent food and the service was impeccable. Thank you so much 😊

Thanks malabar ..food amazing ..place amazing ...havnt been for a while for certain reasons ..but this place is still as good as ever..

Not a welcoming place to eat, couldn't wait to get us out, As a regular to eating out I will not be going back...couldn't have poppadoms whilst we were deciding what we were having to eat... place was cold, collecting plates whilst we were still eating..... poor management... and food was average and over priced.... we usually have a couple of drinks after eating our meals but couldn't wait to leave.... Needless to say we won't be dinning there again...

Unwelcoming, cold, and expensive couldnt order poppadoms before meal, and it felt like they couldnt wait to get us out of the door, food mediocre, ill stick udays thankyou

Always fantastic service and incredible food, I seriously don’t understand how this place isn’t ranked far higher in Wolverhampton restaurants! If you want quality Indian dining and are happy to pay a bit extra for it then the Malabar doesn’t disappoint

Amazing experience, food was absolutely beautiful, and all the staff were very friendly. Would definitely recommend.

Visited Malabar a couple of times in recent weeks. I've noticed a few people have grumbled about the parking in previous reviews... personally, I don't see the problem. There's plenty of parking nearby if you know where to look, even if it means you have...

Disappointed with food & service.

Food fantastic, good service, nice place. Slightly more expensive than some other restaurants I've been to but well worth it.

Was seated on a table for two almost sat on the table next to us too close by far, moved to another table for 2 in a better position but not much better, far too dark had to use phone light to be able to...

Disappointing vegan option, not filling at all, priced similar to meat/seafood option when clearly it should not be as expensive.

Excellent balti...elegant atmosphere

Nice restraunt atmosphere. Food was good.

Brilliant!! Prawns amazing Lamb melt in your mouth Best in the midlands Service is great Always make an evening of it Keep up the great work

portions size shrunk, price up 30% ish, food was ok,

Rude management, zero customer service skills. The whole restaurant was empty and the manager's ego is so big he doesn't want to meet or greet his customers instead wants to show he's the boss front of his staff! Food was ok but it's the first restaurant I've ever been to who said we can't order popadoms or starters unless we place full order at once, what kind of none sense this restaurant owner is talking about! This is why the restaurant is struggling to attract new customers, manager needs to stop paying for awards and instead pay for a customer service course! Avoid at all cost.

It was our anniversary and felt we wanted to treat ourselves to some where new. We heard good reviews about the food and can say we agreed with this. Food was delicious and had lots of seafood choices which I struggled to choose from. Only criticism is the service and toilets. No warm welcome or conversation especially as we were the only ones in at first. Made to feel a little unwanted especially our young children ( they were very well behaved ) Toilets in mens needed to be focused on as rest of the environment is lovely. Great food but wouldn’t go back may do take away, i like to feel welcomed when paying that amount of money.

Beautiful setting. Fabulous food and service. Has vegetarian option. Licensed bar. Really friendly staff.

I went here last week and asked for poppadoms straight away and I was refused saying it was policy to give only when you ordered your main meal. My 7 year old son is a Type 1 Diabetic,we informed the waiter,but they didn't seem bothered. We paid for our drinks and was leaving, I saw the owner and informed him that my son is a type 1 Diabetic,he shrugged his shoulders and seemed happy with us leaving.It is appalling behaviour from all staff and management. Should learn more about allergens and illnesses affected by food. Won't ever be going there again

Friday 12th August, ordered a takeaway ( Ceylon ) the chicken was rock hard, (last nights ! ) I won’t be using the take away service again.

Are here a few weeks ago with friends and family after hearing about how good this place was from several people we just had to try it. The food and service was absolutely amazing. I loved the different types of dishes available, there was something...

Malabar has always been our favourite restaurant in Wolverhampton and last night it was better than ever. We had great service, we were looked after all evening. The food was perfect, love the new menu & a few of us tried new dishes. My husband...

I ordered Friday not impressed by quality and delay if food arriving.

Nice restaurant, food excellent, 👍

Food is great but the service was a bit careless and not very welcoming, plus they increased all the prices on the menu whereas on the cover they put a sticker saying about the increase of the prices of only certain items which was a misleading

Wide choice of food including lots of seafoods and dishes I’d not experienced before! Service excellent and we were not rushed at all!

My family were visiting from Australia and always want to visit this restaurant. We have had our family Christmas dinners here and it never fails to deliver first class Indian cuisine. The service is excellent with attentive staff and a well stocked bar. The ambiance...

Great food and never seen variety like their menu. For instance they do crab 🦀 and other things I've never seen at such places. Combination dishes also served for those split on what to order.

Was looking forward to going here as we’d heard that it’s a brilliant restaurant, maybe it was before Covid , the food was nice but expensive compared to where we usually go , service seemed very slow , maybe return in a few months to...

Huge disappointment sadly. We visited with friends and advised this was one of the best indian restaurants in Wolverhampton and there are plenty to choose from. The interior is very nice and clean. The food portions were small over priced and mediocre at best. What...

Staff could smile more. Foods bang on nice area

Nice staff, fab menu with stuff on it slightly different to other places. Great curry. The staff had to deal with a large and quite rowdy party, and they did so very well

Ive had a few takeouts from here over the last few years,on the whole it is the best I've had, delicious tasting curries with quality meat with a good amount,I travel from Dudley to collect,only because I trust the high standard of their excellent cuisine.

Excellent customer service and wonderful food 👌 😋

The best tasting curry I've ever had without a doubt. Didn't wait long for food and service was brilliant too.

Avoid tables in line of site of door as drafty and cold, did ask for one out of draft, oh well. Food took a while, 50 mins, assume cos it was Saturday and busy. Food was fresh and tasty, would go again subject to better table.

Access stairs have a short tread and makes you feel a little unstable. The food was excellent as was the service.

Beautiful restaurant with amazing food been on many occasions and recommended to many friends as well has ordering takeaways most weeks to be delivered because not being able to drive so was very disappointed to be told they was not delivering one evening because they were to busy it must be nice to be able to pick and choose your customers so being a regular customer does not make you a valued customer I won’t bother in the future also able to make choices

Group of ten attended recently for my fiancée’s birthday. Staff looked after us very well, food delicious! Lack of lager on tap only downside

If I could give minus I would!! Bad customer service very rude manager and staff they overcharged us on the bill and never made it clear of price increases and also rounding up this would not be acceptable by standards. Tried speaking to them kindly and calm however they were abrupt and rude with there responses!! Bad tone of voice from manager and walked off never attended the situation. Being told "we round up the prices on the menu" was shocking. On the front menu it states a 10% increase on all items & seafood starters increasing by a minimum of £1.00 (clearly calculated that we were being charged much more than that). When this was showed to the owner he decided to walk of in a very rude manner. Definitely wouldn't come here again.