Nirvana Bar & Lounge in Epping Forest

Lovely authentic food, hotel has v. Comfy beds (hypnos) needs updating and refurb but such good food worth a meal and stay overnight ???

Read a lot of reviews that said this place was amazing and authentic . It doesn’t even seem to be a restaurant anymore? You order at the hotel bar along with their normal “bar food”. The garlic and coriander naan was basically a deep fried garlic bread and no plate to put the different dishes on! On top of the that the “stew” that was supposed to be a curry seemed like the chicken was the cubed frozen stuff you get in Iceland . Unless the original Nirvana has closed down and the hotel has adopted it into their own kitchen I don’t see how this has any good reviews 🤢

Visited recently after a recommendation for something 'authentic'. Lovely atmosphere and really friendly staff! Will be back soon :)

Service rapide, menu indien à la carte, quelques plats continentaux (pizzas, pâtes) et anglais. J'ai opté pour le "local" et pas déçu ! copieux et pas cher ; viande sur tartes à l'oignon avec œuf au plat dessus. Parfait et bon !

El curry de pescado de Goa era excepcional. El servicio era muy bueno y había una muy buena selección de comida asiática.

Fui allí con mi familia hace unos meses. El hotel en sí es muy de moda y el restaurante necesita un poco de renovación. La comida tardó muchísimo y era sólo de calidad media. Hemos estado en restaurantes indios mucho mejor que este.

this place reminds me of the band nirvana, in so much as i really want to blow my head off after eating here

this place reminds me of the band nirvana, in so much as i really want to blow my head off after eating here

We ate here because we were staying hotel and weather was poor. Wish we hadn't - it is Indian food, but I think it was microwaved, tasted OK but left me uncomfortable for a day afterwards

Do not order from this restaurant, they do not delivery. You will be left waiting for your food for over an hour before they telephone you and say they don't deliver. They then tell you that you need to wait until the following day to speak to the manager in order to try and get a refund.

Do not order from this restaurant, they do not delivery. You will be left waiting for your food for over an hour before they telephone you and say they don't deliver. They then tell you that you need to wait until the following day to speak to the manager in order to try and get a refund.

Do not order from this restaurant, they do not delivery. You will be left waiting for your food for over an hour before they telephone you and say they don't deliver. They then tell you that you need to wait until the following day to speak to the manager in order to try and get a refund.

Do not order from this restaurant, they do not delivery. You will be left waiting for your food for over an hour before they telephone you and say they don't deliver. They then tell you that you need to wait until the following day to speak to the manager in order to try and get a refund.

I ordered myself Daal Tadka and Peshwari Naan and it was delicious! I was a resident of the hotel and ordered myself a curry for dinner which arrived quickly and well presented! I was very impressed with the food and I'm (almost) sad I don't live closer to taste more of their delicious dishes! The staff were friendly and the food is a good price for what you get.

An excellent restaurant, The staff are polite and friendly and the meals are extremely good value as well as being one of the best tasting indian meals I have ever had. Well worth a visit.

Staying in the hotel (but neither of liking Indian food) we checked first that they didn't only have Indian. I was asked five times how I wanted my steak cooked. They didn't have the wine we wanted. My steak was tough and grisly -very poor quality. Chips were frozen and the large quantity did not make up for the lack of quality. As a previous reviewer said, go down Epping High Street.

The idea of saying in a hotel with an "authentic Indian Restraunt" sounded promising. The menu was not extensive and the food fankly a little disappointing. It was however reasonably priced

Great Indian. Amazing Garlic & Coriander Naan bread. Decent priced cuisine & not the usual rubbish you get elsewhere.

I had to stay at the hotel for business ,having a Indian restaurant was a bonus as I love the food.. But it was very poor and we left most of it,we ordered poppadoms which were soggy and the pickles came in very small plastic dishes did not taste nice and when we asked for some chopped onions that is what we got large chunks of chopped onions! Not good at all.

I was well looked after by the staff at the bar thank you all always clean and tidy and my meals were all very well presented and tasty a chocolate fudge cake and ice cream to die for.

This is my second visit and I must say the food was really nice. Though it was a little quiet with just about 10 more people, It was evident that most of them seemed satisfied. The only thing I can suggest is that the waiter needs to be more helpful and suggestive with the menu. I had the deccan lamb this time followed with murgh makhani, naan and pilau rice. Will visit again and will try the biryani as suggested by the couple sitting close to us.

We only ate breakfast at the Nirvana Inn, on a three-night stay at the hotel. + Very enjoyable. Good selection of flakes and musli. Nice touch with the fresh fruit. Freshly cooked hot breakfast items, refurbished regularly. Tasty. Decent coffee and tea. Staff extremely kind and accommodating. - Toaster took a little TOO long. Not ALL marmalades available at every table, had to ask. (Turned up at our table in a minute or two. Full points for breakfast, anyway!

We went there at lunch time. Since the chef is only around in the evening, we got some great sandwiches.

Our room in the hotel was tired and was a let down for what we had paid. We decided to use the Bar for our evening meal with friends.The decoration in the Bar was OK but the food is reheated plastic catering meals I would imagine. We ordered a bottle of Prosecco for a small celebration, the staff eventually delivered it to our table "warm" in an Ice bucket with two odd flute glasses on the tray.The ladies Toilet was in a state of poor repair with one boarded up.This was the first and last time we will go there, This place is not of the standard we have experienced and had expected for a Best Western hotel and is letting them down badly.

Where do I start....Please vote with your feet, I honestly do not believe this is worth any good money.Unfortunately I bought this on Groupon and had already paid for it plus to make matters worse took our children along as their first experience of a curry restaurant, a very very disappointing experience and I don't think I have ever said this. Authentic Indian cuisine is far, far from the truth!This is a dining/breakfast area in the hotel which is not ideal as the staff are nowhere to be seen for long periods. The staff are lovely but are clearly not connected with the restaurant as any questions all go to the chef and they do not know the menu.The poor girl who served us later explained there was one guy in the kitchen who makes the dishes to his liking but the disarray of the meals is clearly not an unusual thing. This got worse as we waited over an hour for our meals and the dishes were horrid (speaking with some experience of curries).The food comes out poorly presented, no poppadums to compliment the dips or to aid the starters.There was no hot tray to keep things warm or a spice dish (there was chilli, mint and mango sauce but not to what you may expect), not even an authentic dish to hold the curries.The naan bread was hard (how? or why?) and cold...they actually forgot to heat it?!The pilau rice was not pilau and should be a trade description issue (just basmati with a sprinkling of something over it, see photos).Out of the four meals, three were left (the chicken tikka was hard to knock but then again it is only barbecued chicken) and we don't leave food unless it really is that bad, should say all you need to know. The lamb rogan josh (my meal) tasted like a curried gravy stew...OMG so bad. If you can't eat nuts etc then there is no point as for some reason the chef cannot omit them, which points toward pre-prepared food?I politely complained after the mains came out and left after settling the bill once the kids were done. This place was fairly busy but I cannot see how it retains custom bar the hotel guests being oblivious to the problems?! It needs serious help...the staff issue and presentation can be fixed but I doubt the food can?

Seeing as I've been staying here thought id give the Indian a try.- I'd much rather go into the epping town and there's many an Indian restaurant to choose from.- Don't do your usual Indian curries that we commonly order, because they are popular.- Told that can't be made to order and had to be off the menu, no adjustments to dishes, which gave me the impression they were pre- made meals n not fresh ingredients.- miserable un helpful staff. - staff don't know the menu, unable to answer questions about the food available.- Took a chance on something new.- Was not impressed with the standard of food and found it very watery.-sloppy messy presentation, did not look very appealing.- my chaptapa chicken starter looked like it had been splattered on the plate & very thin & watery- rather get quality food off the high street.

Tried out the nirvana after seeing the reviews. Booked a table of 4 and there was only a couple of other tables. Must say the menu was different and tempting, We particularly loved the mixed grill and deccan lamb as starters. For mains I went with the murgh makhani and it was delicious. My partner tried the prawns and loved it. My friends had a roganjosh and biryani. It went down very well with them. Portions were good. Service was quite efficient. The only downside was my friend was on a wheelchair and we had trouble getting in even with a ramp. Would definitely recommend this and we will be back.

Firstly, the food was delicious and very good value. The platter for two is an excellent way to start a meal offering a varied selection of meat, chicken, fish and very good onion bhajis. The range of main dishes is somewhat limited, but judging by the lamb and chicken dishes we ordered this is more than made up for by the sheer quality of the food. In particular, Nirvana avoid the recent trend increasingly apparant in Indian restaurants of having a few pieces of meat bobbing around in a vast bowl of over sweet, brightly coloured gravy. Here, there is an abundance of tender, good quality meat balanced with an appropriate amount of expertly spiced sauce.Having said that, Nirvana is totally devoid of "indian restaurant atmosphere." We were there early on a Saturday evening and for most of the time we were the only diners. There is no getting away from the fact that you are eating in a hotel dining room into which the sudden appearance of Indian food feels somewhat incongruous. This is perhaps inevitable under the circumstances but matters were not helped by the background "music" of Sky Sports News!Being the only diners in the restaurant, the service was inevitably sparodic, particularly as the staff obviously had other hotel duties to attend to, so we had to judge the timing of our drinks orders just right to ensure we were not sitting with empty glasses for long periods. However, when it was there, the actual service was very good and we were very well looked after by young Jedrek who seemed genuinely and personally concerned that we had a good evening and enjoyed our meal. The rating fo service here is entirely down to him.So, to summarise, if you are looking for high quality, good value Indian food and you find the novelty of eating in a very non-traditional environment an amusing change/challenge rather than irksome (and your entire evening is not going to be ruined by not having the previously ubiquitous hot towel at the end of your meal!) you really must give this place a try.

I live locally and must say after this visit I want to eat at Nirvana daily. Enjoyed the food thoroughly. Makhani was great and they did a stuffed naan for me which was not in the menu. Will take whole family this weekend.

I was pleasantly surprised with our Dinner at Nirvana. Good quality indian food, plenty of vegetarian choices. My wife us a vegie and she was very impressed as well. We are staying at this hotel for 3 nights and I know what Iam going to try tonight ... Biryani for me.. hope its as nice as Chicken Chetinadu I tried on saturday night.

We ate in the restaurant on our second night as my partner likes Indian food, I however can take it or leave it. We looked at the menu and got told we could sit anywhere I want by one of the waitresses, then just as we ventured in, another waitress (who seemed to be a bit flustered) said could we sit in the side part as one table had been reserved and as far as I could see the others were set for breakfast. This was before 8pm!!! So we sat, ordered a drink each, the poor waitress didn't know what white Zinfandel was..... But I pointed to it and off she went. We ordered our meals, I asked chef to cook off menu which they did much to my relief however when it came it wasn't exactly as I expected... Our starters were lovely. We both ordered the chatpata (??) chicken which I found very enjoyable as it tasted like chicken fajitas just without the tortilla wrap! My main came and I'd ordered dupiaza (forgive the spelling) which when I get it from other places comes in a sauce with lots of onions, I think dupiaza means double onions or so I've been told, but when I got it, the dish was very dry and I had to ask the other waitress when she wandered past if chef could give me some kind of sauce to mix in with my rice. My rice came five mins after my main was delivered, I think the waitress didn't order it as a few other tables I noticed got things delivered to their tables late too... The waiting staff were sometimes out of the restaurant for 5-10 mins at a time which when you're waiting to speak to someone isn't very good. We got out second drinks for the bar ourselves as we couldn't find a waitress. In the end I did think the food was really tasty and if I stayed at the bell hotel again I would definitely eat in if I were staying for more than one night. Maybe a few extra dishes on the menu and some staff training would help immensely .

I understand they are trying to get some extra money into this failing hotel but a half hearted Indian is not the answer. The nice head waiter took our order at the bar but only after I repeated everything three times. A then clueless waitress took us to our table and our stale flimsy poppadoms arrived with three very weird sauces. We had to ask for more drinks and then our mains arrived, the poor waitress apologised to us before even trying to work out which curry was which and who had ordered it. I don't blame her it's just very bad training if any. The quality and taste was good, I asked for a spoon and all they could find was a huge serving spoon. We had to ask the waitress to come over to clear some of the serving dishes away and about 5mins after we started eating our naan breads arrived. One other fault they failed to see was that some of the tables were already laid out for breakfast with the breakfast menu on the table, everything about the restaurant was Poorly thought out. The final straw for me was not getting a traditional hot towel at the end. Won't go back unless in drastically changes. If I was travelling and staying there on business it would of been acceptable but my gripes would of remained.

I travel for work to most part of the country, i must insist this was a wonderful Indian meal experience. I loved the vegetarian choices the restaurant had specially because i was entertaining a colleague that night. I will recommend most curries, background music the restaurant was playing was great. This restaurant is little different from most curry houses.