Dishonest interpretation of Taste card offer really got our goat. They offer us two-for-one on food then when the bill comes we only get a main dish knocked off -- pay for all our rice and bread and sides. When we question this they tell us a curry (w/o rice or bread) is a "full meal". What a joke.

Food bland and service poor. They obviously rely on this kind of rip-off as they know they aren't going to get repeat custom.

I rarely/never write reviews on restaurants but this place annoyed me so much I had to share my experience. I went there yesterday on Sat 2nd Apr for lunch and was lured in by a lunchtime deal by the waiter at the door. The food is very average and when we received our bill he had charged everything from the fullprice menu even though I had confirmed the deal with him several times. I pointed this out to him but he was completely unhelpful and demanded the money and the manager was also quite rude. This was probably the worst restaurant experience I have had in over 10 years of living in London. I would NOT recommend going here.

I would not give this restaurant any stars and really would not eat here again. I am surprised they are still in business given the amount of great restaurants nearby that offer good food AND service.

Food bearable but pricey for what it was. Awful service - intimidating and overpowering to the point they shoved the coffee and dessert menu at us in such a rude manner twice to get us to order - even though the restaurant was 3/4 empty at 8pm on a Thursday night.

They added the service to the bill - which I really would not have given in full if they had not. I think they probably realised they were not going to get it just based on their actual service.

We left and had our coffee somewhere else!

Perhaps the staff are use to a post pub rowdy bunch and treat everyone badly because of that. Not a place to go to catch up with a friend or want a relaxed meal.

this place is fantastic.last saturday 25/09/2010 me and my friends been thr and had our meal which was simply great- mostly (the manager choose some new curry which was off the menu ..) lamb chili garlic....i liked it...lots of flavour , different taste...........

So... me and a friend went here last week sometime for dinner... i thought it would be nice because they were in a local paper or magazine (it was stuck to the window) so we were like "yeah... indian!" etc etc.

The waiter was abrupt and weird and didn't seem to know what he was doing AND the whole time we were in there the staff sat at the back of the restaurant playing cards which was annoying when we wanted something because they had their backs to us.

Anyway... so we ordered our drinks we both got cokes. My friend got a large which was like a pint glass full of coke but i got a regular... it was pretty much the same price as the large only it was in a really small glass. That kinda annoyed me.

Then we ordered our food... i got a chicken korma and a chapati, my friend got a chicken curry and a keema naan, and we both got onion bhajis.

Now, half of my family are indian and after being bought up on curry every other day or being forced to eat it at my nans etc etc... i very quickly realised it's tasty and spicy and full of flavour!

This meal however... was most definitely not spicy and full of flavour.

The chapati was not lightly spiced. The bhajis were alright but it was more cabbage than onion which of course stole the onion element of the ONION bhaji. The korma was so bland... i usually go for a mild chicken curry or a biryani but i wanted something a bit sweet and nutty and chickeny. All i could taste was the cream but i did get the occasional nut... that was nice. My friend said his was bland and we ended up using the salt.

Yes we used the salt. I've never used the salt in an indian restaurant.

Then I ordered an orange sorbet and the waiter tried to give me a lemon sorbet.

To end it all when we got the bill they all had their backs to us and were so in to their cards game we couldn't get their attention.

Basically... just don't go! It's boring and overpriced and the staff are awkward/weird!

This is a worst restaurant I have ever been to. The staff was very rude and unfriendly. I ordered the food and was seeked directions from the waiter to go to toilet and when I was trying to go to toilet the manager thought I am leaving the place and came and stood in front of me saying you need to pay the bill. I told him I am going to toilet and he followed me to make sure. On the way I saw a guy dressed in the chef's clothes and he was scratching his a** and hold on not from outside as his hand was inside the trouser.

I was trying to eat the food after all but the waiter who stood in front of me was fingering his nose. I gave him a long hard stare and imagined throtteling his neck.

I went there after having some drinks with friends but after visiting there I went back to the bar to have few more drinks.

Beware from going there, it is 1 nasty place except some good interiors.

Further, on Monday night we ordered a takeaway. Can't remember what the Mrs ordered, but I had sathkari gosht - Lamb cooked in calamansi juice (wild lemon), lemon leaf and naga chilli Anyone saying the food at Gufaa isn't up to scratch needs to try this dishhonestly, I have no affiliation to Gufaa at all, I just think that people reading the comments would be put off by the service, which might well be fair enough, but the food in my humble opinion, is absolutely excellent

Umm, maybe I have lower standards when it comes to Indian restaurants/take away food, but I'm really surprised by the incredibly negative reviews of this place

We've eaten in once, and ok the service wasn't the greatest I've ever experienced, but it certainly didn't put me off to the extent whereby I'd never eat there again

Mainly, we order take away and have it delivered. I must have used the place 6 or 7 times, and can honestly say its been excellent almost every time.

It isn't the cheapest food delivery, but I could see the prices when I ordered it

I've had one issue with them, and they delivered something incorrectly. They put a credit onto my 'account' which meant that they deducted the charge

Sorry to go against the grain (and I promise I don't work there!) but I think the food is fantastic, and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anybody.

We had the most horrendous service in Gufaa. It was late but still officially open. The uncharismatic, un-educated, nasty manager gave us (reluctantly) the green light to sit down and eat; indicating we had half hour, but not in any manner which was comforting, in the slightest. 20 minutes later, after eating uncomfortably, surrounded by him and his waiters, standing feet away from us, idle, like a pack of Hyenas planning an attack, they began clearing whatever they could, . My companion, a lady in every right, had to at some point say to them, 'can you please stop staring at us'? . It was indeed intrusive. Offensive. Intimidating.

Just before the half hour was up. The above mentioned 'manager' began motioning at me, with his arms, , like a referee stopping a game, from behind the bar. I could not believe it. They added a service charge on (the cheeky monkeys), which we later realised; and after being able to take no more, I confronted the manager, asking him for details of the owner. He scribbled the name down on a business card , and threw it on the bar, for me to pick up. I then found out these restaurants belong to a family - same people who run The Bengal Lancer, The Bengal Clipper, and the Bengal Trader. I approached one of the other owners, to report the matter, and was told 'Gufaa' was run by some nephew and was not related to these other ventures, business-wise.

He passed on the message onto the Owner of the place , but he never got back to me. I then contacted trading standards. There is a recession going on. These people don't deserve to be in business. I will never ever go back. This wasn't our first choice. But it was just there. Our first choice was rasa, in stoke Newington. A place truly Deserving of my money.

I cannot add much to the other reviews one can read here - mediocre food with really high prices - the 11 GBP-set menu dinner we ordered suddenly had an additional 4 pounds p.p. just for some old bread at the beginning we thought was free of charge - naturally, nobody mentioned this to me at the beginning.

The curry didn't taste too good, maybe a bit larger portion would have helped as well; with all rice & sauce loaded on the plate it still looked like the plate was one size too big for the food we got.

Like another reviewer wrote: yes, the Tiger beer was ok (what can they do wrong about that?) with the only problem that it was 4.50, plus 12.5% service charge makes it 5 pound a bottle..

In short, please stay out & go somewhere else in lovely Islington.

Where to begin?? This is quite simply the most disgusting curry I have ever (what I had of it) had!! The restaurant is more expensive than most curry houses, it being in the central zone of Upper St, and because of the classier interior my partner and I expected good things. Oh, how looks can be so decieving!! We picked up a menu and went home to order a delivery. I selected the Murgh Tikka Bhuna Special, my partner had a vegetarian main course and for sides we ordered spinach rice and bombay aloo.
When the food arrived a staggering two hours later, we were amazed to find it was cold. My dish was supposed to be cooked with chopped tomato, onions and green peppers. What I found when I opened the lid was a few lumps of cold chicken swimming in an overspiced watery substance. There was not a vegetable to be seen. The bombay aloo looked nothing like any other bombay aloo I have ever laid eyes on. The potato was grey and again, the sauce was like water. It looked inedible. The papadoms were in bits and burnt. They got our order wrong on the rice and we ended up with plain. We shoved our plates of unappetizing muck in the microwave for a couple of minutes and after two revolting mouthfuls we chucked 'em in the bin. My partner rang up to complain and he was hung up on. Everything about the Gufaa was apalling. If you want a decent curry house I suggest one on Essex Rd. They're cheaper and they look and taste like an Indian dish ought to!!

A bit frustrated that I can't award zero stars for this awful place! What a shame that amongst the vast array of eateries on Upper Street there still isn't a decent Indian restaurant.

I went to Gufaa for a mid-week dinner recently hoping to be surprised. My curry was little more than dried-up tasteless lumps of chicken floundering in a watery curry-flavoured gravy with a few chillies bunged on top. The keema naan was smaller than the side plate it was served up on.

At least the bottle of Cobra was cold (although my initial choice of cider was returned - being both flat and warm and served from a 2 litre plastic bottle - mmm, classy!). All this for £18 if you included the service which I certainly didn't. Upper Street prices for low quality dining.

A friend and I were drawn to Gufaa because of the board outside that advertises a £4.95 lunch deal. Resonable, we thought. Two adults having a £4.95 lunch and the bill comes to £20.46! What a rip off! It was £3.50 for a glass of Coke, £1.20 for a poppadom and £1.00 for chutney. No wonder the Gufaa waiter hid the main menu almost as soon as it hit the table.


The food and service was terribly over priced. No wonder the place is always empty. We should have gone to Pizza Express instead and we would have spent much less.

I've been to Gufaa twice now and don't think I'll be returning. Upper Street is still crying out for a decent Indian. Neither Masala Zone nor Gufaa live up to expectations.



Gufaa's food is way below average in terms of taste and delivery - my chicken jalfrezi had stone cold lumps of chicken in it. I dare say that chef had made the sauce and thrown in some frozen chicken tikka pieces and forgotten to heat up.



The service was slow and occasionally arrogant. It's not badly priced but I'd rather pay a little more if I knew I was going to enjoy the food and the staff were going to be friendly.

I have visited Gufaa several times and have never had any reason to complain.

I think the food is excellent at Gufaa (considering the moderate prices) and the service is friendly and courteous.

Gufaa really have got to sort their drinks out. You can't serve flat coke and expect to get away with it or be rude to people when they ask for a fresh drink. Cutting corners on drinks by serving old, non-branded or out of date mixers may save them pennies in the short term but will no doubt cost Gufaa custom in the long term.