The place is so good for a cosy lunch.. exactly what i had planned for a romantic dinner with my better half. It turned out that he loved it...The decor and helpful staff here made me feel that I was at the right place. The food turned out to be delicious too!
Name: Olivia Finlay
Location: Ireland
Tamarai
Night Club in Seven Dials
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No longer at this address
Our records show that Tamarai is closed.
Address
New London Theatre Building
167 Drury Lane
Seven Dials
London
WC2 5PG
New London Theatre Building
167 Drury Lane
Seven Dials
London
WC2 5PG
Region
Seven Dials
Seven Dials
Category
Night Clubs
Night Clubs
All In London Review
Restaurant cum nightclub pulls off Pan-Asian menu
Once there, the warning signs are all in place. Initially the clientele consists of pre-theatre diners, families and tourists, because we’re in Covent Garden. The music – R&B and pop, naturally - gets louder the later it gets, and Tamarai starts to fill up with groups of revellers from the suburbs who’ve travelled all the way to the West End to go on the pull. The boys stick to bottled beers, while the girls sip cocktails called things like Thai Lady and Citrus Fling.
But we’re here to eat, not partake in the flirtatious nightlife. On offer is a £15 three course set menu, which is remarkably cheap given that the price of wine rises to the hundreds (we settle on the best non-extortionate wine we can spot, a Les Hospices Sancerre for £49). Little triangular prawn toasts are covered in crunchy sesame seeds, and the chicken spring rolls are infused with lemongrass and served with a piquant mustard aioli. The very succulent King prawns taste of lime juice and spices, while the fish is far milder, with a lovely buttery texture. Dessert gives us the best and worst dishes; the coconut crème brulee is a favourite, perked up with a dollop of zesty lime sorbet, but less successful are the date pancakes which taste like bread with a sprinkling of sugar. As it turns out, I needn’t have worried, as Tamarai’s Pan-Asian food is pretty good. Judging by how full they are when we leave, they’re clearly doing something right after 11 pm too.
Reviewed by Leila
Published on Dec 5, 2011
User Reviews
Olivia Finlay
from Ireland
from Ireland
May 10, 2012
Julian Clarke
from London
from London
May 9, 2012
Going to Tamarai every month has now become a ritual for my family.We love the Chinese food served.Its so authentic and perfect ambiance to chat up.Its like an apt place for family dinner and a great place for the after hour drinks for all ;)
Name: Julian Clarke
Location: London
Name: Julian Clarke
Location: London
Gwen Mason
Apr 25, 2012
The music, energy and the crowd, everything works for the place just right! Nice wines..Had a great time and would be back for more!
Charlotte
from Sydney
from Sydney
Apr 24, 2012
Staff were friendly and courteous, who were ready to explain the dishes and even helped us make the right choices. Food was no doubt, nothing less than excellent.
Name: Charlotte
Location: Sydney
Name: Charlotte
Location: Sydney
Explorer565
Jan 28, 2012
Today my group of friends went to celebrate a reserved birthday at this club, these managers really do care nothing besides money. The atmosphere was awful and not to mention having to deal with the group being split up by bouncers, who were blatantly not contracted by a professional agency, dealed the final blow to the worst night ever and all this happened within the time frame of 30mins-1hr. Simply put 'Power Abuse' was clear here as they victimised certain people from our group by forcing them to leave after paying without giving a reason at all, we were all angered by this form of power abuse not to mention the refusal of myself entry after going outside to ask a simple question of whats going on, and with myself clearly being associated with the friends' who were kicked out I was also kicked out without reason. After trying to reason logically and calmly with these people who I saw were only doing their job and as a human individual, the concept of reasoning obviously didnt exist in their tiny little minds; I was refused entry to pick up my own belongings from the cloak room and even with the threat of calling the police for this form of consumer abuse the most annoying phrase to hear next was "Do I look like I give a **** about the Police and your ****?"
Luckily in the end a friend came out and I sneakily passed him my coupon to withdraw my belongings when he left.
Eitherway after going in its quite certain when incorporating this list of negative reviews that this place will be dry so if your and your group want to enjoy a night out, avoid this venue at all costs because this place is an unneccessary risk.
Luckily in the end a friend came out and I sneakily passed him my coupon to withdraw my belongings when he left.
Eitherway after going in its quite certain when incorporating this list of negative reviews that this place will be dry so if your and your group want to enjoy a night out, avoid this venue at all costs because this place is an unneccessary risk.
Cori Adams
Jan 7, 2012
Fabulous place.. I love the whole vibe around this place, delicious food and a very stylish decor. Recently launched new menu is such a great value for money at just £15. Been to a couple of club nights n they have been a lot of fun too !
Gwen Mason
Dec 16, 2011
I love this place, it is the best in London…always good music, nice vibe and cool people. Open till late too on weekends :) :)
samtribiani
Apr 20, 2011
Huge main dance floor and they've got the smoke and lights effect down. The atmosphere and music is a sure-fire thing for a good night of dancing and socializing. First they were spinning electro then it transitioned to pop and hip-hop towards the end of the night. Awesome variety for all types of music lovers. Great food and extensive wine & cocktail list. Lives up to the expectation of being one of the most happening clubs in central london.
Albert
from Henrry
from Henrry
Feb 10, 2011
For most of the times when we dine out, we end up spending more than we had thought. But the experience at Tamarai turned it around. Value for money is the first thing i can associate to this place. The food, service, decor all bundle up to give good value in terms of experience and money. The music, energy and the crowd, everything works for the place just right! Also, an interesting bit was the kind of wines this place sports. Lovely wines with its great menu made a lot of sense for us. All in all, a very cool and comfortable place to be! Loved it :)
Name: Albert
Location: Henrry
Name: Albert
Location: Henrry
Rimpy Roger
from London
from London
Feb 8, 2011
I took my family out for dinner at Tamarai. Totally new to the place myself, I was a little jittery but it got okay when we settled down and started ordering the food. The service is pretty good, their suggestions turned out perfect for us as we were confused as to what to order, and in large groups it gets tough to figure out who wants what. Anyways, after we started eating, there was no end to the fun! We loved the food, the drinks. I am completely mad after their desserts, never had better ways to please my sweet-tooth! My family loved the experience and will surely want to return to it another time!
Name: Rimpy Roger
Location: London
Name: Rimpy Roger
Location: London
Anonymous
Mar 14, 2010
Tamarai= TERRIBLE! I want to be able to give it 0 stars but the least this site will let me give is 1.
Went there Friday hoping for good music and a fun night- what a disappointment! Firstly, it's guest list only so I emailed the guest list to request places, got no reply and when we turned up they just shrugged at us. Anyway, street promoter got us in but wish they hadn't bothered!
The drinks are extremely overpriced, usual for London you might say but I've been to plenty of places in London where they're not. I don't even mind paying a bit more in places where it's worth it- Tamarai isn't.
The music, which was advertised as 'sexy r&b', was awful. They barely played a single track released past the 90s, which must be the norm as it was populated by middle aged people. Not that there was even many of them, it was dead and didn't pick up all night. I'm not dissing middle aged people here (no offence) but if you're a group of young people looking to hang out with like minded people I'd steer well clear.
They shut the seating area at 12 and asked us all to move, no idea why, which meant the only people who could sit down were those who'd forked out for tables. Usually I wouldn't care about seating and would be up there dancing with the best of them but the atmosphere was so dire I couldn't face it.
We eventually decided to leave and asked for our money back. The door staff were rude and said they couldn't possibly leave their 'stations' (what are they in Basra?!) to get the manager so we went back in to speak to him ourselves. He simply said 'we don't do refunds' and walked away, couldn't have cared less that we'd had a terrible time in his club.
So, in short, if you're thinking of going to Tamarai- DON'T DO IT!! There are loads of decent clubs in London, don't waste your money and hours of your life you'll never get back in this dive.
Went there Friday hoping for good music and a fun night- what a disappointment! Firstly, it's guest list only so I emailed the guest list to request places, got no reply and when we turned up they just shrugged at us. Anyway, street promoter got us in but wish they hadn't bothered!
The drinks are extremely overpriced, usual for London you might say but I've been to plenty of places in London where they're not. I don't even mind paying a bit more in places where it's worth it- Tamarai isn't.
The music, which was advertised as 'sexy r&b', was awful. They barely played a single track released past the 90s, which must be the norm as it was populated by middle aged people. Not that there was even many of them, it was dead and didn't pick up all night. I'm not dissing middle aged people here (no offence) but if you're a group of young people looking to hang out with like minded people I'd steer well clear.
They shut the seating area at 12 and asked us all to move, no idea why, which meant the only people who could sit down were those who'd forked out for tables. Usually I wouldn't care about seating and would be up there dancing with the best of them but the atmosphere was so dire I couldn't face it.
We eventually decided to leave and asked for our money back. The door staff were rude and said they couldn't possibly leave their 'stations' (what are they in Basra?!) to get the manager so we went back in to speak to him ourselves. He simply said 'we don't do refunds' and walked away, couldn't have cared less that we'd had a terrible time in his club.
So, in short, if you're thinking of going to Tamarai- DON'T DO IT!! There are loads of decent clubs in London, don't waste your money and hours of your life you'll never get back in this dive.
Murphy001
Dec 10, 2009
Fantastic food with great service. The wait staff is very courteous and pleasant.
Anonymous
Nov 24, 2009
Amazing restaurant! Extremely elegant, great place for a date, wonderful variety of exquisite menu items, and a beverage variety that would suit any taste! HIGHLY recommended!
Anonymous
Sep 21, 2008
Went to Tamarai last night and had one of the worst dining experiences I have ever had the misfortune to suffer. We were part of a large party and had been told in advance that we would therefore have to have the set menu. No problems, fair enough for a large group.
Due to some late arrivals we were not ready for our meals until 8:30 or so when some of us were given some of the starters, dim sum and duck spring roll. Not bad tasting although the portions were quite small. About half an hour later more starters were brought to our table, it turned out these were actually meant for the other table that was part of our group sitting right behind us who had not been served during that time. We had already eaten about half of these but the waiting staff didn't bother to top them up or bring new ones and gave them straight to the other table who had to take what were now half portions.
Roughly an hour after this (ie an hour and a half after being served our starters) the mains were finally brought out. Whilst I am told the seabass was actually quite nice the thai green curry was overly hot and there was not nearly enough rice to share properly between people.
Another hour or so after the mains had been cleared away we were brought the dessert, some sort of white chocolate ice cream which was tasty enough but quite frankly was at most enough for three quarters of a mouthful.
The fact that it took approximately three hours to be "served" a three course meal where everyone at the table was having one of three choices at most off a set menu was absolutely appalling. In particular for the mains where the three choices were the seabass, a thai green chicken curry or a thai green vegetable curry, the last two of which were presumably cooked up en masse. The starters and the dessert would also have been cooked up en masse so there was no excuse whatsoever for the length of time it took to get our meals.
Absolutely appalling dining experience
Due to some late arrivals we were not ready for our meals until 8:30 or so when some of us were given some of the starters, dim sum and duck spring roll. Not bad tasting although the portions were quite small. About half an hour later more starters were brought to our table, it turned out these were actually meant for the other table that was part of our group sitting right behind us who had not been served during that time. We had already eaten about half of these but the waiting staff didn't bother to top them up or bring new ones and gave them straight to the other table who had to take what were now half portions.
Roughly an hour after this (ie an hour and a half after being served our starters) the mains were finally brought out. Whilst I am told the seabass was actually quite nice the thai green curry was overly hot and there was not nearly enough rice to share properly between people.
Another hour or so after the mains had been cleared away we were brought the dessert, some sort of white chocolate ice cream which was tasty enough but quite frankly was at most enough for three quarters of a mouthful.
The fact that it took approximately three hours to be "served" a three course meal where everyone at the table was having one of three choices at most off a set menu was absolutely appalling. In particular for the mains where the three choices were the seabass, a thai green chicken curry or a thai green vegetable curry, the last two of which were presumably cooked up en masse. The starters and the dessert would also have been cooked up en masse so there was no excuse whatsoever for the length of time it took to get our meals.
Absolutely appalling dining experience