Shahrzad

Iranian Restaurant in North Finchley
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3 / 10 from 10 reviews
Address
281 Ballards Lane
North Finchley
London
N12 8NR
Map
Telephone
020 8446 3535
Cuisine
Iranian
Nearest Station
West Finchley
0.42 miles
Opening Times
Monday Open 12:00 - Closes 00:00
Tuesday Open 12:00 - Closes 00:00
Wednesday Open 12:00 - Closes 00:00
Thursday Open 12:00 - Closes 00:00
Friday Open 12:00 - Closes 00:00
Saturday Open 12:00 - Closes 00:00
Sunday Open 12:00 - Closes 00:00

User Reviews

Shakira
from North Finchley

Jun 30, 2013

I used to go to Shahrzad on Saturdays with my family. The place is not busy at all and guess what the owner did last Saturday? He had charged 3 of us for music. It was £10 each, all together £30 I had to pay for nothing. it was out of order, not professionalism. They should inform customers about the music charge in advance. The funny thing is we were there many times and there was no charge, but last weekend when the owner appeared (saw him 1st time) he wanted to make sure he will get lots of money and it did not matter to him how. Very cheap !!!
Parham
from mill hill

Apr 29, 2012

This resturant has the best food going.

Name: Parham
Location: mill hill
Bahram
from NW3

Apr 28, 2012

Not sure where to start. Horrible food, Terrible service and over priced.
Music is a laugh and they charge people £10 a head as music charge.
Again I tried to pay by card and was told their card machine is not working.
There is a reason why the restaurant gets less busy day by day.
I hope they l

Name: Bahram
Location: NW3
Mansour

Jan 8, 2012

Avoid this dirty restaurant.
Snow Prince

Oct 28, 2011

I visited Shahrzad restaurant in November 2011. The restaurant is within 5 minutes drive from me and I love persian food.

On this visit, we tried the lunch buffet. We were a group of 4 adults & 2 children.

When we arrived, we were completely ignored so we made our way over to a table and sat down. Within 5 minutes we were approached and asked to move since the table we sat at was reserved. The restaurant at this point was completely empty and no reserved signs anywhere. We had no problems with moving so we were happy to oblige. Just as got comfortable again, the waiter approcahed us and asked us to move again so that we occupy a smaller table in case they got busy. Again we were the only customers there at that point.

Luckily we didnt have to have much to do with the staff after that until before we left. We ordered an extra 3 takeaway meals and went to make a payment for 9 meals. Staff were unbelieveably abrupt and rude even when taking your money and insisted on being paid in cash. On the way out, they accused us of taking an additional drink (price of one drink was already included in the meal) and insisted on extra payment.

We insisted that they were wrong and left. I was not prepatred to be treated like that and pay more for a drink that we had not used. This is the first and the last time I will eat in that place. I did not find the food to be better than anywhere else and have found the service to be the worst I have experienced anywhere.

Having read all other reviews I feel very lucky to have gotten away so lightly....
good food lover

Oct 8, 2011

I went to Sharzad for the third time. Lunch buffet has a range of Persian food. Although the previous 2 times I was not so impressed with the food. The kebabs were juicy and great. The food is of a much better quality. I think there is room to expand on the range of the dishes and kebabs.

Will definitely try it again with the hope to see more range of this fantastic cousine.
Persian_prince

Jan 10, 2011

We booked a table for my sisters birthday for 15 people. The music was so loud we couldnt have a conversation with the person sitting next to us. The waiter was the RUDEST guy we had ever spoken too. we were literally looking at each other in SHOCK as he took our order. He gave us menus and we all ordered food from the menu which showed the prices in front of the dishes. we did a quick calculation in our heads which showed that the bill should be in the region of £150-£200 ( menu prices of main courses were about £7 and drinks were about £2 )

This is were it all began. They gave us a bill for £360 ( LITERALLY DOUBLE )

When we politely asked why it was so much the restaurant owner replied very rudely and said YOU WERE TOLD IT WAS £25 EACH ON THE FONE WHEN YOU BOOKED. This was in fact not true at all and was not stated anywere . We were given menus and we ordered food from the menu with the menu price.

Anyway I went to the payment desk to discuss this and I was in shock at how rude the staff were. They all gathered around me and called me a LIER and said that I was just making excuses etc... I have NEVER in my life been to a restaurant THIS pathetic and rude!

By now the owners had made a scene in the restaurant and all the other customers had noticed this but they didnt seem to care. They were determined to CON us and get the full doubled amount of of us.

I told the owner I was prepared to pay the menu price for the food which is what one expects to pay when they go to a restaurant and order from a MENU (isnt that the whole point of a menu? )

The owner refused my offer and said if i didnt pay the FULL £360 he wouldnt let us leave ( I was there with 3 families consisting of women and children! )

I refused to be robbed and despite all my efforts to come to an arrangement the owner was determined to rob the full amount so I called the police

Police turned up and asked to see the menu that we were given and after looking at it told him that he was
avid

Nov 20, 2010

I went to Shahrzad for my wife’s birthday party as a treat on a Friday night.
The music was a 2 piece band and so loud my ears are still ringing the following morning. It was "night club" volume!
There were 2 waiters serving an 80 seat restaurant so you can guess at the service. When I asked for the music to be turned down they said it was a live band and they can’t!!
The starters took an hour to arrive and the mains a further hour while we sat unable to talk over the noise.
By the time the bill eventually arrived at 11:30pm we were shocked at the prices they tried to charge. The menu had completely different prices in it!!
The owner’s explanation was that we were told of the "special" food prices when we made the booking on the telephone and it was because of the live band. The owner and waiting staff were extremely rude and aggressive so much so that I had to call the Police.
Once the police came and explained to the chap that he can not charge prices not displayed or advertised the owner actually locked the door and would let anyone leave. The police threatened him with arrest and that is how we left, under Police escort at 1:00 am.
A shameful restaurant and an embarrassment to any business owner. AVOID AT ALL COST
DMGFR

May 9, 2010

Four of us went here. The staff were rude and unattentive. The man cooking the bread was also using the tongs to clean his shoes (he stands near to front door in full view). The music is so overwhelmingly loud that you cant have a conversation (we were sat far away from the live music being played). However, this is eclipsed by the bill. Our meal should have come to £65 (approx), instead we were given a bill of £117. I paid as it wasnt the time for an argument and returned the next day with the reciept to ask for a refund. The manager said they charged extra for the music. I told them that they need to tell people that they are doing that before they order, he told me that he told me when i made the booking - this is absolutely not true. There were no notices in the menu or elsewhere and i certainly wasnt told when i booked. I told them that i would report the matter to trading standards and the manager said "fine do what you like". When i read the review previously posted (shame i dint read it first!) it was like i was reading my own review except he got some money back (i didnt). It seems that this is common practice for this restaurant. It's hard to believe that a restaurant behaves like this, i really feel conned by them. Im now taking the matter up with trading standards. This place really is one to avoid.
Brad Abbey

Apr 11, 2010

A local Persian restaurant for local Iranian people
A booking was made for a Saturday night, but when we arrived, we discovered it was party night with huge tables and the promise of some music. We were the only non Iranians, apparently, and had some difficulty in getting staff to talk to us in English.
The food menu was typical and seemed varied, with a good selection of vegetarian options. The first drink menu we were offered was blank, and a replacement offered house wine at £20/bottle (outrageous for an ethnic restaurant), but a 250ml glass appeared to be a fiver (strange!).
The music started, much to the pleasure of all the other guests who seemed to know the words to the songs seemingly sung in Farsee, but was so loud that conversation became all but impossible, except for the short breaks for the band to choose their next number. We chose a traditional Persian thick soup with vegetables, and plates of grilled seasoned meats. These were priced very reasonably and were excellent.
The problems came when the bill came. This was about double the estimate in our heads. It seemed that Saturday night was a fixed minimum price of £24/head for food, and they had omitted to inform us, and there was no indication on menus or anywhere else for that matter. The drink prices had also mysteriously increased by 20%. Now, we are not young fly by nighters, and the staff treated us like idiots or con men (difficult to say which). A menu was requested, and the drink menu shown had a different set of prices than the one we had been shown. The food menu was unchanged, but they dug their heals in and told us that we had been informed during the booking process about the minimum price (ABSOLUTELY NOT TRUE). We were asked to pay up and come back the next day to complain. A process of negotiation took place, as we had worked out our bill to be about £55, and they said it was £102. A compromise was reached with neither party being satisfied.
Dare we ever go back?
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