Nottingham Restaurants

I've wanted to visit this restaurant for a long time. It's my daughter's favourite and she keeps telling us how wonderful it is.
We went last night (wednesday) and first impressions were good, it's a very attractive restaurant with a nice, modern decor. The music was a bit intrusive - a medley of bollywood numbers that was too loud.
We were seated by the bar and offered drinks while we looked at the attractive and varied menu.
I eventually chose the chicken vindaloo and my wife had a king prawn dish from the 'chef's specialities'
We decided to have the non vegetarian starter to share, some popadoms with the optional extra pickles, and to accompany our mains we had pilau rice, and aloo gobi (potato and cauliflower) and a stuffed paratha.
I always choose a basic curry on my first visit to a new place, because from the quality of that I feel able to judge how well the chef is likely to prepare the more exotic dishes.
Our popadoms arrived and we were guided to our table. The extra pickles that I'd ordered were not there and it took a couple of attempts before the lady that was seating us understood what I wanted.
I didn't rate the pickles at all. The mint riatha was plain nasty and the chilli and ginger tasteless.
I finished my drink, and was not offered another for at least 15 minutes..I know I could have asked, but the place wasn't busy and I wanted to see how attentive the waiters were. Perhaps it didn't help that we'd been seated quite a distance from the bar/serving area.
Our starter arrived and it was cold. It was a selection of the meat starters from the menu and without exception, every item on the platter had been overcooked and was tough and dry. The salad that accompanied it was miserable, a few strands of shredded cabbage.
We were not asked if we had enjoyed the starter.
Our mains arrived and, quite honestly, I was staggered. It was hot, at least, but my vindaloo had no flavour whatsoever and the chicken was dry again. I tried a bit of the sauce from my wife's dish - a vague taste of coconut, but not much else. The bhaji was the right colour, but again tasted of absolutely nothing. The paratha was wafer thin and had the look - and taste - of a circle of cardboard.
The absolute final straw though were the king prawns that were the main event for my wife. They looked magnificent but hadn't been cooked! They were raw in the middle.
We stopped eating after only a coupleof mouthfulls and asked our waiter (luckily he was resetting a neighbouring table) to clear the dishes and bring the bill. I explained that we thought the meal was unsatisfactory in every respect (well, the rice was OK) but would pay the bill and just never return.
The head waiter appeared and apologised to my wife, saying that the chef had made a mistake (with one of his 'specialities'?) and forgot to slice the prawns in half, which had led to them being undercooked.
As a consequence of this, he was not going to charge us for them.
Whoopee do.
What about the rest of the meal? He assumed, I suppose, that my wife could have just eaten the rice and bhaji on their own and, therefore, should have to pay.
No mention was made of the fact that I had returned my meal almost untouched as well.
The bill arrived - and was presented to my wife!?! We paid it and left.
I really did have high hopes for The Banyan Tree, I absolutely love finding a good Indian restaurant - and everything about this place says it should be good.
It's in the middle of nowhere, so it won't get any passing trade but must rely on quality and value.
For me, I'm afraid, it was very much a case of style over subtance - and there wasn't that much style.
Avoid. Like the plague.

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