As a regular customer visiting this place for meetings, special occasions and just for daily lunch, I am sending you a big thank you for all that you are doing guys.Thank you.

I tried the tasting menu with my girlfriend. I was impressed to be honest. Wonderful service, clean place with asian style. I would recommend the cocktails too.

From start to finish the service was outstanding. Our every need was catered to, when unsure about which dish we’d prefer the manager went the extra mile to explain in detail and even offer a taster to ensure we made the correct decision. The food...was outstanding, would definitely visit again. Shout out to Asher for making both of us feel very welcome, a great manager at a great place.More

The Cooks Tale in Canterbury is just off the main High street in a quiet side road. It is well worth a visit, as the food is excellent ( interesting Indian Fusion dishes), and very good value. We eat here fairly often and always have...a great meal.. The 3 course lunch is fantastic and a good price for the quality of the food. Good choice of vegetarian, meat and fish dishes.More

I ordered the seafood thali and my husband ordered the meat thali. At £30 each we anticipated that there would be some exciting flavours. Whilst there’s a good selection of individual dishes, they lacked flavour and were mainly lukewarm. Overall it was difficult to distinguish...flavours between the dishes. Sauces were watery and unremarkable. The naan bread was like what I buy in a supermarket and not the light fluffy fresh naan bread I’ve eaten in every other Indian restaurant I’ve visited. On a more positive note the waitress was attentive and diligent in seeing if we wanted refills for the thali and drinks. It isn’t somewhere we want to return to. Disappointed.More

I held back on posting this, having emailed the restaurant first, but seeing as they’re not responding. Here’s why we used to love the Ambrette and why we’ll never return to Bombay Cooks, The Cooks Tale…as whatever they are now, they’re a long way from...the Ambrette. We told our friends about the Ambrette when we first tried it in Rye. The food was amazing, service incredible. We were thrilled when they opened in our home town of. Canterbury. Regularly using them, and of course all the way through the pandemic when they held fast. Always with great small touches for return orders. We could never understood the name change, but that didn’t matter. The food remained great. Admittedly it had been a while since we last visited but for our friends 30th we recommended it, what could go wrong we thought! It should be said food and dirty dishes/glasses were literally piling up on the bar as we came in. Not a great sign. Service has always been at a very high standard previously however it was soon clear that wasn’t the case. We were seated back to back with another table and one of us could literally not get into the seat as a woman had sat behind her. So we reseated ourselves. A very harassed waiter looking staff member came over took our orders for bottomless drinks and the Thali. We then waited…and waited…and waited for drinks. Not so much bottomless but invisible. Eventually they arrived and we were told by a waiter that ‘food will be delayed.’ No joke, it already is! It quickly became apparently most of the other people around us were encountering the same issues. With one table asking us ‘is it usually like this?’ There was never any apology from the staff just one drink and then a ridiculously long wait. This wasn’t the birthday meal we’d hoped for. Eventually the food was served and we were pleasantly surprised to see it had been done so by the owner Dev Biswal. The quality was good. However deciding to not opt for yet another long wait on deserts we decided to at least get another drink before leaving. At this point one member of our party asked the same male waiter if they could get a refill on their wine - gratis, something which was exempt on the deal, however given how long we’d have to wait for an initial main we didn’t think it much to ask for a free glass of red wine. The response from the waiter was (to be polite) abrupt at best who told us (hilariously) they’d had to ‘extend the timescale of the offer so we could still enjoy our food as part of the deal.’This is possibly the most hilarious response any of us had ever heard. It’s akin to getting a plane somewhere, the flight being delayed and then the pilot saying he’d had to ‘extend the flight’ to ensure the passengers had got to their destination! At which point I raised the ridiculousness of what the waiter was stating, and I was told curtly ‘Look’ - a phrase which no waiter should ever be starting a sentence with! What makes this all the more worse, is the how Dev Biswal was literally stood behind us by the table adjacent to ours serving a couple sat there. The fact he was so close yet didn’t even intervene with a member of his staff behaving this poorly is shocking. Eventually the waiter relented and (bizarrely) gave two glasses of wine to people on our table - by this point we were very ready to leave. The waiter was fuming too, it was odd and really uncomfortable. The dishes had piled up ten fold by this point. We were hugely embarrassed. We’d recommended this restaurant and the service was to be frank a joke. We were very happy to leave. We’d never return and I would urge you to reconsider going here if you’re genuinely thinking of giving it a try.More

My wife and I came here for a celebration for her and the food was an absolute dream. From the moment we entered we seemed to be waited on hand and foot. We were treated to some pre-dinner food which was great and the main...courses of lamb and pork were exquisite. For anyone who sees the prices and is put off don't be. It's something I experienced for the first time tonight and I have to say I was very impressed. I felt indulged and full and this was worth every penny. Thanks guys 👍👍👍More

Hi, my friends surprised me with a Birthday meal last night (26th) We all had high hopes as when it was the Ambrette it was superb. We were shown to a lovely table, pianist was great also. It took 30 minutes to get our first...drinks (you have a 90 minute window to order 'bottomless' drinks) We're certainly not big drinkers but we were looking forward to a couple of Proseccos & a cocktail. We waited another 15 minutes for someone to take our order. Asked about any allergies & unfortunately I'm allergic to mushrooms. I believe the lady that served us is one of the owners? Anyway...we waited at least another 30 minutes for our food, which looked delicious. A couple of the dishes were cold. I rooted around in one of the potato dishes....mushrooms! Informed the chef & kindly asked for a replacement. I didn't get the potato dish...I got spinach! We had to keep going up to the bar to obtain service & the owner/waitress left after about an hour & a half never to be seen again for 5 of us we were there for a total if 3.5 hours...My lovely friends bought me a cake, it came down from the kitchen with Happy Birthday written in mango puree (nice touch) Then ANOTHER 45 minutes we waited for someone to bring us a knife & plates to serve the cake...nothing appears! My friends took a lot of time & trouble to book somewhere where Vegan food was offered & the service was absolutely abysmal. Such a shame. I dread to think what a busy Friday/Saturday night service would be like. Would we return, probably not. If you are happy to wait for a long time to be served drinks/food, then this is the place for you. I feel I have to give an honest review as even though we had a fantastic time because we're all so close, the overall experience could have been brought up quite a few notches. No one even acknowledged us when we left. I really hope they can improve, business is tough these days.More

Booked on line in advance for a weekend trip to Canterbury. We visited last Saturday evening and found the restaurant to be intimate and charming. The service was very good and the food excellent. The drinks were a little pricey but overall we loved our...visit here and would definitely come back if we are ever in the area again. Thank you.More

My husband had booked a surprise birthday weekend for my birthday in Canterbury and had booked The Cooks Tale for my special birthday meal. I had high expectations on entry as there was a guy playing a piano and the ambiance was just fab! We...chose our starter which was delicious and then we waited….. and waited….. and waited…. and waited for our main course. When it arrived over an hour later, mine was stone cold. My husband eventually went up to complain ( we’re not natural complainers ) and they took the price off for MY main as a sweetener. Seriously dreadful service and such an incredible shame for a birthday meal. Eat here if you have a LONG time to waste and hot food is not your thing!!More

Love this place! Great for lunch / dinner/ special occasions or just an ad hoc meal! Food is amazing - the ever changing seasonal menu never fails to amaze and staff are very knowledgable and friendly. Mentioned it was our anniversary in conversation on our...visit today and were made to feel extra special x well done The Cooks Tale, please keep doing what you do well and we will be back time and time again 💕More

Oh my goodness what a treat, a lovely menu and the food was out of this world, our waiter was nice and helpful and we certainly won’t leave it so long before we return again (we found the service quite slow many years ago when...we visited). Had lunch and found the prices to be really reasonable and a big selection. Highly recommendMore