Alounak Restaurant - Kensington in Kensington and Chelsea

I’ve been eating at this restaurant for over 15years and I will do so for another 15 years. This place has the best Iranian Chef. They use the highest quality ingredients and I’ve been told by the owner that if the meat quality doesn’t meet their standards, they send it back.Their portion size is spot on and it’s great to see customers plates empty as it heads to the kitchen. I’ve been to other Iranian restaurants and the portion sizes are a lot which results in high waste. If they provide a better quality rather then quantity I think they can benefit more.Aloonak starters - I can’t pick a favourite. They are all unique and taste great. Mirza ghasemi slightly leads the way.Main course - Barg with rice is the one I choose on a regular basis. Home food I’ll go with Baghali poloDesert - saffron ice cream is the icing on the cake.Staff - Chef Mr M, kind and generous man. Owner a down to earth guy which really cares and enjoy what he does.Thank you very much Aloonak.

Been coming here for more then 10 years, authentic persian food and always tastes good.

I really enjoyed going to Alounak. The service was impeccable and the food was delicious. Looking forward to my next visit.

Got taken to Alounak by a friend who knows the place well. What a find! Delicious, authentic food. The bread is sensational! We over ordered but the very kind lady running the restaurant, packed the food we couldn't manage for me to take home. Thank you for your warm welcome. It was my first visit but I will be back.

The ambience is very attractive, but the staff service, especially the waitress, is not acceptable. We went there a few days ago, and when we wanted to pay the bill, the waitress behaved impolitely towards us. She believed that the only people who had to pay the bill were men, so she deftly stopped the other guest from doing so and said to the ladies, "Please do not let the men be rude because it is the men's duty to pay the bills all the time." In front of us, she took my bank card insistently and then saw whether it belonged to the lady or the man, and then she used it for the transaction. In the meantime, when she gave us the bill, we noticed that the price of one meal, Baghali Polo, had changed to a higher price. We asked her about it and she said the menu she gave us had not been changed with new prices and that was why the price was higher. We did not say anything to her because it was not appropriate to change our good mood and the atmosphere of the restaurant. Everyone agrees that this is not the task of the waitress, and personally, I think that the restaurant should endeavour to recruit someone who has manners and is well-behaved.

End of an era.This is the restaurant I had been going to with the family for over 20 years. Today the experience was spoiled for good.As we sat, we noticed some changes in the menu but as we were in Alounak mood we decided to disregarded them.We had two main courses plus Mirza Ghasemi and a yoghurt starter with two breads. We asked for some Iranian tea. For the sweets that we always had then complimentary - they charged us. We paid £63 and we had a row as a family instead of having enjoyed this. We were all so dissatisfied and promised never to return to our once favourite Iranian place.Frankly with this many problems this should had been offered with a big discount.I called to mention this over the phone calmly and the lady after apologising saying she is a waitress which is fine(and apologies are free)….but ultimately hang up on me. Which I know is not what one would expect and nice but at least I hope she conveys this to management.End of an era and I am afraid it is summed to ‘go elsewhere’. Alounak Kensington is no more the total Iranian package it once was (and best of luck to the lady that was there before for a long time and was so courteous; we were told she is back in Iran).J

Very comfortable and friendly atmosphere, great service and staff specially Niloo.

I didn’t actually eat in but got a takeaway. I had the daily dish of the chicken and what I thought was keemah badmejan. Both dishes were disappointing. The chicken was very dry and hardly had any sauce and the keemah was not a real keemah! It was one piece of aubergine with 3 pieces of meat - definitely not worth the price. I would not recommend this restaurant.

Great food. Great hospitality. Can’t fault it!The management and staff are so lovely. The food was amazing, particularly the koobideh and lamb fillets. The portion sizes are also very generous. They also gave us tadig on the house!

Food was average, though I would say Barak Kabab was so yummy and one of the best, other things was OK. Expensive compared to many other places and they charge for everything... Staff and atmosphere was nice