We visited this restaurant on a Sunday evening, which is possibly the quietest night of the week for any restaurant. As a result we were the only diners in the establishment.
I wish there had been other punters there, because then the waiters would have probably felt less inclined to try to empty our humble pockets. It becomes quite tedious fending off repetitious requests of would you like a drink (alcholic). We'd had our legal quota down at The Fat Cat and didn't want to lose our license. Popadoms and the accompanying pickles should in my opinion be complementary, after all they are 10 for a pound at Asda. It just sits well with a punter if they think they are getting something free, even if it's value is measured in mere bronze pennies. Another of my grumbles with this type of restaurant is that they expect or assume you will order rice with your dish. We actually prefer eating our food in the authentic indian way, which is with your fingers and a bread, wether that be a Nan, Roti, Paratha or Chapatti. These guys probably eat this type of food most days at home and they should know that a main dish and 3 chapatis is enough to fill most people, you just don't need the rice as well.
Phil and I shared all the dishes, avoiding the starters, which were comparatively pricy. We have also found that if we have a big starter, a main meal and a few breads then we struggle to finish the meal and feel heavy and bloated afterwards.
To the food. The best of the bunch was the Balti Chicken Bhuna (8/10) which was ordered apna style (home cooked), at no extra cost, but with considerable loss in volume. We had been warned that the sauce would be on the dry side. The dish was excellent, but looked rather lost in its big balti dish.
The Chicken Dopiaza (5/10), ordered madras hot (35p extra) did nothing to justify the extra cost. What arrived was a middle-of-the-road vindaloo, bulked out with too much ghee, chili powder and seeds. All the chicken was good quality breast meat.
The Balti Mixed Vegetables (6/10) (side dish) was a good average curry, medium hot. The breads were average.
The service, initially a little silly and uninformed became very attentive once we had made it clear that we had paid our curry dues around this and other cities. One of the waiters was even flipant enough to ask us if we wanted the ketchup.
Once our curry credentials had been verified extras like salad and spicy yoghurt sauce appeared, perhaps as a reaction to this.
All the staff were friendly and happy to chat, perhaps the more so since there were very few customers in.
Well worth giving it a try. read more
