Having lived right across the street from Green Gates for close to a year, it was about time I sampled their food. After all, when Tam Cowan reviewed it for his Daily Record foodie piece, (he approved!), my dad took it upon himself to call me gleefully. - 'Have you eaten there?'
I hadn't.
No better excuse for an Indian take-away than that!
So, I had Green Gates last night. Living just across the street, we ordered ahead and went over to pick up the food. Although, I'd walked by countless times, I'd never really stopped to have a proper look. It's beautiful, it really is. Ornate and regal and mysterious, and green, of course! As you walk up the steps you feel like you're heading for Indian food in an illustrious old house, It's certainly eye-catching and makes for a more interesting Queen Street!
The inside, wow! That illustrious old house is in there, alive and beating. With a vintage Yamaha in the corner, huge shabby lampshades and rustic wooden furniture; it's the full shilling. - Stylistic and cosey in a slightly thrown-together way but not to the extent that it's mismatched and chaotic. The simple and minimalist approach makes for an understated, inviting feel. - Just the right amount of quirk! This is definitely somewhere I want to have dinner.
Food-wise, you can get a cracking take-away deal. - 2 set meals for £15.50. This includes 2 poppadoms with spiced onions and pakora (£1.75 extra for chicken pakora), any 2 curries plus rice and naan bread. We got two set meals meaning we had four different curries between us and also chose to sample the chicken pakora and peshwari naan. The pakora was delicious. - So light and tasty. The chicken was my favourite. - It was so tender.
For curries, we chose vegetable korma, chicken tikka masala, chicken pardesi and lamb roganjosh. I'm a real korma fan but we all agreed that, in comparison to the others, the korma fell flat. It was just on the watery side and the veggies didn't help. I think if I was going to try a veggie dish again I'd go for one of the dishes from their traditional Indian vegetarian section. The other curry I tried was the pardesi and this was so delicious with spinach, pan fried onions and mushroom in a rich garlic sauce. I'm not a spice-fiend in the least so, for me, this was just the right amount of spice and it was bursting with flavour.
FINALLY, oh my lordy, I've saved the best for last. If I could rate the peshwari naan alone, the star count would be through the roof. Mmmmm. It was almost a fight for the last bit. You know sometimes you get a peshwari and it's kinda sort-of like all the yummy flavours are on top and the rest is just a little bit...meh? None of that here. - All the goodness is inside and it's so juicy and YUM and....woah, did we really finish it that fast? I think I'll pop in here on occasion...just for a peshwari naan!
The peshwari naan is the show-stealer. GET IT AND GET IT NOW.
But, also, I'd bet that dinner here would be pretty damn good. read more