If ever there were a trendy UK Indian restaurant, this has to be it! The bright lights, colorful…read moredecorations, and amazing service were all super memorable parts of my visit to the Chilli Pickle! For dinner, I sat at the communal table and ordered the Set Menu (Veg), which started with a huge platter of pappadum along with pickled onions and three different types of chutneys/jams. Then there was the Chilli Pickle Cornflake Mix, a reinvented version of "Bombay mix" containing cornflakes, lentils, peanuts, chickpeas, flaked rice, cashews, pecans, raisins, and more! This was so crunchy and delicious that I even asked to take the rest home after the meal!
On the waiter's recommendation, I tried the pani puri for my appetizer, a typical Indian street food made of puri (a deep-fried puff) filled with potato, chickpeas, and chutney--it also came with a tamarind water on the side, which you poured into the puris before eating. While this was an interesting dish, there was very little flavor to the little puffs, and I thought these was skippable.
For my main, I chose the Punjabi Aubergine Curry, made with soft pieces of eggplant in a sauce of tamarind, coconut, and peanuts. It came with a cucumber/tomato/red onion salad and a huge, fresh piece of onion roti on the side. The onion roti was pure perfection--the edges were puffy and chewy, while the inner part was thin and crispy; it had a nice nutty flavor from the whole wheat flour and was the perfect vessel for dunking in the curry! Overall a decent dish, but the flavors and spices were definitely toned down, and the sauce had a more sweet/mild flavorful than other Indian curries I've had.
