We've been searching for a traditional curry house in Salisbury to match the excellent standards of our old haunts The Westbourne Tandoori & Naz of Bournemouth, and The Hassan in Moreton on the Marsh, Cotswolds. This was the last curry house we tried and we had almost given up hope of finding a good restaurant in salisbury. The outward appearance probably influenced our decision to leave Rajpoot til further down our list, as it doesn't pull you in as some of the other larger and more plush expensive-looking restaurants. Please don't let appearances fool you! So, we judge every curry house on the same menu items, so that our review is fair, we think pilau rice, lamb madras, sag paneer, and of course, the 'poppadums & pickles experience'! The Rajpoot is not your fancy fusion or modern decor Indian restaurant it is tucked away with an 'understated' decor, but clean and pleasant. The thing that appeals as soon as you enter is the friendliness of the waiting staff, even if just ordering a take away, you are offered a seat, a drink, and a friendly chat. The poppadums & pickles large warm fresh poppadums, with a good choice of pickles, it looks like home made lime pickle and tastes great my favourite is the red sauce hot & fiery, and the onion salad was finely chopped with cucumber, tomato and coriander certainly much more effort put into even this small onion salad than most of the other restaurants we tried! The main course was one of the best we have had EVER the pilau rice was NOT yellow, sticky, overcooked and flavoured heavily with turmeric, unlike most other restaurants in Salisbury even the feted expensive ones! This was the real deal, light, fluffy, delicately flavoured and aromatic, wonderful! The madras was as it should be; simple, the right heat & flavour with tender lamb the proper consistency and balance of flavours, just heavenly as was the sag paneer, just perfect. All our favourite restaurants as listed above, all have their weak point for instance, Naz curry is wonderful but their sag paneer is sadly lacking, but we can live with this as they excell in other areas but this little tucked away almost timidly hiding restaurant beats them all into a cocked hat EXCELLENT, filled with regulars (speaks for itself) and a real gem of a find for those of you who are looking for a real traditional curry and not a pseudo-indian dining experience of a fancy fusion restaurant twice the price! No gimmicky square or triangular plates or knives that stand on their edge,no pureed tricolour pickles bearing no resemblance to a good 'poppadum experience', just a bloody good ruby served with good humour and friendly staff at an all-round reasonable price! Note; the house red is well worth a punt at the price, very pleasant!
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