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The double
or even treble fronted restaurant is located just about 100 yards
away from the town centre, the décor is simple; dual colours
of green and a dark peach with a few pictures and basic furnishings
and probably resembles eighty per cent of other standard Indian
restaurants within the UK.
Whilst the
interior is to a budget, every effort has been made to make it as
appealing as possible with crisp white table linen and matching linen
napkins attractively folded to a fan design plus every table was
adorned with a fresh flower. I have passed this restaurant several
times within the last few weeks as its location is just 25 yards away
from my place of employment. I had not given it much attention but an
Indian colleague of mine had mentioned in passing that he had eaten
there recently and the food was of a good standard. On Wednesday
nights the restaurant offers for £6.95 a starter, main course,
side dish plus rice or naan bread, on this basis it seemed a good
excuse to break the week up and eat out midweek at a reasonable expenditure.
Four of us
arrived at around 8pm and the place was quite busy, enough people to
give a good atmosphere and mainly all families. The £6.95 offer
had obviously achieved its goal in respect to making a traditionally
fairly quiet night into a reasonably busy one. We were greeted
promptly and warmly on arrival and shown to a table so that we could
order drinks and peruse the menu. On ordering the drinks I queried
the fact that we were given the standard A La Carte menu when we were
taking advantage of the Wednesday night special offer. What we all
expected was a very limited menu with a few choices only of the
various courses but were pleasantly surprised that their offer was to
choose from any of the main menu including all specials and chefs
recommendations, the only stipulation being that King Prawn was an
extra £3 which wasn't unreasonable. Another bonus of the night
for me was that they served draught Cobra. Whilst I have drunk the
bottled variety on several occasions I was very much impressed how
good the draught variety is which more than overcame my
disappointment that there was no draught bitter available.
Between the
four of us we ordered Rashmi Kebabs and Chicken and Lamb Ticka, I and
another of the party had the Rashmi Kebabs which were two large very
succulent lamb patties wrapped in a thin omelette, the spicing was
fragrant and not overpowering, they were served with the usual green
salad, the remaining two in the party had the Ticka's which were
apparently also of a high standard. A reasonable time was left before
the main course was served; I had chosen the Aachaari Lamb which is
lamb cooked in pickling spices which was presented in rich spicy
gravy enhanced with garam masala of which the tartness of kalonji and
fennel was evident, plus they were quite happy to present the dish
with a little more chilli and split green chillies on request which
lifted the dish from a medium heat and gave it a little bit of a kick
without overpowering the flavours with too much chilli heat. My wife
chose a dish described as chicken with cashews and honey which was
called Jali. She was a little disappointed in its blandness but
admitted in hindsight that she had perhaps chosen the wrong dish but
the main ingredient was moist and tender. The two remaining ate Lamb
Dopiaza and a rich chicken dish. The title of the latter cannot be
recalled but both were more than satisfied with their choice, all
dishes chosen were contrasting colours, flavours and textures layered
with different spicing combinations, whilst it may have been a
standard formula curry eating place the chef had used his expertise
and imagination to make the various dishes unique and prove that his
menu was more than a one sauce does all. Included in the package was
a side dish for each diner all of which were a little different in
their spicing and the dal tarka was rich thick and flavoursome.
Overall the
restaurant had paid attention to detail, the service was polite,
attentive and unobtrusive and the young English waitress who's first
night it was, seemed to be coping with her new roll with considerable
ease. Whilst the fittings and décor were not expensive or
state of the art the restaurant was thoughtfully and comfortably laid
out making the most of what they could offer and they did offer
considerable more than the average. Even though the food promotion
was to a fixed price the portions were not scaled down, in fact they
were very much on the generous side. I look forward to a return visit
which will probably be in the very near future.
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