Tag: Spicy food

Nice name, shame about the food

On By Daniel FordIn 2. Reviews (Other UK)1 Comment

Jack Spice, Swindon

You’ve got to love the name Jack Spice. Unfortunately not so the food. There was nothing really wrong with it, but there wasn’t much right with it. Plenty of jack, not much spice.

The attractive, cosy little restaurant was buzzing. This appears to be due to the Sunday to Thursday special where you can order paps, starter, a main, a side and rice or nan for £11.95. Everyone around us was making hay. It seems to be such the norm that the (first) waiter didn’t even bother giving us the option of anything else and was somewhat baffled when we turned down the paps (“but they come with your meal” he said, simply assuming we’d go for the special).

Jack Spice is one of those friendly places that thinks you want to meet all the waiters and owners within minutes of arriving, so one by one they all made their way to our table in quick succession, clearly not having a clue what we’d said to the previous waiter. Let’s be kind and say they were just making sure.

Chicken Shally. Sweet and sour dish with chipped potatoes on top
Chicken Shally. Sweet and sour dish with chipped potatoes on top

I wish they’d told us the Chicken Shally (normally £5.50) is not really like a Patia as it says on the menu. A well-cooked sweet and sour dish is always a delight when you get that first rush of sweetness then a kick to follow. It’s certainly not easy to balance such different tastes admittedly, but this was just a medium curry with absolutely no balance of spice. The shally bit, by the way, are fine potato crisps on top of the dish, which works remarkably well.

I can’t remember the other dishes because they all tasted like medium curry as well, although there was some sweetness in the end thanks to the Peshwari nan (£2.50). But by then we didn’t give a jack.

Jack Spice, 61 Fleet Street, Swindon, SN1 1RA. Tel: 01793 488098/613309. E-mail: contact@jackspice.co.uk. Open: daily 5pm-midnight (later on Fri-Sat).

Jack Spice snapshot

Food 4⃣

Decor 6⃣

Value 5⃣

Atmosphere (weekday night) 8⃣

Service and friendliness 5⃣

Mayhem central

On By Daniel FordIn 3. Reviews (International)Leave a comment

Bharat Bar, Baga, Goa, India

Quite why the Bharat Bar is so popular is a bit of a mystery. It sits on a noisy corner between a main road (Baga Road) and the entrance to party world (Tito’s Lane). It’s noisy (toot toot), dusty, and none too clean if we’re being honest. Yet it is decidedly cheap booze-wise and its location is ideal for people watching and catching friends who pass by en route from the beach to the glut of nearby guest houses so it’s always busy.

I’ve never considered it a place to eat (noise, dust, general mayhem with your meal anyone?) although plenty of people do. It can’t be for the Chicken Tikka (Rps 220). The snack was a smallish portion (maybe a tad bigger than you’d get as a starter in an English restaurant), a bit dry, and certainly not worth the dust etc.

* At the time of the visit £1 = Rs 85, $1 = Rs 54.

Bharat Bar, Cnr Baga Road/Tito’s Lane, Goa, India. Open: till late.

Bharat Bar snapshot

Food 4⃣

Decor 1⃣

Value 3⃣

Atmosphere 7⃣

Service and friendliness 7⃣

Old school what?

On By Daniel FordIn 1. Reviews (London)1 Comment

Babur, Forest Hill, SE23 

Two of the diners sitting at our table said the same thing.
“My wife doesn’t normally like Indian food, but she is happy to come here and eat.”

There are two ways to take that comment. The first is that Babur serves excellent food (which is does). It has received many plaudits since it opened in 1985, including being named London’s best Indian restaurant in the Zagat 2013 guide. The second is to why wonder you’d come to an Indian restaurant if you don’t like Indian food.

Pot-Roasted Rabbit
Pot-roasted Mustard Rabbit, a broth with ginger and mustard, served with garlic roti

But like all contemporary Indian restaurants, you’re going to get more than the usual list of old-school favourites at Babur. So you can order Buffalo Lal Maas with steamed rice (£15.25), a dish where the meat is clove smoked and served in a dark Rajasthani sauce. Or you can go for Pickling Spiced Duck Breast (£14.95), which comes with a sweet and sour plum sauce and carrot mash. We are, of course, told the where our food is sourced – Laverstoke Park farm and Gressingham respectively, names sure to bring excited organic squeals from some quarters. We aren’t told where the rabbits come from but the pot-roasted Mustard Rabbit (£14.25) is a broth with delicate tastes of ginger and mustard. It comes with a garlic roti.

Chicken Biryani (£13.95), Chicken Lababdor (£12.95) and Chicken Chettinad (£13.75), the later with a fool’s cap dosa as a quirky lid, are there for those who prefer their ‘curry’ dishes to be more than meat with a sprinkling of spice.

Mixed starter of Chicken Tikka, Lamb Tikka, BeetrootCutlet and Mackrel
Mixed starter of Chicken Tikka, Lamb Tikka, Beetroot Cutlet and mackerel

The starters (as recommended by the waiter ‘for large groups’) was a nice tasting mix of Chicken Tikka (£6.95), Lamb Tikka (£7.95), Beetroot Cutlet (£6.75) and pan-seared mackerel (£7.25), all of which get the thumbs up. And it was the right amount. Unfortunately, buoyed by our large table accepting his offer to choose the starters, the waiter hoisted way too many side and rice dishes on us when it came to the mains. The creamy Dal Makhani (£5.25) was the favourite side dish our up-seller came up with.

Service overall was friendly but a bit casual, which we didn’t expect from a restaurant of this calibre. One of the mains was wrong (“sorry, I can’t read my own writing,” we were told by the same waiter who could clearly read his own writing when it came to the extra sides), although in fairness this problem was fixed pretty quickly. And then the wait for the desserts was sooooo long that the chatty end of the table ended up asking for the bill and ordering taxis because they assumed the few sorbet lovers has eaten already. Your wife might like it but she will clearly have to be patient whether she is a fan of Indian food or not.

Babur, 119 Brockley Rise, Forest Hill, SE23 1JP. Tel: 020 8291 2400. E-mail: mail@babur.info. Open: daily noon-2.30pm (Sun noon-4pm), 6pm-11.30pm.

Babur snapshot

Food 7⃣

Decor 8⃣

Value 5⃣

Atmosphere (Monday night) 6⃣

Service and friendliness 5⃣

Babur Brasserie on Urbanspoon

Pretty in pink

On By Daniel FordIn 3. Reviews (International)1 Comment

Pink Chillies, Goa, India

Pink Chilli is a classy new restaurant situated inside the grounds of Double Tree by Hilton Hotel, a few minutes inland from the popular beach resorts and opposite the site of the Anjuna Saturday night market.

It’s been set up by the team that runs the Karma Café on Baga Beach, so you’ll find the same chilled atmosphere and super friendly welcome, just without the sand. It is one of the few places in Goa that is able to attract everyone – locals, holidaying Indians, Brits and Russians.

The Tandoori Lamb (Rps 400 a head) has to be ordered 48 hours in advance so it can be marinated. And, wow, how it is marinated. A thick tasty coating certainly penetrates the meat deeply after so many hours. Lamb (or sometimes mutton on menus) in Goa usually means goat, although the lamb here is imported from Maharashtra and once went ‘baa’ not ‘nanny’. Most of us curry lovers have seen this ‘order in advance’ dish on menus (it’s sometimes called Lamb Raan, which refers to the actual cut of lamb used) but few of us get round to ordering it. It’s worth it. Never have I seen a group of diners anticipating a meal such as this. From the cooking in the tandoor (cameras at the ready everyone) to the carving of the meat onto the trays, this really was an eating event.

To keep the anticipation to bearable levels, starters such as Chicken Chilli Fry (Rps 120), Prawn Chill Fry (Rps 140) and Masala Papads (popadoms loaded up with chopped onion, tomato, and chillies) provided a good selection to share around.

photo   photo

The couple who own this open-air restaurant – he from near Delhi, she from Liverpool – have created a beautifully styled venue. Pink is used on the walls, the place settings, the napkins and the menus (handmade with crushed paper), although the dark wood of the tables means the colour is not overpowering. Classic Indian posters have been framed and cover the walls, and the smart wooden carved chairs go well with the tables that have been converted from old Singer sewing machine frames. Coming soon, I’m told, will be a Tuk Tuk at the top of the stairs, where people can chill and enjoy a drink (and sure to be a hit among children and photographers). It will, of course, be painted in the restaurant’s trademark bright pink. Beep beep.

* At the time of the visit £1 = Rs 85, $1 = Rs 54.

Pink Chilli, Double Tree by Hilton Hotel, Arpora 403518, Goa, India. Open: daily.

Pink Chilli snapshot

Food 8⃣

Decor 🔟

Value8⃣

Atmosphere 9⃣

Service and friendliness 8⃣

The world’s best curry

On By Daniel FordIn 3. Reviews (International)1 Comment

McCain’s, Goa, India

This is it. This is the best curry I have ever tastest.

From left: Chicken Kolhapuri, Mushroom rice, Vegetable Kolhapuri, nan
From left: Chicken Kolhapuri, Mushroom rice, Vegetable Kolhapuri, roti, washed down with a Kingfisher beer

The narrow-fronted McCain’s can be found wedged between bars and shops in the busy Tito’s Lane in Baga, north Goa. It’s so unassuming it would be easy to miss (one person who’s been visiting the area for years and was staying within metres of McCain’s had never heard of it). It’s a simple fast-food style joint with benches and stools along both walls, while at the back, behind a glass screen, hang skewers of bright red, marinated tandoori, while other staff beaver away over the tawas. It’s always packed.

Service is superb and no matter how full it seems to be a bit of space and seats appear magically as soon as the staff see you enter. Why a swankier restaurant has not snapped up the staff, some of whom have been here a fair while, is a mystery.

Kolhapuri is a dish that comes from the city of Kolhapur to the north of Goa in Maharashtra, so it’s not a local dish, but it’s certainly a favourite in this tiny Indian state. Most recipes include coconut and there is often a giant chilli glistening away in the sauce. It’s a rich, hot and vibrantly coloured dish that is hard to stop eating, even when your stomach has had enough.

The Chicken Kolhapuri (Rs 120) certainly can’t be faulted, with the perfectly cooked chunks of off-the-bone meat, but this is really best as a vegetable dish. People of a certain age would text their friends ‘OMG’ at the first mouthful. As hot as a Vindaloo, as moreish as Tikka Masala, and as fresh as a Balti, the Vegetable Kolhapuri (Rs 100)  is a dish that has it all. Packed with potato, cauliflower, carrots, beans and paneer, I was soon piling up huge spoonfuls of the tasty, onion and tomato gravy onto the Mushroom rice (Rs 100) and tucking in. If you’re a mopper-upper type of eater then rotis come in at Rs 10. Either way, you will eat it and want more.

* At the time of the visit £1 = Rs 85, $1 = Rs 54.

McCain’s Fast Food, Tito’s Lane, Baga, Goa 403 516, India. Tel: +91 9823 196848. Open: till 7am in season.

McCain’s snapshot

Food 🔟

Decor 3⃣

Value 🔟

Atmosphere (late weekday) 7⃣

Service and friendliness 9⃣

Load up the table

On By Daniel FordIn 1. Reviews (London)Leave a comment

The Viceroy, Charlton, SE7

Monday nights are always good nights to go out for a curry. There’s nothing much else to do, it gives you something to look forward to during the Monday Blues at work, and best of all you often have the restaurant to yourself. The Greenwich Curry Club has often turned up mob handed at a restaurant on a Monday and enjoyed what’s felt like a private dinner.

Not so in Charlton’s Viceroy where Monday night is banquet night. And half of Charlton seems to know it because the place was bursting at the seams, especially once 17 of us from the GCC turned up. It felt more like a Saturday night than a sleepy Monday.

And here’s why. It costs just £10.95. And for that you get a starter, a main, a side, a rice, a nan bread, ice cream and coffee. You got it, make sure you go hungry.

The Viceroy, 10 The Village, Charlton, SE7 8UD. Tel: 020 8319 3436.

The Viceroy snapshot

Food 7⃣

Decor 5⃣

Value 8⃣

Atmosphere (Monday banquet night) 9⃣

Service and friendliness 7⃣


Viceroy on Urbanspoon

Quick and cheap

On By Daniel FordIn 2. Reviews (Other UK)Leave a comment

New Regency, London, EC1V

I’d suggest you don’t arrive late for the noon to 2pm daily buffet as some of the food will be cold (tops off the serving trays, even the warmer plates seem to have given up). “Get here early, it’s nice and fresh,” I’m told.

That said the lunchtime buffet food at New Regency in Old Street is pretty decent for a paltry £5.95 (large takeaway £4.95 and a pound less for a small one). The promo leaflet says  ‘over 16’ items but as an example from my visit you’ll get a couple of starters (onion bhajis and pakora), three curries (two veg and one lamb), a couple of rice and deals plus salad, pops, nan slices and a dessert.

But frankly for a quick and cheap lunchtime curry (it looks like it attracts local office workers) one or two decent dishes are fine. The Vegetable Curry was spot on, and with rice and salad makes a great lunch. If you like something a bit heavier the Lamb Curry with Chick Peas was sweet and tender too. This lot, at least, was still hot.

New Regency, 96 Old Street, London, EC1V. Tel: 020 7336 8636/8696. E-mail: info@newregencyindiancuisine.com. Open: daily, noon–2pm, 6pm–midnight.

New Regency snapshot

Food 5⃣

Decor 4⃣

Value 7⃣

Atmosphere (Tuesday lunchtime) 3⃣

Service and friendliness 7⃣

* Note: new rating system introduced. See About for more details

New Regency Indian Cuisine on Urbanspoon


We’ll be Baku (that’s Azerbaijan for quiz lovers)

On By Daniel FordIn 3. Reviews (International)Leave a comment

 Adam’s Curries, Baku, Azerbaijan
(by Mark Grady)

Adam’s Curry House on Alosvat Guliyev Street is the only dedicated curry house in Baku. There are a few pubs that offer a weekly curry night, but Adam’s is the only seven-day operation in town. This family run establishment has been operating in the capital of Azerbaijan for 15 years, so if they can’t get the ingredients then no one can. Coriander, however, is available on, more or less, every street corner. This staple of the curry world is straddled alongside imported cigarettes and pomegranates on many a hand cart or Del Boy-style cardboard box.

The decor of Adam’s Curry House is very yellow; the walls, ceiling, tables are all yellow, plus the numerous collages of ex-customers, of the expat variety, that adorn the walls are various shades of yellow, dependant on age. The menu has many of the old favourites of the chicken or lamb variety, with the addition of ‘Adam’s specials’ that seem to be either from Goa or Northern India. The Goan fish curry first caught my attention. This is a family favourite, or as the menu explains, ‘Mom’s Goan fish curry’, priced at 16 Azeri manat (£12.60), but I chose a dish that I’d not tried before, the Malvan chicken curry. ( 15 Azeri manat/£11.80) A curry in this town is not cheap! Oil  wealth has a way of inflating prices, especially when you’re attracting a mainly expat community.

  

The menu says this curry is from the Malvan region of Maharashtra. The ingredients are dried red chillies, coriander seeds, cloves, black pepper corns, fennel and cumin seeds, masala ilaichi (black/brown cardamom ), cinnamon stick, dagad phool (a type of dried  lichen mostly found in mountainous regions, a most unusual ingredient in a curry) and negkasar with black mustard seeds, dried turmeric root, badal phool, (star anise) whole asafoetida stones and two whole nutmeg. All of these are roasted and ground to create the masala sauce that is hot and has a slightly bitter taste. The dish was served with a plain rice ( 7 Azeri manat/£ 5.50 ) that mediated the slightly bitter after taste, to pull the balance of the dish back.

This was accompanied by onion bhajii (6 Azeri manat/£ 4.70) that were homemade, light and crispy. I think we have unfortunately become used to a big tennis ball type of bhajii full of oil and barely cooked in the centre, rather than these delicate, flavoursome starters. It’s a shame that many of our curry houses have adopted this approach rather than going back to the original idea of the bhaji as a light street food snack.

The whole meal was washed down with two bottles of local beer (4 Azeri manat /£ 3.14 ) Xirdalan, a sweet tasting, light pilsner which compliments a curry quite well. Although this is brewed by Carlsburg via their Baltika Baku enterprise, I’m surprised they haven’t latched on to the curry market. I’m sure they would love to take on the giants of curry lagers, Kingfisher and Cobra. The rise of the Nepalese beer Gurkha, one of my favourites, proves that there is such a market. So come on Carlsberg…

Overall, the meal was very tasty and filling, the service came with a smile from one sister, while the other sister had a face like someone had just slapped her with a fresh herring. It was a confusing double act. So, was it worth it for roughly £28 for one person? Probably not. However, they have a captive audience and an expat community that loves a curry.

Adam’s Curry House, 142 A, Alovosat Guliyev Street, Baku, Azerbiajan. Facebook: Curries. Email : adamscurries@gmail.com

Adam’s Curry House snapshot

Food ① ② ③

Decor ① ②

Value ① ②

Service and friendliness ① ② ③

Only place in town! ① ② ③ ④ ⑤

 

Sons of curry sons

On By Daniel FordIn 4. TakeawaysLeave a comment

Curry Royal Tandoori, London, SE10
(Takeaway)

Deep in darkest east Greenwich as you head towards Woolwich there is a takeaway place that has been there since 1978. Still owned by the same man (his grandson was serving) and operating out of the same place, it must be doing something right.

“We have generations of the same family eating with us,” I am told. “Sons of the sons eat with us as they grow up.”

Let’s be honest, this area is not for everyone late at night and the place looks like it could do with a spruce up. But the staff are friendly if you collect, and if it’s just a delivery you’re after it’s really only the food that matters anyway.

The place will certainly be tough to beat on value, with even most of the specials (Makni Chicken, Meat Chilly Piazy, Jamal-E) coming in at just £5.95. Classic dishes are £4.50 for chicken, £4.95 for lamb and prawn, while boiled and standard pilau rice are both under £2.

Chicken Bombay (£4.50) is a hybrid dish, medium in strength, with potato, whole tomato and boiled egg. Very good it is too, especially with Bengal rice (£2.55) a dish that comes with fresh chilli and coriander. The Motor Pannir (£2.75) is a bit different from usual in that the cheese was mostly melted and not in cubes, to create that delicious, how shall I say, cheese goo? Wonder if it was on the menu in 1978?

Parking: on Woolwich Road.

Delivery: free on orders over £10 to SE3, SE7, SE10 and parts of SE8, SE9, SE18.

Specials: free papadom and onion salad with every order over £12 or vegetable side dish or a bottle of Coke on orders over £25. A 10 per cent discount on collections if you spend over £15.

Beer while you’re waiting: the Duchess is nearby. Who knows, with luck you might be able to get a bit of karaoke in while you wait…

Curry Royal Tandoori, 9 Woolwich Road, London, SE10 0RA. Tel: 020 8858 1384 or 020 8293 3610. Open: daily 5.30pm-midnight.

Curry Royal Tandoori snapshot

Food ① ② ③

Waiting area: ① ②

Value ① ② ③ ④ ⑤

Service and friendliness ① ② ③ ④

Unwrapping your curry

On By Daniel FordIn 4. Takeaways2 Comments

King of Curry (Medina), London, SE10
(Takeaway)

I like the menu at King of Curry (the name was changed because Medina, the previous name, is Islam’s second holiest city and offended Muslims. The Medina sign still remains). It offers straightforward, no-nonsense takeaway choices, which you’d expect from a place run by a chef.

But look a bit deeper and you’ll find a couple of speciality gems for the times when an old-school favourite just won’t do. Grilled Trout (£8.95), Salmon Tikka Masala (£8.95), Rupchanda Fish (£9.95) and Sardine Bhaji (£5.75) should keep you fish lovers happy.

But it’s the Kings Special Stuffed Chicken (£8.95) that headlines for the chef, which the menu proudly announces, has featured on the BBC London News. Basically large pieces of breast (sealed together) have been stuffed with tasty red and green peppers, and mushrooms. It’s like unwrapping a curry present and the succulent chicken really works well as the wrapping paper. The dish is marinated and coated in a green mint and coriander sauce.

Parking: on side streets off Blackheath Road.

Delivery: free on orders over £12.50 (menu doesn’t specify a distance).

Specials: free Bombay Aloo side dish with orders over £20, free nan and veg dish with orders over £30 and free nan, side dish and bottle of drink with orders over £50.

Beer while you’re waiting: the Graduate, a good old local boozer is opposite.

King of Curry, 106 Blackheath Road, London, SE10 8DA. Tel: 020 8692 2423 or 020 8964 2396. Open: daily 5pm-11pm.

King of Curry snapshot

Food ① ② ③ ④

Waiting area: ① ②

Value ① ② ③ ④

Service and friendliness ① ② ③ ④