This curry house sits down the Mitcham Road away from the main drag of curry houses that reside on the main high street. Strolling from the Selkirk, drunk people moaned about the walk. They moan every time. They moan if it's vegetarian, if it doesn't serve alcohol, if it's not next to the pub blah blah blah. Damn these people! But sometimes you need to venture a little away from the easily found to discover a bit of a gem. That was the case with Krishna. The lesson here? Don't invite Steed when he's started drinking at 4.30pm. Some of us were on mango lassis for a change so I can remember all of this meal. Which is nice.
Present were:
Berry7
Big Dunc.
Drunk Steed plus Drunk Mate.
Jag the Token Indian (Steed's long suffering wife)
English Matt plus bird.
Tom The Blog Stalker
My immediate thoughts on entering where "This place looks pricey!". The surroundings are unlike most curry houses in Tooting. It looks more like a "normal" curry house, with lighting that doesn't burn your retinas and real tables with soft furnishings. I think this slightly scared us. With a party of 8 on Friday night they told us to go to the pub and they would call us when the table was ready. They did this which was a nice touch and then made room for two extras we picked up en route. A good effort.
The drunk people in the group giggled at the arty picture of a woman breastfeeding. It was going to be a lomng night if the food wasn't up to scratch I thought. The waiters were immediately attentive and good popadoms soon arrived. The dips were on the small side which always annoys me a bit because I like loading my plate but there were 5 and they were very nice. It was, all in all, a good start.
The starters consisted of a masala dosa, onion bhajees, mysore bhonda (great name!), chilli paneer, cashew pakoda and Rasam soup. All were good except the cashew nut one but in fairness it did what it said on the menu. It just didn't work like I thought it would. The chilli paneer was excellent and all of the starters met with approval. I have never had an Indian soup before either and that was nice. The sort of thing you should eat when you are ill. Warm and fiery.
The mains were also well received. We ordered lamb and chicken dopiazas, butter chicken, fish curry, chicken bhuna, chicken methi, okra curry (on the specials section), chicken jalfrezi, puri, saag aloo and tomato curry. We were hungry and Big Dunc was with us! The mains were generally excellent although my fish curry wasn't very good. It tasted a bit too fishy (which sounds like a stupid thing to say I know) and personally I was disappointed. But overall the quality was high. The chill and garlic paratha I had was awesome and I really enjoyed the meal. The tomato curry was great as well and had some real spice and the variety and quality of dishes was high.
The place - 8.5 out of 10. This scored much more highly than Maseladar which suggest we were harsh on that place or this place did the upmarket thing better. I think it was the latter. Small and nicely decorated, this place had a really nice feel to it and of all the ones we have seen so far, this one got closest to being a curry house for a more discerning customer. Unlike Maseladar though, the curries backed up the decor.
The Service - 8 out of 10. Good service all round. From the phone call in the pub, to the two extra seats which were in all honesty a bit of a pain for the staff to deal with, to the decent attention the staff worked hard to keep us topped up on drinks and so on. They were happy to advise on dishes and answer questions. Good stuff.
Starters and Sundries - 7 out of 10. Good starters all round but nothing spectacular. We were all happy enough though. Small dips and the cashew one let it down. The sundries were similarly of a decent standard. Nothing to blow you away but all in all fine.
Curry - 7 out of 10. again the curries were above average. The range on offer was extensive but the dishes weren't hugely different in their taste at times. In fairness though the general quality was good. M y fish curry was pretty bad but it was the exception and the tomato and okra ones were very nice.
Value for Money - 8 out of 10. A bizarre one this as I thought the bill would be a lot higher. I'm still pretty sure that they missed some beers off the bill so maybe the value would have been lower if they remembered them. £2.50 for a mango lassi is a lot for example but the cost per head, with some heavy drinking from some, was £16. Pretty damn good in my book. I'd like to go back and test the value again though. Still seems a bit cheap to me overall.
Total - 38.5 out of 50. A new leader. Now this caused some consternation from the masses in the pub afterwards. Should this curry house come out ahead of Lahore? The curry lovers in us said no. But the TCC isn't just about rating the dishes. It's about the overall experience and this was part of our aim at the start. So Lahore loses out because it looks like a canteen and the service is average. If you want an amazing curry go to Lahore. If you want a proper eating experience with a partner or friends and so on then go here. But then variety and choice is what we want so this is a good thing. A place for a certain occasion.
Happy meal costs were:
Tarka dall - £3.20.
Plain paratha - £1.90.
Plain rice - £1.90.
Plain lassi - £2.00.
Total - £9.00. Not cheap.
So we have a new leader. Excitement abounds. We did another one this week so I'll get the review up next week before I go to Brazil. It's a tough life. No curry mind...
Berry7.
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