Feast of vegetarian options
mains, and then spotted the Street Food appetisers on offer. They were all out of “Bengal Bites” – puris filled with chick peas and tamarind chutney, so offered to bring Bhel Puri, on the house. Now that is great service.
This was an upmarket kind of Bombay mix, with the familiar crispy noodles, lentils and split peas combined with refreshing red onion and a light herb dressing.
APART FROM ALL THOSE STARTERS?
As vegetarians, our order consisted of a mix of sides and starters – but I love getting lots of small plates, the kind of meal you would never create at home.
The Aloo and Chana Tikki were deep-fried patties of crushed potato and chick peas flavoured with coriander, onion and chilies.
The onion bhajis are always my test of a good Indian meal and these were some of the best I have eaten – crisp layers of fried onion right through to their heart but never dry or hard.
Our mushroom bhaji was a real highlight of the meal, lightly cooked with red pepper, coriander and a lipsmacking citrussy sauce. Aloo Begoon contained potato and perfectly cooked aubergine – neither too soft, nor too hard. And the Sabzi Bahaar exceeded all expectations. Described as seasonal vegetables cooked with tomato and onion, it contained spring onion, carrot, red pepper, cabbage, peas, green beans and some potato too. Delicious!
Finally, a softly flavoured garlic tarka dhal proved a fragrant delight.
ANY ACCOMPANIMENTS?
We chose a plain naan, which arrived suitably big and bubbly, and a lemon and chili pulao – a departure we won’t make again. A pulao is usually a good foil to the flavoursome mains but this had small chunks of lemon peel and chili in it, which we ended up filleting out.
WILL YOU RETURN?
Yes, definitely. It’s not somewhere for a romantic meal, unless the lighting is softened, but the restaurant is spotless and the staff lovely. The service was excellent – glasses of chilled water arriving unbidden, for example – and of course, the food was too. The bill came to £44, including three bottles of beer.