currycouncil.com

Indigo - Romiley - Review

2012-02-14T17:17:00.000Z

T 0161 430 8000
A 6-7 The Precinct, Romiley, Stockport, Cheshire SK6 4EA
W http://www.indigoromiley.com/

Nice surroundings

It was a quiet cold midweek January evening when the council finally visited the Indigo in Romiley, Stockport. This place had come highly recommended from friends of the Council – Bob the train and Ange, with their opinions being backed up by the Indigo winning the best local restaurant in the ‘Spice Times Restaurant Awards 2010’. The restaurant was easily discovered within the heart of Romiley precinct and there was a large free car park tucked away around the back.

There were the usual 5 members in attendance with Chris MS absent as he was washing his (one and only) hair. The Indigo was very busy considering it was a school night with a variety of young and old clients in. The first thing I noticed was that it was quite a large place which was fairly trendy in its decor. However, the overriding impression was how cosy and welcoming the place felt, to the point where following our meal we all sat around chatting for an hour like we were in some warm vault in an old man boozer.

The service was excellent and the staff were very friendly and also inquisitive as to why we were taking so many pictures of the place. We informed them that they would have to wait and see.

Indigo pops and dips

Pops and dips were served up promptly while we considered the extensive yet not exhaustive menu. We were all impressed by the number of Signature Dishes and House Specialities on offer and a few of us had trouble on deciding what to chose due to the exciting variety available.

I ordered a Lamb Hasenna Kebab (Shashlick style tender lamb marinated in tandoori spice with onions, tomatoes and peppers roasted to perfection) for my starter and it was superb. The lamb was really tender and wasn’t overdone in the slightest and was really full of flavour.

For mains I went for a Bangladeshi Chef’s Recommendation and requested the Ruabja (Chicken tikka, minced lamb and chick peas with garlic and ginger, cooked in a selection of ground spices and herbs). I found it really tasty, especially the 2 different meats and accompanying sauce. The only downside was the hefty number of chick peas that came with the dish, but that was probably only a personal thing. We had a variety of different rice and nann breads and they were lovely too.

All in all, I had a really good night and the food was of a high standard. The beers went down well and the place was still going strong when we decided to call it a day at 10pm.

You should pay the Indigo a visit. It comes highly recommended and was an excellent curry start to 2012.

The Indigo had been mentioned a few times to various cc.com members including myself, so somewhat came highly recommended. This being the case we decided to give it a visit and see how it stacked up to cc.com standards.

People reading this review and not familiar with the restaurant may easily miss the restaurant as it is set back in the precinct of Romiley. You may want to check http://www.indigoromiley.com/ for additional information.

Parking is at the rear of the precinct with a short work to the restaurant. My first impressions were very good as a Wednesday evening and a busy restaurant often says a lot. There also seemed to be a good atmosphere within the restaurant.

We were greeted by a friendly waiter and offered drinks whilst we waited for everyone to arrive. Rat wasn’t in attendance again as Lisa was at Zumba. Andy had another dicky tummy, Chris had suspected gall stones so just the 5 of us made up the full complement.

I started with a couple of pops, which were fresh and we also received good amounts of dips and associated sauces.

Chilli Chat

I then decided to go for the Chilli Chat.This was a nice dish well presented with good flavor but not as spicy as I would have expected for a “ chilli” type named dish.

For mains a tried one of the Indigo specialist dishes, I must say this was a really nice dish, the mixtures of omelet with the curry was just superb and the dish also contained Chicken and keema which again gave a great blended curry taste.

Cobra was also good, Nice and cold and served in the correct glass. One other thing that did stand out here was the way the waiters really engaged with customers and ourselves throughout the evening. A pleasant nature and someone who is happy to serve you again makes all the difference.

I’d absolutely recommend that readers of cc.com to check the indigo out. 8.5/10 from me.

Indigo doesn’t look that impressive from the outside, the restaurant is tucked away in the prefabricated Romiley forum building and is just off the main road. The interior of the restaurant however is quite impressive, cleverly displaying traditional Indian restaurant features but still managing to look modern and fresh.

The menu was very large and varied. It came with a helpful 1 chilli to 5 chilli rating system to help you choose a dish to suit your taste and spice level. The poppodums tasted fresh and came with a selection of four nice dips. However, there was no lime pickle. I’m beginning to get a bit partial to lime pickle and missed this tasty little number.

Tandoori lamb chops

I had the Tandoori Lamb chops for my starter, which was an excellent choice. My portion of four tender chops was marinated to perfection and represented good value for money at £3.95.

My main course of the chicken Sylheti Tarkhari again was delicious. Its thick and rich sauce complemented my plain naan well. The sauce had plenty of spices (fenugreek, ginger, etc) and at first tasted a little bit milder than I expected. Its taste did heat up though as I discovered plenty of fresh green chillies hidden underneath the potato that also came in the dish. I was pleased with my choice and felt satisfied with this fresh, tasty and unusual dish.

The place was quiet busy for a Wednesday evening, which is a good sign in these tough times. The tables were well spaced and gave our table (of five) plenty of room to relax.

The meal came in at around £23 per head, including a couple of nice pints of Kingfisher for the non drivers. The service came with a smile, which sometimes is not always a pre-requisite at other restaurants.

I would definitely recommend a trip to Indigo and the food this evening was a pleasant start to 2012.

It’s a long, long time since I’d been to Romiley and I had a giddy feeling as fondly recalled my last visit, way back in 1984 as a fresh faced 7-and-half year old. Back then I was accompanied with my mum who took me to see the release of Ghostbusters at the Romiley Forum theatre. I remember loving every minute of it. Ah the 1980s...

I must say, I loved the feeling of the Indigo immediately as I walked through the door. The decor was ace and the welcome from the staff was attentive and warm.

I ravished my way through the pops hardly stopping for breath. My choice of start was the classic Chicken Chat. This was a large starter and was fresh and tasty, but on the mild side of hot. As we sipped our beer – curry talk of the highest order began, with a proposed boys trip to Benidorm, later this year, hot on everybodys lips.

"So yours must be the chicken korma"

The restaurant had a nice friendly feel to it and we enjoyed some banter with the staff, who made us feel relaxed and at home. One particular waiter offered me the timeless classic “so yours must be the Chicken Korma ” gag, cue lots of laugher from our curry quintet. You can't beat a bit of banter!

I opted for the Chicken Nagaa for my main course. This is a hot and spicy dish which is very popular in Eastern Bangladesh. The Nagaa was cooked with tomato, potato, fresh herbs, nagaa chilli and garnished with fresh dhaniy. This was something of a leftfield choice for me and a different dish to what I would usually order. Having sampled the other dishes I probably made a bad personal choice.

Bottom line is that I would happily visit again, but next time choose something slightly more familiar. The Indigo has a lovely feel to it and is well worth a visit.

King Cobra And Curry: A Perfect Partner

2012-01-25T20:22:00.000Z

King Cobra may be a name that you are not familiar with. I recently stumbled across this very hard to find double fermented Indian premium beer and thought that I would share my experience with my fellow curry lovers.

Normally my perfect partner for Indian food would be a standard pint/bottle of Cobra or maybe even a bottle of Kingfisher, but on this night I indulged on something quite unique to accompany my take-out meal.

King Cobra is a double fermented pilsner style lager and comes housed in a fantastic looking large 750ml bottle.

There is something almost regal about a beer bottle that comes in a champagne style bottle complete with a cork. It was quite exciting to ‘pop’ the cork in the knowledge that my take out Indian feast was ready to be eaten.

Its strong 8% alcoholic content is not for the faint hearted. I was pleasantly surprised by the beers smooth and not very gassy taste. This cloudy looking beer was a perfect accompaniment to my take out curry. Its malty flavour tamed my spices well and made it far too easy to drink.

Noble, King Cobra and his curry

Its park-bench strength means that I would advise against drinking it too fast – always remember to savour the flavour!

I certainly don’t think that I qualify to be a beer reviewer but this beer comes with a high recommendation from me.

If you are looking to try a beer at home thats a little bit different with your curry - King Cobra might just be the beer for you!

Off Our Patch: Eastern Eye in Bath

2012-01-02T20:30:00.001Z

It’s not very often that the CurryCouncil recommend a restaurant that is “off our patch” but for the Eastern Eye we will make an exception.

The Eastern Eye is located in the centre of the idyllic city of Bath and caught my eye whilst away on business.

The restaurant interior was stunning with high ceilings, original features throughout and their food also met these high standards. I went for the Chicken Tikka Tak Tak for my main course and couldn’t fault it. The dish had a lovely rich tomato based sauce that was well spiced with hints of garlic and cinnamon.

Chicken Tikka Tak Tak

If you are ever passing through Bath – this would be a definite recommendation from me!

Martin Noble : CurryCouncil.com

Purple Pakora - Marple Bridge - Review

2011-12-19T21:18:00.000Z

99T 0161 427 7748
A 10 Brabyns Brow, Marple Bridge, SK6 7DA
W www.purplepakoradisley.co.uk/

On the back of winning the currycouncil restaurant of the year for 2009 (Purple Pakora - Poynton) , I was expecting similar great things during our visit to Purple Pakora - Marple. This is the third Purple Pakora, following the opening of the Disley site.

The restaurant is located in the rather picturesque Marple Bridge village across from Brabyns park. The Purple Pakora chain has transformed the former Basmati Restaurant. The owners have installed new timber cladding and circular windows which dramatically improve the look of the existing site situated on Brabyns Brow.

The car parking facilties are excellent with a large open private car park available at the rear. As we approached the entrance to the restaurant we were greeted with externally piped music, which I secretly enjoyed.

The Marple site appears to be more compact than the Poyton branch. As a result I felt our table was slightly overlooked by other diners and the waiters at certain moments, struggled to pass with the serving table. The interior was contemporary and slick and of course included the infamous “bubble wall" at the rear.

As I enjoyed my Lal Toofan, which always goes down well. My menu selection was a breeze as the menu, quite rightly was instantly recognisable from my previous visits to the Poynton restraint. Due to child care arrangements Jedi Woodman was running late. Little did he realise that his delay resulted in a 30 minute delay for our popodoms. The staff informed us that the pops could not be provided until we placed our full order, for our entire party. This seemed rather petty. Surely this wasn’t to unreasonable a request?The mixed starter, shared very fairly, by a now hungry Steve Winfield bridged the gap between the pops and the main course. On reflection the starter was hot in temperature and arrived on a sizzling platter. Unfortunately the kebab was rather bland and tasteless. The chicken and lamb faired slightly better.

Selection of six quality dips

The mains duly arrived and I opted for a lamb pudina, with plain naan and keema rice. The rice and naan were great, fresh light and really tasty. Sadly the curry was a real let down. Chicken/lamb pudina has recently become a real favourite of mine. On this occasion the curry was rather stodgy/gloopy in texture and the lamb extremely fatty and chewy. Several chunks of meat were very cheap cuts of meat.

I have always been a big supporter of the Pakora chain, but on this occasion I felt disappointed with the overall experience. In order to maintain the fantastic reputation the Poynton restaraunt has built and established I do feel that the other sister sites must live upto the same high level.

This was a late November trip to the Purple Pakora in Marple. It had been quite a while since our last visit to the original Purple Pakora in Poynton (Restaurant of the year 2009) and we knew it would have to be of a high standard if it was to match its sister restaurant. The place was easily located on Brabyns Brow in Marple Bridge and there was plenty of parking in the large public car park round the back.

The actual exterior of the premises reminded me of a Fat Willy's surf shack in Newquay, but once entered the interior was extremely well done, albeit, it is quite a bit smaller than its associated restaurant. However, for a midweek night it was packed with customers which is always a good sign and the place had a nice feeling to it.

Pints of Lal Toofan (my favourite Indian lager) were soon being quenched and I was soon tucking into my traditional pizza-like papadums. They were really nice with plenty of chutneys available too. Myself, Chris and Jord then shared a mixed starter (seek kebab, chicken tikka, onion baji & fried garlic mushrooms) which was booootiful. It was made all the better due to Chris's bizarre hatred of mushrooms which meant I had to polish most of them off myself.

Flaming Grill Mixed Starter

For mains, I went for an old favourite of Chicken Tikka Chom Chom - £9.90 (Strips of chicken tikka in a thick masala sauce using green and red fried peppers), accompanied with some Vegetable Pilau rice and Peshwari Naan. There was plenty of it to get through. It tasted really fresh and there was a good thick tomato based sauce(which ideally would have been a bit spicier) left to mop up with the Naan. I was equally impressed with the veggie rice too which complimented the good portions of meat within the curry.

There were no midweek offers available that I could see and the bill came to £23 a head which I thought was pretty good value considering the quantity and quality of the food, surroundings and atmosphere, combined with excellent service. If I lived in Marple or the surrounding areas, I could definitely see me making a monthly visit here.

I was very surprised at the size of the restaurant - it is deceptively smaller than it looks. I imagine on a busy weekend booking is vital. A very typical modern restaurant very similar theme to the sister restaurants with the identical menu.

I was expecting the same flavours and service but was a little let down on both. The service was efficient but seemed to lack any friendliness, the waiters did not seem very personable and the food was nice but nothing special!

The mixed starter was nice with a few too many mushrooms for my likening (equivalent amount of mushrooms as there was meat, not mush room left on the plate excuse the pun).

My main meal the Silsila was again nice but did not compare to the same on I had in Poynton, I did enjoy the vegetable rice made a nice change to the normal pilau.

Overall a nice meal in a nice setting just would not rush back there when I have had better at Poynton.

This isn’t as good as the restaurant in Poynton in my opinion, although ample parking and nice exterior the reception and bar area are quite small. The seating we were assigned wasn’t really ideal as I kept getting bashed with the serving trolley as my chair always seemed in the way.

The menu is the same as the other PP’s, so I was expecting something good from past experience. What seemed a little strange though was the fact we were told we cannot order pop’s as we might get sauce on the menus and ruin them! This was a little disappointing as we were waiting for latecomers and wanted a nibble whist having a pint, this strange behavior resonated throughout the evening with my only way to describe the waiters as a bit unfriendly.

I had the joint meat starter with Dave which was quite tasty and reasonable. I then opted for what I thought would be a tasty Madras, I was a little somewhat disappointed when I got what I could only describe as a mild tomato sauce curry, This was also offered to the other members of the CC to taste and the same consensus of opinion was given.

All in all not a bad curry but I think the restaurant in Poynton would give for a better environment , curry and experience.

The Purple Pakora has grown from strength to strength since opening in Poynton at the end of 2008 and has opened a further two restaurants, located in Disley and Marple Bridge. The Poynton restaurant was the well deserved winner of our inaugural currycouncil.com restaurant of the year award in 2009.

A review of one of their new restaurants was well overdue and I chose the Marple Bridge venue for our November get together. The restaurant itself was stunning, with the now customary bubble wall and a sleek interior which includes bright velour padded seats. The restaurant architecture and interior design was superbly put together by DV8 designs.

A few of the lads were running late and we made a simple request to order some poppodums whilst waiting for the remainder of our party. The waiter strangely refused our request and we were told that we had to order the poppodums at the same time as our meal.

We politely asked him to reconsider as one of our party was running quite late but the waiter continued to refuse our request. He stated that some of their menu’s have previously been ruined by chutney stains. The attractive looking menus were plastic covered, looked quite durable and were certainly wipeable - so this made his strong stance seem even more unreasonable.

We continued our chat and eventually all six of us had arrived. We could now get down to business. The waiter took our order and finally the poppodums arrived, which were fresh and came with a good selection of six dips. The lime pickle was a highlight for me and the standard of accompaniments excelled.

I opted for the mixed starter. The dish was tasty and came presented on a sizzling metallic platter. Although the sheek kebab could have done with a little bit more spice.

I am a regular visitor of the PP in Poynton and often order my takeouts from there. I favour their Lamb Pudina and this is now my favourite Indian dish. I thought that I couldn’t go wrong by ordering the trusted Pudina (£9.90) here but sadly my dish arrived with its curry sauce almost at boiling point. This heat, not of the spiced variety, killed any taste of fresh mint and my sauce was left quite dry and gloopy.

I was disappointed with my main course and totally understand that the dish cannot be an exact replica of the dish offered at their Poynton restaurant. However, the taste was not of the high standards that their sister restaurant consistently delivers. I couldn’t fault the keema rice and plain naan (presented on a naan tree), which both tasted very good and fresh.

My meal, washed down with a delicious pint of Lal Toofan, came superbly presented on the Purple Pakora’s now customary personalised plates and cutlery.

The bill came in at £23 per head, which included a 10% discount for dining in the restaurant between Monday and Thursday (offer). If you are a fan of the Purple Pakora, you can also take advantage of their 20% discount for take aways.

I left the new Marple Bridge restaurant feeling slightly disappointed with my dining experience and hope that this was just a blip. The PP are set to open a fourth restaurant next year in Congleton and I hope that these teething problems can be ironed out.

Nobin - Hazel Grove - Review

2011-12-04T15:00:00.000Z

T 0161 483 9991
A 310 London Rd, Hazel Grove, Stockport, Cheshire,SK7 4RF

The Nobin is a stones throw away from the numerous pubs and bars that are dotted along the busy London Road (A6). The restaurant does not offer any parking facilities but you do cheekily have the option of parking across the road behind the Blue Nile Indian restaurant, the Nobin’s main competitor!

The Nobin recently went through an extensive renovation, including some slate effect cladding on the front exterior of the building. The restaurant now carries a bright red, black and white theme throughout its interior. It still regains the character and charm of an old style Indian restaurant and has mixed the old with the new quite effectively.

The restaurant is quite spacious with plenty of room in between tables – not that we needed it. Our attendance hit an all time low this month and we recorded our lowest turnout of just three currycouncil members. The three members present (Jordan, Noble and Marchbank-Smith Senior) heavily debated whether the cause was one of, or a combination of….

• Jord’s poor organisation skills (the October curry ended up on the 1st November)
• Winfield’s eagerness to regularly change curry dates without actually attending
• A general apathy towards regular attendance
• Dayo being unavailable every midweek night of the calendar month

This poor turnout didn’t dampen our spirits and the three musketeers carried on our curry eating duties valiantly.

I decided to go traditional for my meal and shunned the speciality dishes that I now usually opt for. Onion bhajis were delicious for my starter. They were a good size and tasted fresh.

I went for a Chicken Tikka Madras for my main. It was a classic madras with the perfect amount of spice and came with a good base sauce. The madras's thick texture complimented the naan bread perfectly.

The value for money aspect was good and came in at £21 per head including a couple of beers each. The Nobin is a true British Indian Restaurant (BIR) and reminds me of how traditional Indian restaurants used to be. Give it a go – you may be pleasantly surprised.

Having spent most of my younger years frequenting the numerous hostelries in Hazel Grove, this was surprisingly my first ever visit to the Nobin.

The restaurant has enjoyed a recent make-over however it still feels traditional and reminded me of how Indian restaurants were back in the 1980’s. Situated directly opposite the very popular Blue Nile, the Nobin clearly has a very happy, loyal and contented customer base to have survived so long.The turnout it has to be said; was pathetic, with only three members of the council present. The less said about this the better.

To kick things off I opted to share a mixed starter. This usually gives you a good indication of things to come. There was plenty of food on offer but more importantly it tasted very fresh. For my main course I went for my old favourite Chicken Madras. Like most Madras curries, the spice level was hot so this is certainly not a curry for mild curry lovers – there was a nice after burn/tingle on my lips after I’d finished. Lovely. I’m sure this place has a good atmosphere on a weekend night and would be an excellent choice after a beer or two “on the Grove”.

For those curry fans who often reminisce about the curry houses of yesteryear, make sure you pay the Nobin a visit.

After sampling a few sherbets in the stylish Zuri bar across the road, we ventured into the Nobin Indian Restaurant, a well known local establishment that has recently had a refurbishment.

The restaurant had an old fashioned feel to it, yet this was no bad thing with the Curry Council favourite seating booths available.
The pops were warm, fresh and crisp and were demolished with great urgency, two mixed starters quickly arrived for me and Dave. I found these to be excellent, full of flavour and cooked to perfection.

It was difficult to give a fair opinion on the main course, as by this time 3 more Cobras had been quaffed and anything would have tasted good, but indeed it did and was demolished in record time.

There were no special offers on when we visited but the prices are very good value and worked out one of the cheapest meals we have been for in recent times. All in all I would recommend the Nobin for anyone after a good value meal with delicious food.

Blue Tiffin - Oldham - Review

2011-11-02T21:26:00.000Z

T 0161 628 2005
A Blue Tiffin Restaurant, Laurel Trading Estate, Higgingshaw Lane, Royton, OL2 6LH
E info@bluetiffin.co.uk
W http://www.bluetiffin.co.uk/

The Blue Tiffin must be the second largest indian restaurant that we have visited, seating a total of 210 diners whilst also being able to seat a further 120 in the entertainment and function room where there is live entertainment at weekends.

We were left to ponder over the menus in the very pleasant waiting area and bar and were promptly brought our drinks.

Starters were free with a main course on a mid week offer, so the meat mixed starter was ordered without reading the menu where I was suprised to have an onion bhaji and no sheek kebab,lesson learned.

Advert for free starter

Main was a Chicken tikka rezzela cooked in the tandoori then further cooked with mint and corriander, onion and capsicum.

Whilst not great overall you could taste the different flavours and depth of the dish, yet it sat very heavilly on the stomach, and it was a relief to finish the dish. The rice portions are very small and a full portion each and 1/2 naan would be recomended.

This is a very pleasant restaurant with excellent service and would have a great atmosphere when busy at weekends.

The first thing that struck me on arriving was the rather unusual location for a restaurant. The Blue Tiffin is situated in the middle of the Laurel Trading estate in Royton (Oldham). With an impressive frontage and fantastic parking facilities the restaurant is appealing to those happy to jump in the car for an evening out.

The Blue Tiffin Restaurant, Bar and Entertainment Lounge can cater for upto 330 diners which gives you some indication to the size of the place. Whilst the main room is large (seats 210) a rather smart dividing wall ensures that the place feels intimate and the complete opposite of a banqueting suite.

The slightly smaller Entertainment Lounge and Function Room offers additional a dining capacity of 120. At the time of writing the Blue Tiffen are inviting guests to “Strictly Come Dine and Dance” other themed nights are offered throughout the year. Visit the website for more details.

The place had a nice buzz and was reasonably busy for a Wednesday evening. We all opted for the Sunday to Thursday “promo” which provides guests with free starters with any main course. I opted for the Chicken Chat Puri consisting of Chicken Tikka mixed with chickpeas, onions and tomatoes . For my main I went with the Blue Tiffin Balti Exotica, priced £10.95 from the House Specials options.

I really enjoyed my balti, it contained a nice selection of chicken tikka, lamb tikka, lamb chops and some delightful garlic chicken. The strength (medium to hot) was spot on , the dish was served in an authentic balti. For me the starter didn’t quite meet the quality of my main, I felt this was quite dry and was to mild for my taste.

Overall I enjoyed my experience, the interior and facilities are really, really impressive. The place feels special. I felt the staff were slightly overkeen on offering drinks which became rather tiresome. Despite this the service was excellent. The overall bill came to just over £20 which I believe offers great value for money.

We noticed upon our arrival that the Blue Tiffin had a promotion running in the month of September. This was certainly a good time to visit as the restaurant was offering a free starter with any main course that was purchased.

The Blue Tiffin were the winners of the Spice Times best local restaurant in the North West award in 2010. The restaurant offers much more than just food and including live entertainment, a dance floor with DJ and live vocalists.

There were six of us in attendance tonight, which is now sadly more than a good turnout for the CurryCouncil. The usual suspects were missing including Dayo, who has not attended a curry since July 2010 and Hague who has been AWOL since March 2011.

It now surely must be time to revoke their membership to the CurryCouncil. Do we have an X factor style audition to replace them or do we just admit that eight has become six?

I had the vegetarian mixed starter which included an onion bhaji, two pieces of mushroom pakora, samosa and was garnished with a rather small side salad. This starter would normally be priced at £3.95 and I was quite glad that I had not paid for this basic dish (please see photo below).

Vegetarian mixed starter

The vast selection of main courses on offer was impressive (starting from £7.95 and going up to £13.95). I went for the Chicken Tikka Afghani for my main and was disappointed with my choice. It was far too heavy on the vegetables with the diced onions tasting slightly undercooked and this dish just wasn’t for me.

The rice portions were very much on the small side and were priced at £2.30. The naan bread would be recommended and was perfect for sharing.

The meal came in at £21 per head, including the free starter and represented fair value for money. I may have just made a bad decision with my choice of meal but sadly the Blue Tiffin didn't impress on some aspects of the food for me.

Unusual location, on a trading estate but well positioned on a fairly busy main road. Well lit with an impressive exterior and with plenty of car parking spaces directly outside.

On entering the actual restaurant I was extremely impressed with the interior and decor and it actually had the feel of a swanky bar or nightclub.

I opted for a cold pint of Kingfisher over the other usual indian lager option (Cobra) and it was spot on.

Popps and chutnies were fine and the red hot sauce had a real nice kick.

I shared a mixed meat/veg starter (Chicken and lamb tikka, meat samosa, veg samosa, onion bhaji and mushroom pakora) which was good but I felt that there could have been a bit more on offer in terms of quantity.

For mains, I went for a Head chef special, which was apparently created using the chef's knowledge and experience of having worked in some of the best restaurants in the U.K. My choice of 'Blue Tiffin Thawa' was absolutely fantastic. It consisted of Chicken Tikka, Lamb Tikka, Garlic chicken and lamb chops specially prepared with the finest herbs and spices. The meat was especially tasty. It just melted in the mouth and it felt like it had been marinated for days, especially the chops where the meat just fell off the bone. There was a good amount and lots of variety. It was easily one of the best curries I have had this year and worthy of the trip here alone.

Rice and the Chicken Tikka Afghani

We ordered the usual sundries and the Peshwari nan was excellent.

Overall, the Blue Tiffin was a very good Indian restaurant with good service and even better food. It isn't the cheapest place to eat in the local area but you do get your moneys worth, particularly when you take into account the wonderful interior surroundings and also if you consider making the meal into a full night with the bar and entertainment lounge available there.

The Blue Tiffin comes across as an American style restaurant just off the highway, quite an unusual location and spot for a “Curry House”.

This American style approach does seem to work. What is impressive about the Blue Tiffin is the size and décor within the establishment, although tablecloths aren’t part of the table dressing, which in my opinion doesn’t do justice to the rest of the restaurant surrounding and feel

So with quite an impressive “starter for 10” what did I think of the food.

Well, Pops and dips are on the more traditional side and served in the “typical” stainless steel pots, we haven’t seen this for a while at CC.com as other restaurants this year have opted for porcelain dishes. The Blue Tiffin may want to consider this as an option as it does make that extra difference to the feeling of quality and style within the restaurant. Also only the 4 standard dips where offered so nothing really extra to comment on although pops seemed fresh and crispy.

I went for the Chicken Chatt starter. The dish was “OK” but may of benefitted from some additional flavour and perhaps a better quality cut/choice of chicken?

For mains I went for the Tawah chicken. Good presentation of the “speciality” dish served in the pan, but seemed to lack slightly in flavour compared to similar dishes we have tasted this year at other establishments. Perhaps leaving the meat to marinade longer may be an option or “spicing the dish up a bit” to give it some kick. (although again this is only personal opinion) so others may disagree

All in all a “OK” curry I’d give this about a 6.5 out of 10 based on the restaurants reviewed this year

Nice/OK restaurant but wouldn’t necessarily return again.

The Blue Tiffin would certainly be worth a visit if you want to combine a traditional curry night with some live entertainment. The restaurant would be perfect for a works night out or family celebration.

The restaurant is vibrant, clean and modern, offering an extensive menu to suite all tastes.

Raja - Cheadle - Review

2011-10-17T21:25:00.001+01:00

T 0161 428 3848
A 2A Gatley Road, Cheadle, SK8 1PY
W http://rajaofcheadle.com/

Raja of Cheadle was the choice for our August 2011 restaurant visit and sadly we bring you a short and very late review. Only two of the five of us that visited this restaurant managed to complete their review, despite having almost two months to pen their thoughts.

The best excuse came from the usually reliable Jord (below), who said “I will have to give my Raja review a miss as I have no recollection of it. In future I am going to do all reviews within 48 hours!”.

After a short flight back to Manchester from Arlanda airport in Stockholm, I soon found myself sat inside the Cheadles newest eatery the Raja of Cheadle. Positioned on the main road in Cheadle, immediately opposite the Bathstore.

The interior is clean and modern , minimalistic but fresh. I immediately recognized some staff members, one in particular who had previously worked at the neighbouring Garam Massala just down the road in Cheadle Hulme. A number of council members also made the same observation. I’ve personally always liked the Garam so my expectations grew somewhat.

After sharing a few tales of my week spent in Sweden, we then spent time deliberating how we could justify a long weekend away in Stockholm to sample this magnificent city, as well as trips to New York, Blackpool, Newcastle, skiing in France and the Grand National.

After a crisp Indian lager, we were soon ordering our feast. I selected the (meat) mixed starter and Chicken Tikka Pathia from the wide and impressive menu.

I ravished my starter. The dish arrived on a sizzling hot plate. This brought a number of admiring glances from other diners. The sheekh kebabs were soft, moist and tasty, but appeared to break up quite easily. The chicken tikka was excellent. Everything appeared to be freshly cooked.

No time for talking

My main course was good and it felt nice to be back at home doing what we do best. Eating curry and enjoying a laugh.

Convenient car parking is always appreciated in these parts, due to 352 days of rain a year. So after just a few steps we were in our car and on our way.

Raja have pulled out all the stops to launch this new restaurant, including an impressive website which allows you to order your food online and a well maintained facebook page. They are also advertising on local radio station Imagine FM.

The interior of the restaurant is really modern and quiet spacious, offering a open kitchen for diners to see their food being prepared through a small window.

The mixed starter was of a good standard with its chicken chaat being the highlight for me. The chapati bread was lovely and fresh.

The lamb podina, priced at £8.50, was my choice for the main course. The waiter was accommodating when I asked for the pudina to be spiced at a “madras” level of heat and it didn’t disappoint. The only small criticism was that the sauce was slightly too minty, which was a little bit too overpowering for this tomato based dish.

Lamb Podina

Woody continued his monthly ritual of ordering a peshwari naan for himself and leaving most of it uneaten. He then proceeds to eat his way through over half of the plain naan that I usually specifically order. The plain naan was superbly presented on a metallic naan tree. Thankfully, I managed to wrestle the last bit of naan from Woody’s limp wristed grasp. The naan was delicious and fresh.

The usual nice touches were there including cloth napkins, Cobra and Kingfisher on draught, a five dip/chutney selection, good food, nice presentation, porcelain curry bowls and impressive cutlery.

The Raja is a welcome addition to the growing list of Indian restaurants in our area and would be worth a visit.

Nice touch

English Curry Awards - So Close But So Far......

2011-08-08T21:25:00.009+01:00

The inaugural English Curry Awards, sponsored by hungryhouse.co.uk, were held at the Sheridan Suite venue in Manchester on 25th July.

The awards supported and raised funds the Association for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus charity.

The CurryCouncil attended the glitzy award evening as finalists for the “Curry Lover Of The Year" award.

Looking Dapper

The CurryCouncil proudly opted for formal dress complete with dinner jackets and bow ties for this special spicy occasion. Sadly - Woody could only manage to wear his work suit as he could not find a dinner jacket or trousers that would comfortably fit after just returning from his 10 day all-inclusive family holiday.

If your name is not down yer' not coming in

The bright summers evening started well with outdoor entertainment, welcome drinks and Indian canapés.

The large venue itself looked stunning with over 700 guests in attendance including curry industry big wigs, sponsors and restaurant owners.

The Blue Tiffin restaurant from Oldham shared our large, well dressed table (thanks for the great company guys!).

The Blue Tiffin were shortlisted for the best restaurant award for the North West.

The awards were compared by Jeff Merza, the veteran Edinburgh fringe comedian and came with live music entertainment from the up and coming Abbas Hasan, Romy Shay and Kiran Dee.

Mongoose

A good selection of Indian food was served to our table including mixed starters, lamb and chicken curry dishes.

We finally had opportunity to sample a bottle of Mongoose beer (highly recommended), which is actually normally quite hard to obtain in the North West.

Throughout the night we tirelessly “tweeted” live and up to the minute news and photos from the event from our Twitter account, which now has over 570 followers.

The award winners were announced just after 930pm after a small delay. Thankfully, we were put out of our misery at the earliest opportunity as our award category winner, sponsored by Asda, was the first award to be announced on the evening.

The Event

We faced stiff competition in our award category on the night from Mike Gatting (the former England cricket captain) and the Soldiers Charity (who organise the "Big Curry").

The Soldiers Charity scooped the spicy accolade and hopefully this positive PR will help their charitable campaign.

Other notable “North West” winners on the night included the Indian Ocean, who won the Restaurant of the Year (North West) and The Best of Manchester Award went to EastZEast.

Full details of all the regional and national winners can be found here.

Finally, we must say a BIG thank you to all of our readers and followers who nominated us for the award. We are feeling slightly defeated but have vowed to bounce back again next year - bigger and better.

The Countdown Begins

2011-07-24T08:37:00.001+01:00

The countdown to the English Curry Awards has begun. The CurryCouncil have been shortlisted for the Curry Lover Of The Year award which celebrates England’s biggest Curry fiend – an individual (or group) that is a genuine fruit loop for curry!

We hope to claim this spicy accolade in our home town of Manchester and look forward to an exciting evening mixing our spice with industry big wigs, restaurant owners and fellow curry lovers.

You can receive live and up to the minute coverage from the award night via our Twitter and Facebook pages on the evening of the 25th July. Why not tikka a minute to find out if we have been lucky enough to receive this great honour, what we get to eat (surely it must be a curry?) and instant news of which restaurants have scooped the prestigious awards throughout the night.

The CurryCouncil

We face stiff competition in our award category from Mike Gatting (the former England cricket captain) and the Soldiers Charity (who organise the "Big Curry" which is month-long flagship fundraiser that takes place every April. They raise money for soldiers, former soldiers and their families).

The CurryCouncil hope that we have done enough to persuade the judges that we have a real passion for spice and are 100% CURRY LOVERS.

"Why do you do it?" is a much asked question from our friends, colleagues and many restaurant owners. It’s simply our love and passion for curry which drives currycouncil.com.

Our non-for-profit website began in the 90’s. Our strategy was simple. Ensure we meet every month; eat a curry, enjoy a beer (or two), eat more curry and socialise.

During our travels we have kept a comprehensive web record of where we have eaten. In many ways we’ve become the curry equivalent of a train spotter, with over 100 restaurants visited.

In 2005 our moto “The Whole Truth and Naanthin But The Truth” was born. We set out to review at least one restaurant per month and publish our findings. Our visitors then have the opportunity to post their own comments and state if they agree or disagree with our opinions.

We hope that our independent reviews have helped to raise the game within the Greater Manchester region. Our website enables people to make an informed decision where to eat.

In 2010, we developed our very own curry awards to salute our favourite restaurant of the year.

The six CurryCouncil members like to think of ourselves as “The North West Kings of Curry”.

We work (and eat) tirelessly to keep visitors upto date with local restaurant reviews across Manchester & Cheshire and also industry news from across the whole of England.

We are fanatical, dedicated, true curry lovers and hope that we can celebrate when the English Curry Award winners are announced.

Passage To India - Monton - Review

2011-07-18T08:41:00.002+01:00

T 0161 787 7546
A 168 Monton Road, Monton, Eccles, M30 9GA
W http://www.passage-to-india.co.uk/

The CurryCouncil visited the Passage To India in Monton for the June (2011) monthly curry. Nominations for the English Curry Awards were drawing to a close and this visit provided us with a good opportunity to chat about our CURRY LOVER campaign and indulge in yet another curry for our review.

The CurryCouncil's View

I felt that the Passage to India was worthy of a visit. It is clearly a well established restaurant that has been located in Monton for many years and was very nicely decorated inside and out and spotlessly clean. It was also good to see it had a good sized private car park at the rear so there were no concerns with parking the motors.

It was not too busy but this is often the case when visiting mid-week unless there is a deal on. The restaurant was clearly proud of some prestigious awards (including restaurant of the year 2007) which were on display. However, there was a noticeable lack of ambience which was probably down to the lack of barely audible background music/customers.

We spent a considerable time perusing the extensive menu over some cold Cobras. If anything, there was possibly too much on offer, from your standard curries to the usual Chef’s specialities along with a large range of English dishes too.

Pops and 3 dips were delivered which were fine although the regular 4th dip (red chilli) was sadly missed.

Just 3 dips in but presented in a super dip tray

Myself and Jord then shared 2 separate starters of 1) Chilli Chicken Haryali (£4.50) – Chicken marinated in mint and green chilli & 2) Murgh Chandi Tikka (£4.50) – Chicken Tikka with cream, cheese and chat masala. They were both very tasty and decent portions too.

For mains, I went for tried and tested with a Lamb Balti (£9.95) which I shared for some of Dave’s Chicken Balti and which was devoured along with the usual Pilau Rice (£2.50) and Peshwari Nan (£2.95). It was really good. The lamb was tender and there was a good amount of it as well and I half felt aggrieved at trading some of it for the Chicken, even though that was delicious too. Both dishes are highly recommended and even the presentation (both Balti’s came out in CONE-shaped pots – which the absent Bean would no doubt have approved of) was a nice change. The rice and Naan was equally good.

Balti presented in metallic pots

Overall, I would give a thumbs up to the place, although it is perhaps a little pricey. Fortunately, I had brought 2 vouchers which entitled you to 2 main dishes for the price of 1, which went a considerable way in keeping the cost down.

Having starved myself all day I was giddily looking forward to a grand meal at the passage to India in Monton.

Externally the restaurant was attractive and had a nice traditional feel inside. The tables were spaced at just the right amount and the menu was HUGE, the pops were served promptly and devoured in seconds, they were fresh and crisp.

I ordered the Murgh Chandi Tikka for my starter (£4.50). This is chicken pieces marinated with cream, cheese and cumin and roasted in the tandoor oven. This sounded amazing but I was left slightly under whelmed with the portion size and the dish.

For main I ordered Murgi Tikka (£8.95) this was very tasty but though plentiful the chicken pieces were a bit small for my liking, the rice portion were quite small and the naan bread was excellent.

All in all this is a good quality Indian and is worth a visit.

This month we visited the Passage To India in Monton. It was Woodman’s turn to choose the venue (which was off our usual patch) and surprisingly we were down to just four CurryCouncil members on duty. I felt a little bit embarrassed by this unusual poor turnout.

I had the Chilli Chicken Haryali to start. It had nice and tender pieces of chicken marinated in mint and green chilli. Although I expected the chicken to be slightly spicier, it came presented with a small side salad and an extremely spicy red chilli sauce. All in all it was a nice dish and also reasonably priced.

Chilli Chicken Haryali

I ordered the lamb Kaalimirch Aur Methiwala for my main course and with excitement noticed that the dish contained the “peppery fenugreek masala”.

Fenugreek is actually a herb that helps improve male libido (read more here). I thought back to the wise words of Michael Jackson (from his 1982 track The Girl is Mine) and remembered that “I’m a lover not a fighter” and tucked into this potent lamb based dish. The Methiwala was pretty nice, it contained a good amount of peppers and onions and would be recommended. I quickly fell asleep when I got home, as usual, and sadly could not verify if the spice fenugreek actually has any 'kick'.

The rice portions were slightly small but we ordered another portion whilst eating our main courses to make up for it. The naan’s were well sized and tasted delicious.

It was a refreshing change to see some of the food presented in traditional looking metallic dishes and 'hot' plate warmers which now can sometimes be sadly missing in some of your more modern restaurants.

The Passage to India is a nice looking and traditional themed restaurant. It has a look and feel which reminds me of how old style curry houses used to look before the modern and contemporary looking Indian restaurant became the trend.

On a bright summers evening we arrived at a very quiet but ultra convenient private car park behind the premises. As we entered the restaurant I was pleased to see a number of occupied tables.

We were escorted to our table for 6, although sadly there were only 4 present for this particular visit. I asked the waiter whether or not it would be possible to dine in the spacious air-conditioned conservatory to enjoy a rare light June evening. Regrettably the request was turned down due to staff numbers. He informed me that the conservatory is only used for large functions and during busy (weekend) periods.

Although reasonably busy for a Wednesday night the atmosphere was slightly odd. The music, when turned on was very hushed and conservation in the restaurant was extremely quiet. At times you could literally have heard a pin-drop. Luckily for us Andy Hague wasn’t in attendance which helped maintain the decibel levels.

The restaurant itself proudly displayed a number of awards. Things were looking up.

Local resident Woodman had arranged the meal and came armed with a series of money off vouchers, these were presented as we ordered our food from an incredible vast menu (seven pages long!) including lots of speciality dishes. The popodums and (3) dips were satisfactory and promptly eaten whilst quickly realising that we would be missing the latest instalment of the The Apprentice. It was decided that future curries would be held on Thursdays to avoid the majority of European football fixtures and of course Lord Sugar himself.

I opted for the Chicken Chaat with Puri priced at £5.50 and the Balti Chicken as my main course at an agreeable £8.95. The starter was tasty and very fresh although I felt the puri was slightly dry. However the balti was excellent, it arrived in a bucket style pot. The bucket had a handle which was ideal for handing round to allow the members of the council to sample it. The balti was seasoned in special herbs and spices, ginger, garlic and methi. The plain naan was top notch, really fresh and crisp and complimented the curry perfectly.

Chicken Chaat

During the meal we asked to order an additional rice as the portions (2 rice, two naans) didn’t quite satisfy our appetite. Every last drop of curry and grain of rice was consumed, which is a positive sign. On the whole the portions I felt were slightly small. But on the positive side there was no requirement to open our “sides girths” at any point.

With the money off vouchers the bill came to a grand total of £23 per head including a couple for drinks and tip, which I believe is good value.

Please be aware that there is also a three course luncheon menu for just £8.95 available from Monday to Friday 12 - 2.30pm which represents excellent value for money.

The Passage To India is a restaurant with a large and varied menu.

Their main courses are served in authentic looking metal pots which add nicely to the traditional 'look and feel' of this well established restaurant.

If you are a local and going to pay a visit it may be worth keeping your eye open for the money off vouchers mentioned above.

Curry Lover of the Year finalists!

2011-07-15T13:34:00.007+01:00

We are extremely proud to be named as one of three finalists at first ever hungryhouse.co.uk English curry Awards. The event is taking place at the Sheridan Suite in Manchester on 25th July. We face fierce competition against The Soldiers’ Charity and former cricket captain Mike Gatting OBE for the title of "Curry Lover of the Year"

We would like to say a big thank you to our visitors for all your nominations and support, we promise to bring you live updates from the Curry Awards via our live twitter feed.

We'd also like to urge our visitors to support the the Soldiers’ Charity "Big Curry campaign". All money rasied supports the The Soldiers’ Charity’s work with soldiers, former soldiers and their families. They aim to raise £450,000 in 2011 to help soldiers and their families now and in the future..

Saffron Room - Prestbury - Review

2011-06-27T08:33:00.002+01:00

T 01625 828 220

A The White House, New Road, Prestbury, Cheshire, SK10 4DG

E info@thesaffronroom.co.uk
W www.thesaffronroom.co.uk

The Saffron Room is located in the leafy village of Prestbury in the heart of Cheshire. The 70 cover restaurant opened in November 2010 and offers a mixture of both fusion and classical Indian cuisine.

The CurryCouncil Visit

The CurryCouncil's View

My first impression of Saffron Room was good. This swanky restaurant is located in a large grade 2 listed building that boasts plenty of character from the outside while the inside of the restaurant contains wooden roof beams, old fashioned fire places and a quite minimalist purple interior.

Poppodums, served 2 per man, were fresh with a good selection of dips. We had an extremely long wait for our starters and perhaps should have said something to the waiter but we did appreciate that the restaurant was extremely busy for a Wednesday evening and there appeared to be only a couple of empty tables throughout the evening.

Lamb Chops

I settled for the lamb chops for my starter which were pretty tasty but after an almost hour long wait anything would have impressed me as I was that hungry. The starters also came accompanied by a second tray of different dips, which was a nice touch.

I teamed up with Jord and we shared two main courses to get a good selection from the menu. The main courses, after another long wait, were very good. The flavoursome Chicken Tikka Haandi (£9.25) was nice and rich - perfect for eating with my naan. I also had some of the Tandoori Chicken Jaipur, which contained a full whole chicken breast on the bone with a nicely spiced tomato based sauce.

Tandoori Chicken Jaipur

This month we were down to just five CurryCouncil members being on duty and this odd number always somehow manages to disrupt the mix of rice and naan. Jord oddly opted for vegetable rice (which generally feels a bit too much like Chinese for my personal taste) and a few of the lads are now sadly shunning the traditional pilau rice for boiled rice. Surely they must be calorie counting, as swapping your pilau for boiled rice saves you just 280 calories.

I’m still flying the flag for my beloved pilau and the Saffron Room delivered a good standard of pilau rice (and we can’t forget the plain naan which was pretty decent but could have been with slightly warmer).

I thought the food at the Saffron Room was of a high standard but felt slightly disappointed with the long wait for the meal. In hindsight, I think that waiting patiently for good food may be a better option than waiting a short time for poor food and for the Saffron Room I may have to make this exception.

I thought that the restaurant was located in a lovely picturesque village. Plenty of car parking at the rear (not that Bean would know, as he parked in Wilmslow). Very busy for a Wednesday night.

Pops were tasty and plenty of the usual dippage.

Starter was a Chef Speciality one of ‘Lamb Chaat’ (£4.95) – great portion size and lamb was really tender with fresh salad/lemon on the side.

Main – Signature dish of ‘South Indian Murghi Balti’ with pilau rice and Pashwari Naan. My typical choice these days – mixture of tandoori chicken (off the bone) and minced lamb in medium balti spices, in a masala style (£10.95). It was excellent. Absolutely huge portion which could have done 2 people. Plenty of meat and tasty thick tomato-based sauce.

Cobra was fine throughout the meal and finished off with nice little Elizabeth Shaw mint chocolate at the end.

£30 was fairly steep but food and surroundings made up for it.

The only real negative was that we had to wait so long for our food. We were there just after 7.30pm and did not leave till well gone 10pm. Great curry talk on the night ranging from super injuctions through to Dayo's now 12 month absence from our curries.

Visiting the Saffron Room in Prestbury made a very nice change to the usual City/Town scene we are very used to it made a nice change walking down a nice countryside road in a picturesque village.

The restaurant had an expensive feel and an air of class, I felt a little bit under dressed in my jeans and t-shirt in a very busy restaurant. The restaurant was extremely busy for a Wednesday night with the tables pushed very close together probably due to the popularity of the restaurant.

Pops were very fresh, I had the mixed kebab for my starter which was Sheek, Tikka and Samosa a good portion size not to filling to spoil the main! Very tasty highly recommended !

Pop Dips

For the main I had Tandoori Chicken Jaipur (I think? Bean choose both meals) was very nice very spicy had a good kick to it if you like hot curries wont blow your head off but is quite strong!

The only real criticism would be the service we had a long wait for the food the price we paid I would expect first class service.

Overall a nice place to take your wife/girlfriend or both!! On the expensive side but worth a visit if you like good food in nice surroundings.

This is a very posh top end indian restaurant. No gimmicks, no offers just excellent food and very professional service.

I had the Tandoori chicken Jaipur and chicken Tikka Handi which were both delicious and of good portion size.

I felt this restaurant would be better to visit as mixed a sex group or couple if you wanted to impress the mrs.

The prices were very reasonable for a restaurant in an expensive area.

The Saffrom room offers a large and varied menu, with nice tasting food in pleasant surroundings.

The main courses were a particular highlight and came with good portion sizes. The restaurant service was slow but the food slightly made up for the long wait.

Exterior view of the restaurant

Help CurryCouncil win the Curry Lover Of The Year Award

2011-06-13T12:09:00.003+01:00

The folks over at the English Curry Awards now have opened up online nominations for the first ever English Curry Awards that take place this July.

You could previously only vote by printing off a nomination form and posting the paper form.

It will only take a minute of your time to nominate http://www.currycouncil.com/ for the Curry Lover Of The Year Award or why not vote for you favourite local Indian restaurant to win the Restaurant of the Year award?

Please follow this link http://www.kwiksurveys.com/online-survey.php?surveyID=NKNEIN_16f65b19%20to nominate us for the award and hopefully get us shortlisted for this spicy and well deserved accolade.

You will need to be quick as the closing date is Monday 20th June 2011.

Delish Spice - Bramhall - Review

2011-06-10T08:25:00.004+01:00

T 0161 440 9686
A 222 Moss Lane Bramhall, Stockport, Cheshire SK7 1BD
E info@delishspice.co.uk
W http://www.delishspice.co.uk/index.asp

Our last visit to Delish Spice was back in August 2010. The recently opened restaurant satisfied us with an extensive menu, good food and a pleasant restaurant interior but our original review had a few minor constructive criticisms.

We felt that Delish Spice definitely had potential and deserved an opportunity to see if they have raised the bar since the restaurant originally opened.

In our original review we stated that “Delish have set their prices slightly higher than the local average” but we were very pleased to see that the Bramhall restaurant now were offering a 20% off your food bill voucher via the onionring website (Sunday to Thursday until 7pm and up to 6pm Friday & Saturday).

In an effort to impress our WAGS with a slap up meal, we printed off our money off vouchers, under the false pretence that we were actually treating them to a full price meal and headed off for our now bi-annual WAGS curry outing.

WAGtastic

We did our best to try and sit ourselves boy-girl, boy-girl, as part of the now customary WAG table seating plan but Dave (due to the unexpected absence of Rachel) messed up the girl’s plans and sat randomly in the centre.

Delish is a large 120 cover restaurant with a modern and impressive, yet tasteful, décor. The restaurant could comfortably accommodate our large party of nine.

Fresh tasting poppodums were served and were accompanied by a variety of four different dips. The mango chutney, as per our last review, was again the best received and it was a refreshing change to receive fresh tasting mango chutney which clearly had pieces of mango in it.

Dips

Nice and cold refreshing pints of Kingfisher were served along with a variety of soft drinks for the drivers (bonus points for the glass bottles of coca cola from some of the WAGs). We all discussed our hopes for currycouncil.com being shortlisted for the Curry Lover Of The Year award at the forthcoming English Curry Awards.

The starters were a particular highlight of the meal. A couple of people had the lamb chops, which contained three large and extremely tender chargrilled lamb chops.

Delish-ous lamb chops

Noble quickly realised that eating with ones hands was the best great technique to get every last scrap of the delish-ous lamb off the bone. Jordan, who normally is strictly a knife 'n' fork man, soon copied Noble and gnawed away at the bone like a rabid dog. The lamb chop starter was top notch and would therefore be recommended.

A mixture of other starters were ordered including the Chicken Chaat, Onion Bhajis, Mixed Starter, King Prawn Puri and Chicken Tikka. The starters all went down well and got a collective thumbs up.

A wide variety of main co7urses were ordered including Chicken Shashlik Korai, Chicken Dupiaza, Butter Chicken, Chicken Rezalla and Chicken Nepalese. The Korai, with its well marinated onions and peppers, was particularly admired for its rich and tasty sauce.

Dupiaza (left) and Shashlik Korai (right)

In an effort to impress the WAGs with our vast knowledge of Indian food, we also ordered a variety of rices and naans. We tried the superb Kashmiri rice, which contained both small yet subtle flakes of coconut and small chunks of pineapple. This fluffy and tasty rice would be recommended and was a big hit with both the lads and WAGs. The mushroom rice and naan breads were also a perfect accompaniment to our main courses.

The experience overall at Delish was good with pleasant service. It was clear that the food was all fresh and came well presented.

Delish Spice would therefore be recommended and would suit large parties due to it being a spacious and modern restaurant.

Always remember to visit the Onionring site to get those all important money off vouchers!

Waitrose Punjabi Thali banquet For 2 Review

2011-06-06T08:22:00.005+01:00

I, like any self confessed curry addict, know that usually a sit down meal beats a take out curry hands down and supermarket curries sadly come third in this pecking order. Tonight I decided to put my theory to the test and sample a supermarket curry.

I splashed out the princely sum of £9.49 for Waitrose’s Punjabi Thali banquet for two which provided me with an opportunity for an impromptu 'solo' CurryCouncil review.

The box

The oven ready meal for two comes packaged in a large cardboard box that contains a large thali dish that houses all of the curries, rice, vegetable side dishes and rice.

Its plastic thali dish makes cooking the food very simple and easy without having to cook the curries and rice separately like most other supermarket curries. I did have the option of microwaving some of the dishes and also grilling the naan bread but I just banged all of the dishes into the oven for convenience.

Minimal packaging

The meal takes around 35 minutes from start to finish and with a bit of time to kill, I reached in to the fridge for a nice cool bottle of Cobra to quench my thirst. I found to my horror that Mrs N had sneakily removed my Cobra bottles from the fridge and put them in the garage (why?).

The bottles of lager felt almost as hot as the curry I was about to eat (with the temperature outside topping 25c today). I quickly decided to improvise and stuck the offending bottles into the freezer for a super chill before my meal was ready.

I also noticed to my delight that the curry box provided me with 2 of my 5 a day portions of fruit and vegetables. This small health benefit made me feel a slightly bit better about the monster 1017 calories that I was about to consume with my half of the curry box.

Samosas

The first dish out of the oven was the vegetable samosas. I thought that the samosas were perfectly adequate and fresh but a little bit too mild for me.

Thali for two

The main course came out of the oven, after cooking my naan breads (with a splash of water) for the final five minutes.

Firstly I tried the flavoursome butter chicken which was of a good standard and came with a small, yet satisfying, spicy kick. The chicken saag masala was OK but far too mild for my personal taste but contained plenty of chicken and spinach. Both dishes contained decent pieces of fresh chicken which you would definately expect from a premium meal deal costing almost ten pounds.

The naan bread had a beautiful buttery aroma and surprisingly was much better and lighter than the vacuum packed naan that you can buy straight off the supermarket shelf.

The side dishes of cauliflower and broccoli masala, masala dal and mushroom rice were all very good. The dishes contained plenty of cardamom pods and bay leaves to give them a quite authentic Indian (or should I say Punjabi) taste.

All in all, I felt satisfied with my purchase and was averagely full after the meal.

The volume of chicken pieces was slightly dissapointing but it would not really be fair to compare this amount against a take out that may have cost me £6. I think that this thali meal would be perfect for sharing and provides a wide variety of dishes.

The milder dishes may more suit those with a low threshold to spice but sadly it did not have enough kick for my own personal taste. However, the meal had good quality chicken, fresh tasting ingredients and good mixture of spices which compensated for the mildness.

The box has minimal packaging and this may appeal to the more environmentally friendly curry eater.

The Punjabi Thali Banquet for Two would definately be worth a try for you at home if you fancy a change from your usual take-out.

Stats, Chaat and Welcome Back

2011-06-06T08:21:00.002+01:00

Where have the CurryCouncil been? You may ask after our two and half week hiatus.

Last month in May the CurryCouncil re-visited the Delish Spice restaurant in Bramhall and also tried The Saffron Room in Prestbury. These two new and fabulous reviews will be published very soon.

We hope that the judges of the English Curry Awards and our regular readers will go easy on us after this small but self imposed break! Lets not forget that we are trying to get ourselves recognised as the nation’s biggest Curry Lovers and need your help to get us nominated for this new prestigious award. You can read more about nomination process here (The closing date is 20th June 2011)

We are not usually the type to brag, but you may (or may not) be interested to know that this is the 296^th blog posting here at www.currycouncil.com and we will soon be hitting our magic 300^th post.

That’s certainly a lot of curry content, restaurant reviews, recipes, industry news and much much more. We hope that you will tikka few minutes looking through our archives to find out more about your favourite Indian cuisine and gain an insight into the strange yet interesting world of the CurryCouncil.

In August 2011 the CurryCouncil will be reviewing our 50^th (yep you read that correctly, that’s right, the FIFTIETH) restaurant to place in our review section (look to the right hand side of your screen for the full restaurant review list).

The golden 50 will consist of all our unique restaurant reviews since 2005 but you can also take a look at our hall of fame for a much more comprehensive list of all the restaurants that we have visited since the early 1990’s.

Sometimes we did even not review the restaurant and other times we did some re-reviews. There are many more reviews and features than the 50 restaurants listed at the side of this page.

Do you have any recommendations for the location of our fiftieth restaurant review? If you have a restaurant tip or know of any hidden gems that we have missed on our travels - please post a comment below or contact us personally at mail@currycouncil.com

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We also have now exceeded 500 followers on Twitter.

Regular Blog Updates

The more eagle eyed readers amongst you may have noticed that that all new content is now being regularly published on both Mondays and Fridays. This will give you the perfect start and end to your curry-eating weekend and provide you with a regular CurryCouncil fix.

2 for 1 Curries With McCoys Is Back

2011-05-16T12:24:00.006+01:00

During these difficult financial times the CurryCouncil are always on the prowl for super money saving offers available to our visitors.

It is with great pleasure that we confirm that the the king of curry promotions is back by popular demand and this time McCoys have teamed up with the British Curry Club. That's right... the 2 for 1 curry offer is here again.

How do I get my free curry?

Buy a promotional pack of McCoy's crisps (small-sized, grab-bags & multipacks are included) with a red banner across the top - the cheapest's around 55p. We've been told 50 million promo packs have been released, which should last until the end of July.

Which restaurants are participating?

Check there's a restaurant near you on the McCoy's website and register your details.

Do I need to book in advance?

Call the restaurant to make a reservation or order your takeaway (collection NOT delivery), mentioning the McCoy's offer.

Are there any restrictions?

You need take the McCoy's crisp packet with you on the night to your chosen restaurant.

The vouchers are valid Sunday to Thursday only. Weekends are not included.

The voucher's are valid until Wednesday 30 November 2011, so you can buy the crisps now and use it any time up until then.

McCoy's ran the same promo last year - if you still have an old pack you can use it until September 30 2011.

Restrictions: Max 2 vouchers per party. Main courses only, cheapest will be free. Not valid with other offers/vouchers or deliveries. You can read the FAQs about the offer here.

More curry saving offers

If you live in the Manchester or Cheshire area you can also find many more great local and national curry saving offers, vouchers and deals on our own Money Off Vouchers page.

The CurryCouncil needs you

Thats right, the CurryCouncil need YOUR help to be officially recognised as the nation's CURRY LOVER OF THE YEAR.

Please read more here about how you can nominate us for an national award and help us get our name on the map for being the best curry website in England.

CurryCouncil Health and Safety Guide

2011-05-09T12:40:00.000+01:00

Getting hurt at the curry house or becoming ill through a take away is not a pleasant subject to think about.

The reality is that over 200 people a month lose their shirt to curry stains in Britain. In addition, around 150,000 non fatal injuries are reported each year, and an estimated 2 million suffer from ill health caused or made worse by curry.

The mistake is to believe that these things happen in highly unusual or exceptional circumstances that never occur in your local curry house. This is not the case. Some basic thinking and acting beforehand could usually have prevented these things from happening.

Implementing curry health and safety measures doesn’t have to be expensive, time consuming or complicated.

Tip 1 – Prevention Is Better Than Cure

Scores On The Doors is a national public information service where you can find the official local authority hygiene ratings for food businesses. Visit http://www.scoresonthedoors.org.uk/ for more information

Find out how hygienic and well-managed the food preparation at any of the premises listed here are, such as your favourite Indian take-aways or restaurants.

Tip 2 - Curry Is Actually Good For Your Health

Why not tikka a minute to read through the carefully constructed CurryCouncil archives. Discover the majestic health benefits of eating curry and provide yourself with enough ammunition to convince the missus that you need your weekly curry takeout for medicinal benefits.

Did you know that:

Madras makes the heart beat stronger
Curry is cancer fighter
Curry ‘may slow Alzheimer's’
Curry Spice could prevent diabetes and obesisty
Eat Indian curry to lose weight
Curry could be key cure for breast cancer

Tip 3 – Removing Curry Stains

We have all been there. A fork full of Indian grub somehow misses your mouth and the curry slowly rolls down and stains your best shirt. You frantically try to rub the stain with a damp napkin and it doesn't get seem to get any better.

Panic over - why not read our tip of the month published back in December 2009?

Curry can often dye fabric, so you need to wash the stain as soon as possible in a biological powder that contains bleach (washable fabrics only).

If you are having trouble removing a curry stain from your best clobber - the full guide can be read here.

Tip 4 – Prevent Obesity

Why not swap your pilau rice for boiled rice and save 280 calories? That’s the equivalent of a 45-minute walk. Its also worth remembering to go steady on the chutneys as each spoonful can pack about 70 calories.

Top 10 Curry Tips - more here
101 Ways To Burn Off A Curry - more here

Tip 5 - Curry Intolerance

Is your Dupiaza giving you digestive difficulties?

According to food intolerance firm YorkTest.com, there has been a 350 per cent rise in the number of people who are allergic to chilli pepper, which is the basic ingredient in curry.

There are tests to find out if you react to certain foods. If you have a curry allergy, it is imperative that you avoid the spice at all times.
If you a regular visitor of currycouncil.com avoiding the food of gods may come with great difficulty. Why not try removing naan bread from your meal? You may have a sensitivity to gluten and this easy step may remove some of the discomfort. If symptoms persist, visit your GP.

Kantipur - Review - Stockport

2011-04-29T06:56:00.007+01:00

T 0161 476 2688
A 268 Wellington Road South, Stockport, SK2 6NW

The CurryCouncil opted to sample the contemporary cuisine of the Nepalese Kantipur restaurant in Stockport for our April 2011 curry. Please see our individual reviews on the Kantipur below.

To be absolutely honest I wasn’t looking forward to this particular visit, as my previous Nepalase dining experiences hadn’t been great. I therefore entered the Kantipur with an air of trepidation. The Kantipur, located on the A6 in Stockport has been on my list of must visits for some time as I’ve heard many positive reports about this place.

The “Kant” has a welcome feel to it and is rather homely and traditional. Not particularly big, but well suited to smaller groups/couples. The restaurant was busy for a Monday night, which to me is always a good sign of things to come.

I enjoyed my pops and particularly enjoyed the red onions which were fresh and had a real kick. Onto the menu. I opted to share a mixed starter with “Marth” which I thoroughly enjoyed. My main course was the Lamb Babari – from the Chef’s Recommendations. This was a very flavoursome light dish with an aromatic sauce infused with babari (mint). I was pleased with my selections, my meal was perfect and made a welcome change.

Good selection of dips

The service was rather slow in between courses, so if you are in a hurry mention this before you order your meal. The interior was clean and traditional but in all honesty has probably seen better days... despite this minor flaw, I would strongly recommend the Kantipur to experience contemporary Nepalese cuisine.

I liked the look Kantipur it has a very traditional “Old Skool” feel to the restaurant, initially the service was very quick and efficient and we received our drinks and pops quickly. The popadoms did not taste very fresh though there was plenty of dips and was refilled promptly.

The mixed starter was very slow to arrive but was well worth the wait it tasted very fresh and not to heavy would definitely recommend this dish!!

My main meal arrived again on the slow side but this gave plenty of time to chat/argue/laugh and order another pint of Cobra. I was a little disappointed with my meal I choose one of the chefs recommendations the lamb was nice but the sauce lacked any real taste, it reminded me of a cheap supermarket paste mixed with some HP!! The peshwari naan was unusual with nuts but was a bit dry and not as fluffy and fresh as we have become accustomed to.

Overall I was disappointed with my meal I would not turn my car around for a special visit.

The CurryCouncil like to think of ourselves as veteran restaurant reviewers of traditional Indian curry houses (which are actually more often than not Bangladeshi owned) but occasionally do like to dabble with sampling other types of Asian cuisine and this month we decided to try the popular Kantipur Nepalese restaurant.

Kantipur is a small, colourful and cosy restaurant which is traditionally decorated.

The poppodums surprisingly gained a mixed response from me. The dips were both varied and tasty but the poppodums themselves could have been slightly fresher. I then shared the Tandoori Starter for two, which contained three different variants of chicken, strips of lamb, seek kebab and sizzling onions. It tasted superb and the portion size was good value at £4.50 each.

Tandoori Starter for two

I tried the lamb Babari for my main course. This dish was nice enough but had a little bit too much mint for my personal taste. I believe that Nepalese cuisine traditionally is not as spicy as Indian food and this dish was too much on the milder side of spicy for me.

The rice and plain naan were flavoursome but the portion sizes were on the smaller side of generous. I would certainly recommend having a portion of rice each rather than sharing some rice.

The service overall was quite slow, as we had an extremely long wait between the pops and our starters. However, the staff were friendly and the service was provided with a smile (which sometimes can be forgotten in some of the other restaurants which we have visited).

The meal came in at around £23 per head and this included 2 pops each, starter, main course, rice, naan and a couple of pints of Cobra each.

Kantipurs external and indoor appearance was nice. Slightly disappointed with the toilet facilities.

Pops were fine but disappointing to have to wait so long for second pot of red onions, to enable the eating of second pop.

Starter - Tandoori mixed starter – very nice. I especially liked the tender strips of lamb.

Main – Chicken Balti. Somewhat disappointing. I looked at the Chefs recommendations which (unsurprisingly) appeared to be all Nepalese dishes and due to previously not enjoying my main courses in Nepalese restaurants, I decided to stick with what I know, which was included in the ‘Asia’ part on the menu. The Balti came out sizzling in the usual Balti dish, but I noticed straight away that it wasn’t its usual deep red colour and was yellow/orange colour. This didn’t put me off but I felt the dish was fairly bland and not tasty enough. There were plenty of big chunks of chicken but there appeared to be little (if any) onions or tomatoes which are often aplenty in the Indian restaurant equivalents.

Rice – fine, if not slighty small portions.

Nann – Peshwari. Very poor. It was not sweet and sticky enough for my liking and was covered in nuts of some kind and was very dry as a result.

Beer – Cobra – lovely.

As I have stated before on previous reviews, I am sure the food was fantastic/authentic if you like your Nepalese grub – but possibly due to being raised on Indian tucker – it just isn’t for me.

After hearing good reports by word of mouth I was looking forward to visiting this traditionally decorated restaurant.

Unfortunatly I was to be left a little disapointed. Whilst the shared Tandoori starter for two (Chicken tikka,seek kebab,tandoori chicken,chicken bara,sekuwa) was excellent and good value the hour long wait for it was too much.

The pops were lacking the usual crunch and freshness, and my choice of main "Jilly Mili" (breast of chicken cooked in authentic spices, with a dash of wine and a hint of ginger) was ok but lacking in portion size and a little bland for my liking.

The staff were friendly but the long wait for the starters and the average food and smallish portion sizes means I probably wouldn't visit again in the foreseeable future.

The Kantipur is a pleasant restaurant and would be suitable for those wanting to try food that is not as spicy as traditional Indian cuisine or eager to sample something a little bit different.

The restaurant offers fresh Nepalese food and the Tandoori Mixed Starter for two would certainly be our recommendation. We had a quite a long wait between courses and would recommend that you relax and enjoy the family atmosphere of the Kantipur whilst you wait for your meal.

"Your CurryCouncil Needs You"

2011-04-21T20:34:00.012+01:00

Manchester, the almost home town of the CurryCouncil, is all set to host the first ever English Curry Awards this July.

The awards aim to celebrate the nation’s favourite spicy dish and the CurryCouncil need YOUR help to be officially recognised as the nation's CURRY LOVER OF THE YEAR.

The debut event is to be held on 25th July 2011 in Manchester’s Sheridan Suite and will recognise the Chefs, restaurants, takeaways, supermarkets and individuals (hint hint) who simply worship the cuisine will finally be recognised and rewarded for their dedication and hard work that goes along way in leaving our taste buds tingling anf d our stomachs satisfied.

The CurryCouncil like to think of ourselves as the kings of curry. We work (and eat) tirelessly to keep you up-to-date with local Indian restaurant reviews across South Manchester & Cheshire.

In 2009, we even created our very own CurryCouncil annual award ceremony to recognise the culinary efforts of our local restaurants and gave something back to our local restaurant community to thank them for their hard work and dedication.

We also keep you up to speed with news from the industry, witness world record attempts, provide you with many weird and wonderful tips such as "how to remove a curry stain from your shirt", give you money off vouchers, recipes and much much more.

If you agree and think that we are the nation’s biggest Curry Lovers, please help to win this award and provide us with the opportunity to spend a night mixing with the industry’s big wigs and doing what us esteemed curry councillors really do best - eating lots of curry.

Please follow the the easy steps below to nominate us:

Online
http://www.kwiksurveys.com/online-survey.php?surveyID=NKNEIN_16f65b19

Paper Form
(1)    Visit http://lovecurry.info
(2)    Download the nomination form here
(3)    Fill in the form with your details and don't forget our details

I wish to nominate www.currycouncil.com
City: Stockport
Email: info@currycouncil.com

(4) Tick the “Curry lover of the Year” box
(5) Complete the Reason for nomination
(6) Print and post the form to the address below

Love Curry Awards

Oceanic Studios

Polar House

20 Darnley Street

Glasgow

G41 2SE

Closing date: 20th June 2011

Caffé AmMa - Wilmslow- Review

2011-04-11T12:23:00.008+01:00

T 01625 521355
A 26 Green Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 1LD

Caffé AmMa is located in the leafy Cheshire suberb of Wilmslow. This Indian 'Tea House' was the our choice for the March 2011 curry and we offer our individual opinions below.

The CurryCouncil's View

I drive through Wilmslow on a fairly frequent basis so I was surprised that I hadn’t ever noticed this restaurant before. Caffé AmMa is a smart looking modern cafe/bistro located just behind Tesco and alongside Starbucks on Green Lane. The cafe boasts an outdoor seating area which would be perfect on a nice warm summers evening.

The CurryCouncil arrived armed with a variety of cold beers, disappointingly the majority of these were Australian and Belgian with only a handful Cobras! The waiters were quickly on hand to ensure that the temperature of the ale was maintained by getting the unopened beers in the fridge pretty sharpish. A total of three trays of dips were required to compliment our 12 popodums shared amongst our contingent of 6. The AmMa had a very relaxed feel about it and nothing was too much trouble.

I ordered the mixed starter and the Lamb Peppermaint Bhuna. I absolutely loved my main course, the lamb was incredible, very, very tender and the bhuna sauce with a hint of mint complimented it perfectly. The starter was substantial and extremely well presented but for me was on the mild side of spicy.

I still can’t believe I hadn’t spotted this restaurant before on my travels! This is another new place we’ve discovered and is defiantly worth visiting. The value for money aspect (£17.50 per head) and standard of food is exceptional and the service is fantastic. In my view - Well worth a visit.

The Caffé AmMa concept is actually quite unique. I’ve never visited an Indian before which offers, in addition to your normal hot Indian food, a wide range of exotic teas, fresh sandwiches, chilled Indian foods and salads. They even have a Haagen Daaz ice-cream bar.

I originally had a few reservations and wondered if Caffé AmMa would still be able to deliver on the hot food, as the restaurant has diversified so far away from how a traditional Indian restaurant normally operates.

I kicked off with the Chilli Chicken starter. The taste and presentation were superb. The two chicken pieces were exceptionally spiced and hot enough for my liking. The side salad also contained some marinated hot peppers and overall the starter was a great choice.

I followed with the lamb peppermint bhuna. The tomato based and medium spiced dish had very large and tender pieces of lamb mixed with fresh peppermint. The lamb was extremely tender and melted in the mouth. The ingredients all tasted very fresh and I was very pleased with my selection.

Lamb Peppermint Bhuna

There were six of us in attendance tonight and this even number helped the usually troublesome rice/naan equation. Three portions of rice and three naan breads being more than adequate for our group.

There was again a dispute over our naan breads. The peshwari naan bread order’ers again started to eat the plain naan that Beany and I had specifically ordered. This was against the usual background noise of “let’s order a mix of naans not just plain”. This begs the question, can some of our group actually tell the difference between plain and peshwari or perhaps ordering Peshwari naan’s and not eating them is perhaps becoming fashionable these days? Rant over.

My original reservations were proved totally wrong and I was pleasantly surprised by the superb food on offer at Caffé AmMa. I will definitely be revisiting again in the near future and would certainly recommend this one.

A quick look on trip advisor showed that Caffé AmMa was highly rated by the customers who had visited it, and we were not to be disappointed.

The restaurant feels very modern and stylish yet still had a warm and cosy feel at the same time, and with the high ceiling it gave a good feeling of space.

Caffé AmMa is a bring your own restaurant and upon arrival we were asked if we wanted our drinks placing in the fridge and a large ice bucket was brought to the table for our remaining bottles, which saved having to ask for the next drink every 10 minutes.

Lamb boti was ordered for starter, this is 3 large flavoured pieces of lamb and some red and green pepper on a skewer. The lamb was divine and was truely cooked to perfection 10/10.

Lamb Boti

For the main I had Chicken Bay Leaf, this was marinated chicken breast served in a rich sauce of spices, ginger, peppers, onions and tomatoes, this was also superb, seved with vegatable rice and fresh and fluffy naan bread.

Caffé AmMa has to be the finest Bring Your Own (BYO) Drinks restaurant I have been to.

The food was exquisite, the service impecable, and the savings made by taking our own drinks make Caffé AmMa a must visit venue.

Would Caffé AmMa live us to its hype and reviews? There is certainly a lot of people saying good things about this “Indian Tea House" concept on the web . So what did the CurryCouncil and myself think?

The restaurant (caffé), Tea House, Certainly looks appealing from the outside and exterior. It’s more of a relaxed dining experience and as this place is not our usual type of restaurant to review. It was going to be an interesting visit.

So what did I think, Pops where fresh and Caffé AmMa had no problem with bringing additional onion and mango which was also a good quality and standard. Non of your watery sauces at Cafe Amma.

I had the Chicken Chat to start, This was a correctly sized portion for a starter, served with fresh salad and had a nice dry texture rather than being wet and sloppy. Again very nice and tasty.

Chicken Chaat Starter

For mains I had the Reshmi Chicken which also contained a mix of both chicken breast and minced chicken but certainly one of my favourite dishes of the past 12 months.

This is a great place for a curry with the family, Mrs or Mates. The restaurant isn’t licensed either so taking your own beer is always a bonus and keeps the costs down during these difficult financial times. The staff are really friendly pleasant and efficient and also offered to take our drinks to the fridge to be kept cool (nice touch!).

Get yourself there, it’s worth a visit, the food is lovely and you won’t regret it!

As I walked towards the Caffé AmMa I was very impressed with the building and the impressive outdoor seating area but was a bit confused if it was a restaurant or a coffee shop, as we entered the building there was a strong smell of coffee and cakes on the counter which somewhat worried me as I was not sure what the quality of food would be like in a what was a posh Starbucks selling curries.

My fear was soon quashed when I received my starter which was a lamb boti, the lamb was deliciously spiced and very tender I would definitely recommend this dish!!! The main meals arrived with plenty of fresh rice and naan breads and my choice of chicken madras the madras was a little bit on the mild side and more tomato soup tasting but the chicken was gorgeous two large chicken breasts very tasty.

Poppodum Tash

The meal was very reasonably priced and being unlicensed kept the costs down. I have already recommended the restaurant to colleagues and happily recommend to others.

The CurryCouncil's Final Thoughts

This restaurant, or Tea Bar, has a bring your own booze policy and a reasonably priced large menu. This combined with fresh food of a high standard makes Caffé AmMa a highly recommended restaurant to visit from the CurryCouncil. The venue itself is striking and has a moden interior coupled with an outdoor seating area, which would be perfect on a nice summers evening.

Salt Now Off The Menu In Curry Houses

2011-04-08T18:43:00.000+01:00

The CurryCouncil’s home town of Stockport has officially taken salt off the menu at some of our local curry houses.

The Daily Mail reports that salt shakers are being removed from table-tops at some of our local Indian restaurants. The health drive in Stockport means that customers will have to ask for salt if they want to add it to their meal at some local restaurants, Cafés and Chip Shops.

The participating Indian Restaurants in the scheme are the Gatley Tandoori, Chilli Massala and Last Monsoon in Edgeley.

The move is part of the Stockport council (not to be confused with our own CurryCouncil) backed ASK campaign and the businesses that participate in the initiative will display as ASK campaign symbol in their windows.

The initiative may be rolled out nationwide if it is successful in the Manchester area.

The debate rages on about whether local authorities should have a social and public health responsibility to reduce heart conditions attributed to excessive salt use.

The CurryCouncil believe that any restaurant or chef worth their ‘salt’ would have properly seasoned the plate and adding additional salt to your curry would not be necessary in any half-decent curry house.

Curry & Check In

2011-04-04T12:28:00.000+01:00

I sat in the corner of the British Airways lounge at Heathrow airport eating my curry and wondered if I was the curry world equivalent of a plane spotter with my fork in one hand and a camera in the other.

I thought that it would be a nice change to stray away from our usual North West Indian Restaurant reviews and dabble with reviewing some “ruby murry” at the airport “darn sarf”.

There were two different curries on offer at the hot buffet section and I had the choice of a chicken Jalfrezi and Goan Vegetable curry. I’m normally a committed carnivore when it comes to my curry eating but on this occasion felt that I also had to sample the vegetarian option.

Chicken Jalfrezi

I armed myself with a hot plate and ignored the various salads, cheeses, cold meats and hot pasta that were on offer and, like any true curry connoisseur, went straight for the boiled rice and then served myself a large helping of the chicken Jalfrezi.

The Jalfrezi was surprisingly very tasty and was a world apart from the supermarket style curry that I was expecting to eat. The dish was packed with diced chicken, mixed peppers, onions and came with a light kick from the chilli and various other spices. All that was missing was a nice side serving of naan bread but overall this was a more than satisfactory dish and got the CurryCouncil thumbs up from me.

I then had a smaller portion of the Goan Vegetable curry purely just for research purposes. I also swapped my plate for a bowl in a disguised effort not to appear as greedy as I actually am.

Goan Vegetable Curry

This tasty dish contained large chunks of cauliflower, pumpkin, carrots, peppers, beans, onions and spinach. This curry was unusually slightly spicier than the jalfrezi but still comfortably mild enough for me not to adversely effect any of the passengers on the return flight home!

I washed the curry down with a couple of drinks and also embarrassingly took a couple of photos of my dishes for our readers. I gathered my thoughts and noticed that the curries seemed to be the most popular dish in the lounge and that a steady queue of other frequent fliers were regularly returning for second helpings.

If you ever get chance to pass through the BA lounge at T5 in Heathrow, I would certainly recommend sampling their curry dishes with a nice spot of fluffy rice.

Indian Ocean Smash 'Poppadom' World Record

2011-03-28T12:26:00.000+01:00

“Look at that pair of paps” was a phrase last coined by Dave and Martin back in 2001 on a beach in Malia. Little did the pair know that the ten years later, they would be the actual ones being referred to as the “papz” (paparazzi) with their camera in hand.

The CurryCouncil recently got wind (no pun intended) of the Indian Ocean's world Record breaking attempt to regain the worlds 'Tallest Stack of Poppadoms' title and gained entry to the restaurant's special charity evening in aid of Manchester-based cancer appeal Men Matter.

CurryCouncil's Martin gives the thumbs up for Indian Ocean

The appeal raises awareness and funds for research into prostate, testicular and penile cancers. To date, Men Matter has raised over £250,000.

The CurryCouncil delegation consisting of Dave and Martin, and also a large number of restaurant diners, witnessed the Ashton-Under-Lyne restaurant smash the Guinness World Record and regain the worlds 'Tallest Stack of Poppadoms' title.

The restaurant's team of chefs and waiters built the Poppadom tower to measure 1.57m, beating the existing record, held by the Curry Lounge in Nottingham, by 6cm.

The owner of the Indian Ocean, Nahim Aslam, was delighted to regain the title and said, “I’m over the moon we managed to pull off the win last night. We’ve been practicing for weeks so confidence was very high amongst the team that we would do it but of course there were nerves too. It’s great that the title has come back to Tameside and I hope we manage to keep hold of it for a while; 1.57m is a fair height to beat!".

Did you know that an average sized poppadom contains 65 calories? The Indian Ocean’s poppadom tower was stacked high with a record breaking 1,100 poppodom’s and contained the equivalent of an amazing 71,500 calories!

The evening was a huge success and it was a refreshing change to see a local business that supports such an important charity.

Jalfrezi - Bramhall - Review

2011-03-17T19:10:00.014Z

T 0161 439 9494
A The Bramhall Centre,Ack Lane East,Bramhall,Stockport, SK7 1AW

The Jalfrezi Indian Food Bar is located in the heart of Bramhall village and offers a chic, low-key but modern interior. The restaurant offers a wide and varied menu. The Jalfrezi was our choice for the February 2011 curry and we offer our opinion below.

The CurryCouncil's View

The early bird special (£10.99) at Jalfrezi had great appeal for our monthly curry, this time treating the wives and girlfriends to a rare night out.

The deal is Sunday to Thursday 5pm-7pm. It includes 1 pop each, with dips, a set mixed starter that consists of onion bhaji, sheesh kebab, chicken tikka and fried onion and mushrooms, and then you choose any main and rice or naan, and you can finish off with a tea or coffee.

The pop and dips were excellent with an extra 5th dip that was enjoyed by all. The mixed starter was delicious, everything tasted fresh and well cooked, this is served on a shared plate between two, but there was plenty for both of us.

For the main I went for a chefs special of chicken silsila with vegetable rice, this consisted of strips of fresh chicken breast cooked to perfection in a hot tomato based sauce with a madras like kick.

The interior is modern. The menu is varied, the food superb, the staff friendly and attentative, and if you can make the early bird special it is great value as well. Highly Recommended.

Jalfrezi is a beautifully decorated modern restaurant. The waiters were extremely attentive and knowledgeable and didn’t hesitate in recommending me a dish from their extensive menu based on my likes and dislikes.

The mixed starter was well balanced, allowing the flavour of the meat to come through the spice.

For my main dish I was recommended the lamb jaipuri which was very tasty, the lamb was wonderfully tender and spiced perfectly for my taste, which was accompanied by lovely fresh, light naan breads and fluffy rice.

Consistent is the word I’d use to describe Jalfrezi. No matter when you go, the food and service are always exceptional. The restaurant is situated in the heart of Bramhall shopping precinct and is small and cozy. They boast a wide range of dishes but more importantly your always guaranteed a nice welcome and service with a smile. You really do feel welcome here.

During this visit I opted for the mixed starter followed by a Chicken Pudina, this was a welcome change from my usual madras and pathia choices. The Pudina was spicy and consisted of green peppers with a hint of mint. I’m told this is one of their healthy options, so good for the waistline too.

Chicken Tikka Pudina

The Cobra on draft hit the spot and the meal was nicely completed with a “Jalfezi cholocate mint” and a plate full of old-school vimto lollys, which Jordan pocketed before anyone could get one.

The more senior members of the CurryCouncil quickly improvised after Chris (the amateur) failed to organise our usual scheduled curry before month end. A few frantic emails, texts and phone calls resulted in a last minute trip to the stylish Jalfrezi in Bramhall.

It’s not very often that we return to a venue which we have reviewed before but for the Jalfrezi we made an exception (and also invited the WAGs). Their large and extensive menu coupled with a midweek money saving “Early Diner Special” made a return to this restaurant a “must”.

Poppodums were fresh and came with a wide selection of dips including an outstanding mint raita which was a personal highlight for me.

The shared starter was well cooked and offered a wide variety of spiced meats, bhaji and garlic mushrooms.

I opted for the Chicken Tikka Pudina for my main course. The chicken was cooked to perfection and the underlying taste of fresh mint still managed to come out from this fairly spicy tomato based dish. The rice and naan’s were also of a similar high standard.

The presence of the CCWAGS (CurryCouncil Wives and Girlfriends) unfortunately disrupted the balance of our carefully calculated rice/naan Pythagoras equation that has been perfected during our many years of curry eating (e.g. the sum of the areas of the two bowls of pilau rice (a and b) equals the area of the square on the naan).

Tinker Bell and Peshwari Naan

The service was great and it was nice to see that the restaurant were accommodating with the children (another CurryCouncil first!).

The four course meal was set at £10.99 per head and with reasonable drinks prices, the Jalfrezi would certainly be recommended for both exceptional cooking and good service.

Click above to see more details on the deal

CurryCouncil's Final Thoughts

A trip to the Jalfrezi is certainly recommended based on the great food on offer in a modern and pleasant environment.

The restaurant was also reviewed by the CurryCouncil back in April 2008 - read our previous review here.

Calling All Restaurant Owners - The BBC Needs You!

2011-03-16T19:23:00.001Z

Calling all Indian Restaurant owners! Do you want to be involved in an exciting TV opportunity?

The CurryCouncil team have been contacted by Objective Productions asking for our help.

The BBC are working on the second series of John Bishop’s Britain and want to feature the owner of an Indian Restaurant on their Saturday night entertainment show.

Helen from Objective Productions said:

“I am working on the second series of John Bishop’s Britain – the Saturday night entertainment show for BBC1. This show was a huge success last summer so we are making another series. The show is hosted by comedian John Bishop himself but with the involvement of the general public.

We are looking once again for lots of different people, from all walks of life, from all over Britain to take part in the show. We want them to tell us funny, interesting stories from their lives on various topics, from shopping, to food, to Christmas!

We would really like to feature the owner of a curry shop this time around. Curry shops are as much a part of Britain today as black cabs and train strikes! And we’d really love to represent them!"

If you would like to participate, the full details are below. Please remember to tell them that the CurryCouncil referred you.

JOHN BISHOP’S BRITAIN IS BACK!

WE ARE LOOKING FOR YOU TO TAKE PART.

SATURDAY NIGHTS, BBC1 – Comedian John Bishop is back.
We are looking for people all over Britain to interview about their funny, true stories from their lives. So wherever you are from in Britain, whatever you do for work, whatever your thoughts/opinions are…we want to hear from you.

If you’d like to take part get in touch NOW!

Email your contact details to: takepart@objectiveproductions.com

Or Tel: 0207 202 2402

(Send us your name, email address, contact numbers, occupation, location and a photo of yourself please)

We want to hear your stories/opinions on everything from music and fashion to DIY and friends.

NOTE: Standard geographic charges apply and calls may be included in your telecom provider’s call package. Calls from mobiles may be higher.

Restaurant Of The Year 2010 - Award Night At The Red Rose

2011-03-15T12:16:00.003Z

The CurryCouncil Restaurant Of The Year (2010) award was presented to the Red Rose Indian Restaurant of Hazel Grove (Stockport) on the 15 February 2011.

Local radio channel Pure 107.8FM broadcast the build up to the award and the winning restaurant was announced live on air.

PureFM also featured an interview with the CurryCouncil’s very own Martin Noble discussing the details of the annual awards and the history of the CurryCouncil (click below to listen to the radio interview).

Channel S, the Bengali Television channel, were also present to film the award presentation to broadcast on their news and current affairs programme (footage coming soon).

The Red Rose celebrated their achievement by attaching a huge www.currycouncil.com banner across the the front of their restaurant.

The award evening at the Red Rose was a huge success and the CurryCouncil look forward to another year of visiting local Indian Restaurants in the Mancherster and Cheshire region throughout 2011.

Red Rose and their gigantic award banner

Chris looks forward to his meal

Woody practices his TV camera face

More Photos

Popodums time

Fraggle Rock

Ring of fire

Camera face

Award Winning Chef

Congratulations

The team

"Should we be looking at the camera?"

Thumbs up

"no, you hold it"

Channel S

Lights, Camera, Action

Time for a drink

Woody cracks a smile

Swadesh - Bowden - Review

2011-02-23T20:45:00.015Z

T 0161 941 53111

A 3 Richmond Road, Bowdon, Cheshire, WA14 2TT
W http://www.swadeshrestaurant.com/indian-restaurant-swadesh-bowdon.shtml

"Swadesh Bowdon is an exclusive Indian restaurant situated in the idyllic area of Bowdon, a short drive from Altrincham. As you relax within the attractive bar area before entering the quite stunning restaurant you immediately recognize that this is no ‘ordinary’ Indian restaurant experience, but something quite unique"

"The teams that have been brought to Swadesh have worked in some of the finest establishments in the World. The seasonal menus features a vibrant mix of dishes from culinary areas across India. Only the finest and freshest ingredients are used with many of the recipes having been handed down across generations. The beauty and the charm, diversity and depth, simplicity and complexity of Indian cuisine are all behind the showcase restaurants." [Information taken from the Swadesh website].

The CurryCouncil's View

Despite an initial problem with our reservation, the Swadesh delivered in a big way.

This was our first outing of 2011 and in my opinion will remain a strong candidate for our restaurant of the year title. Swadesh is situated in an impressive Tudor Mansion, in heart of the affluent village of Bowden (Trafford.) This swanky Indian offers genuinely authentic cruisine, prepared and cooked by chefs recruited from some of the top hotels in India.

I kicked off proceedings with the the Tandoori Khazana starter which consisted of a mixed platter of Hyderbadi Seekh Kebab, Lamb, Gulnar Salmon and Makhmali Tikka served with mint chutney. The starter was amazing! The meat remained succulent with delightful spices, beautifully presented.

For my main I opted for the Methi Murg (£10.90) cooked in spicy gravy of fenugreek leaves and fresh coriander tempered with garlic and kasoori methi.

It’s seldom that restaurants score highly in all key areas. However on this occasion the Swadesh delivers right across the board. The impressive interior, attentive service and incredible food result in a very high score from me.

I would highly recommend a visit to the Bowden restaurant and as a result feel tempted to visit its other establishments in Didsbury and Manchester.

The Swadesh offered me one of the best, or perhaps the best, meals that I have had the privilege of eating in my (almost) twenty year Indian curry eating career.

Unusually shaped popodums were presented that were pre-broken and came with a nice selection of fresh tasting dips. Top marks here to the Swadesh for presentation.

I started with the delicious Tandoori Khazana, this is a mixed starter which is suitable for two. The meats (Sheek Kebab, Lamb, Chicken Tikka) were all perfectly cooked and tasted like they were swiftly delivered fresh from the heat of the tandoor coals. The starter also included a large and tender piece of spiced salmon, which was a refreshing fish accompaniment to this usually all meat starter.

I ordered the Lall Maas as my main course. This was a fairly hot dish but it still allowed me to taste the ground spices and the chilli. The succelent lamb pieces were extremely tender. I was glad that I opted for the lamb rather than the usual chicken tikka variety that I usually favour with my main course.

Lal Maas

The naans and rice were also of a similar high standard. The Cobra on draught went down well with all. The Swadesh also offer traditional glass bottled Coca Cola - which makes a nice change to the flat, carbonated drinks sometimes on offer at other Indian restaurants.

The Swadesh, in my opinion, is a certain recommendation and must be tried by all!

Best overall tasting curry that I have ever eaten. Cobra on draught. Pops and dips were great. Starter of rack of lamb and some of Bean’s chicken too was well nice.

Had the Murg Tikka Labadar for main. Asked for a bit more spice to be added and it was excellent, especially combined with the light and tasty pilau rice, plus best Peshwari nan had in years (which was in nice hand size pre-cut portions too).

I thought the service was fine and the place had the wow factor too. With the price being £23 per person, it was a good job we managed to get the onionring 2-4-1 deal though. I could eat it all again right now. 5/5.

The Swadesh is an absolute must for a curry with the Mrs or if you’re talking the team, boss or clients from work out for a meal.

It’s a little more expensive than some of the more traditional curry houses we see in the South Manchester area but well worth the visit and the extra expense (I doubt you will be disappointed) this restaurant is one of those hidden gems that are rare and should be cherished.

Attention to detail is fantastic with all those “little things” making a “big” difference. Cloth napkins, good cutlery, plates, glasses and service-ware are what you can expect from a visit here.

There is also a nice bar area for pre-dinner drinks and order taking prior to seating for your meal.

Bar Area

I tasted the Chicken Chat Puri for starters, as you can expect - fantastic taste, great salad accompaniment (fresh) and well presented.

My main meal was the ‘Chefs Special Curry’ and was a recommendation from the waiter. It had to be “the” best curry I have possibly ever tasted.

Pop’s dips etc, again were the best I’ve have seen in terms of presentation, taste, size, and satisfaction for a curry eater.

This restaurant very nearly achieved a 5 out of 5 rating from me, however it just missed out by half a point due to “service with a smile” and a slight discussion we had to have with them around our booking and the use of discount vouchers (don’t let this put you off though). Its a recommendation of “must visit from me!”.

The Red Rose Restaurant (Hazel Grove) wins Restaurant of the Year Award 2010

2011-02-11T11:49:00.016Z

The Red Rose Restaurant, Hazel Grove (Stockport) are the winners of the coveted currycouncil.com restaurant of the year 2010.

David Marchbank-Smith of Currycouncil paid tribute "The awards are designed to recognize the very best Indian restaurants in the South Manchester region. Each restaurant is rated by the currycouncil in the following areas: Atmosphere, Value For Money, Originality and most of all; exemplarily Food and Service. The Red Rose scored highly in each area and were worthy winners."

A full report on the presentation will be published soon on currycouncil.com. Listen to PureFM 107.8 today to hear details of the award and the history of the currycouncil.

(Listen to the audio clip of the currycouncil interview : click below).

ABOUT THE CURRYCOUNCIL.COM AWARDS

The currycouncil.com annual awards honors the best restaurants as voted by the currycouncil.com members.

Finalists were chosen from a list of twelve restaurants visited by the currycouncil in 2010.

Each restaurant was then rated by the currycouncil council in the following areas: Atmosphere, value for money, originality and most of all; exemplarily food and service.

FINALISTS

Chilli Massala - Edgeley
Blue Nile - Hazel Grove
Red Rose - Hazel Grove
Zouk - Manchester
Lime Lounge - Disley
Spice Lounge - Hale
Silsila - Cheadle Hulme
Delish Spice - Bramhall
Qarma - Leek
Pearl - Audenshaw
Viceroy- Bollington
Khandoker - Bramhall

ABOUT THE CURRYCOUNCIL

Founded in the 90’s currycouncil.com is a non-profit independent restaurant review site and knowledge base.

The “currycouncil” consist of eight members from various backgrounds, employment and interests, but with a common interest in eating curry, having a beer or two and hopefully improving and ensuring quality in South Manchester curry houses.

The currycouncil.com site also encourages our visitors to post comments and exchange opinions on their own experiences.

CurryCouncil award winner to be announced live on Pure 107.8FM

2011-02-08T20:41:00.005Z

Tune your radio dial into Pure 107.8FM this coming Friday (11th February 2011) as the Stockport radio channel is set to announce (live on air) the winner of the CurryCouncil Restaurant Of The Year award for 2010.

The winning restaurant will be announced live at 11:30 and 15:30, along with an exclusive new interview with the CurryCouncil’s own Martin "Madras" Noble. The story will also be covered in the stations half hourly news bulletin throughout the day.

The winning restaurant will soon be presented with our custom made glass award trophy inscribed with their name, award category and the famous currycouncil logo.

Khandoker - Bramhall - Review

2011-01-30T20:26:00.010Z

T 0161 439 1050
A Cedar Tree House, 10 Fir Road, Bramhall, Cheshire, SK7 2NP
E info@khandoker.co.uk
W www.khandoker.co.uk

“Money's too tight to mention
Oh mo-ney mo-ney mo-ney mon-ey
Mo-ney's too tight to mention
I can't even qual-i-fy for my pension”

In these current financially tight times, the CurryCouncil decided to follow the wise words of Mick Hucknall and his Simply Red classic from 1985 for the November (2010) curry.

The Khandoker in Bramhall were celebrating their birthday with a “Khandoker Brings Back The 80s” special discounted offer for the whole of November.

Bring Back The 80s

In a show of solidarity with austerity Britain, the CurryCouncil decided to tighten their purse strings (and loosen their belts) and sample the food at the Khandoker and their rolled back 1983 prices.

Pops at 25p, starters at £1.95, main courses at £4.95, side dishes at £1.25, rice 75p, chapati 15p, naan 25p and chips at 35p…………………..the CurryCouncil therefore decided to fill their boots with a large variety of the dishes available on the special 1980’s menu.

Jord misinterprets Cameron's talk of the double dip

The recently opened Khandoker restaurant has an ‘up-market’ feel with its bright and modern interior. The large menu offers a mix of classical and Bengali cuisine.

The CurryCouncil were seated at a large, circular table at the back corner of the restaurant. The table location was perfect for our often loud conversation and had just enough space for Bean to get out his I-pad and bore us with the latest flight prices to Timbuktu or his latest favourite destination for the next "fantasy" CurryCouncil lad’s trip abroad.

The Khandoker review is now over two months overdue thanks to Dave being too busy (e.g. sleeping in his loft room and repeatedly watching his Stockport County greatest goals DVD) to do the review as promised.

Therefore, it’s now quite difficult to offer a fair review of the food and service that was on offer at the Khandoker. We aim to return to this restaurant in the near future to sample the full menu and to try some of their speciality dishes.

Chicken Madras 80's prices

Classic main courses of Madras and Rojan Josh were eaten by all and had a true 80’s feel with the sauce consistency and taste being reminiscent of a traditional BIR (British Indian Restaurant) dish. The portion sizes were adequate, although we certainly could not grumble at the low prices.

£83.05 bill

The low prices on offer resulted in a super low £15 per head bill, which included a couple of pints each of the less frequently available and thirst quenching Bangla Beer.

If you are also looking for a bargain meal - always remember to visit our offers page for other great curry money saving offers!

Customary Group Photo

The planned December 2010 curry didn’t actually materialise and this is the final review for 2010.

We hope soon to announce the winner of the CurryCouncil "Restaurant Of The Year A-ward" for 2010 – so watch this space!

Coming Soon ........ Restaurant Of The Year

2011-01-17T17:43:00.004Z

It’s almost that time of year again folks and the CurryCouncil are set to honour their favourite restaurant of 2010.

The "Restaurant Of The Year Award" is an accolade created by the CurryCouncil to recognise the culinary achievements of our local restaurants in the Cheshire and Manchester region.

The annual award honours the best restaurant visited by the CurryCouncil during 2010 as voted by the currycouncil members. Each restaurant is rated by the currycouncil in the following areas: Atmosphere, Value For Money, Originality and most of all; exemplarily Food and Service.

The winning restaurant will be presented with a custom made glass award trophy inscribed with their name, award category and the famous CurryCouncil logo.

The countdown has begun and you can look forward to the winner being announced early in February.

Kitchen Spy Uncovers Spicy Secrets

2010-11-30T19:31:00.000Z

A curry lover has penned a book that literally 'lifts the lid' on the secrets of the Indian restaurant trade after posing as a delivery man to gain access to a busy city kitchen.

Dave Loyden spent three years working undercover in Aberdeen to discover the spices and ingredients that give restaurant dishes their "unique" tastes and aromas.

The married father-of-one, 46, only abandoned his mission when things started getting "too hot in the kitchen" and he risked being exposed as a 'mole'.

Loyden has now turned his research into book "Undercover Curry". Dubbed "Spice Catcher", it reveals for the first time the tricks, techniques and closely-guarded trade secrets Indian chefs "don't want people to know".

Speaking yesterday, David said he hoped the 154-page book would "debunk the myth" that British Indian restaurant curries can't be reproduced at home.

He said: "I've been a curry enthusiast for decades and after each of my frequent Indian restaurant meals I would get to wondering just how those marvellous flavours and aromas were obtained.

"With the passage of time the need to know became an obsession, especially as the chefs refused to divulge their secrets.

"I considered myself a competent curry cook but just couldn't replicate the flavours at home. Even so, I knew it had to be possible."

To get the "knowledge", David left a highly successful career as the owner of a courier firm in Aberdeen to perform kitchen deliveries and menial tasks at his favourite Bangladeshi restaurant.

Slowly he started to win the trust of the restaurant's staff and was allowed into the kitchen to help in the food preparation, making sure to take a mental note of all he saw.

"The staff thought I was there to earn a wage but all I was after was the knowledge of how to make curries the way they did," said David, who now divides his time between the UK and Brunei, South East Asia.

"I would give up my mornings to come in and peel garlic or prepare veg, scanning the kitchen for prime locations to investigate, taking sneaky peaks inside food tubs and observing chefs at work.

"It took three years living this other life to get what I came for and I did it just in time as near the end they were on to me and gave the important tasks to other people."

The author claims that by following the instructions in Undercover Curry, anyone can whip up a restaurant-quality Indian meal at home "within minutes".

He added: "This is not your standard cook-book full of pretty pictures. Instead, it's packed with arcane, hard-won knowledge that will allow curry lovers to put together fantastic meals and serve them at restaurant speed at home.

"Though the book reveals for the first time in print ingredients that British Indian restaurants use to make their sauces, it also outlines the preparation and cooking processes that are central to the whole operation.

"You do your core preparation in advance, freeze, and then for weeks ahead quality meals can be on the table within 10 to 15 minutes from starting."

David says he is now working on a follow-up title - but wouldn't be drawn on the subject.

"It's top secret," he said.

Undercover Curry: An insider's exposé of British Indian restaurant cookery is available now, priced £12.99. For more information, visit: www.undercovercurry.com

Curry Saving £ Tip - The British Curry Club

2010-11-23T21:29:00.001Z

During these difficult financial times the CurryCouncil are always on the prowl for super money saving offers available to our visitors.

The British Cury Club is offering Daily Star and the Daily Express readers a 2for1 deal valid at over 1200 curry houses nationwide to celebrating national curry week.

Perfect for any occasion, who can resist the magic of a madras, a creamy korma or a juicy jalfrezi. However hot you like your dish, there’s a great curry experience wafting for you this month.

Once you register your details here, you can view the directory to see where you want to go for that vindaloo”is it gonna be your local or gonna try somewhere new”.

You can also upgrade to their unlimited 2for1 membership for three, six or twelve month at a discounted rate any time until 15th December 2010.

You can also find other great local and national curry saving offers on our Money Off Vouchers page.

Viceroy - Bollington - Review

2010-11-17T20:36:00.004Z

T 01625 573 006
A 22 Ingersley Road, Bollington, Macclesfield, Cheshire, SK10 5RF
W http://www.viceroyindian.com/

Octobers curry fixture had us travelling to Bollington, near to Macclesfield on a cold dark autumn night. Marf had arranged the trip, which unsurprisingly was a short drive from his house.

There were some late arrivals due to some temporary roadworks on route, but it was a fair attendance from the council, with 6 of us present. The usual AWOL suspects were Dayo (who couldn’t come as City were playing a few days later and he isn’t allowed out 2 days within the same week) and Andy (who used his forthcoming marriage as a financial excuse).

We were all pleasantly impressed with the location and adequate car parking facilities. We were greeted and shown to a large waiting area where we were reacquainted with a dear old friend - Mr Bombay Mix. Several pints of Cobra (£2.80 a pint) soon arrived to help wash it down and we could not help but notice the steady stream of visitors arriving at the bar area to collect their takeaways.

Special Dishes listed on the blackboard at the bar

It was a very cosy traditional place which combined the old with the new and it created a nice atmosphere. There were a few mod cons, such as a large Plasma on the wall showing the latest music videos. This TV was situated over a large water feature containing what appeared to be Koi carp which you passed on your way into the main dining area.

We were seated within the main part of the restaurant and again it was of note how busy the place was for a midweek night. Along with us rabble were young couples enjoying a romantic meal along with families and children, which goes to show what a popular eatery this is for the locals.

Fresh plain popodums and 6 dips (60p a Pop and £1.30 for the chutney tray) were served and soon devoured. Certain council members felt that the presentation could have been improved as the dips were given to us in a large tupperware style plastic bowl, but that was overlooked as soon as the dips were tasted.

Unusual Presentation

A variety of starters were ordered by all, including a Bangla Tikka (£3.25), which was described as spicy hot marinated chicken, barbequed in a flaming clay oven. This was a delicious and substantial starter with 4 large pieces of tasty chicken which packed a pleasant kick. The Channa chicken and Chicken Chat Puree (Both £3.55) were also thought highly of by the Council too.

Bangla Tikka Starter

Whilst waiting for the main dishes to arrive, there was a very grown up conversation between the council members regarding the recently announced government decision concerning child benefit cuts to high wage earners. Beany got very animated and even announced that it would hit him hard and may even curtail his curry visits as his £100k salary would struggle to cover his £25 monthly treat.

This unusual topic of chat soon got back to normal (lads weekends to Newcastle / Iceland / Play golf etc) when the mains arrived. The waiter surprisingly didn’t appear to know which curry was which whilst serving, and after a minute or so of confusion the correct curries were delivered to the right people.

We were all impressed with the generous portion sizes and got tucked into various courses consisting of both old school dishes, such as Chicken Tikka Madras, and some Viceroy Specials which had been noticed on the Specials board as we had been awaiting seating.

Most of the food was lovely and we had some hot and tasty nann breads to go with it. There was a small mix up with the waiters originally bringing out garlic naan breads rather than the plain ones which we previously ordered. The error was rectified by the waiters and some hot plain naans were quickly substituted from the kitchen.

Marf had the Chicken Gur-Khali (a very spicy dish cooked in mustard oil and hot tomato chilli sauce with peppers and onions) which he described as being a nice dish with lots of fresh cooked peppers and onions, but he felt that it was a tad too sweet for his liking and didn’t quite match the description within the menu.

Woodman chose the Balti Exotica (a combination of chicken, lamb and king prawn, cooked in a medium balti sauce authentically prepared with fresh herbs and spices) and he was extremely pleased with his choice although he felt that a couple of extra prawns would have been nice.

Chicken Gur-Khali

Jord unusually forgets to breathe in

All in all a good night was had and with the bill at £23 a head it worked out at a reasonable price too. The council also noted that the Viceroy have a Sunday specials menu with a variety of Indian and English meals ranging from £4.95 for children up to £9.95 for adults, which would undoubtedly be exceptional value for money. Maybe the council should ditch the yearly WAGs curry and take the kids to somewhere like this? It would certainly save on cost and the conversation would probably improve too.

Curry Saving £ Tip - Taste Card

2010-11-07T19:43:00.001Z

During these difficult financial times the CurryCouncil are always on the prowl for super money saving offers available to our visitors.

The tastecard gives you 50% OFF at 3500+ restaurants throughout Manchester and the rest of the UK.

There are many local Indian restaurants featured heavily amongst the large array of eateries available on the tastecard. Most of these Indian restaurants either offer a 2 for 1's on main courses or 50% off the food bill.

The Manchester Evening News, in association with CityLife, are offering FREE 3 month tastecard membership. They do not take any payment details and this no strings attached offer is recommended by the CurryCouncil as a great CURRY saving offer.

The card can normally cost up to £69.99 per year, so this is a quite a SAVING.

Click here for more details and to sign up. Remember to be quick though as these offers are usually not available for long.

Curry Saving £ Tip - Jalfrezi (Bramhall)

2010-11-06T15:35:00.003Z

During these difficult financial times the CurryCouncil are always on the prowl for super money saving offers available to our visitors.

The highly rated Jalfrezi in Bramhall (Stockport) currently have an Early Diners Special which offers a four course meal for just £10.99.

The deal is available Sunday to Thursday 5.00pm til 7.00pm. The full details of the offer are below.

Visit our Money Off Vouchers page for details of more super curry-saving offers on a local and national basis.

Currypedia - Onion Bhajis

2010-10-30T17:23:00.001+01:00

The CurryCouncil Currypedia is the beginner’s guide to ordering food at an Indian restaurant.

The first dish to be featured is the trusty onion bhaji. The bhaji, which has quite a small amount of spice and kick, can be recommended to all from the curry novice to the curry connoisseur.

Did you know that the Onion Bhaji is known as Pakora in Hindi? According to the Oxford Hindi to English dictionary, bhaji simply means "a green vegetable".

The bhaji is a spiced Indian snack that consists of fried onions and comes with several other ingredients including rice and gram flour. The bhaji has a fritter like appearance.

Bhajjis are often eaten as starter before your main course. They sometimes can be served with a side salad and a slice of lemon, mint raita, or even with mango chutney and are traditionally made to a mild taste.

The Pearl - Audenshaw - Review

2010-10-23T18:31:00.016+01:00

T 0161 301 5680
A 119 Manchester Road, Manchester, Lancashire M34 5PY
W www.thepearlrestaurant.co.uk

Our September curry was a visit to the Pearl in Audenshaw, as we had heard good reports about this restaurant and we were keen to sample their food. The first impression you get on arrival is the sheer size of the place, having over 300 covers this is surely the largest place we have ever eaten in.

The Pearl used to be a pub but has been used as an Indian restaurant since 2005 and recently has had a full refurbishment. Bizarrely there is also a separate lounge area and disco room with a resident DJ at weekends. We visited on a wet Monday night and were the only people in the place which did feel a little odd in such a huge restaurant but we were assured it is very busy at weekends.

After ordering a drink at the bar, we were shown to our table. Much school boy giggling followed upon being seated. Every time anybody moved against the leather chairs they produced a noise which can only be described as a “farting chair” and with Bean’s history this caused much amusement throughout the night.

Plain or spicy poppodums were on offer with six of each ordered these were fresh warm and crispy but sadly lacking the now expected fifth dip in the chutney tray. However, an extra large mango chutney was provided without request which made up for the lack of the fifth dip.

Two chicken platters starters were ordered along with one tandoori platter, these were both very well received by everyone with the meat tasting fresh off the coals and well cooked. The lamb chops were juicy with lots of meat. The chicken tikka platter consisted of tikka, laziz kebab, murgh malai, and chandiani murgh which were all delicious.

The restaurant is still tied into the pub brewery so there are no Indian lagers on draft but this was not a problem to us as they had an extensive selection on draft including, Becks, Stella, John Smiths, Guiness and Hoegarden, combined with a quality selection of bottled beers including Cobra and Tiger beer. This was probably the largest drinks menu we have come across.

The mains got a mixed response with the chicken madras being rated highly but the Chicken Handi being a disappointment as it was too mild for it’s two chilli rating and lacked somewhat in taste. Macca did his usual trick of eating everybody else’s food apart from his own, having ordered a garlic naan he proceeded to eat all the plain naan, claiming it was too garlicky !!!!

Conversation during the night flitted from the poor taste of (piano) music in the restaurant and then to Bean’s claim that he had got down to the last 50 applicants to appear on the BBC TV show “The Apprentice”. His lies were soon exposed when he showed us the email to confirm his story but in fact it turned out to be a standard email stating that they may be interested in speaking to him in the future (along with the other 30,000 applicants !).

There is ample parking with 200 plus spaces and the option of continuing your night out after the meal in the lounge/disco area.

If you are like us, the only thing that we want to do after a curry is lie down in bed and moan at how full we are while our food slowly digests. However, if you do still have the energy to dance the disco is only a few steps away. With Christmas fast approaching we believe the Pearl would make an excellent venue for a work Christmas party.

CurryCouncil Chaat - Copenhagen & More

2010-10-21T19:52:00.011+01:00

October has been a busy month for the currycouncil, although this has not been reflected in our recent website postings.

The month started with our much anticipated visit to Copenhagen for Mr Hague's stag doo. The trip contained a mixture of currycouncil members and non (curry) councillors.

Denmark's food culture is much more than just seafood (it might be worth trying their traditional pickled herring though).

We regrettably did not visit an Indian restaurant during our short trip. Copenhagen boasts a large number of Indian and Pakistani Restaurants, most of which are all located within walking distance of the main train station in the City Centre.

The council however did sample a variety of Indian delights at the Kebabish takeaway/diner in the cosmopolitan Vesterbro area.

The UK based Kebabish Original (KO) recently launched into Europe and have opened their very first restaurant in Denmark.

The stag group sampled a mixture of dishes, including a rather tasty chicken tikka "kebab" which was a couple of skewers of flavoursome chicken tikka, cooked on their famous flame grill and served in fresh naan bread with a nice salad. The kebab was perfect with a light drizzle of the hot chilli sauce and cool minted yoghurt.

The currycouncil all gave the inexpensive Kebabish our inebriated thumbs up.

Kebabish also offer a wide and varied menu of other Asian dishes including Indian curries which are all available to take-away or dine in. The diner features a highly visible and open plan kitchen with a flame grill, which offers piece of mind in the food hygiene stakes when abroad.

More Reviews Coming Soon

The Pearl in Audenshaw and the Viceroy in Bollington were recently visited by the CurryCouncil and are the next reviews to be published soon.

Twitter

The currycouncil Twitter group now has over 340 curry eating followers and our network continues to grow at a fast rate. Follow us on Twitter here.

Bangladesh Caterers Association announces best UK curry houses

2010-10-13T12:38:00.007+01:00

The Bangladesh Caterers Association (BCA) has announced the winners of its Caterer of the Year Award 2010, as it urges the government to help preserve the industry.

The winners of each of the 11 regional categories were revealed as Oli Khan, Mridul Kanti Dasn, Athair Khan, Mohamed Ali, Matin Kahn, Mohammed Abdul Ahad, Bodrul Miah, Ala Uddin, Majidul Haqu Choudhury and Tofozul Ahmed.

The winners were selected for their "outstanding achievements amongst their industry peers" by a panel of industry judges, with advice from curry expert Pat Chapman.

The gongs were handed out at the BCA's Awards ceremony in London on Monday night, watched by Bangladeshi dignitaries and several UK politicians.

The ceremony coincided both with the BCA's 50th anniversary, and the 200th anniversary of the opening of the UK's first curry house.

"Responsibility"

Speaking at the event, Bajloor Rashid, president of BCA, called for the government to lend its support to the curry industry.

“For half a century now, BCA has been the guardian angel of Bangladeshi caterers in UK," he said. "It is inspiration for us that more than two million curry lovers visit curry houses each week in UK. Our members have only three rules: take care of customers, take care of customers and take care of customers. The year ahead presents uncertainty, but we guarantee that BCA will be there.

"We created the curry industry, now it’s the government’s responsibility to preserve it.”

Newly elected leader of the Labour Party, Ed Miliband voiced his support for the BCA and the curry industry, saying in a statement: "The BCA has made an enormous contribution to Britain and I’m incredibly proud of the Labour party’s contribution to your cuisine. I want to pay special tribute to Bajloor Rashid, president of BCA, for the amazing work he does, and I’m looking forward to working with you on our common concerns.”

BCA Caterers of the Year 2010 winners

East EnglandOli Khan, Surma Finest Indian Takeway, Stevanage, Hertfordshire

Greater London (East)Mridul Kanti Das, Memsaheb on Thames Restaurant, Docklands

Greater London (West)Dinesh Bhatessa, Mint Leaf Restaurant & Bar, Haymarket

North EastAthair Khan, The last Days of the Raj, Gateshead, Tyne & Wear

North WestMohamed Ali (Saju), Shajan Indian Restaurant, Blackburn, Lancashire

Scotland and Northern IrelandMatin Khan, Itihaas Restaurant, Dalkeith, Scotland

South East Region 1Mohammed. Abdul Ahad, Jaipur Restaurant, Milton Keynes

South East Region 2Bodrul Miah, Turmeric Gold Restaurant & Bar, Tonbridge, Kent

South West Ala Uddin, Spice Bengal Restaurant, Calne, Wiltshire

MidlandsMajidul Haque Choudhury (Mintu), Café Tamarinds Pan Asian Cuisine, Coventry

WalesTofozul Ahmed, Café India Restaurant, Swansea

Source: Bighospitality.co.uk

Qarma - Leek - Review

2010-09-24T20:53:00.010+01:00

T 01538 387788
A Cross Mill, Cross Street, off Ashbourne Road, Leek, ST13 6BL
E info@the-qarma.com
W http://www.the-qarma.com/

The CurryCouncil have recently been reminiscing about “old school” curry houses and this month found a true gem in Leek, Staffordshire.

Qarma had been recommended by a Staffordshire based work colleague as a really good place to eat.

The restaurant , which opened in May 2009, has been included in the Which Good Food Guide 2011 and is a contender in the regional final of the Newby Teas Tiffin Cup 2010.

From the outside Qarma is the very opposite to anything any of us has witnessed in a curry house as it is situated in an old textile mill.

On entering the huge mill we were pleasantly surprised to see a traditional style restaurant with high wooden beams and exposed brick walls. It has a large bar area that is almost as big as some of the restaurants that we had visited in the past.

We sat down in some big comfy chairs in the bar area with the waiters presenting us with the biggest and most varied menu we have seen. With so much choice on the menu and many questions to ask it was a shock to see the Chef “grandpa” appear to take our order whilst still sitting in the bar area.

The vast menu was packed with plenty of fish dishes and the Qarma specials were all very reasonably priced with the majority of dishes including rice. We all chose popadoms and a mixed starter and decided to go with a wide selection of Qarma "special" main courses.

We were then taken to our large table and sat beneath an erotic picture in the huge dining area which would be suitable for large functions.

It was a refreshing change to find a restaurant that still boasted many traditional features such as elephant statues, erotic art and hot plate warmers.

As we sat down, our popadoms quickly arrived and we all started talking about Jord’s new clean cut image and change in job role. The pops were fresh and came with a nice selection of six different dips.

Grandpa then appeared with a huge tray with our mixed starter which was accompanied by two cocktail umbrellas which brought laughter to the table. The waiter quickly advising that the umbrellas were there "in case it rains!".

There was plenty of meat to choose from with the usual chicken and lamb tikka pieces. We were a little shocked to taste sweet, yet very spicy, pieces of banana in the salad and this fiery accompaniment was followed be a swift swig of our Cobra.

All feeling very adventurous, we decided to try something different and new. The main meals included the Qarma Goan Special, Qarma Secret (a delightful tasting chicken dish that came topped with a fresh and lightly spiced omelette), the Qarma Tawa and the “Staff Curry” Special.

Qarma Secret - topped with a lightly spiced omelette

Staff Curry

The main dishes all came served with a delightful lemon and ginger rice which was a nice change from the usual pilau rice. We ordered some additional coconut rice and a mixture of chilli, garlic & coriander and peshwari naan’s.

The chef’s main signature dishes were all of very good quality and came with strong, yet not overpowering, fresh flavours. The dishes also represented good value for money with the portion sizes being just about right, not leaving you too full but still not hungry for more.

To celebrate the end of Ramadan the whole restaurant were treated to a complimentary Shemai dessert. Shemai is a sweet hot pudding which we would best describe as an English rice pudding with a few raisons and underlying taste of almonds. The desert was a nice finish to a great meal.

The service received was top notch and you could feel the true family environment. It was clear that the restaurant has a real passion for food and nothing was to much for Grandpa and his waiters.

If you are travelling through Staffordshire or are planning a trip to Alton Towers, a visit to Qarma on your trip home is well advised.

The spices became too much for Dave and Woody

On leaving this restaurant we were met by Grandpa who was on hand to thank everyone for their visit, especially Jord who felt that Grandpa was more than welcoming and appreciated his fine efforts with our now traditional group photo.

CurryCouncil at the Qarma bar

Chicken Tikka Masala Recipe - Jamie Oliver

2010-09-24T13:10:00.007+01:00

The Chicken Tikka Masala is now a true part of "British" Indian food heritage.

One explanation of the origins of the dish is that it was conceived in either a British Pakistani or a British Bangladeshi restaurant. There are claims that an Indian chef in Glasgow invented it by improvising a sauce made from yogurt, cream and spices.

Currycouncil.com bring you a great Chicken Tikka Masala recipe (by Jamie Oliver) for you to try at home .

Main courses serves 4

(Note: the marinade will need to be prepared the day before so the chicken can marinate overnight.)

For the marinade blitz the chilli, garlic, ginger and vegetable oil in the food processor. Add the paprika, garam masala and tomato puree, plus the coriander stalks, and blitz again to form a paste. Place the chicken pieces in a large bowl, coat them with the marinade and leave in the fridge overnight.

The next day…In a little vegetable oil, on a medium heat, fry the onion, peppers and spices in a large saucepan. Cook gently for 10 minutes then add the tin of tomatoes and the yoghurt. Add the chicken pieces and simmer gently for 15 to 20 minutes until cooked. Just before serving, stir through the double cream and chopped coriander leaves.

Serve with fluffy boiled rice and a mixed leaf salad

Ingrediants

• ½ fresh red chilli, deseeded

• 1 clove of garlic, peeled

• 15g fresh ginger

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil

• a pinch of paprika

• ½ tablespoon garam masala

• a teaspoon of tomato puree

• 3 sprigs of fresh coriander, leaves picked and chopped, stalks reserved

• 400g chicken breast, preferably free-range or organic, diced into 2.5cm pieces

• 1 small onion, peeled and sliced

• ½ red pepper, deseeded and sliced

• ½ green pepper, deseeded and sliced

• a pinch of ground cinnamon

• a pinch of ground coriander

• a pinch of turmeric

• 1 x 400g tin plum tomatoes

• 100ml plain yoghurt

• 100ml double cream

Source: JamieOliver.com

CurryCouncil Monthly Chaat - Good Food Guide

2010-09-22T12:43:00.008+01:00

Welcome to the second edition of our new monthly feature - "CurryCouncil Monthly Chaat". We aim to bring you all the exciting news from the wonderful world of curry and beyond.

Two local Indian restaurants that have been reviewed by the CurryCouncil have secured a place in The Good Food Guide 2011.

Qarma restaurant in Leek is now included within the prestigious Official Good Food Guide 2011.

This fantastic achievement prompted the CurryCouncil to visit Qarma this month and sample their well revered cuisine.

Watch this space to get all of our thoughts on the Staffordshire based restaurant in our next published review.

The Manchester Evening News also reports that Altrincham’s Michelin-rated Indian restaurant - Dilli - is also among the new entries in the 2011 Good Food Guide. Dilli was reviewed by the CurryCouncil in March 2009.

Don't tikka a chance on hygiene

2010-09-15T13:08:00.004+01:00

The Daily Mail reports that "Diners at more than half of Britain's restaurants at risk of deadly bugs from bacteria-riddled dishcloths"

"More that half of restaurants are putting the health of diners at risk because the cleaning cloths they use are riddled with harmful bacteria.Germs linked to staff not washing their hands after visiting the toilet was the biggest problem, according to a study published by the Health Protection Agency (HPA) today. However, potentially deadly bugs such as E.coli and Listeria, which is a particular risk to pregnant women and their unborn children, were also found"

The Currycouncil would like to recommend checking the scoresonthedoors website to check the health and hygiene scores of your local Indian Restaurants.

Scores on the doors is a national public information service where you can find the official local authority hygiene ratings for food businesses - now the world's largest site of its type!

Find out how hygienic and well-managed the food preparation at any of the premises listed there are, such as your favourite take-aways, clubs, pubs and restaurants.

Curry house keeps in the heat

2010-09-13T19:33:00.003+01:00

The heat is on at an Indian restaurant in Wilmslow..and it’s not just their acclaimed curries.

For after last year’s Arctic winter, the contemporary-styled Eastern Revive is pioneering a revolutionary heating system.

The floor-to ceiling-windows on the restaurant’s Wareham Street facade lost so much heat that the restaurant had to buy in extra heaters to keep diners warm as temperatures plunged.

Now the windows actually provide radiant heat, keeping diners comfortable at the touch of a button without the need for central heating using conventional radiators - or extra heaters.

And, according to regular customer and managing director of Finnglass UK, the Stockport-based firm that supplied and installed the system, Shay O’Carroll, the restaurant’s heating bills are set to shrink by 35 - 50 per cent.

Windows and French doors at the back of the 74-cover dining room are also fitted with highly-efficient heated glass and a row of discreet glass panels mounted by the ceiling supplements a system that’s not only eco-friendly but virtually invisible.

Eastern Revive’s owner, Wasim, can keep a constant eye on how much power – or how little – the system is consuming by checking a sophisticated monitoring system.

The heated windows and glass - developed in Finland - were installed at the Eastern Revive during the restaurant’s recent £30,000 refurbishment.

"The system is brilliant," said Wasim.

"It’s practically invisible and has allowed us much more scope to adopt a stylish, contemporary look for the restaurant."

Source : MEN

Delish Spice - Bramhall - Review

2010-09-06T20:17:00.021+01:00

T 0161 440 9686
A 222 Moss Lane Bramhall, Stockport, Cheshire SK7 1BD
E info@delishspice.co.uk
W http://www.delishspice.co.uk/index.asp

Delish Spice is a new Indian restaurant right in the heart of Bramhall centre situated opposite the popular Italian Restaurant Piccolino.

Delish boasts a stylish and modern interior, which is fast becoming the norm in the more upmarket Indian Restaurants in our area.

The Delish Spice concept ticks all of the right boxes for any new and contemporary Indian restaurant. Dark wooden tables “check”, black leather chairs “check”, trendy metallic art work adorning the walls “check”, subtle downlights “check”, modern cutlery “check”.

The restaurant also boasts a nice looking bar with a large LCD TV carefully sunk into the panelled wall, with the screen positioned nicely next to the optics.

The LCD includes an I-Player type video screen playing Bhangra music, which is a nice plus point for the restaurant. Modern Western pop music is sadly starting to replace traditional Bhangra in many of the restaurants that we have recently visited.

It soon became clear that every bit of fine detail has been carefully thought about and the restaurant looks and feels very upmarket.

This type of “modern age” Indian restaurant originally is a welcome change from the more traditional curry houses that we used to visit in our younger years.

However we still reminisce and pine for some of the features from the old school restaurants of yesteryear. There was almost something therapeutical about the fish tanks and traditional water fountains that used to be common place in the late 80’s and early 90’s curry house.

The gentle sound of running water can have such a calming 'feng shui' type effect in a curry house and also added to the number of trips back and forth to the gents to dispose of your last pint of Indian lager (thanks to the nice running sound of the water). OK – its time to stop reminiscing and get back to the review!

The five of us in attendance were seated at a nice large circular table, which was well placed, spacious and perfect for conversation. This huge 120 cover restaurant might not quite be intimate enough for a cosy meal for two but certainly may be suited for larger groups.

The usual suspects were again missing this month. Dayo surprisingly gave no excuse for his now predictable no-show and Chris MS was sunning it on holiday. Woodman failed to make an appearance, opting sadly to sit at home watching the Big Brother final whilst nursing a single can of Carling.

Cobra and Kingfisher were both available on draught - decisions, decisions. The majority of us opted for Kingfisher as this is not always as freely available as Cobra and this made a refreshing change.

Perhaps the currycouncil should recreate the Pepsi challenge from the 1980s. The concept? A currycouncil representative sets a table with two blank glasses : one containing Cobra and one with Kingfisher. Curry eaters are encouraged to taste both Indian beers, and then select which drink they prefer. Enough of the 80s nostalgia, Lets get back again to the review again!

Pops were served hot, crisp and fresh. The mango chutney was the best of the bunch with large, and what appeared to be fresh, pieces of mango included. At £2 a tray, we were slightly disappointed to receive only four varieties of dips, a nice bit of mint raita would have gone down a treat.

Fish Tikka

The starters gained a mixed reception from the currycouncil. Noble went for the fish tikka, with its presentation and taste being very good but the portion size was disappointingly small. The fish theme continued with Hague, opting for Kakra Chat Puri, giving the crab meat puri the thumbs up. Delish offer a varied fish and shellfish section on their menu.

The speed of service was just about right, although we had empty glasses at one stage. This could be seen as a hard part of service to master. If a waiter asks us for more drinks too often, this may be seen as pushy but this particular wait was far too long and we quickly got very thirsty!

The selection of main courses that we tried gained a mixed response. This included the Chicken Nepalese, a rather tasty dish that was described as "hot" and certainly went way above and beyond its description.

Noble’s eyes were watering and glasses of water were subsequently ordered to “calm the fire”. The currycouncil think that the restaurant may need to reclassify its description on the menu to be “very hot”.

Jord opted for the chicken shashlik and previously had asked the waiter to swap its accompanying mild bhuna sauce for what he hoped would be fiery madras. The sauce that arrived didn’t taste like a madras and was politely sent back to the kitchen by Mr Jordan.

The madras which was returned, although ultra hot, did not really challenge the taste buds. The sauce didn’t have much depth underneath the heat. However, the marinated green peppers, onions and tomatoes and chicken that formed the base of the shashlik were excellent.

The rice and naan’s passed the taste test and went down well. The rice portions (at £2.30) were small and we would recommend a portion each rather than sharing one between two.

The bill came in at around £28 per head (including a small tip), as Delish have set their prices slightly higher than the local average.

The currycouncil were left slightly disappointed with some aspects of the meal and felt that the dining experience did not quite live up to high standards set by the restaurants sleek interior and ambitious menu.

McCoy's launches curry promo with new crisps

2010-08-26T13:18:00.009+01:00

During these difficult financial times the currycouncil are always on the prowl for super money saving offers available to our visitors.

McCoy’s crisps are joining 1,500 Indian restaurants around the country with an offer for two main curry dishes for the price of one with every pack purchased.

Consumers will be able to take their promotional voucher on-pack to any one of the participating restaurants and consumers will receive one free main curry meal when they purchase a main meal of greater or equivalent value.

The promotion which runs until March 2011 will also allow consumers to bring more than one voucher to claim further main curry meals.

McCoy’s are also launching two limited edition curry flavours, also available from mid-September, McCoy’s Chicken Jalfrezi and Lamb Vindaloo.

Greg Johnston, marketing director of Bagged Snacks at United Biscuits UK says: "We’re extremely proud of the promotion and feel that it’s spot on for our target consumer. The curry meal is one of Britain’s great traditions and the restaurants have needed little encouragement getting on-board to take advantage of the extra sales opportunity the promotion will create.”

Consumers can log on to http://www.mccoys.co.uk/rubymurray/details.php to find the nearest restaurant taking part in the promotion.

You can also find additional local and national curry saving offers on our Money Off Vouchers page.

Source: promomarketing.info

Moorlands Restaurant Provides Hot Competition in the Tiffin Cup

2010-08-25T16:42:00.007+01:00

The Qarma Tandoori restaurant in Leek is celebrating winning a place in the regional final of the Newby Teas Tiffin Cup 2010.

The national competition is held each year to find the best South Asian restaurant in the country and Karen Bradley MP chose Qarma this year to represent Staffordshire Moorlands. Qarma Tandoori Restaurant will battle with other restaurants in the regional final to go into the national Grand Final.

In the next few weeks a mystery diner will visit the restaurant and judge whether it deserves to respresent the region. Karen said;

"Qarma Tandoori Restaurant was the overwhelming favourite among my constituents so I am delighted that my nomination for them has been accepted. I really hope they will be chosen to represent our region in the Grand Final of such a prestigious award. I am sure everyone in the Moorlands will be supporting them."

Keith Vaz MP, Chair of the Tiffin Club said:

"We are delighted with the nomination of the Qarma Tandoori Restaurant. It will really put Staffordshire Moorlands on the culinary map."

Karen is pictured with manager Mohammed Ahmed and staff of Qarma cooking up a - hopefully - prize winning meal.

Currycouncil.com hope to visit Qarma in the near future and will be providing the forthcoming results from the Tiffin Cup 2010.

Source: karenbradley.co.uk

CurryCouncil Monthly Chaat

2010-08-19T07:42:00.046+01:00

Welcome to the first edition of our new monthly feature - "CurryCouncil Monthly Chaat". We aim to bring you all the exciting news from the wonderful world of curry and beyond.

Curry Pasty

Ginsters have recently launched the Chicken Balti Pasty. The new pasty is a fusion of two of Britain’s favourite takeaways – the Cornish pasty and curry.

The £1.99 snack sounds perfect for a curry-in-a-hurry and may soon find its way into the lunch boxes of the CurryCouncil.

Health

The extra ordinary health benefits of curry was again in the news this month.

The Daily Star reported how “Curry Could Save Your Life” and that “Chilli-laden dishes such as vindaloo or phall might appear to cause the brave eater to tense up, but they make blood vessels relax. In turn this lowers blood pressure, reducing the risk of deadly heart attacks”

CurryCouncil member and avid Daily Star reader Paul Day (left) demonstrates how a hot curry “may cause the brave eater to tense up” and that curry may actually be good for your health.

New Restaurant

Delish Spice is set to open its doors to the public this week. The new Bramhall restaurant promises its customers “a refreshing twist on traditional Indian cuisine”.

The CurryCouncil are planning a visit to Bramhall's latest eatery very soon. Watch this space for our upcoming review and thoughts on their new venture.

Online Tikka-Away

CurryCouncil member MrMarf last week tested the credentials of the online take-away ordering service at the Red Rose Indian Restaurant in Hazel Grove (Stockport).

The whole process was smooth from beginning to end and made take-away ordering extremely easy. The food was also, quote, "spot on!".

This has resulted in the CurryCouncil's resident Business Naanalyst MrMarf emailing an exciting new idea directly to Mr Bill Gates at Microsoft.

MrMarf said "We need to devise some way of giving curry eaters online the best of both worlds. You need to introduce some scratch and sniff technology to give curry fanatics an idea of the spicy scent before ordering curry at their PC".

Landmark Review

The August 2010 curry will be the 40th Indian restaurant review to be placed directly on our home page.

There are even more reviews hidden away in our archives, please feel free to tikka some time to read some of our extensive back catalogue and add your comments.

Twitter

The CurryCouncil now have 300 curry eating followers on Twitter.

Curry house set its sights on top title

2010-08-11T19:47:00.005+01:00

A popular Rochdale venue could be named the best South Asian restaurant in the country after topping a public vote.

Miah’s Restaurant will represent the town in the Tiffin Cup – a national competition run by MPs, which aims to find the best South Asian food in the country and raise money for charity.

It came out on top after Simon Danczuk MP appealed to the public to vote for who they thought should represent the town.

And Miah’s, which serves Bengali food, is now waiting to find out if it has made it onto the national short list.

Those that make the final cut will the take part in a MasterChef style cook-off, judged by MPs and guest celebrities, with the proceeds going to charity.

Mr Danczuk said: "The response showed how many great restaurants we have in Rochdale and how passionately people feel about their favourites.

"Miah’s was a clear winner for Rochdale and I hope they’ll make it to the next round.

He added: "There’s a lot of friendly banter among politicians about how good their restaurants are but I really feel our South Asian cuisine can compete with anywhere in the country."

Source: MEN

Tikka temptation: surviving Ramadan on the Curry Mile

2010-08-11T12:18:00.006+01:00

The mouth-watering smell of a succulent chicken tikka is tempting enough for anyone visiting Manchester's Curry Mile.

But what must it be like working in a Rusholme curry house or cafe while also trying to fast?

Islam requires all Muslims to abstain from food, water or smoking during the daylight hours of Ramadan.

Rusholme's restaurant staff explain how they're surviving the holy month while surrounded by temptation.

Hectic Mohammad Javed works at Sanam restaurant in the heart of Rusholme, taking orders and serving diners with their meals.

As someone who has fasted every Ramadan for 40 years, he agreed that fasting around food was certainly a challenge but said the hectic nature of his job proved a helpful distraction.

On an ordinary day we barely have time to think about eating," he said.

"During Ramadan it gets even busier as we host nightly celebrations where Muslims open their fast amongst family and friends."

Adding: "Physically, we do feel weaker without drinking water but it's all about mental strength. We don't think of ourselves making food, it is just a business product at the end of the day."

Across the street in fast food outlet Chilli Peri Chicken, chef Mohamed Mahr agreed.

"I used to struggle with hunger pangs when I first started working but it soon becomes such a routine that it's not an issue."

"Giving up food over Ramadan is almost enjoyable because it makes us realize how lucky we are.

"It's the cigarette cravings which cause me more grief," he said.

Smoking

The Curry Mile is also home to a growing number of shisha cafes popular with men from the Asian and Arab communities.

They gather to talk and smoke using shisha or 'hookah' pipes, but this also has to be sacrificed by Muslims during Ramadan.

One such place in Rusholme is the Cafe Lounge run by Faisal Khan.

"In my heart, I'm feeling tempted but in my head I know I should ignore the cravings," he said. "It drives me crazy!"

For the thirty days of Ramadan, Faisal faces the dual challenge of giving up both cigarettes and shisha while continuing to run his business.

"Every year my friends and I try to prepare ourselves with new tactics and strategies," he said.

"But they become useless once Ramadan starts and I see others smoking in front of me!"

"I can just about struggle through the hours of fasting but start smoking again once I open my fast at night.

"I avoid speaking to people during the day as I'm a bit of a wreck."

For other cafe owners, the temptation of working during Ramadan is just too much and they shut up shop for the month.

"I don't think I could avoid picking up a shisha pipe if I was working, I'm so used to it," said shisha cafe owner Lafi Albadri.

"I would rather miss out on business than slip up," he said.

While a busy job may be the answer for those working around food, there is help available to quit smoking during Ramadan.

Co-op pharmacies are holding 'Stop Smoking' sessions for Muslims trying to kick the habit.

These support sessions could provide invaluable support during Ramadan especially for those whose jobs are an everyday temptation.

Source: BBC

Silsila - Cheadle Hulme - Review

2010-08-02T20:27:00.013+01:00

T 0161 488 4880
A 22c Station Road Cheadle Hulme Stockport SK8 7AB

“So where is it again?” was the cry from Paul Day as Dave carefully tried to explain the exact location of July's curry venue.

“It’s opposite the Olive Press/Paprika coffee shop, just down from Pizza Hut on Station Road”. “hmmmm” replied the rat, “ok, go through Cheadle Hulme, pass Whittakers chippy, the Garam Massalla and Waitrose on your right, ‘spoons will be on your left, followed by Pizza LaVita and J. PIMLOT Traditional Family Butcher (purveyor of quality farm assured meat, Est. 1869), “got it” exclaimed Dayo.

“...ok so you carry on under the Railway bridge and as you pass under the railway, you’ll spot the Seven spices underneath (to your right), keep going... go past the Natwest bank and Whispers unisex hair salon the Sisila is literally next door to Blackstones Accountancy up the brow on the right”

To most this level of detail would be enough. His response? “Can I meet you at your house and jump in with you”.... which he did!

The visit to the Sisila was a rapidly arranged jaunt, with council members only receiving less than 24 hours notice. Nevertheless a contingent of 6 signed up and made their way to Cheadle Hulme’s newest eatery.

It was a typical July evening: hot, sticky and throwing it down. Most of the CurryCouncil had failed to spot the signage for parking, situated directly behind the restaurant. Instead we made a run for it having parked on Tescos /Blockbusters car park just down the round

We were greeted by two gentlemen who escorted us to our table. The Silsila is a modern looking establishment and the Council felt immediately at home. Several illuminated-bubble -water-features have been installed throughout, which seems to be the norm these days.

Andy “bad-boy” Hague was absent after he was caught by Matt Allwright and sidekick Dan Penteado (stars of the Rogue Traders segment on the BBC hit-show Watchdog) after swindling an old women of £780 during a routine boiler replacement.

Once in situ, we sat as Woodman and Noble arrived to join members Winfield, Dayo, Dave Marchbank-Smith and the lean but mean Gaz Jordan. We began the evening by sampling six 20 imperial fluid ounces of Cobra and thumbed our way through the Silsila menu.

11 popodoms were ordered as Slim-Jim Jord only wanted a pop and a half. A healthy discussion erupted as to which other member would sacrifice half and join Jord in his quest for a size 32 waist. Noble quickly volunteered and then ordered another pop. It was universally agreed that two half-pops is less fattening than one full one.

After discussing exactly how Paul had cut his head open whilst opening his car door and narrowly avoided a visit to A+E we moved onto the starters. The waiter had recommended the house special Banjara kebab. In all honesty the way in which he described the dish did not do justice to this unusual looking starter. The banajara was described as being “different and really, really green”.

The currycouncil think that the restaurant simply need to display a description of each starter on their menu to make ordering that little bit easier for the customer.

What arrived was four “Incredible-hulk-green” pieces of chicken. The chicken was infused with fresh coriander and various spices. It had a real kick and made a welcome change to the typical tandoori/tikka chicken starters served elsewhere. The presentation was also appealing, so far so good.

The Silsila are currently offering a midweek offer. If you call and make a reservation for a table for two or more you receive a complimentary bottle of wine with your meal. We were offered two bottles of “red or white” for our party of six. This was a nice gesture, however it didn’t stop Gaz Jordan from asking “whether or not we could swap the wine for a few more pints of Cobra”...

Two bottles of chilled Pinot Grigio duly arrived and for the first time in my years the Currycouncil actually looked respectable.

The main courses quickly followed with a combination of boiled, pilua and keema pilau rice and assorted breads. The assortment of curries were well received with the Tawah Signiture dish receiving glowing praise from Steve Winfield describing it as “the best curry, so far, this year”. The portions were just about right too.

The Silsila is a welcome addition to the SK8 postcode. It faces fierce competition with the Garam Massalla, Seven Spices, Barinda, The Red Fort and Jalfrezi only a stones throw away. However we would recommend a visit to the Silsila in the near future. Just remember to book in advance to take advantage of the free wine offer.

The bill £23 per head