Flavours of India, London

Flavours of India
46 Gloucester Terrace
Bayswater
London W2 3HH
020 7402 1100

We came back from a long weekend away & I knew I didn't have much to cook with at home, nor did I have time to cook the elaborate Indian meal that he was craving. As a compromise (I don't like visiting Indian restaurants in London), he said that he had tried some Indian food at "Flavours of India" the last time I was away & it was quite tasty.

We headed here straight from the station with our 3 carry-on size suitcases and realised that we could not keep them next to us as the space is quite cramped (even though it's spread over 3 floors) However the owner found us some space near the waiting area where we could also keep an eye on it from our table & we were good. If you do take larger suitcases in though, I doubt by they would fit.

For starters we ordered the Hyderabadi chicken (3.95), we were surprised when it arrived with a bit of sauce, but it was the highlight of our evening. Heavily recommended if you like spicy food - it's like a chicken 65 in a yoghurt sauce.

The bhuna ghosht (slow roasted mutton - 8.95) and chicken patiala (onion tomato base curry - 8.95) went well with the naans & parathas & were spicy as promised. The lachcha parathas were made with pure wheat flour (3.25), which made me very happy. We also ordered a stuffed (onion, potato, paneer) naan (3.75) which was quite good.

Rounded it off with a chicken biryani (8.95) which is one of the better ones that I have had at a restaurant in London. It comes with its own raita, which was handy.

They have a selection of wines & beers served from a bar that looks like the front of a TATA truck. Service was reasonably fast, given the almost 100% occupancy. Food options range from mild to spicy and the owner & staff are happy to guide you towards combinations they think you would like. We overheard them at some other tables (given the tiny space, this is unavoidable) and they knew what they were talking about, so you can trust them.

They also have branches in Hounslow & West End.

I'm glad to have finally found a better than average Indian restaurant close to home. It's perfect for emergencies.

Rating : 3.5 / 5

Roti Chai, London

Roti Chai
3 Portman Mews South
London W1H 6HS
020 7408 0101

I'd bookmarked this place awhile ago and had been waiting for an opportunity to go here. Shopping with my brother on Oxford street, provided that opportunity.

The interiors are well spaced out, which is rare for this part of town. The large window, makes the space seem more open and a few knick knacks are placed around as decor to give an Indian feel without being overly cheesy.

We needed a quick lunch before another appointment, so I couldnt relax and enjoy the chaat - paani puri / bhelpuri etc. We opted straight for the protein dishes.

The chicken lollipops were good, but standard fare. It felt more crumb fried than batter fried.

The agni fire wings, were mind blowingly spicy in a good way. But be warned - this is only for chilli addicts. You can't handle the spice otherwise.

The manchurian chicken was a let down, especially as it was served with a very thin sauce and plain rice (Its a very Indian Chinese dish, served almost dry and with fried rice) the taste was good, but it was a disappointment purely because of its name. They should call it sweet and sour chicken or something.

Brother enjoyed his bun kebab. He said it was good - juicy & tender.

However, the only thing that really stood out for me was the hot chocolate with its lovely cinnamon notes.

The starters were much better than my main course. Which is why I suspect the chaat items may meet the mark.

Service was efficient and friendly. I might return to check out the chaat items, but for a meal, I'd rather go elsewhere.

Rating : 3 / 5

Lahore Grill, London

Lahore Grill
330 Edgware Road
Lisson Grove
London W2 1EA

020 72248530

Lahore Grill Menu

Another Home Delivery Order.

Excellent lamb samosas (2.80 for 2 pieces). Crispy, right size and the filling was perfectly spiced.

The chicken chapli kebab (3.25 for 2 pieces) was a good innovation. Its normally made from mutton or beef and those tend to get a little chewy because of the cooking process and quality of meat used. The chicken was much less chewy, but a little low on spice for us.

The lamb haleem (8.95) was one of the better ones that I have eaten in London (the only one better than Lahore Grill's that I have tried so far is Dishoom in Covent Garden)

The nihari (8.95 - a large mutton shank with a marrow bone that is stewed overnight) was delightful. Not too glutinuous, but just right. Again a beautiful balance of spices.

The chicken biryani (8.45) was good, but personally I wouldn't put it in the "order again" category.

The grilled baby chicken with spicy sauce (6.75) was the only disappointment. There was hardly any spicing and it came with bits of coal char on it, which always ruins the food experience for me.

Some of the items are really good, while others are middling. It will be a bit of a trial & error process to find what works best for you.

Rating : 3.5 / 5

Yelp's Exclusive Dinner Party at Lotus

Lotus
17 Charing Cross Road
Leicester Square
London WC2H 0EP
020 7839 8797

THE BEST Yelp London event so far, by a huge margin! Alex is gonna have to really rack his brains to top this experience.

Was wonderful to meet so many yelpers, some whom I already followed and it was lovely to meet the people behind the reviews.

The food was fantastic and the number of wines we tasted was somewhere in the double digits. They all paired beautifully with the food. This was my first experience of wine paired with Indian food (as an Indian, we tend to pair our food with chilled beer or some refreshing cocktails) and it was absolutely amazing.

 While the smaller table settings and the constant flow of food meant that we couldn't spend much time with people other than those at our table, it also ensured that we got to know the others at our table pretty well and had some very interesting conversations.

It was a huge menu & everything was excellent, so I'm just going to put the names down here and you can try them for yourself, until then, just look at these pictures & drool. I know I do.

A mix of poppadoms & dips / chutneys

Corn chaat Golgappa

 Interesting twist : Pigeon Masala Dosa

Aloo chaat

Samosas

paneer tikka & chickpea masala

Duck seekh kebab

Salmon & queenies coconut curry, venison roganjosh, palak pudina paneer, kaali daal.

Mango shrikhand

Almond Kheer



Chef Bhaskar Bannerjee and his team were amazing. Thanks a ton to the Yelp Team and the Lotus Team for giving us such an amazing experience!

Rating : 5 / 5

W xyz - Hotel Aloft, Ahmedabad

W xyz - Hotel Aloft,
147/1,
Opposite Bhagwat Vidhya Peeth,
Near Sola Police Station,
S G Highway,
Sola,
Ahmedabad
079 66049499

On looking at online menus of restaurants in my wishlist, I narrowed down on W xyz, because of the stuffed whole pomfret (425/-) on offer. Sadly halfway through our order, (we had finished starters and cocktails) we were told that it wasn't available, that in a nutshell is a quick synopsis of our experience here today. More than half the items on the menu weren't available. From the pomfret to the crispy kebab barrels and 4 of the 7 mocktails on the menu.

The BBQ chicken wings and nachos with salsa pico de gallo (275/-), turned out to be nachos from a packet, deep fried chicken lollipops in a manchurian like sauce and a tomato, onion salad with tomato sauce dressing. (no coriander, no lime - standard ingredients for a classic salsa pico de gallo)

Don't get me wrong, the taste was good, but the items were very different from what was described on the menu. This is getting to be one of my pet rants in Ahmedabad - fancy names on the menu turning out to be very different on the plate.

The blueberry mojito (150/-), tasted like a normal mojito. The hazelnut iced coffee (150/-) was interesting though - espresso and hazelnut syrup without the milk. This was the first time, I have been able to drink a whole glass of black coffee and quite enjoy it.

For the main course we ordered the tiger prawns with pommery mustard (600/-). Mum said it was quite good and the prawns were nice and fresh (I'm allergic, so I didn't try them myself)

I had the half corn fed chicken (375/-) with oregano and garlic marinade (turned out to be more rosemary than oregano flavouring in the end) which was ok, but it tasted like normal chicken, I'm not sure if it was actually corn-fed :). Among our sides, I enjoyed the French fries, baked potato and the sauteed greens, but the pilaf rice was average.

So most of the food that was available, ended up being average to slightly better than average.

Service was sweet, but very slow. It took us 2 hours to finish lunch (1 hour is average for our normal meals at a hotel) It took 20-25 minutes to get our drinks and starter once ordered. We were the only customers in the restaurant the whole time. The staff was very helpful, but the time taken to fulfill our orders was too long. Not sure if this was because the kitchen was focusing on the buffet at their other restaurant - Dot Yum. Maybe we might have been better off there, I don't know.

If they had told me the pomfret wasn't available right in the beginning (I told the person who showed us our table, that I was choosing to eat at W xyz over Dot Yum because they had pomfret on the menu), I would have headed to the other restaurant.

The decor is really cool. Love the pool table outside and the seating is quite comfy. Tables are all low (there are no options of "normal" sized tables), so its meant more for finger food and drinks than meals.

It seems like a hip place, the food is definitely better than Java+, but not outstanding. I'll go back again to try out Dot Yum, but my experience today at W xyz doesn't warrant a drive all that way, I'd rather drive over to "That Place"

Also, I have to mention my weirdest experience at this place. They had these "tent cards" on the table advertising a special "FIFA Brazil 2014" menu. The items were the same as the items in the regular menu with prominent footballers names appended to the names of the dishes, which is a pretty standard practice in the food industry (while there are a few restaurants that do develop special menus to go with the season or sporting event) What was weird was that the rates for these same dishes were 25-100Rs more expensive than the original dishes in the "normal" menu.

I would have rated this a 3. The extra 0.5 points is for some of the service staff, who I felt were trying their best, given the resources, that they had to work with.

Rating : 3.5 / 5

Birmies, Ahmedabad

Birmies
13, Ground Floor, Antriksh Complex,
Panjrapole Cross Road,
IIM Road,
Vastrapur,
Ahmedabad
079 26305874, +91 9898136475

I stopped at Birmies, thinking it was a coffee shop, that could serve me a nice cold coffee and a slightly heavy snack. Sadly, although there was cold coffee on the menu, it wasn't available this evening, so I had to settle for a heavy snack.

On recommendation from friends who had been here before, I ordered the vegetarian spring rolls (91/-) and the crispy vegetables (96/-). I have to say that these are the best Indian-Chinese spring rolls that I have eaten in a multi-cuisine restaurant in Ahmedabad.

The crispy vegetables were nice too, with a mix of zucchini, carrot, beans, cauliflower, and some other veggies - deep fried in a tempura type rather than pakoda type batter. It was served with an interesting Indian-Chinese type mix sauce.

For takeaway, again on recommendation from a friend, I ordered the hum pum paneer with garlic bread (124/-). That however, turned out to be too tomato saucy for my taste. The gravy tasted like tomato sauce with sauteed onions, tomatoes and capsicum.

Husband did like the manchow soup (53/-) that I carried home for him and there's also a veg sweet corn soup (53/-) in the refrigerator, waiting to be eaten.

Prices are extremely reasonable, especially given that it is an air conditioned, sit down restaurant and service was polite. No wonder they attract so much of the student crowd around this area.

The walls are decorated with interesting murals. Food on one side and a warli style tribal painting on the other.

Rating : 3.5 / 5

Petals, Junagadh

Petals
The Lotus Hotel
Station Road
Junagadh 362 001

+91 285 2658 500 / 01 / 02

I first stayed at the Lotus Hotel in August 2012. At that time it was quite recently constructed and still did not have its own restaurant. They only supplied room service.

When I first reached this hotel at 10pm at night, I was quite wary of its appearance and was ready to turn around and drive another 1-2 hours in the dark to Gir to stay at the Taj, because it looked quite shady from the outside and I wasn't sure if I would be comfortable having my mother and younger sister staying in such a place.

Fortunately, I took a look inside at the rooms and that assured me a lot on the safety and "decency" of this hotel, so we decided to spend the night here itself.

Sadly of all the food that we ordered in room service, I couldn't eat anything except the masala papad. Even the fresh lime soda, I had to re-order as it was too sweet for my taste. The tomato soup was like watered down tomato sauce. The veg biryani was extremely oily. The spring rolls were too thick, too much large sized fillings and oily and soggy. It says a lot about how bad this meal was, given that I can recall the horrible tastes even after 2 years have passed (I normally forget any bad meals I have had)

1 year down the line, we returned to Junagadh and I had packed my own food, so that I wouldn't have to sleep hungry another time. But surprise, surprise - they had opened up a new restaurant called "Petals" and when I made a very tentative initial order, the quality of food that was produced, encouraged me to have my entire meal there.

I now stop here regularly, each time we are in the area when driving across Saurashtra and have mostly had good experiences with them.

They offer a complimentary cooler and some fryums as soon as you sit down. They have an Executive lunch buffet for 180/- that has a lot of takers.

Their Chinese starters are good and I can heavily recommend their Baby Corn Crunchy (130/-) and the dragon potato starters (140/-) that they have. I'm happy to admit that the veg spring rolls (180/-) have also improved tremendously. They have a very intriguing Paneer Kapicho (135/-) on the menu. But since none of the waiters seems to know what it is, I have not yet had the courage to try it.

They have quite a few tandoori items and I personally like the kaju paneer sheekh kebabs (175/-). Baked pastas, baked vegetables, sizzlers and cocktails are parts of their menu, that I have not yet ordered from.

Their Indian dishes are the best of the lot, on the menu and they make some lovely paneer gravies. The paneer toofani (150/-) is a nicy tangy, semi spicy gravy that goes very well with rotis. Their dals too are very good.

Their green peas and jeera pulaos are quite good, but this time, I made the mistake of trying their palak pulao which ended up being extremely oily and tasteless.

I heavily recommend their Masala buttermilk / chaas / chaach. At 25/- its a steal for the quality and flavour.

Seating is standard. Air Conditioning is a blessing in the heat of Junagadh. Washrooms are reasonably clean, depending on who was the last person to use it.

However, there are a lot of new fancier hotels & restaurants opening in Junagadh, wonder how Petals & the Lotus Hotel will stand up to the competition.

Rating : 3.5 / 5

The Eatery - Four Points by Sheraton, Ahmedabad

The Eatery - Four Points by Sheraton
Opposite Gujarat College,
Ellis Bridge,
Ahmedabad
079 30912345


Finally headed to "The Eatery" after a stop at the Railway Station. We have been wanting to go here for awhile, but it just felt a bit out of the way and we were saving it for an occasion when we were already in that area.

I've been here before when it was owned by Royal Orchid and enjoyed the food, but I hadn't been back since Sheraton took over the management.

We had heard a lot about the buffet, but sadly the lunch buffet on Saturday was pure veg. (dinner buffet and Sunday Brunch includes non-veg), so we just decided to order a la carte. I have to say that they serve the best dal makhni in town. Desi Route is now a distant second. We also had the tariwala chicken that was excellent. A homestyle gravy with a hint of sour and spicy, it went perfectly with the tandoori and roomali rotis.

For myself, I ordered the lamb chops and I have to say that these were the best lamb chops I have eaten in Ahmedabad. They were not fatty, but meaty and the meat was extremely soft, that I didn't even need a steak knife for it. Also since the chops themselves did not have too much meat of their own, an additional slow broiled meaty piece of lamb was also added to the plate, so it wouldn't be too sparse and I think that this was an excellent idea.

Executive chef Karan was hugely enthusiastic and it was a pleasure to meet him and see his love for food.

I don't think we will be considering distance anymore, when we decide to head to The Eatery for a meal, the food is worth the travel time and distance for sure. When I have been too busy eating to take more pictures of the food, you can be assured that the food was really good :)

Rating : 4 / 5