Some restaurants describe themselves as tandoori, balti, or whatever, but apart from calling the food different names on the menu, what is the difference in taste? None really, the only difference is in price, call it balti, serve it in a pan and add £2 to the price. It is all done to a formula, we might as well go to Ronald McSingh's for all the culinary craft that has been applied.

I can't deny that the food is not enjoyable as long as it is prepared properly. But it is simply not original or inventive.

Virtually every dish on the menu is a deriviative of a base curry sauce. Some dishes then contain more onion, some more tomato, some more capsicum and some more chilli. Call them dopiaza, rhogan josh, korai or jalfrezi and you have a menu as original as a pizza parlour where you choose your own toppings.

Even the décor and ambience is generic. There is no 'atmosphere' until the drunks pour in at pub closing time. Service is on a conveyor belt, the waiters have obviously graduated from the 'Barcelona School of Waiting', and the evening is over in about 1 hour.

I would love to find some good Indian, Pakistani, Nepalese, Bangladeshi restaurant that is making an attempt to create rather that manufacture. If anybody knows of any then please speak up, they deserve the publicity. In the meantime, I still eat out or have a takeaway but what I'm not doing is dining out I am just eating out. I am simply substituting a meal at home or supplementing a few pints in the pub.

In conclusion, when I go to an Indian Restaurant, I'm not having a gastronomic experience centred on a restaurant that provides something uniquely enjoyable. I'm just being served pap.

So what do you say? E-mail us your opinion on Indian Restaurants.

Phil

YOUR RESPONSES

Hi Phil
Had a good look at your site today - very impressed. Totally agree about pap. Keep up the good work.
Michael

Links

Additives & colourings in Indian restaurant food

Try our recipe pages for some excellent curries and accompaniements.