Al-Amin Tandoori Restaurant

This Indian restaurant has been established for a number of years, in what was obviously an old public house. It is located on a street corner on the one-way system within Congleton town centre. There is street parking nearby.

The Al-Amin is one of the cheapest and best value for money Indian restaurants in the area.

The interior is somewhat jaded by anybody's standards, however don't let that prejudice your views on the quality of the food and service until you have tried it yourself.

There is a separate take-away entrance to the side of the restaurant or if preferred there is a comfortable waiting area within the restaurant in the bar area. This must be the preferred place to study the menu over a drink, whilst waiting to be seated or for the takeaway order to be prepared.

The owner and staff are very affable and friendly and obviously want to make you feel welcome. The food is freshly prepared, and consequently it can sometimes be a wait for the meal to be served.

I have sampled the chicken dhansak, chicken dopiaza, chicken bhuna, various vegetable side dishes, breads and rice. The dhansak (one of my benchmarks) is prepared in a slightly hot lentil sauce. The lentil sauce is a thinner pureed type of consistency but overall the effect is pleasant. The dopiaza and bhuna are similar in nature, being well prepared, containing a similar amount and quality of meat, well spiced, being subtle rather than harsh. The rice is also excellent and aromatic, based on good quality basmati. The naan breads are large and bready, obviously prepared in a tandoor oven.

There is no home delivery service.

There is a Sunday buffet service for a fixed price. I have no reports on its quality.

Overall, this restaurant is rather downmarket for anybody who is trying to find a more sophisticated style of dining. I would recommend it for a spontaneous 'lets go for an Indian Meal' type of place, or for a takeaway. However I do rate the quality of food and service quite highly and given the cost, the value for money is excellent.

Updates

Now under new ownership. My daughter & I tried the 'happy hour' four course meal for £6.95, early one evening. For that price we were most impressed. We had poppadoms & chutneys and drinks. I had mixed tandoori starter (chicken and lamb tikka and a sheek kebab) folowed by Korai Chicken. My daughter had chicken tikka followed by chicken tikka massala. We shared pillau rice and a nan bread. We passed on the coffee course.

Phil

Since the update above we have re-visited and the format has changed. They now offer a 'happy hour' from 6:00 - 10:00 in the evening 7 days a week. The offer is half price food on 'Indian Meals'. Beware, we were caught out and told this did not include starters and sweets, only main courses when we queried the amount of the bill. To me a meal includes starters, main course and desserts. I'm not greedy enough to expect the drinks to be half price, but the advertsing was extremely misleading.

My advice is to now avoid as the food is nothing special and if it isn't really half price then its not even decent value.

Phil.

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