Visited the Masalla Merchant for the first time in a while last night, and had a really nice meal…read more I'd say this place is probably the best of the numerous Indian restaurants in the area - the buckle in the Stirchley curry belt.
I arrived a little earlier than my fellow diners and sat on a comfy sofa by the entrance, clutching my bottles of beer. This is a bring your own booze restaurant (which really keeps the bill down). I recommend getting drinks from the excellent Stirchley Wines, which is just a short trot up the Pershore Road, and is full of excellent and unusual beers, wines and spirits. However, if you're feeling lazy there is a standard off license virtually next to the restaurant.
Once my fellow guests arrived we were seated at a large table in one corner of the restaurant and served the traditional poppadoms and dips. The menus are crammed with loads of traditional dishes, plus a 'contemporary' section. If anything the menu is too big, and we all took a while to navigate it. After ordering, the food did take quite a while to arrive, perhaps because the restaurant had become much more busy.
Our food all arrived at once, in a flurry of naan and sizzling hot dishes. I ordered a hot lamb dish (something, something Naga) from the contemporary dishes section, with a peshwari naan and fried rice. The curry was delicious, with chunks of really tender lamb in a hot but really flavourful sauce. The naan was light and sweet, filled with almond and drizzled in honey. Perfect combo. Two of our group went for vegetarian dishes, including the paneer cheese parcels, which looked great and, I'm told, were really tasty.
Overall, I rate this place. Service can be a little slow but the food is really tasty and the prices are reasonable. Our bill was accompanied by white chocolate mice and gummy bears to sweeten the deal (although at £77 for 6 of us it was already pretty palatable). Retro sweet win.