Second night in a row that I let Mr. Snarky suggest a dining establishment and he came up with The Palm. He had been here before and thought it was quite good, so why not?! It is about a 30 minute drive from the west part of Swindon and it really is in the middle of nowhere. When we were driving through Marlborough, we just kept driving through. We nearly missed the turn in as it is next to an old gas (sorry... petrol) station and if you turn too early you will end up there. So keep an eye out!
When we pulled in the car park was almost full... and it was a week night. If you keep driving to the very back there is usually some parking available. The restaurant is quite modern and upscale looking. Make sure you go through the second door behind the desk and computer as I'm not sure that any of the wait staff would know you are out there. The staff are extremely friendly and hospitable. They were bringing out cakes and singing happy birthday to various groups... so it looks like a popular place for the birthday dinner.
I had a bit of trouble with the menu... 1) because I'm not that knowledgeable about Indian food/curries and 2) because there were so many choices that I was having trouble narrowing things down. As we were waiting one of the staff asked us if we would like Poppadoms and some relishes, so we did. They were lovely, but they do cost extra. Because of that we decided to forego starters (didn't want to be too full for the main), although there were about two pages of starters that all sounded wonderful.
The mains are broken up by house specials, new dishes, Tandoori Dishes, Seafood, and a section of the "usual" dishes. The dishes do have a spiciness rating, but I didn't see anything that said you could ask to have the spice tailored to your liking, so you may want to ask. They also have an option where the chef creates a dish for you with your preferences. A nice option for the adventurous or the undecided. I may have had a bit more difficulty as well since it seemed like there were a number of dishes containing cream and while my lactose intolerance can tolerate a small amount of dairy, I never know how much dairy is being used and a 30 minute drive with not much on the side of the road was too much of a gamble. Lactards beware!
I ended up having the Garlic Chilli Lamb with Pilau Rice and a side of Tarka Dhall (entirely too much food, but now we know). Mr. Snarky had the Chicken Tikka Masala with Garlic Naan and a side of Sag Aloo. Shortly after our order was put in, lots of dishes came out... too many for the table really. The Garlic Chilli Lamb did have one pepper next to it on the menu, so I knew it would be a bit spicy... it was a little bit spicier than I anticipated, however, it was absolutely delicious! And the Garlic Sauce that came with it was amazing and I could have had a bowl of steamed rice covered in that sauce and I would have been happy. The lamb was so tender and even Mr. Snarky thought it was a great dish, despite the heat.
In hind sight I would have ordered the white, steamed rice instead of the Pilau as I couldn't taste much of it because of the Garlic Chilli Lamb. The Tarka Dhall was nice, but not my favourite Dhall. It is a good thing that Mr. Snarky did have a side because unlike the large heaping plate of Garlic Chilli I ordered, there wasn't much Chicken in the Chicken Tikka Masala. So that was a little disappointing as I had too much and he had too little... although between the two of us, he did have other options to choose from. The Sag Aloo was very nice... never had it before, but I quite liked it. We ended up spending just over £40, but considering the amount of food we ordered, that wasn't a big surprise. The food was delicious, the service was wonderful... we can't wait to come back and try more of the dishes! read more
