Note to self: gin tastings will mean that you have the hunger of a wolf come the end of the night. Second note to self: Shabab is open late and serves food even beyond 10pm. That right there is enough for me to love the place -it's been quite some time that I've taken the fancy to go and actually eat a meal in a restaurant at such an obnoxious hour, but thankfully Leeds is just about busy enough as a city to house restaurants that cater to the whims of a wee gin-happy lass like me. Happy days!
Yes, it was after a gin-fuelled evening of delights that I decided that I required some solid sustenance before departing homeward, and having commented that I'd never been here prior, we decided to give it a chance. It may well be situated underneath the train station, but even so there's a veritable palace of a restaurant to be discovered within. The décor is certainly resplendent, and makes for a lovely welcome, as you're greeted by rustic woods, quirky carved tables, statuettes and many a decorative lampshade.
Service was instantaneous, although it has to be said we were amongst but two other customers, so anything slower paced would have been silly. We sat and ordered a mini feast, as you do when you've partaken of a few tipples, and ordered some Kingfisher and a Mango Lassi to drink alongside our food. The lassi was lovely, although not quite as ridiculously divine as that of Grove Cafe, but even so it's a solid choice.
We decided to go for the makhani chicken, one of their recommended dishes, and the lamb gohst. Both came with a ton of meat, good quality so far as I can tell, and the lamb in particular was pretty succulent. Neither dish was smothered in coriander, another bonus, and both were really rather flavoursome. In fact, if you're going to share meals (as we did) mixing the rather spicy and savoury gosht with the creamy rich makhani was a winning formula -I don't mean literally mixing the dishes, but every time the gosht got a little hot I'd temper it with the makhani and that seemed to work out very nicely!
We picked an alternative to a nan bread, as it stood out on the menu, and that was particularly noteworthy to me. Unfortunately, I've forgotten the name of it, but it was about a quid more expensive and it was an unleavened flat bread, cooked in oils. It was just delicious, akin to a savoury pancake, and so much nicer than a regular nan. I highly recommend it! Sadly, the mushroom pilau wasn't as nice as I've had in other restaurants (how, I'm not sure- I'd have thought rice was easy?) but even so, the meal overall was brilliant. The menu has a fair few choices, with some being classd as 'must try', but if you're unsure I'm sure the staff could recommend a thing or two.
In all, the damage came to about thirty pounds, and for a full meal at such an hour with beer, I thought that was fantastic. Good curry, great service and a lovely place to dine. I'll likely be back, especially if I've been on the gin... read more