As time goes on, I'm having to travel further afield to find new places to eat at and Yelp about before my salsa lesson on Friday evening. Tonight I went over to west Ewell.
Tamarind Spice occupies the site of the much-loved White Castle Indian restaurant in Ewell. The refurbishment has left the new restaurant with a modern look with split level dining and purple mood uplighting
This modern touch extends to the ordering with the waiter using a futuristic touch screen portable device.
My mango lassi and popaddom were a good standard and should be the basic minimum for any decent Indian restaurant. It's the condiments which make the popaddom experience and the ones here did the trick.
I started with king prawn puree. The puree wasn't perhaps straight out of the fryer, being a little chewy rather than totally light and crispy. However, the king prawns on top were great, not overcooked and having a nice blend of herbs and spices for a kick.
There were quite a few interesting and new dishes in the specialities section. In the end, I settled for the lamb shatkora, described as a spicy dish from Bengal cooked with exotic citrus fruit, even though the waiter was unable to identify the exact citrus fruits used. Strangely, despite the restaurant name, there is a distinct lack of tamarind mentioned on the menu.
The dish arrived with a lot of generous chunks of tender lamb. The sauce was well balanced with the citrus flavour being well balanced with an aromatic woody base.
Only slight problem was in obtaining my bill and paying, with the many waiters being great at serving the food but not so keen to collect the payment!
A worthy replacement for the White Castle read more