Let me preface this by saying that neither myself nor my boyfriend are vegetarians. Let me also say that if there's one thing my boyfriend and I will never agree on, that's Indian food. He would dive face first in to an Indian meal in half a heartbeat, whereas, I'd rather starve than eat it. Ok, I'm not THAT dramatic, but it's a pretty fair description.
The one thing I have noticed when it comes to my love hate relationship with Indian food is that I find that I like it a lot more when we actually go to a sit down restaurant versus ordering a takeaway. I find that more love and attention is given to the actual dishes, rather than a load of sludge and chicken piled in to takeaway containers and delivered to our door. Blah!
The other day, my boyfriend and I were out and about in the went end and were pretty hungry having had breakfast quite early that morning. We were wanting to go to a restaurant across the street, but I realised it's not open on a Sunday. So there we were, literally leaning up against the railing at the cross walk trying to decide where to go. I jokingly suggested Usha's as it was right across from where we were standing but half knowing my boyfriend isn't one for going for vegetarian dishes ever really. The only time he has any, is when I order them (which is more often than not, as I really do love vegetarian foods) . Anyway, to my surprise, he said sure, let's give it a go. He knows I've been talking about it for a while, so why not now?!
Boy, am I sure glad we decided to eat here. It ranks up there with the best of the best Indians I've ever eaten and I'm going to say this now: if you haven't been in here, please do yourself a favour and go. Now!
We were sat in a cute little booth for two by who seemed to have been the manager. Really friendly guy, very personable. He mentioned to us that the menu might say it's tapas style, but they're actually a bit bigger than a tapas style. He also mentioned that although they are currently vegetarian and vegan only, they're changing up the menu very soon to incorporate meat dishes. I guarantee, my boyfriend ears perked up at the sound of that! The staff that we encountered (actually just the manager and who I named the mad scientist brought out the food) were lovely. Fast, friendly and eager to serve.
We started with two lovely starters of cauliflower pakora and the samosa chaat. They were both goreously laid out on a plate, very much into presentation. The pakora came with a side salad of fresh greens as well as a dipping sauce that almost tasted a bit mexican. We loved it! The samosas came in a bowl, two of them, covered with a lovely chick pea sauce and salad on top. Basically in heaven and we were only eating the starters.
For our main meals, I ordered the Okra dopiaza and he ordered the Chana masala. Both amazing little dishes (by no means little) with loads of flavour. The Okra dopiaza was the favourite out of the two, which is almost unheard of because I chose it. I usually choose the least favourite item. Ha! Anyway, with these two dishes, we were able to each have a large serving and my boyfriend was able to have a full second helping. We also ordered boiled basmati rice and a garlic corriander naan. Um, that thing was massive, freshly made and delicious.
Basically, I'm hoping this review speaks for itself but let me reiterate the fact that this place, even though we're not vegetarians, has quickly become a favourite. Please, all my veggie friends and veggie readers, don't boycott this place once they add meat dishes to their menu, and all my non-veggie friends and non-veggie readers, please go check this place out before they add meat to their menu. It's so delicious, you won't even realise meat isn't in the dish. read more