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Restaurant review: Kirstall Road's India
If you ever find yourself in Manchester and in urgent need of a good curry, a friendly local, provided you can find one, will probably tell you to head to Rusholme.
This bustling, student-heavy suburb – a bit like a bigger version of Headingley only with fewer noisy bars – is home to the legendary Curry Mile, a neon-lit boulevard boasting the largest concentration of Asian restaurants in the UK.
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Sadly, we don't have a Curry Mile in Leeds.
In keeping with that annoying habit of doing things five years behind its great rival to the west, Leeds instead has a fledgling Curry
Triangle.
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Take a drive down Kirkstall Road as it funnels its way out of the city centre – not at rush hour though, or you'll be there for most of the night – and you'll see what I mean.
Chances are you'll already know the garish electric green and red exterior of Akram's Sheesh Mahal (and if you don't that should be your first port of call because it's one of the city's best and longest-established Indians) but hidden over to the left, on the Kirkstall Fields cinema complex, is another one, called Shanti.
And completing this slender isosceles triangle, just down the road from the Sheesh Mahal, is the new arrival – India.
India was opened in a blaze of publicity earlier this year by the boxer Amir Khan but despite such heavyweight support (I know, I know, Khan is only a lightweight) it had always looked worryingly deserted whenever I had driven past, so much so that I feared we'd be dining with just the waiters for company as we wandered up to the doors on a windy Wednesday night.
Thankfully for us, but mostly for India, I was wrong.
There was a decent smattering of punters spread across the two-tiered upstairs dining area, while downstairs the private dining bit – which
I'm pretty sure went by the grand title of the Bollywood Lounge – was full with what looked to be some sort of family celebration.
As with many contemporary Indian resturants, the decor at Indian leans heavily towards the lurid.
Red, blue and green spotlights line the ceiling and a flatscreen TV on the wall plays a neverending loop of Bollywood hits.
Not only that, but everything seems to change colour – from the flashing alcoves to the blingy glass wall of bubbles next to one of the tables. It's green one second, blue the next and then in the blink of an eye it's orange.
Any more of this and India could double as a nightclub.
Things on the food front started very well.
I always think you dismiss poppadums at your peril in an Indian restaurant. After all, if they can't get what is essentially an oversized crisp right then it surely doesn't bode well for what's to come.
India's were warm, crisp, clearly freshly-made and filled us with confidence for our starters, although I was kicking myself after changing my mind at the last second and switching from the lamb sheekh kebab to the chicken tikka puri.
A puri is a sort of Indian version of the Mexican tortilla, only it's deep-fried to ensure maximum impact on the arteries.
This chicken tikka puri was good rather than great.
There was nothing wrong with it, but it was a bit too does-what-it-says-on-the-tin in as much that there was nothing particularly memorable about it.
The same couldn't be said for the Tandoori fish which was pretty much faultless.
A good-sized slab of fish, it was packed with deliciously subtle flavours and could easily have impressed as a main dish.
My dining partner's main course of mushroom paneer was equally
excellent, with good chunks of mushroom and wickedly gooey paneer cheese combining nicely in a well-judged sauce.
My chicken saag, although not the best I've eaten, was certainly up there.
It came in a deliciously rich spinach sauce with a generous amount of chicken, even if it could have benefited from a little more in the way of chili heat.
We shared two sizeable portions of lemon pilau and an ordinary pilau rice, which were more than sufficient, while our giant naan bread was brimming with fresh coriander and enough garlic to sink – or should that be stink – a battleship.
The bill was around 40 – which included a couple of bottles of beer each – and the service good, if a little brusque at times.
All in all, India is a decent addition to Leeds's current stable of South Asian restaurants.
You never know, we might even get that Curry Mile one day.
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Weather for Leeds
Saturday 19 May 2012
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 6 C to 10 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: North
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Cloudy
Temperature: 7 C to 12 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
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