Utsav

It feels like you have just fallen into the 1920s as you walk to the back of the building complex, find the right door and knock the secrete knock to gain entry to a speak-​easy… OK, its a door buzzer not a knocker but you get the idea. Once you have buzzed then you wait, wondering if you have the right place and where is everyone until you hear an almost inaudible tweet from the door that indicates that someone, somewhere, has pressed a door-​release button.
You follow glass encased stairs up to the restaurant where, once through the door, you are in much more familiar surrounds, it is indeed a restaurant.
After that is is pretty much your standard dining experience. The menu is a little odd, it has chilli pork as a starter, not something I have seen on an Indian menu before but very good and worth ordering. The calamari was likewise unexpected but good.
In all, the starters (and I tried a lot of them as we were a group of 20) were tasty and interesting and voluminous and really had us looking forward to the mains.
When they arrived the main courses were presented in soup bowls rather than the traditional metal dishes usually associated with a curry house, not that it matters, it’s what’s inside that counts. What was inside was, for the most part, a bit disappointing. It’s not that there was anything wrong with the dishes but they were overall a little oddly sweet and lacked much in the way of chilli related kicks.
One of our group ordered off-​menu and requested a vindaloo which was by all accounts spectacular — there may be a lesson there somewhere. The waiter told us after that they are very happy to cook special orders so that may well be the way to go here.
Not somewhere I’d rush back to when I think of the mains but really, the starters were lovely, definitely worth wandering in for a selection of them.