Al-Ameer Palace

The East End of Sheffield has an abundance of Indian restaurants, how does one choose one over another?
Well on this particular evening we met up in the Cocked Hat just across the road. The Cocked Hat is one of our favourite pubs as the landlord is very friendly and stocks a fair range of Real Ale.
Whilst waiting for our friends we made a couple of calls to the restaurant, checking on the availability of a specific starter and dessert. The dessert I checked up on to see if they stocked is Rasmalai. Now Al-​Ameers don’t normally offer Rasmalai, but the owner was prepared to go out and get some for us; they were even open to negotiation on the price. First impressions were good.
My mixed kebab was excellent, very spicy. Mark W described his as outstanding, a pleasant surprise, while Paul B thought the onion bhajis were the best he had ever tasted. The starters were accompanied by a large portion of varied salad and a highly spiced dip. Other nice features were the complimentary popadoms and pickle tray.
The main dish portions were huge, the biggest we have had anywhere. Quality was not sacrificed for quantity. My Chicken Massala was a nice dish, intricately spiced, very enjoyable. Paul B also had the Chicken Masala and thoroughly enjoyed it, but the portion size defeated him. Mark W — new to curry restaurants — had a Chicken Curry as his main dish; he said he never knew Indian food could taste so good. Phil C’s Chicken Bhuna was a good above-​average curry, though lacking that little extra something that would have made it special. Nick M’s Mixed Vegetable Balti was intricately spiced; but again, another of our group was defeated by the sheer quantity of the food. I gladly tucked in and finished off what he had left. It was very good, even better than my massala. Vicky loved her Chicken Balti, stating that it was the best Indian she had ever had.
The waiters were very attentive. A carafe of water was happily provided for the non-​drinkers. The toilet facilities were excellent.
The breads were of high quality. I tried a Roti, a Chapati and a Nan. This would have been more than an adequate amount of breads to enable us to eat our dishes at other restaurants. However, the Al-​Ameer portions meant we ran out of bread just before finishing our dishes.
If you are not a large eater, then consider sharing one main dish between two.
The Al-​Ameer Palace is one of the best restaurant we have tried anywhere in the county; it was popular on the night, and offers good quality food and reasonable value.
This is one restaurant that I am already looking forward to re-​visiting.