Nirmal Restaurant

On a rainy night visit to Sheffield I went out in search of some lamb curry. Sadly most of the places listed on Unilocal are out of business. Nirmal opens at 6 for dinner and I sat across the street until opening, the first, and for most of my dinner the only customer.
No samosas tonight so they pushed to me and others the new chicken tikka. It was very tasty but the chicken (white meat) was all dried out. This kind of fried dish should be made with dark meat which stays moist.
The mulaghatany soup was light on chicken heavy on lentils and way too heavy on lemon.
The husband –owner –waiter insisted that the lamb massala was much better than the curry, so I went for it. The lamb was dry — obviously reheated for the who knows how many times — which is the only way to dry out lamb that badly.
Service in the empty restaurant was promt polite and friendly. The place is neat, clean, and inviting. Prices high and food a disappointment.

I ordered a Chicken Balti, they did ask how would I like it I said medium. It seemed to be a very long wait until the food was placed on the table I reckon about 45 minutes. It was quite a small portion and although it did taste good it wasn’t spicy enough, I didn’t bother saying that I want the balti hot as I thought that restaurants do usually cook curries much more spicier than say pub and microwavable curries. Lets just say that if I said mild It probably would not have been spicy at all. For a medium balti it was very mild, but again it was nice. The naan bread was also small (compared to other places).
My friend very much enjoyed what he had and he said that he would be going back here, but i’m undecided but if I did go back I would choose something different maybe a madras.
There was also a £3 charge for the service charge, when we were waiting they put down 2 small starters, one being chopped onions (with an added herb) we did not ask for these, and thought it was rather cheeky of them for even charging us with it, but looking at other reviews for Nirmals they seem to do it with everyone.
If you do go here and want something rather spicy I would get something a tad hotter than what you usually go for.

Nirmals is a great alternative to the standard late night kebab shops! There food is actually good! It’s a local institution run by a husband and wife right at West One.