It’s probably a safe bet to say Indian is my all time favourite takeaway. Therefore we eat it an awful lot.
We are really lucky where we live when it comes to great Indian take aways. There are three we use on a regular basis (which I will get round to reviewing at a later date), but when a leaflet came through our door for a place I haven’t tried before, I decided to browse the menu to see if there was anything more exciting then the standard Korma to Madras.
I always go straight to the chef specials to see how inventive their chef is. On this occasion it would seem the answer is not very.
In my opinion I would consider Butter chicken to be a traditional dish but there it is, supposedly a speciality. There were also a couple of dishes which were almost identical except for the addition of a bit of garlic.
It wasn’t all boring. Tiger Khan Special Chicken (or lamb) was listed as a new dish. The description was a little vague ‘This dish which comes highly recommended to you, is cooked with pasterns own tiger chutney and garam massala. Once tasted never forgotten.’ They had given themselves a lot to live up to with those last four words so it had to be tried.
We also chose Chicken Village which is cooked with mince to make a thick dark sauce with green chilli, fresh ginger, garlic and herbs.
We added on a portion of onion bhaji, a garlic naan and a pilau rice.
The Tiger Khan Special Chicken is at the top left of the dish and the Chicken Village is on the right.
If you have a nut allergy I would be careful of eating from this restaurant as there is no indication of what dishes have nuts in. The Tiger Khan Special surprised us with cashews. For us this was a good surprise but I do think they should at least have a little nut symbol next to the name of the dish. I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed eating it. Plenty of sauce for dunking my naan, a lovely kick of heat and all without being too heavy.This chicken itself was great. Nice big juicy chunks. So often is chicken overcooked to a dry lump, but not here.
The Chicken Village was not as well received unfortunately. The other half didn’t like it and actually left most of it. I was indifferent. It didn’t ‘wow’ me like the other dish but that’s not to say it was horrible. It was another very thick sauce but this time, quite bland.
I struggle to have an Indian without ordering an onion bhaji. It’s just not the same without one. Village Spice obviously have their own way of doing bhajis. There was no crisp to them. It was similar in texture to a falafel. Unusual but I enjoyed it.
The rice and naan bread were nice enough, I can’t say there is much to get excited about wherever you get it from.
In summary, I’d probably not order from here again. Not because it was bad, it wasn’t, but because there is definitely better in close proximity. Zaffron’s in Farnborough, Ancient Rag in Frimley and Spice Lounge in Mytchett to name a few. It wasn’t cheap enough to sacrifice my favourite dishes from the other places.
Annie's Food Affair 