Address: 23a St Mary’s Row, Moseley, Birmingham B13 8HW
Telephone number: 0121 442 22 22
Website: N/A
Date of visit: 17 December 2009
Approximate cost per head: £15
Comments on wine list/beer: Small wine list at lowish mark up, cobra on tap
Summary:
This is my daughter’s local – she and her friends eat here regularly so it should be good value for money.
The room looks like a converted warehouse with exposed brick works and wooden beams. This is another one of those places that has no table clothes but you get a decent napkin. It is otherwise pretty smart and they don’t do dosa or table naan. ( My daughter informed me that she has never come across table naan in Birmingham.)
The menu is quite extensive and it includes a whole page (inside cover) on what Deolali is or means – sent to jail. You have to read the long version yourself if you go there.
The most interesting part of the menu are:
They offered food cooked in the tandoori oven but you can’t get plain tandoori chicken or mixed grill.
They offer a variety of seafood (not just prawns).
Coming back to the food, we had green masala salmon, chicken pathia with aloo gobi and sag on the side, pilau rice and a naan. The popadoms to start with were warm.
Lets start with the naan, it was thin and slightly crispy instead of the usual doughy version. Very nice. All the food came in rice bowls – mains and starters except the naan and popadoms. Now the interesting thing is that they charge £7.50 if you have the side dish as a main and £4 if it is on the side. So if you order it as a side dish, you will get as much as a main at significantly lower price.
All the main meat and fish courses are around £10 or over. The salmon was nice so was the chicken pathia. The sag was cooked and not wilted. Another interesting observation was that the dishes came with a toping of green onions instead of coriander.
The total bill including a bottle of pinot grigio and a pint of cobra came to £53.85 (service not included). I like the place but I think this place caters to non Indians rather than Indians. However, there was a table with 4 Indians (male businessmen in suits). I have to go to Southhall and eat with the real McCoy to see what the real ethnic scene is all about.
Eddie
2 Responses
September 1st, 2010 at 10:21
As a local to Moseley, Deolali used to be one of my favourite restaurants – beautiful, peaceful interior, friendly staff who all knew you, and genuinely good curry.
Sadly this is no longer the case.
After a visit several weeks ago, we discovered that many of the staff had been replaced with a timid and fluster group of new waiters. While the food was still good, the service was extremely poor, with long waits for food and incorrect items being delivered.The wait for the bill alone at the end of the meal was well over 20 minutes.
However, due to our long standing love affair with this restaurant, we decided it was worth another go.
The restaurant was less bury on this occasion and therefore service was slightly better, if lacking it’s usual easy friendliness. Unfortunately it seems that between at last visit and this visit, the kitchen staff had also been replaced. The food was terrible – Deolali was always slightly pricey for a curry, but worth it. This curry was not worth half the asked for price. The ‘chicken’ of the chiken korma (previously a jewel of the menu) was tough and tasted suspiciously like turkey. The korma sauce was runny, tasteless and suspiciously similar to certain supermarket ranges that can be used ready-made from a jar.
Sadly, I will not be returning to Deolali.
October 25th, 2010 at 22:41
Terrible service. We were sat for 20 mins (on a saturday night) before collaring a waiter to take drinks orders. Then had to wait another 30 mins before a waiter asked us if we were ready to make our food order. After saying yes, he walked off and didn’t return for another 15 mins! He was lucky we didn’t leave. The food was only average when it arrived.
This has happened twice, sadly over a 3 year period. I’m surprised they are still in business but consider that to be down to the venue and it’s location.
When commenting to the head waiter upon paying our bill he gave a list of reasons for the service. None of which was acceptable.
I will not be returning.
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