Address: 72-76 Western Road, Southall, UB2 5DZ

Telephone number: 020 8574 1928

Website: www.brilliantrestaurant.com

Date of visit: 2 September 2011

Price guide:  £20 plus for starter, main course with bread or rice

Comments on wine and beer: Exceptional wine list at decent prices. Cobra 600ml at £4.50 a bottle

Likes and dislikes: Good all round (food, drinks, and service). However, the flat screen TV with Sky News lowers the tone.

Cuisine: Indian (Northern – Punjabi)

Summary:

This place is supposed to be the temple of traditional Indian Gastronomy. The owners came from East Africa where they were also restaurateurs. It is in most of the Guides, won lots of awards including Gordon Ramsey’s best Indian. Prince Charles ate here when he was young and recently re-visited with the Duchess of Cornwall.

The restaurant is sited near the King Street end of Western Road. Parking round there is almost impossible. All the side streets are permit only and you only get 30 minutes on the main road during the day. However, there is a car park in Dominion Street about 500 meters away.

Inside is a smartly decorated and very modern restaurant with orange-pink colour leather chairs. The tables are reasonably spaced apart. The restaurant can accommodate 100 plus diners. You get proper table cloths and napkins here. They also serve an array of chutneys and pickes (free) on each table. You can buy the chutneys and pickles to take home (£3.50 a bottle).

On the day I went (Friday lunch time), there were only another table occupied but I understand that the place is nearly impossible to get in at weekends without reservations.

The menu is pretty extensive and is different to your average High Street Indian. As I have driven 30 miles to sample this place, I went for broke.

I started off with the meat samosa (£2) and the shami kebab (£4). This was followed by lamb curry (£8), paratha (£3) and aloo gobi (£6).

The samosas were two biggish triangles filled with chopped meat – not minced – well spiced. The shami to my surprise were deep fried in batter similar to the jumbo sausage in batter you get in a fish and chips shop. It was also moist not dry when you bite into it. It was some days later that I discovered that shami is always fried. It is sheekh kebab that is grilled.

The lamb curry and aloo gobi were both served in small woks  over a tea candle warmer. They were not huge portions but more than adequate for me. Everything was medium strength plus in terms of chilli. The lamb curry was a red curry with lots of sauce – a bit like a cross between a Madras and a Rogan. The paratha I had was not greasy but more like a chapatti than a roti.

The food was good and the service excellent. The cobra beer I had was ice cold.

The menu had a lot of interesting dishes but they were for sharing. The menu is pretty good in describing the quantity. For example there is a lamb dish for 5 at 30.

This is a good place – excellent food and good value for money. However, it’s not that much better than a good High Street Indian.

E

Address: Green End road, Meltham, Huddersfield, Yorkshire, HD7 3NW

Telephone: 01484 850571

Website: N/A

Opening hours: 8.30- 14.00 (12.30 on Saturday). Closed Sunday and Monday. Mail order available

Speciality: pork pies

Summary:

I have always wanted to try a northern pork pie as against the Melton Mowbray’s you get down south.

I have tried Mrs King’s in London’s Borough market and thought that it was fine but not that special.

Vicars has just started offering pork pies in their Sweeny Todd (pie and Pub). The pastry is good but I did not like the texture of the meat as it was too finely minced.

See also articles : Independent (see link here on 9 March 2011) and Xanthine Clay (Telegraph)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/foodanddrinkadvice/8594210/Pick-of-the-pork-pies.html

So whilst I was in Yorkshire, I thought that I should visit Raymond and Janet Lodge’s shop which was highly rated by Henrietta Green in the 1997 edition of BBC’s Food Lover’s Guide.

The shop is on the corner of Green End Lane (parking on the street outside). They only do small pork pies now. They no longer make the exortic ones mentioned in the book – pork and cranberry etc – but they do offer cornish pasties, sausage rolls, potato and cheese slice. Everything was around £1.

They also offer home made black pudding (£7.40 a kilo), dry cured bacon and their own sausages. They also do cooked breakfast and various filled rolls on site.

Analysis: The pork pie was good. Nice pastry and pretty coarse cuts of meat inside but it was nothing special – I must go to Ludlow and check out their pork pies – my last hope? The real find was the cheese and potato slice and black pudding.

The cornish pasty (which they can longer call cornish) was actually a minced meat and potato pasty – no swede.

If you are in the area, try them. Note early closing on most days.

E

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