REVIEWS


BINGHAM LIFE Publication (Feb 2010)
Restaurant Review - Indian Nights East Bridgford

 I reviewed this restaurant on a Saturday night in early January, traditionally the graveyard shift for any business in the hospitality trade. It had been snowing for the past five days, the temperature had been well below zero for the past three and much of the country had ground to a standstill. We ploughed through the snow drifts into the car park and were surprised to find 30 or so other cars that had done the same thing. Inside the restaurant virtually every table was full; in fact, by the time we'd been led to our table, that was it - every available seat had somebody sitting on it.

I was a bit bemused by this and concluded that they must be running some kind of special offer, buy one get one free or something of that ilk, but there was no sign of any bargain deals being done. Then I thought that Gordon Ramsey had taken over and all the diners were in pursuit of some celebrity wow factor but there were no expletives issuing from the kitchen. Perhaps this was a gala opening night - nope, the restaurant has been in business for nearly six months. I decided to eat my meal and try and work out what had lured all these people out onto the treacherous roads, for Indian Nights lies on the A46 a couple of miles outside Bingham.

Unusually, I will start by talking about the standard of service. It is easy to provide exemplary service when you only have a handful of guests but doing so when there are over 60 hungry diners and only 4 waiters to look after them is a different kettle of fish. Yet the service we received was courteous and friendly at all times and we were provided with popadums and drinks as soon as we sat down. There was a bit of a wait between courses but it was not excessive and at least someone took the trouble to tell us how long the next lot of food would be. Nor did anyone receive the wrong dish or the wrong drink. So, ten out of ten for providing good service in the face of adversity, but I don't think it was that that bought the punters flooding in.

The restaurant occupies an old Little Chef site and I have long said what excellent restaurants these buildings make, providing they're not occupied by Little Chefs of course. The decor is plain and simple, with red and cream walls and straightforward, comfortable furniture. It's perfectly pleasant but, once again, I don't think it's the stylish interior that accounts for the popularity of the place.

Let us move onto the food then. The menu is lengthy and I challenge any curry aficionado to not find something entirely to their taste among its pages. It was good to see plenty of chef's specialities and a variety of Southern Indian dishes in addition to all the usual favourites. I was also pleased to see plenty of fish dishes. However, there can be a problem with long menus; the chef can become a Jack of all trades and master of none. We'd brought along our occasional guest reviewers, Richard and Tracy, so we could sample plenty of dishes and see if this was the case. I should point out that there is a brief description underneath each dish on the menu, handy if you're not a walking encyclopedia of Indian cuisine.

The first thing that strikes you about the food is that all the ingredients, particularly the meat and fish are top rate. Take the starter that Richard and Tracy shared, a fish platter for two. There were big chunks of salmon and Indian sweet water fish, deep fried in a fine tandoori batter so that they were succulent and fresh. Similarly, my Boti Kebab starter had slices of lamb that positively melted in the mouth. This carried on with my main course too, a Chicken Tikka Jalfrezi. The big pieces of chicken were amazingly succulent; the whole chicken must have been roasted in a tandoor oven and then carved up and the pieces added to the sauce at the last moment.

The other thing about the food is the superb flavour and consistency of the sauces. My Jalfrezi bristled with fresh green chillies, coriander and egg and was full of flavour. Penny had a Lamb Chingari, quite a hot curry with spinach and cardamon and it was truly superb. Richard went for a Lamb Achari, something I haven't tried before. It came in a rich dry sauce with red chillies, ginger and mustard and was divine, well worth a try if you haven't had it before. Is there anything else to report? Well, the Nan breads were crisp on the outside and soft on the inside and the popadums came with no less than six dips, all of which were scrummy.

I'm continuing with my quest to find a suitable drink to accompany curry other than Indian lager which is, of course, perfectly suited to the job. We tried a bottle of Australian Semillon Chardonay which was smooth and full of fruit. This worked a treat so we ordered another one - I'm definitely making progress here.

So, let's sum up. The service at Indian Nights is good, the decor is okay and the ambience is lively (because there are lots of people in there.) The food, however, is sensational and good value for money too - you can get a main course for a tenner! Therefore, I've answered my own question; the reason it was so busy on such a night was because the food is fantastic and everything else is fine. Struggling restaurants, take note!

Howard Clemmow

With thanks to all the staff who worked so hard to give us a night out to remember.