Having just been to Curry Lounge in Nottingham this week 06-10-09 I just couldn’t resist having to write about my experience there! Being an Indian food fan and eating in restaurants such as Mumtaz and Akbars I was expecting A* Food, service and atmosphere. Who wouldn’t expect all that knowing Gordon Ramsey gave Curry house the thumbs up in the Channel 4 programme Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares.
Here goes guys brace yourselves, it’s going to be a long one.
Curry Lounge in Nottingham was fairly ok to find, it would have been easier to find if the actual logo was highlighted at night which it wasn’t! When walking in the restaurant it felt as though we were walking into a club, once we got into the actual seating area the interior was very modern which was very appealing.
I found the whole process of deciding what to chose from the menu very annoying, For a start there wasn’t much of a variety and not only that but the details were very brief. I wanted to know exactly what part of the chicken it was as it was not stated on the actual menu. I was then told by my waiter that all the chicken options were breast only. I was at this point very disappointed; there was no range of meat at all.
Papadum’s were very pricy at 95p each, with just 3 sauces with it.
I thought I would opt for a set menu at the price of £15.95, I asked the waiter if my curry could be hot, only to be told they could not make any changes to the taste, it was a set menu and if I wanted it spicy I was told not to have the set menu but to chose from the main dish section! I was absolutely disgusted, after all it was me who was going to eat it, why shouldn’t I have the choice of how I wanted my dish to be?
So then I decided to take the Mix Grill option. Once it arrived to the table I was again disappointed. It consisted of 1 veg somosa, 1 onion baji, 1 sheek kebab and 1 tandoori chicken. Firstly I wanted to know what so grill about it was. The somosas were fried just like the onion baji; infact the somosa was very chewy rather than crispy as it should be. The sheek kebab was falling apart as though it had been pre-made, frozen and then defrosted and then cooked again. Not to mention the salad which consisted of only lettuce and carrot? I did expect there to be some onions, tomatoes and cucumbers but looks like they sure are cutting down on cost.
The main lamb curry was very sweet even though I asked for it to be spicy, it was a pizza tomato paste taste to it, and I found it very odd
Family Naan (4 sharing) was £4.95. Now correct me if I’m wrong but wouldn’t you think that a family naan is an extra large one which you all share? AI even asked the waiter if it would be large and he replied “yes it is fairly big”. Infact it was 2 normal sized naan’s about 10” just sliced in halves, so realistically each family member gets half a naan. Great stuff. I had to order more, as 1 naan was £2.95 each.
Another funny thing.... If you look at the coffee menu you’ notice a liquor coffee section and if you look down the bottom you will notice a “non alcoholic coffee” LOL I could only chuckle to myself thinking why on earth would anyone put that there.
All in all Curry Lounge Nottingham is Ok for the atmosphere and nothing more. If you know your curries and know what price to pay for them you definitely wouldn’t want to dine there? It is very pricey, not much of a variety is offered.