The Rajpoot Indian restaurant has been in Bath since before my family moved down here some 18 or 19 years ago. My dad claims sole responsibility for the restaurant having a takeaway option because apparently he asked for it until it was decided to do so...but is still yet to be proven. As a result of my dad liking this place so much we've come back here countless times over the years. From takeaways when I was four or five (when I used to take handfuls of Bombay mix back to the car, scoff it all and hope my dad would drive faster so I could put out the fire in my mouth) to family occasions such as birthdays, congratulatory meals or just for fun. I now regard the Rajpoot as a restaurant that is in a little way a piece of our family life, in the sense that it's something we've always done.
The restaurant is located at 4 Argyle Street, Bath, Somerset. BA2 4BA. Argyle street (and Gt Pultney St, which look as one) is a great place to have a restaurant. It's beautiful location gives you the feel of grandeur and implies a night of great dining and having a good time. You should probably call to make a reservation at the Rajpoot as it's a popular place to have a meal, especially on a Friday and Saturday night. The number to do so is 01225 466833 / 464758. Opening hours are 6.00 – 11.00pm (11.30 on Fri and Sat). It's also open for lunch, between 12pm – 2.30pm. Good news is it's open all year round, only closing on Christmas and Boxing day.
The staff here are friendly and polite, from the doorman who lets you into the restaurant to the staff who meet you at the bottom of the two flights of stairs (which always felt mysterious and intriguing as a child and still feels that same way). Once you've reached the restaurant you will be seated in one of the booths at the front bar. The focus in these booths being the beautiful, large, gold in colour tables. From here, in this cosy room with lots to look at, you will order your drinks, which will arrive, then order your food in your own time. The only downside is that this part of the restaurant is quite small in size but I've never seen anyone standing rather than sat. Once you've done this you will be shown to a table, in one of the three areas of the restaurant.
The largest part of the restaurant is called "The Old India" and is a typical cellar shape, with cove ceilings and bath stone walls. The room is decorated with, as the name suggests, an old Indian theme and is beautiful. The tables are in
booths which makes the dining more private. The best tables are the ones nearer to the entrance (or in the middle) as the kitchen door is at the far end. This room is dimly lit which adds to the atmosphere. Overall this is the best room to sit in, in my opinion, so ask for a table here. As I've mentioned before the kitchen door is here, so if you need a waiter there will be one waiting in the wings somewhere. They do still keep up the attentive level of service when you're dining in the other rooms though.
The second room, named "India Cottage", I think is used for large parties which they cater for. This is on the right, before the main room. The Rajpoot can cater for over 30 in a large party any time of the week. One thing that I really like about them is that they don't offer a strict set menu, but they let you pick the choices for the menu to be offered to your guests so you chose the meals and the prices as well. They make suggestions if you wish, based on your budget and occasion. This counts for Christmas and any other special occasions. They do ask for a deposit of £50 for any groups larger than 10 in size.
"Kamra" is almost an annexe of "Old India" and is a lot smaller and not as atmospheric. It's decorated differently and only has tables for two or four which are not booths, so the detail is slightly muted in this room. I've eaten in this part of the restaurant and I'm not all that keen on being in that particular bit. It's fine, but once you've sat in the main room you'll always want to sit there.
Overall the restaurant capacity is 90.
Now, the food itself, well it's one so many awards so I'll just summarise.
And these are just the recent ones, on entry to the restaurant there's a wall of plaques dedicated to the awards they've one. Also their guests include many famous people who's comments on the restaurant are all listed on their website which is at the bottom of this review. I've written a few below.
"Bath's Aladdin's cave of wonders" - Sunday Independent.
"Excellent meal: compares with the best anywhere" - Prince Faisal, Saudi Arabia.
"The King of cuisine's" - Jonathon Ross.
The menu offers a great choice, including plenty of variation between the meat, fish and vegetarian dishes. I've probably tried most things on this menu and I can safely say that you'll be hard pushed not to like any of them. Obviously it includes curry dishes, but there are tandoori and balti dishes too. The sundries menu is varied and tasty. I'll go into more detail in a moment.
This menu is also the takeaway menu too – so if you've got a favourite dish there's no chance of it being something you can't take home as well. Takeaways have 10% discount and are generally cheaper so it works out to be about the price you'd pay for a middle of the road takeaway – only you're getting some great food! You can just phone your order in as you do anywhere else. Unfortunately they do not have a delivery service so you will have to pick it up. But the food is piping hot on collection – we've never had a cold meal and we lived about 20 minutes drive away from The Rajpoot.
My aim whenever visiting or getting takeaway from this restaurant is to eat as much as I possibly can. As soon as I look at the menu I'm trying to work out just how much I can fit in and what combinations will allow me to eat the most! What a greedy thing! But the food really is so good here that it's a habit of mine that I will excuse.
The food itself is based on a selection of classic Indian dishes including Tandoori, Mughlai and Bengali. It's clear that a lot of time and effort has gone into preparing this menu (as well as the rest of the restaurant – the atmosphere, the service and the decoration) and it's paid off. There's nothing worse than going out for an Indian meal only to find that the menu is a list of one dish but tweaked in slightly different ways, or that there's a few dishes but half of the menu is that dish with other meats! This is where the Rajpoot is totally different. From the starters to the main course, right the way through to the sundries and dessert trolley, you wont find any duplicates or copy-cat dishes. All unique, all delicious and all good quality food. None of it is too oily or stodgy and it certainly wont leave you craving water and feeling worse for wear!
Lets get to some examples...I apologise in advance for making anyone hungry – the amount of times I've read food or restaurant reviews on Ciao and heard my stomach grumble afterwards!
You can have popadoms and dips whilst you wait, if you so wish. I'd recommend it as they're very tasty.
Starters
A nice mix of starters, good portion size and plenty of variety. They range in price from £2.75 to £6.95. The smaller and cheaper options being things like Vegetable Samosa, Aloo Bara (stuffed potatoes), Machlee Bara (spicy tuna balls) and the more expensive including Golda Chingri
Pictures of Rajpoot, Bath
RajpootRajpoot
Biran (Fresh water King Prawns marinated with Lemon, Spices and Herbs) and Tandoori Machlee. Special mention to the Chicken Chat which is like no other – I've had this in different restaurants and it's as if they're taking the mick compared to this beauty. Basically you can't go wrong here, it's all good.
Side Dishes
Again a good variety here, plenty of dishes. My personal favourites include the Peshwari Nan, Keema Nan and Raita. Pulao Rice is great too, not too heavy or sticky and just fragrant enough. I always have it and it goes with just about everything. They do a good selection of nan and the menu includes chapati and roti.
Tandoori Dishes
Tandoori, as noted by the Rajpoot is great for the diet conscious, as it's full of flavour but healthy also. This part of the menu features Tandoori Murg (half a chicken, barbequed, marinaded in yoghurt herbs and spices – YUM) and Rajpoot Salmon (spicy salmon with potatoes, puloa rice and Salad). Tandoori Thali looks pretty impressive – a few different kebabs and the Tandoori Murg. I've never had it but it does look rather nice.
Curries
There is so much choice on this menu that you might find it hard to chose. All prices are between seven and ten pounds, except for one which is £14.50. My personal favourites are as follows:
Fish Himshore: Cod chunks - cooked in Coconut milk, with Prawn and Green Pepper. This is really light because of the cod and prawns and obviously because coconut milk isn't heavy at all. But there's still plenty of flavour. Great for if you want to take on side dishes or a large starter.
Chasni Massala: Choice of chicken, Lamb or Prawn with this one. It's a sweet an sour dish with rare herbs (don't know what these are) and lime. Absolutely love it. The taste is just fantastic, plenty of flavour again, but in a very unique way. I think this is because sweet and sour curry with lime is a rare combination but it pays off because it's one of the best on the menu. Very filling and great as it breaks up the meal if you're having starters and side dishes. Very distinctive.
Rezala: Rajpoots menu lists it as “A typical example of a ceremonial dish”. It's a lamb dish which is cooked in yoghurt and chilli. Fantastic, unique flavours and really goes well with the lamb.
Chicken Jaflang – My dad is all about the Jaflang. He loves it and I don't blame him. It's a house special which uses herbs and spices from the hills of Jaflang to create a dish of medium thickness, heavy flavour but not heavy on the stomach. Silly way to describe it but it's a warm dish – and not in the temperature sense.
They do a Rogan Josh, Korma and Pasanda, to a great standard. They do a good Kalia too – lamb and potatoes in a thick sauce. There's a nice selection of fish curries too which is quite unusual in an Indian restaurant. Dansak tastes brilliant but is so hot, I took absolutely ages to power on through this – I wanted to eat it so badly but the water breaks were getting silly. I've got a feeling that the occasion I ate it something had happened to it – accidental spice overload or something. It was a takeaway though otherwise I'm sure they'd have made me something a bit more bearable. I'll definitely try this again at some point as the taste was really good.
My younger sister can vouch for the veggie side of things. She's always been very happy with the choice available. She tends to opt for Aloo Gobi Korma (potato and cauliflower based), Sobji Massala (veg in a sauce) or the Sobji Biriany. All good choices.
Biriany Dishes
I've yet to try this part of the menu, but it's definitely where I'll be looking next time. Looks delicious!
Bhajee Side Dishes
Rajpoot Sauce (sweet and sour lentils) and Sag Bhajee/Paneer (dried, spiced spinach) are excellent choices. There's a good deal of veg here with interesting combinations of spices and herbs.
Dessert
I must admit that I've always overindulged myself and left no room for dessert, but I have seen the cart and it looks very nice.
Drinks
Good beers, good wine, spirits behind the bar, champagne for those special occasions and soft drinks for the rest! All nicely complimentary with good Indian cuisine.
The Rajpoot is something special. It's a good representation of classic Indian food (from the specified regions) that has inspired this menu and provided a standard of food that I've found impossible to beat. In my opinion the best quality and taste that I've ever experienced in Indian cooking. Highly recommended!
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Aug 26th, 2008
(Aug 7th, 2009)
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