Disadvantages:
All courses Not really authentic & # 8211;but not bad try ! some variation in quality between chains (Birmingham's food not as good as Leicester branch)
The aroma of freshly cooked basmati rice, the delicate blend of exotic spices, the crackle of poppadoms triggers your taste buds as you step into this restaurant.
Shimla Pinks is a chain of modern Indian restaurants which promise to offer a different dining experience in fine Indian cuisine. These restaurants are set in modern and spacious surroundings with stripped pine floorboards and modern paintings on plain white walls. Many of these restaurants have a bar and relaxation area with comfy sofas to relax before you go to your table. These are completely opposite to the infamous Indian restaurants which many of us have been accustomed to in the UK.. you will find no rich gold embossed wall paper, dark carpet and cosy dark settings here! At present there are approximately 8 restaurants in the UK: in London, Midlands (Birmingham, Leicester, Solihull) and further North in Manchester, with furthest one in Glasgow (which is actually called Killermont Polo Club).
The Basics of Indian cuisine in the UK~ Before I explain this new brand of Indian restaurants I would like to explain a few definitions and observations that are unique to
Indian food marketed in the UK.
Surprisingly, Chicken Tikka masala is the most popular national dish in UK, but it is not originally an Indian dish. It doesn’t exist in India! though Chicken Tikka is often found as a Starter. "Chicken Tikka Masala" was created by a British chef in the 1980’s exclusively for the British market (and palette!) So what is it? Tikka , means pieces of meat, and masala means spices, so what have we here? Pieces of chicken meat with spices in a sauce! So there you have it. The rest is history, due to its popularity this dish is found all over Europe and USA, but not in India. In Uk the term curry is used for all Indian curry’s, whereas in India each individual dish has its own name e.g. Korma =mild spices and yoghurt and pure saffron, a moghul dish.
The Shimla Pinks dining experience~ I had the opportunity to visit two of these chain restaurants, one in Birmingham and one in Leicester, as this is a review about Shimla Pinks chain in general I will not go to great details about the individual restaurants here. On first impressions, this was a far cry from the idea of popping in for a “curry” in a semi-drunken stupor only to be served various curries made by using pre-made sauces; and adding in cooked meat or vegetables of your choice.
Shimla Pinks restaurants aim to serve you authentic fine freshly prepared Indian food..but what is authentic? They claim that their food is prepared in the legendary method of “Dum Pukht” cooking as used by the moghul emperors. Although this may sound impressive, “Dum Pukht” actually means simmered slowly on a low flame, thats all, so what is unique about that? Many years ago when the moghuls ruled India for about 300 years they brought their own influences and cooking styles. In the olden days they used to cook on a low “coal” flame in a heavy tray, that food has the unique flavour of wood smoked food. It is not carried out today in modern restaurants. So the use of the word “dumpukht is slightly misleading here, but good publicity!
The restaurant offers a range of individual dishes from its Menu and they also serve a Executive Lunch Buffet or Gourmet Banquet. There are a range of starters to choose from such as Vegetable Pakora’s served with accompanying sauces and chutneys, Paneer Ka Khass Tikka (remember tikka means “chunk or pieces of”)- this is basically Indian cottage cheese cubes with green peppercorns fried in batter. They also do a special range of Starters known as the “Connoisseur’s Starters” which offer a selection of kebabs, including a vegetarian one. Prices for Starters are from £3.50 onwards.
Now to Main courses…what have we here..yes, Chicken Tikka Masala, Lamb Rogan Josh (this is a lamb curry cooked with tomatoes and has a rich natural red colour), Chicken Karahi –(Punjabi-style chicken cooked with ginger, onions, and tomatoes) etc. There are a variety of other main courses available from their “Festival Main Course” which start at £7.45, though some have very fine names such as “Murgh Wajid Ali” using quotes from moghul history they more or less taste the same. However, after saying that I will say that compared to standard run of the mill Indian restaurants these appear to be freshly prepared and definitely are not full of artificial red colourings or excessive oil.
One of the highlights of the food at Shimla Pinks for me anyway was “aroma of freshly prepared basmati rice, I would definitely recommend you order a portion of this rice called “Sada Chawal” Sada=plain, Chawal= rice, so that’s plain rice, no colours, not fried just pure basmati separated rice, beautiful! It was so refreshing to be served freshly prepared plain rice as other Indian restaurants often conjur up some multi-coloured fried rice that they call basmati..and quite often its not. Basmati is the King of all rices, offering beautiful aroma, and flavour.
Another highlight and better value for money is to try one of the buffets, which are superb value for money. They do 2 types of buffets I tried the lunchtime “Executive buffet” at £6.95. This offers a selection of 5 or 6 starters including chicken tikka, lamb kebabs, pakoras, onion bajis, salads, chutnies, poppaddoms etc. The main courses comprise of about 4 or 5 dishes, when I visited they had 5 different meat dishes out of which 3 were chicken dishes, 1 lamb, 1 beef. They also had 2 vegetarian dishes eg.Mutter Paneer (Indian cheese and peas curry), and another cauliflour and mixed vegetable curry as well as some freshly prepared lentils. There was also ample supply of Naan bread freshly baked in the clay ovens. You could help yourself as many times as you wished, needless to say me and my work colleagues ate a bit too much and found going back to work on a Friday..a little difficult. If you do not wish to try the lunch time buffet they also do the gourmet buffet priced at £14.95 which I expect will include even more selection of main dishes and starters…if you can manage to try all of them!
Overall, it is a fresh idea..but at a price..some of the descriptions in the menu are a far cry from the authentic recipes created by the moghuls and Hyderabadi master chef’s who created the famous “biryani” – which sadly is not available at any of the Shimla Pinks restaurants or made the way it should be at commercial Indian restaurants. However, the Connoisseur's Starter's and buffets are excellent value for money and offer fine dining experience. Shimla Pinks recently received The Best in Britain Awards as featured in The Real Curry Guide.
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