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This 6th meeting I was only able to join for the meal, having travelled south for the day to catch the festival of speed at Goodwood. I was really tempted to get a curry for lunch as there was a balti stall, but I decided to save myself for the evening and had fish and chips instead. I arrived at the La Hind at 9:30 p.m. expecting to find my compatriots already there...but I should have known better. They obviously left the pub with little to spare in time. Anyway, they eventually turned up and I dived out for the photo opportunity. We were a big crowd this time - 15 in all, so the camera shots had to be taken from very close to the taxi rank to get us all in. We were seated immediately, and the first obvious thing was how cramped we were (well, except Andy and Steve who kept an empty chair between them). It was a time for much discussion about the interior, which was basically the same as the "old" Jaipur but without all the certificates and awards. This was done over popadums which were fairly average, as was the salads and chutneys that accompanied them. For my starter, I ordered the obligatory Onion Bhajis and was a bit disappointed when they arrived. They were rather large (two of them) and because of this the consistency of them being cooked varied. Also, being so big they were rather filling. Next I ordered Chicken Dansak - a stray away from my normal Jalfrezi. I found this to be extremely tasty but probably hotter than I would have liked. The rice and naan's accompanying them were good, and the vegetables were somewhat mixed in quality (e.g. Bombay potato, aubergine bhaji, etc.) During the meal the conversation swung bizarrely to the 1970's music, which started lightly enough with the guessing game of what song and what artist and soon degenerated rapidly moved onto loud renditions of many songs - some which peculiarly sounded like '80's music. To bring a point of order back, Steve, Martin I, and me went into the kitchens to discover how they ran things. They were very clean and it was interesting to find they had a head chef and an executive chef (who, if I got the message correctly, is concerned with quality control and presentation). I was impressed with the set up and the openness on questions about how they cooked things (note for other restaurants, visits future and past). Overall I did not think that the La Hind was as good a rating as 4 Taj Mahal's as I personally believe that the Maharaja's is still the best so far (maybe a 3.75 as it was certainly better than Rajdhani's). However, I do think the service was extremely good, I also think that the staff were extremely friendly and helpful. We were able to "cash in" our free wine for beer and the resultant value for money was brilliant (taking into account the joining of the VIP club). Of course, I was the only sober one there and ran an extremely cheap taxi service home for half the guys...sorry Jonathan - where did you get to as I thought you were in my cab? Graeme Middleton |
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