The large Indian restaurant on the corner near the pedestrian crossing had been on my mind for some time, every time I passed it walking up and down Hatch End high street (what the Americans call main street. We went there for a weekend meal. They were fully booked on Saturday night so we went there on Sunday.
One couple from my family have eaten at this restaurant twice in the last month. Another couple (including me) have eaten there once.
Covid-19 And Restaurants
With the lockdown scheduled for Thursday 5th of November 2020, the restaurant was fully booked on Saturday night, so we had to eat there on Sunday.
For Covid-19 precautions, there is a transparent barrier between each table and the next. Instead of masks the staff were wearing see-through face coverings suspended from spectacles. Much friendlier.
Starters
I meant to read their menu online in advance but I was too busy. Since our family had already visited, they had advised us to order the mix grill platter 22.95 pounds sterling, as a starter. I didn't notice the tandoori king prawn which was just as well as I am allergic to shellfish.
This was a success.
What was the best? The peshwari naan with coconut inside. peshwari means in the style of the Peshwar region. Naan is a flat bread. You can see recipes for flat bread online. Or get a takeaway from here. (Americans say take out.)
My favourite, the peshwari naan, with coconut inside. I could have eaten this as a starter, as an accompaniment to the main course, and as a dessert, and as a takeaway for a snack later. Unfortunately, I am on a diet, determined to lose weight because of Covid-19. I cannot alter my age but I can change my weight. So I ate just one piece (a quarter of the circle).
Dessert
I was hoping to order a hot gulub jamun, or a mango kulfi, or mango and coconut cake. If I had had the, two scoops of ce cream, my preferred flavour would not be vanilla, strawberry or chocolate but the more unusual stem ginger.
the bill arrived in a box containing a foil-wrapped chocolate. A sweet end.
At the back are three toilets. the washbasin is what looks like a freestanding bowl in gold.
Service Charge
The service charge is a large 12 and a half per cent. I did not feel that the service was anything special meriting such a high price. We were asked several time if everything is all right?
However, when we told the waitress and the manager that the onion bahgee was tough, when it should have been melt in the mouth juice in the middle and crispy on the outside (we have eaten in Indian restaurants in Hatch End worldwide for forty years, nobody did anything. No reduction in the bill. No replacement dish. No reduction in the price. No free drink or chocolate. No apology or promise that if you come back we will give you a little something extra to compensate. The waitress argued.
She should have called the manager. by the time we got to speak to him at the end of the evening the food had been cleared away.
I filled in a feedback form. They asked what could have been done differently or added. I suggested a mask with the restaurant name, or a pen. Give the advertising gifts free to everybody. Give them on request. Give them to high paying customers and birthday groups.
Huge choice of drinks on the menu, wines by the glass and bottles from all over the world, lassi, cocktails, teas and more. We ordered a reisling from New Zealand.
I loved the pehswari naan flat bread filled with coconut. Avoid the onion bhajii. It was tough and nobody ate it. We left one on the plate. The mixed grill although expensive is really a meal for four. The vegetable biriani was great. The lamb was liked. My chicken biriani was fine but served in a circular bowl, lacking the grand presentation you used to get at Indian restaurants when a biriani came on an oval platter with decoration of contrasting colours in the middle, edible silver and oo ah moments.
Looking back on the visit and wondering what coud be improved, I think the menu could copy other restaurants and pubs by putting stars or symbols next to the dished to indicate what is spicy, medium and mild.
They should also record which dishes have potential allergens in dishes, particularly nuts and shellfish.
I felt the food was slightly too spicy. An Indian restaurant needs to offer non spicy food. You might have somebody who has a sensitive stomach, has a cold, allergies, or is pregnant and afraid of a miscarriage, or just off spicy food.
Hatch End Choices
Hatch End is supposed to have 46 restaurants and eating places. The reason you cannot give an exact number is because they frequently close down one place and open another. Especially during Covid-19.
Then you get restaurants closed Sunday or Monday. Covid-19 could close down places and leave them open only for take away.
If you want to know what is in your naan, or to try making it yourself, the ingredients, according to Wikipedia, are wholewheat flour, active dry yeast, salt and water. Simple. But it is the cook and the cooking which makes the difference. Add your own filling, coconut or something more weight loss diet friendly. (If we can't cut down on eating bread, we just cut down the portions and diet every second or third day.)
This was demonstrated to us, as my family found out when we were young marrieds having dinner parties for six at rotating homes. Each of the three couples had the same recipe for starters for two, main course for two and desserts for two. But each set of food looked and tasted differently!
Your other options are to search in your local supermarket or one of the speciality shops, such as Mohammed Mustafa's in Singapore (and India) in between Little India and Farrer Park MRT underground railway station. In North Harrow a large branch of J & B is an ethnic food store. Or there's delivery. Or, of course, Social Dhaba, delivery or collect.
Useful Information
Social Dhaba, Stanmore SD Bar and Lanes
16 Church road, Stanmore HA7 4AR.
Tel: 0208 076 2222.
Social Dhaba Hatch End
294 Uxbridge Road, Pinner HA5 4HR.
Tel:0208 428 0111.
Sampuran Kumar Singh
Executive Chef, Hatch End
07877 556437.
Useful Websites
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dhaba
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhaba
About the Author
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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