Ally Doll, The Thali on Albion St was recommended to me on Friday by 2 different people!
I went to the Dhabba on Friday, which has been recommended by a number of people here. Some of my colleagues have been raving about it for ages so I finally went. Strangely though, all the women I've spoken to haven't enjoyed it as much as the men. There were 5 of us so we asked if we could have 5 starters shared between us, 3 of which looked identical and 3 of which arrived with 5 pieces on them, the smaller “cheeseballs” had more than 5 due to their size, but one of the dishes had a mere 4 pieces so had to be divvied up between 5. I'm pretty sure that it wouldn't have bankrupted them to give us an extra one just to make up the numbers.
Despite being told by near enough everyone who's been to the Dhabba that they don't do Pakora because they only do “real Indian food” the chicken starter we had was actually deep fried and coated in a light pakora-like batter.
I opted for "chicken meatballs" for my main course, which could be served mild or medium but I wasn’t asked which I preferred. It consisted of 4 pieces of ball-shaped chicken in a creamy and mild sauce in a shallow dish. One of my colleagues went for the "hot" chicken option, which I tried and can say that it wasn't all that hot, in both senses of the word.
One starter, one main course with rice, a bottle of beer, a bit of roti and bit of naan worked out as £20 per person excluding tip. Contrast that to the meal I had at the Shish Mahal a few weeks earlier, which was cheaper, more filling and I was able to take a doggy bag home for the following night’s dinner!
Emperor's new clothes I think.
"It's hard to believe people think a real cow dying on film doesn't look like a real cow dying on film"
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