Ashoka, Ecclesall Road, Sheffield
THIS is National Curry Week and what better way to spend it than in Sheffield's Indian Restaurant of the Year 2009... and 2008.
If Sheffield is so certain about the Ashoka it was time to go along to see if I agreed.
But then the Ecclesall Road eaterie has always been top of the poppadoms for me.
Meeting its boss, Rahul Amin, recently he told me on my last visit, in 2005, I had the tandooried lamb chops.
What a memory, I thought.
"And we had the chickpeas with the prawn methi," added my wife as she returned from a visit to the facilities upstairs.
"Your review is on the wall next to the toilet door..."
So every time Rahul had spent a penny he'd been reminded of how I'd spent my pennies with him.
It wouldn't be the first restaurant which has my review by the toilets and I'm not going to get precious about the location.
At least it's better than in the kitchen with a pair of horns pencilled in on my photograph.
Both the Ashoka's 'Best Indian restaurant' honours were in the Eat Sheffield Awards which are still in their infancy and are prone to orchestrated online voting. But they are all we have and need to be nurtured.
This year's awards pulled a couple of right turkeys out of the hat. But the Ashoka's back-to-back wins prompted me to see for myself.
Now I'm not suggesting for one minute that the Ashoka is a turkey or orchestrated any voting. It's been around for over 40 years with Rahul in charge since 2004, after taking over from its founder, the Grand Old Man of Indian restaurants, Kamal Ahmed.
The Ashoka is upmarket. It's small, a bit of a squeeze if you've got an aisle seat, the menu is not afraid to touch a tenner on the mains, as much as 13 if you order the rumsari gohst karai.
What this means is that it keeps the scruffs out, has paper napkins printed with a map of the sub-continent and entitles you to lamb as tender as a baby's bum, rather than the tough gristly, 'surely this must be goat' of some places.
It also has Rahul, a man who can talk for Gujerat, very possibly the whole subcontinent, on the nuances of Asian spices and cooking.
I happened to mention the exceptionally good mango chutney we'd just sampled in the pickle tray (1.70) with our poppadoms (95p each) and he launched into the recipe. They make it themselves when mangoes are in season. It is fruity and chunky with a gentle heat.
Give us some recommendations, I say, so he suggests the chicken liver puri (4.95) and the main course Kashmiri lamb bhuna (9.45) which outsells any other dish.
The livers are fragrant and juicy inside a deep-fried shell, a little greasy here and there but no matter. My wife had the aloo chop (3.95) which is basically a potato cake.
There is a pleasure to be had in the contrast between crisp outside and soft innards, given a heft in flavour by fresh coriander.
I wash it down with a good glass of salty lassi, but then it ought to be for a pricy 3.50, while my wife has a Tiger beer for 3.
My Kashmiri lamb bhuna is gloriously tender with sophisticated spicing with a thick sauce clinging to the pieces of lamb, of which there are many. It's more meat than sauce here, as with our other main, a tasty chicken tikka saag (9.95) with gutsy spinach for contrast with the meat and, in large part, standing in for the sauce.
We have the mung daal (5.95) which proves quite a revelation. They have a very firm mouthfeel and act as almost a palate cleanser between mouthfuls of curry.
Pilau rice and a slightly scorched Kashmiri naan, both 3, completed our meal.
In fact, we didn't quite finish because the portions are large here.
We ended with coffees (3.50). It's cona but if you really want an espresso Rahul will send round for them from his mate Tony Dungworth and Menzel's Bar next door!
We paid just over 45 for food.
Ashoka
- 307 Ecclesall Road, Sheffield S11 8NX.
- Telephone: 0114 268 3029.
- Open all week, evenings only. Early Bird menu. Credit cards. Ethnic music. No disabled facilities (upstairs toilets). Street parking.
- My star ratings (out of five):
Food HHHH
Atmosphere HHHH
Service HHHH
Value HHHH
Indian restaurant category. Do not compare ratings between places of different style or price.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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