Nawaab, 95-101 West Street, Sheffield
THIS is it, my first curry since coming back from a gastronomic holiday in Kerala, India.
Now don't get me wrong, I loved it, but three curries a day for a week was going some.
I enjoyed the spicing, even the breakfast curried eggs, and I didn't get Delhi Belly although sometimes it was close.
But back in Blighty I vowed to de-currify my body for a month
The period of fasting over – and it was difficult whenever I smelled chicken methi or rhogan josh while I was out and about – so where should I go?
The Nawaab, an impressive 80-seater, has recently opened on West Street. Walk by its picture windows and you'll notice a lot of the clientele is Asian.
"They know about us," says Mohammad Shafait, manager of this latest restaurant in the Bradford-based Nawaab chain. "On Tuesday night the custom was 98per cent Asian."
It's a long, thin restaurant with a blue neon bar and seating in rows, with a mirrored end wall to make it look bigger.
There have been a few teething troubles. One of the entrance doors doesn't work and don't sit near to the other, on the corner with Rockingham Lane, because you get a draught. And the single urinal in the gents on our night was out of action.
On our night the custom was again principally Asian so what do they eat when they're not at home?
On one side of us were three Asian lasses. "We don't have spicy food at home," said one.
On the other side four Asian lads were eating, I kid you not, chip chapattis with tomato sauce, in the same way as you'd make a chip butty with slices of bread.
I ordered a lassi, not the usual mango but a salt one. The waiter was hesitant. "That's the first I've had ordered in two weeks."
We have moved because of the draught from a table for two so small they have to take away the flower vase when you sit down to make some space to a much roomier table for four.
It's a big menu and the prices seem a little more expensive than usual. Mohammad, who says he checked out the opposition and found it wanting (well, he would say that, wouldn't he?) claims to have matched the prices head to head, biryani to biryani, with the rival Aagrah in Leopold Square.
If the Nawaab hadn't been beset with planning problems it would have opened around the same time, too.
You'll recognise most of the dishes, apart from one or two specialties. Here the accent is Punjabi rather than Bangladeshi.
Dry crisp poppadoms (50p each) are delivered before you order, with a pickle tray which includes a rather good mild sweet onion pickle.
I start conventionally with nicely flavoured flattish onion bhajis (3.75) while my wife had what look like fish fingers. It's sindhi machli (4.75), marinated haddock then breadcrumbed and fried. The spicing is quiet and gentle, nothing to scare those girls at the next table.
We reckon the price of the mains is about a quid more than your average Indian but then the food is a lot better than your average Indian.
Both of us have opted for top of the range dishes. I've got the lamb haandi at 9.95 (you can also have chicken) which is meat cooked in a clay pot for long, slow cooking to conserve flavours. Sadly it doesn't come in a clay pot but a dish.
The lamb is served off the bone, which is an accommodation to Western tastes, and cut small. It is extremely tender and you can't always say that for the lamb in an Indian restaurant. There's plenty of it, rather than being swamped by sauce. Spicing was precise and certainly not overhot.
Nor was the Nirali Special (9.95), billed as an award-winning dish from the Chef of the Year competition. It turns out this was in Manchester.
If you like breast of chicken marinated in yoghurt with ginger and smothered in a creamy sauce then this is for you.
You can judge an Indian restaurant by its tarka daal and the Nawaab's (served as a side dish for 4.95) is particularly good of its kind: firm toothsome daal in a clinging sauce with a surprising chilli kick at the end. But I missed that little slick of fried spices some restaurants add as garnish at the end.
With pulao rice (2.40) and an over-sweet but well cooked peshwari naan (2.95) and drinks we paid 38.
The Nawaab will give the Aagrah a good run for its money. For me it made a very pleasant return to the world of curry.
Food Review
Nawaab
95-101 West Street, Sheffield, S1 4EQ.
Tel: 0114 272 5747.
Open all week 5-11pm (Fri-Sat until midnight). Credit cards. Ethnic music. n Website: www.nawaabsheffield.co.uk
My star ratings (out of five):
Food HHHH
Atmosphere HHH
Service HHHH
Value HHHH
Indian restaurant category. Do not compare ratings between places of different style or price.
What do you think? Add your comment below.
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