All India Takeaway, Northampton
Sunday, 10 April 2005
takeaway factfile

Please note that we are unable to verify the impartiality of guest reviewers, so readers should use their own judgement.

Guest review
by Osiris, Northampton

Me and my son had a takeaway from the All India tonight. We usually use The Star of India or Mumtaz, but we had a flyer through the door stating they were under new management.

We chose the meat thali option as it offered a good selection of their wares and it would let us know their capabilities as we hadn't tried their food before,(well we had under the previous management.... once).

The thali consisted of;

Tandoori Chicken:
One leg, I had the thigh and Ryan had the drumstick.
It was a mildly spiced piece of reasonable quality chicken i.e. not pumped full of water. Quite enjoyable apart from the shocking red colour.

Sheek Kebab:
We had half each.
It had a nice chilli kick with a bit of onion going on and some coriander. Very nice apart from the shocking red colour.

Meat Bhuna:
Beautiful sauce, very clean flavours, cumin and coriander lifting through the other spices. The sauce was a delight.
The meat (mutton - my fave), was very disappointing. Tough chewy and fatty.

Chicken Tikka Massala:
Chicken again was untampered with (no water). The sauce on the other hand was insipid, and again awash with red food colouring, as it was mixed with cream it became a very unappetising pink. Considering it also lacked in flavour there was no redemption for this dish.

Pillau Rice:
Very nice.

Keema Nan:
Not much meat but a very good nan.

Mixed Raita:
A clotty mild yoghurt (my favourite type), with tomato and cucumber.
Very nice.

We also ordered a Sag Aloo to try and amend for all the meat we were about to consume;

Sag Aloo:
This was delicious, the very tender potatoes soaked up the spices and the spinach added its own wonderful flavour and much needed vitamins. The chef also cooked to our strength preference as all the items on the Thali (apart from the sheek) were missing the chilli kick we both love in our takeaway.

They also gave us two poppadoms and three dips (splatters as you would say), a minty, yoghurty yellow one, a mangoey one, and a chunky sweet chillish one.

Apart from the chewy fatty mutton and the shocking red colouring the food was very palatable, just stay away from the chicken tikka mossala.

The meal was reasonably priced and far from unenjoyable (the bhuna sauce and the sag aloo were delicious) but we've both agreed to continue to use either Mumtaz or The Star of India.

Osiris rated this 6 out of 10.