Imran Balti Hut, Northampton
Tuesday, 23 May 2000
restaurant factfile   also reviewed 17 November 2006   also reviewed 15 August 2005

When Imran Balti Hut first opened in Northampton, the owners claimed that they were providing quantity and quality at budget prices. Early experiences proved this to be true so we were quite looking forward to our latest visit. The layout has changed - gone are the partitions to provide one long thin eating area with tables along either wall. The décor was very tatty but we put this down to the ongoing refurbishment. However, after one look at the nasty tin plates, unmatched cutlery and battered balti dish holders, we decided that the dilapidated image was obviously the management's choice.

Starters of onion bhajis and sheek kebabs were ordered. No less than four golf ball sized onion bhajis made up each portion. They were quite tasty with a good crispy (perhaps slightly overdone) shell whilst the insides were a bit on the moist side. The sheek kebabs were a decent size and very tasty and deceptively hot. For once there was a generous helping of salad and plenty of splatter, chutney and onions to go round. The starters were almost a meal in themselves. If only we'd stopped there!

Our main dishes were Balti Chicken with Bombay Potato, Balti Chicken Bhuna and Balti Chicken Garlic. It's easier to describe all the dishes collectively: seriously dry chicken lost in an ocean of brown slurry which had no discernible flavour whatsoever. Okay, so there were huge chunks of potato in one dish and garlic in another but without these it would have been impossible to differentiate the dishes. Even the chunks of garlic (mostly whole cloves) looked like small potatoes! The garlic dish was one of the 'Chef's Recommendations' which seemed to involve it having a half litre of ghee added to it. The nans (garlic, onion and plain) looked good when they arrived, being almost as big as table nans at other restaurants but it soon became apparent that they had been spread so thin that they turned to crisps in a matter of minutes.

The service was extremely quick - we'd have been in and out in 45 minutes if the adjoining table hadn't been re-occupied. Between occupants, the formica topped tables were hosed down with disinfectant, the smell of which was a bit off-putting as they were so close together. It was surprisingly busy, given the standard of the food and that it was a Tuesday evening. More surprisingly, we found we'd be charged corkage on our own drinks which we'd been assured we were welcome to bring. Thank goodness the chef didn't have a hand in pouring them - flat, tasteless lager would have been just too much! The motto of Imran's seems to have changed from "Quality and Quantity" to "Quantity not Quality" as the main dishes were huge but absolutely abysmal. If only they'd been half as good as the starters.

The Scores

Which gives an overall rating of 2 bhajis.

The takeaway
We were going to order a takeaway but the waiter seemed unsure what was in each dish and advised us to wait until later. This has to be the best advice we have ever had. After tasting the food in this restaurant, we phoned another takeaway!