K2

K2 on the left

So to the he recently refurbished K2 Restaurant on Lumb Lane I go.... Coolio.

Now under new management and apparently serving 'simply the best curry in Britain' according to the sign outside that is!  Well we'll see.

Nice inside now with high backed leatherette chairs, laminate flooring, magnolia walls and dark wood tables. Pictures on the walls offer vistas of the mountain K2, perhaps a little unsurprisingly, and the Eiffel Tower!  Once seated looking out of the large front window, the view isn't exactly pretty - instead looking directly at the side of an old mill... "Well, may I ask what you expected to see out of a Bradford Curry House window? Sydney Opera House, perhaps? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically!"  However, I do find a certain something inspiring about the past grandeur of Bradford industrial landscape.

K2 is still a modestly sized restaurant - well compared to the noisy neighbour - seating no more than 30 diners I'd say, and has a little kitchen to the back.

The view from K2s window

K2 was totally empty at noon - inc. the staff! A bloke eventually wandered down the stairs and greeted me, and seemed genuinely surprised! A quick piny over the t-shirt and he was ready to go though!  Balti Gosht from the specials was ordered - off an otherwise pretty standard sort of menu - and a garlic naan (chapatis not included here).  No popadoms or anything were brought to the table either, but a small onion side salad and pickle tray did appear with the Balti itself.

My meal sounded to be being freshly prepared and I was asked how hot I wanted my dish too. Rattling of pots and pans and the slapping of dough could be heard over my shoulder, although I resisted peeping and being too nosy!

Balti Gosht

The curry was well seasoned for me and my medium heat request was bang on. A deep underlying sweetness was much in evidence.  A little oily/gheey but was dense with meat and with little sauce in the classic Bradford Curry way.  Chunks of tomato added a fresh dimension. Garlic  naan was nice and fresh and... well... garlicky - surprisingly!

Last mouthful and the residual garlic and ghee flavours mingle with the mild zingy heat. Very Good.

£11.60 "but call it a tenner to you Sir" seemed a bit steep for a £7.60 Balti and Naan?  Something must have gone a little astray there I thought.  I didn't mention it however.  More than happy at £10.  Fresh, unique  food (as in not microwaved mass market stuff), prepared expertly and with care is always is always worth the money.

So, perfectly brilliant Bradford Curry. A little pricier than the norm perhaps, what with having to buy bread separately, but still worth ever penny for the freshly prepared food that makes Bradford famous. I'll be back for more of that.

K2 getting a refurb.

The mighty K2, next to the Sweet Centre on Lumb Lane, seems to be in the throws of a re fit. Watch this space for more news.

K2 21/02/2009

Present were Martin, Jill, Rob, Mario, Fran, Claire, Lynda and John.

Well, the Feb meeting of BCC went without hitch. People arrived throughout the evening and Claire, Fran, Lynda and me eventually met the rest of the party (Rob, Jill, Mario and Martin) in the New Beehive, a place they seemed reluctant to leave – lol, at around 21:00.

We ventured down the notorious Lumb Lane towards the restaurants. Lumb Lane never seems to change – a dimly lit, desolate place - an imposing road with mills on one side and old Victorian houses on the other. Lumb Lane has a colourful past as the red light district of Bradford, and it has scary pubs, and an even scarier traditional curry house – K2.

Next door to the famous Sweet Centre, it is difficult to imagine how K2 remains in business. Although not as popular as it once was, it has a reputation for cheap, basic’ Bradford Curry House’ food – the faded Egon Ronay stickers on the door from the mid ninety’s are tester mount to this faded grandeur, and if you speak to other Bradford curry connoisseurs, they will be aware, and probably have sampled the curry’s K2 .


A small restaurant – perhaps 30 covers or so – we were sat at a large plain wooden table in the window and handed plastic laminated menus. The usual stuff was on offer, with a few ‘chefs specials’ too.

Again, as last month, poppadoms were not brought straight to the table to nibble on whilst reading the menu. Why why why?

I thought the service was generally slow – not too bad if you can enjoy a couple pints but with only a jug of water, time seems to drag slightly.
Poppadoms arrived just before the starters – I shared a mixed starter with Lynda – and found it all a little bland. The only thing with any flavour on our mixed starter was the Shiekh kebab – which was tasty.

My main was Balti Ghost (lamb/mutton) with a garlic nann. Chipatis or rice was included with all mains. My balti did look a little like tinned ‘steak pie filling’ but was tasty enough with had a really meaty taste to it. Nann was fresh and good enough.

Total price was £60 for eight of us – excellent value I thought.
When I went to pay you could see into the kitchen and it was interesting to see just one chef cooking curries in what looked not too dissimilar to a domestic kitchen – probably explained the slowish service.

I am happy with my visit to K2 – it was defo at the ‘basic’ end of the market, and I doubt we will come across a more basic curry house fir the rest of the year!! These places need to be visited though, and it is all experience and non the less

Mission accomplished