Sweet Centre 19/06/2009

Sweet Centre, Lumb Lane, Bradford 19/06/09

Present: Gill, Rob, Fran, Claire, Lynda and John.

Well, the June meeting of BCC went without hitch. We met in the New Beehive, at around about 21:00. The ‘Hive seemed less ‘brothel like’ on this warm early summer evening, much to Robs disgust!

Lumb Lane seemed much more inviting in June than it did in January when we visited K2. The Barracks Pub, close the Sweet Centre, was having a West Indian Night, and
Reggae and Dub sounds permeated Lumb Lane. Seeing the disused Lumb Lane Mills, opposite the Sweet Centre, and can be seen from the restaurant with its grand iron gates and associated grass growing between the cobbles was quite moving and was a reminder of days gone by, when this area would have been the centre of the ‘industrial north’

Anyway, onto the grub..... The usual board of fare was on offer, with a few ‘chefs specials’ too.

Again, poppadoms were not brought straight to the table to nibble on whilst reading the menu. This is becoming the ‘usual’ for the trad curry houses we visit, and they are no longer marked – by me at least – for this practice.

However, poppadoms were ordered, and promptly arrived just before the starters – nothing unusual to report there really. For the starters proper I shared a mixed starter with Lynda – and found it rather average - except for the fish. If I'd just ordered the fish then it would have got close to top marks – a hint there for the future. The kebab and baji were not too bad, but the samosa - although had good filling - had dodgy pastry, and the chicken wing pakoras where covered in a very thick stodgy batter. A bit stodgy, and not very enjoyable.


My main of Mixed Balti was good enough to rival any of the mains I have sampled on my travels. I liked the mix on lamb and chicken - the lamb was meaty without being chewy and the chicken was decent too - no cheap cuts here. This was paired with my favourite garlic naan- OK


The restaurant was the, now usual, 'fallen from grace' type of decor - probably last given a lick of paint in the 80's. Clean enough and good value for money though.

Generally a pretty good evening was had and a pattern is developing of "BYO = better night out". The Sweet Centre certainly lived up to that.

Saffron Desi 29/05/2009

So Saffron Desi has been and gone, and I have to be honest, and say, that I was a little indifferent to it.

Yes yes yes it ticked all the boxes for it to be an uber cool and trendy modern Bradford curry restaurant. It had the grand entrance, big glass windows, stainless steel, wood, tiled floor, etc, but it just didn’t seem to have the character of other places we have visited. It was curry restaurant by numbers.

The food was very nice, and was exactly the same as our local Saffron in Guiseley or Rohan in Ilkley, to the point where I tended to think there may be some association??? No mention on the web sites though??
Following poppadoms and pickles, a number of the group shared the mixed grill, which was very tasty, and large – a little too large - and included fish – a nice addition – but was difficult to enthuse about simply because it seemed so familiar.


For my main I picked the ‘chef’s special’ Saffron Delight – which was delightful in name only. It was a kind of rich, creamy, smingy sauce with chicken, and had cashew nuts and fried onions sprinkled on top. I think this was an award winning dish, and had earned its own special highlighted box on the menu!!! Not for me – very disappointed. That is not to say all the mains were poor though. The Achari lamb was really good – with a large bit of lamb on the bone in an excellent sauce.


To conclude - nice enough but there was nothing to make me want to go back – especially with Akbars just down the road, and Saffron in Guiseley just down the road from my home.

John

Karachi 25/04/2009

Brill brill brill. I thought Karachi was best so far – but only just.


As we all know now Karachi is a traditional style Bradford curry house, which has been recently endorsed by Rick Stein, in one of his TV shows.

The BYO policy of Karachi was used (abused) to the max with the purchase of bottles of wine on the way to the restaurant. On arrival we were seated straight away, and glasses, jugs of water and a small onion/tomato/riata salad were plonked on the table. Jugs of water immediately cast aside, the glasses were utilised for the consumption of the old vino. Wine is not my preferred tipple during curry consumption escapades but, under the circumstances, it was perfectly adequate.

Following poppadons (required ordering – not a problem for this kind of restaurant), the starter I ordered was onion bhaji, and was very happy. A nice plate sized portion of crispy small morsels of fresh tasting bahji. The other starter of note was Kebab Sandwich??? From what I understand it was nice enough.


For main I had the Rick Stein’s Lamb and Spinach Balti. Defo can see why Rick likes it so much – it was lovely in every respect. It was rich, meaty, not too oily, flavoursome and just excellent – The best I have ever had. Chappatis included too - although that means ordering a naan is a little out of the question – unless very hungry. The other main to note was the Fish Balti. I tried a little and it had big bits of fish (cod/Haddock – something like that) and was well tasty. Next time.


Restaurant seemed popular and, although not heaving, was busy all the time we were there. Service was good and delivery of dishes was quick. The decor was the usual sort of basic Formica tables and odd cutlery (if lucky) type of place, but that is what these kinds of places are all about really – not supposed to be posh. Also quite a unique location – built into two terrace houses – which was quite endearing.

Overall, for me at least, the combination of location, price (came to about £9 each) and quality, the Karachi is top of the BCC league so far.

John

Kiplings 20/03/2009

Yes, pretty good I'd say - best so far??? Seems a long time ago now but hopefully people will be able to add their comments at the bottom

On arrival the restaurant was very busy (even at 21:00 – and remained busy throughout – good sign) and we were asked to wait in the upstairs bar area and get a drink. Fair enough. Here we were able to peruse the menus and relax, for about 10mins I think??

Our waiter took our order whilst in the bar area and then eventually led us to our table. Poppadoms were already present – nice touch. The pickle tray comprised the usual suspects and were fresh – no complaints.

Lynda and I shared the sizzling mixed starter, as usual, and it was very nice. Samosa good, meaty and tasty, and the Kebab and tikka were also very tasty. Good addition was fish pakora – yummy.

I had pre ordered the Olympic Curry and this comprised another sizzler of large chicken pieces and two huge prawns – I’ve seen smaller lobster tails. This was all marinated in chef’s special mixture and was gorgeous. It was served with a sauce and rice. The sauce was very rich and I didn’t really find it necessary but it was certainly tonnes better than the usual ‘vege gravy’ that comes with sashlik dishes usually. One gripe I did have with the Olympic was that there was no nann bread option??? You had to get rice and order a nann separate?? Can’t see why? Another problem with the Olympic is the price - £15!!!! A lot for a curry. It was good – very good – but £15 of good I am not sure?? And with our waiter’s unwillingness to swap rice for nann, I thought it was a bit much. Would I get it again, I can hear you asking? Probably. There was a big portion so would dispense with the starter for future.

General ambience was good the staff were friendly and knowledgeable.

Overall excellent, and I think Kiplings will get top marks from me in many categories. Well worth another visit.

Shame we forgot to take photos.

John

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

Omar Khans 24/1/09

I think I speak for everybody when I say we had a good evening. Food and everything was very nice. Not quite up to Akbars standard I would say, but certainly up there, and not as busy (but was full by the time we left – about 1/3 to ½ full on arrival)/noisy/etc to boot. We all met in Sir Titus Salts for a few pre curry drinks (a few too many in my case so am a little hazy on certain aspects of the night!!) and then moved on to the Omar’s. Seated straight away but took a while for drink orders to be taken (minutes in reality but beer drinking head remembers ‘a while!!’), and were not offered poppadoms to nibble on whilst perusing the menu (which I like) – very small criticisms I know. The menu had the usual array of traditional and ‘chef’s specials’ curries to temp you taste buds – and tempted they were!! The décor seemed a little more ‘traditional’ shall we say, when compared to the trendy modern curry house that seems popular at the moment, lots of red velvet, gold paint and possible flock wallpaper? If there was no flock wallpaper then it feels like perhaps there should have been??? When poppadons arrived they came with a couple of new and interesting pickles this BCC member has never seen. The usual mango chutney was there, of course, then there was a yummy carrot one and another one which escapes me!! Riata came with the starters. Nice for a change. For starters, quite a few of us shared the mixed sizzling platter, a staple for Lynda and me, which included the usual suspects of ‘meats from the tandoor’. No samosa’s (I don’t think) or fish. Excellent all the same – well tasty. For mains I had a garlic rich lamb dish (which I cannot remember the name of) from the specials menu – it was very nice - but I feel, after trying other curries around the table, that there were superior ones on offer. I also had a garlic naan – no complaints there – it was fresh, rich and garlicy!!! MMMmmm!!


So all in all I thought it was very good and I would enjoy more visits there in the future.