Yellowfingers

62, High Street,Wollaston, Stourbridge, West Midlands DY8 4NJ Tel: 01384 373703

© Copyright P L Chadwick and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

Another ex public house converted in an Indian Restaurant, this time the old ‘Bulls Head’ in High Street Wollaston (thus making the number of Indian restaurants in Wollaston three -not including three takeways that I know of alone). This restaurant is owned and shares the name of the long established and busy Indian take away ‘Red Forte’ just round the corner on the Bridgnorth road.

Excellent creamy raita to pour onto starters and dip crispy popadoms into. 

 To begin I had a Nargis kebab, which was perfect.

I followed this by a dish called Chicken Pardesi which was truly fantastic, a  Chicken Tikka and Prawn curry with Green Peppers, excellently flavoured, and with just the right heat. I complimented this with two Chapatis.

My wife had a Badami Makhani ,nutty sweet,  mild and creamy – ‘pudding’ as I call it, while my neice had a Nawabi Tandoori Chicken Massala. This contains Chicken and minced Lamb in a rich curry sauce.

She used to be a vegetarian, obviously not anymore then…

The waiting staff were great, very friendly and this place is worth a visit.

Unlicensed

redforte-menu

42 Dudley Road, Stourbridge, DY9 8EA Tel:  013…

This venue was recommended to us as a potential Bengal Fusion beater in the Lye – Its not, but it is rather good.

These days, a lot of the restauranteurs are taking advantage of the sad closure of many of our midland (or is it national?) public houses, and this balti house resides in the converted ‘Swan with Two Necks’ pub on the Dudley Road, on the way from Lye to the Merry Hill Shopping centre.

The food is well presented and the quality is up there. I chose a Nargis Kebab starter which was OK, the mince a little dry but very edible.

I followed this up with a Chicken Tikka Mattar -Chicken and Keema curry -yum!

Its very bright inside, and I suppose as its quite ‘open plan’, its not so suited maybe if you want a romantic meal for two -but I could say the same for Bengal Fusion, and thats great too, so no points docked. I think its more suited for family/friends parties, which is just what we were having.

Of special note, I must mention the popadums -some of the lightest, crispiest I have had in a while -do try.

The fish tank is centre piece in the main dining area -but no, you can’t pick your ‘Tandoori Fish’ from there. Nice tropical fish though, which seemed to attract the attention of the children in the restaurant.

The service was excellent,  not that slow, and neither did we feel at all rushed, considering our visit ocurred on February  Saturday night.

Althought its a converted pub, its unlicensed so take your own alcoholic drinks in if you wish.

Overall, not bad at all.

Unlicensed

26a Renfield Street,  Glasgow G2 1LU Tel: 0141 221 9251
 

 This restaurant is situated in the commercial centre of Glasgow and terms of décor gives out a modern feel.

The food is from the Punjab region of India and features dishes from that region with normal standard Indian dishes also.

One of the more unusual dishes is Chicken Jhatpat which has melted cheese.

For my visit I went more mainstream with that old standard Chicken Jalfazi. The dish presented was dry in terms of sauce than the norm but still tasty with generous amounts of chicken. The naan bread was warm and fluffy – ideal in my book.

To sum up a well presented restaurant with added value for money – an important factor in these tough times.

Licensed

Website

Valberggata 14, 4006 Stavanger, Norway  Tel:+47 51 89 39 35

Inside the India Tandoori

This restaurant is situated in the commercial centre of Stavanger in Norway.

The décor is what we would term traditional but without the usual music.

My meal consisted of chicken Jalfazi – a number of differences were apparent from the uk right from the beginning – rice came automatically and the dish was offered medium , spiced or hot.

The food itself was  excellent – the Jalfazi itseif had both green and red peppers in it – something I consider a must for this dish. Also present were carefully cut strands of ginger and the chicken itself had been skewered and marinated separately.

The sauce was heat with taste without a hint of floating gee – something I hate.

All in all an excellent restaurant. One word of warning Norway is not cheap, a main course, rice,naan and two drinks cost £40.00.

Licensed

Website

Hey, how about a ‘proper’ blog post from yours truly for a change, instead of a free ad for a Curry House who probably couldn’t give a monkeys about Yellowfingers?

If you have days to lose browsing the web, but are at a loss where to actually browse to, you could do a lot worse than install ‘StumbleUpon. Its a toolbar addition to your browser, right, but the clever thing is that you tell it your interests like, I dunno, curries, rock music, guitars (which are my interests -go get yer own!) click the ‘Stumble Upon’ button and you are taken to a site it thinks you will be interested in…which is how I found the image on the link here…

Anyhoo…Stumbleupon can be dowloaded from here. Enjoy!