On Saturday night myself and 5 friends (including 3 fellow WWRS reviewers who will no doubt give their own verdict) went to The Spicy Affair, a new Indian restaurant in Cherry Orchard Road, East Croydon. I’d heard mostly good things about it so was looking forward to comparing it with it’s extensive competition.
Initial signs were good. It was very nicely decorated and there was plenty of room around each table so you didn’t feel like you were being crammed into as small an area as possible to increase the restauant’s capacity. They also had Cobra on tap rather than in bottles, which is always good, and the menu was extensive to say the least. Most importantly of all, the clientele consisted almost entirely of Indian people rather than boozed up English louts, confirming the claims on their promotional material that they are “maintaining traditional, authentic experience with modern contemporary cuisine” rather than just pampering to the English market.
Unfortunately, I have a confession to make. You see, while I like to think my tastes have matured in the last few years and I now appreciate the merits of paying that bit extra for quality dining, it seems that when it comes to Indian food I am still an Englsh pleb. Almost everytime I go out for a curry and decide to order something “unusual” I immediately regret it and wish I’d had an onion bhaji and a chicken korma. This Saturday was no exception. I started with some deep fried paneer which had a nice dressing of some kind but the cheese itself was rubbery and tasteless. I then tried a “Chicken Handi” which turned out to be far hotter than I’m used to and, either as a result of the excess heat or my unrefined pallette, didn’t really tatse that great either. To top it all off the pulau rice had peas and carrots randomly added to it and the naan bread was thin, greasy and crispy.
So all in all I wasn’t impressed with the food. However, the service was excellent, the staff were extremely nice and the prices were very reasonable, especially for the beer which was £3 a pint compared to the £6 a bottle you can pay in some places. If there were other people who were going and I got invited along then I think I would probably give it another chance on the basis that I might just have been unlucky with my food choices, but it certainly won’t be replacing Zafran as my local Indian of choice.
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21/07/2009 at 11:59 am
djmousefarm
I quite enjoyed it, but peas and carrots in pulua rice = EPIC FAIL.
It was also much spicier than most curry houses i’ve been to. Even Michelle, who went with a dish that she’s quite happy with in our curry house of choice (“A taste of India” on Elmers End Green), found it to be much hotter than she was used to.
The staff were very nice, and it did all feel much more authentic than a typical Indian. I would go there again, but i would possibly choose something different off the menu.
21/07/2009 at 1:00 pm
wwrs
As i think i mentioned to you the other day Pie, we had a chat with the ‘head waiter’ type bloke last time we were there who told us that the type of curry they serve is more from the bengali/bangladesh region (i may have this wrong as i was quite drunk…), which tends to be very different in flavour, and quite a lot hotter, where as most other curry places seem to cater to the western world or have a mix of stuff from all over the place, but with a focus on southern indian stuff which is that which contains a lot of coconut milk and milder spices.
From my limited knowledge of indian food i think they tend to use whats available to them in different regions in terms of produce, Goan for example tends to use a lot of fish, and have very different styles of cooking as well. What may be regarded as mild in one place may blow our british socks off! And of course not taste that great to those which love the Korma (myself included)
My personal experience was quite similar though – pleased to see a wide range of veggie stuff for once i went for something a bit out of the ordinary that, while i thought was very tasty, was not at all what i was expecting and was far too hot to finish! would definitely go back though to sample some more stuff as i thought it was very reasonably priced and of course theres a lot more on the menu for me to choose from than in most places!
21/07/2009 at 3:00 pm
Si
Okay, so maybe it’s not that I don’t like traditional Indian food, just that I prefer the food for certain regions. In which case I’ll have to pay more attention in the future rather than just assuming that all Indian restaurants are pretty much the same.
21/07/2009 at 8:05 pm
Michelle
On the subject of curry houses, Vujon on Lower Addiscombe Rd (opposite Ashburton park) is also very nice indeed. Oddly they sometimes have have live music including an Elvis impersonator(!!), although I’ve never actually witnessed it.
A Spicy Affair was a bit of a mixed bag for me – the service was efficient and very friendly, the choice of dishes was frankly astounding and my starter was lovely. I think on the whole though most of the dishes we just much hotter than we’re maybe used to, even ones we’ve all had many times before like Bob & Matt’s starters or my main. There are probably other curry houses I prefer but I certainly wouldn’t rule out a return visit.