Monday, June 08, 2009

Shahenshah 135 Wilmslow Road, Rusholme, Manchester M14 5AW

The Shahenshah is a largish comfortable Indian restaurant in the Manchester district of Rusholme which is famous for curry houses.

Myself and a friend visited Shahensha at about 3 in the afternoon on Saturday.

Shahensha has a large menu though it seems to specialise in Punjabi food.
I had a Mushroom Pakora for starter and my friend had a portion of Veg Samosa. these were average unremarkable starters. I would have liked a little more spice in mine but at least it was freshly fried and not microwaved.

I had a main dish called Haleem and my friend had a main dish called Punjabi Lamb Special. we both gave the food 7.5 out of 10. Mine was very tasty though perhaps a little watery. I know that Haleem is a slow cooked dish with plenty of liquid but there seemed to be a fraction too much water and it could have done with a bit more of a tomato flavour. The curry was not greasy however and it seemed to contain a decent amount of fresh spices and some vegetable.

My friend's Punjabi Special was meant to contain chilli garlic and ginger. He says that it was a nice curry though the ginger and garlic could have been more pronounced.

Staff were friendly and attentive. while English was not always that good, I felt that staff made a reasonable effort.

Over all this is a reasonable place to eat without being absolutely mind blowing. the menu has lots of differently named dishes that I suspect may be relatively similar. this seemed a good safe place to eat, but while looking for the correct address for the Shahenshah I found the following manchester Evening News article describing how the restaurant was shut down for hygiene reasons in April 2008. I do not know if it is owned by the same people now. look at http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1062930__filthy_curry_house_fined__

Before reading this I thought there are better and worse places in Rusholme to eat. many kitchens are I suspect not as clean as they might be but the fact that the owners didn't even bother to show up in court concerns me and means I cannot really recommend the Shahensha unless it has changed hands.


http://www.eset.com

Hardman Pizza Co, Hardman Street , Liverpool

this is a small place which is primarily a take away though it has a few tables inside.
 
I visited this eatery while on a visit to Liverpool with a friend.  We went for a quick bite to eat before going out on the beer.
 
My friend had a hot and spicy pizza which he rated as being of average quality, I believe he gave it roughly 5.5  out of 10.
 
I had a Lamb Shish kebab and sadly mine was not as good.  the kebab came wrapped in a japati which is lighter than the Nan Bread many places now use and personally I prefer this.  It's just a shame that what came inside the japati was of such low quality.  the lamb was not really recognisable as lamb.  it was tough and rather lacking in flavour and it took some chewing through.  the chilli sauce was at least quite potent and the salad was of reasonable quality.  given the awful meat however I can not give this place more than 3 out of 10.  This means that the average mark shared between the 2 of us is 4.25 which is well below average.
 
In summary Hardman Pizza Co is alright if you are passing and fancy a quick pizza but it's a disaster for kebabs.