brilliant restaurant Southall

This review was posted by Adam Holdsworth on his blog

http://daggersdukc.blogspot.com/

 

This contains comments from Adam about whatever he is doing at the time.

 

The article below is a review of the Brilliant Restaurant which I will certainly visit if I am in the area.

 

 

 

Food: Indian

Contact details:

72-76 Western Road, Southall, Middlesex UB2 5DZ

www.brilliantrestaurant.com

 

We visited The Brilliant in Southall, Middlesex, today. As I grew up in nearby Hayes, I was miffied that during my time there, my parents had never taken

me here, as it had a good rep even back in the early 80s - it is actually a Southall institution, having been in the same area since the early 70s. As

Southall is one of the demographically "Indian" suburbs in Britain, let alone London, calling your restaurant The Brilliant in this environment is almost

a taunt: "come, criticise me, tell me I'm not brilliant, tell me I'm rubbish". In its favour, it has won plenty of awards. But the only award that matters

to us (insofar we came from distant suburban East London to be here) is what we think of it. Will we return? Will we recommend it to our friends? Was it

in fact, brilliant?

 

Let's find out.

 

Firstly, the guide dog situation. It is really, really difficult to eat Indian or Chinse while being accompanied by a guiding beast. There is a point,

after you've had maybe the third or forth row about whether the dog is allowed in, when you just assume that you will go into an eating establishment,

all guns blazing. Though I refuse to take nonsense from anyone about this (to refuse a guide dog is breaking the law and ignorance is no defence in my

opinion). Not a problem in The Brilliant, perhaps aided by the fact that one of the staff was obviously a dog lover and wanted to pet Nicki the Labrador

while she was being good beneath the table. They get a huge brownie point for the no-fuss welcome. What a relief.

 

The decor here is cool but in a friendly, inviting way, with dark wooden floorboards, spotlights and a clean, no-fuss style that doesn't intimidate but

still has enough sophistication, suggesting this interior design has been thought through. No job lot tables here - everything is in dark brown and dark

orange. All just-so. (9 out of 10).

 

Our service was friendly and the food arrived in a timely manner without any hanging around (a pet hate of mine is being left for ages after the main course

before your dessert order is taken). Service then was brisk and polite. (9 out of 10).

 

We ordered poppadoms as a pre-starter. I tend to find that a good, crisp, not-too-greasy poppadom indicates how the rest of the meal will turn out I was

right on this occasion, as we'll see. By the way, we ordered spicy poppadoms and blow me down, they were peppery. Fortunately, we both love pepper and

there are plenty of chutneys to dump them in to assist sweetening them up and bringing down the heat level a bit.

 

Our starters were tilapia fish pakora (9 out of 10). The high mark is given for the light batter made of gram flour, which didn't in any way kill off the

delicate flavour of the fish. I had meat samosas, filled with finely minced lamb. I give these 7 out of 10 - better than average and good quality meat.

 

For the main course, we had a lamb curry which Lynn described as basic but tasty and awarded it 6 out of 10. I had the lamb masala which on the menu, was

described as coming with a thick sauce flavoured with ginger, tomato and garlic. It left nothing to be desired: this was a dish delivered exactly what

was promised. I can barely think of anything to fault it on and will give it a full 10 out of 10 because it really was that good. Bravo. If my stomach

had been any larger I would have gone for second helpings.

 

Desert was a better than average pistachio kulfi which I'll give 7 marks for. It was served on an unusual long plate which didn't do anything for the flavour,

but did add a little interest presentation-wise.

 

So overall, was the Brilliant, brilliant. I think so. It is one of those establishments where you think every award was justified and gained from hard

work and attention to detail, as well as old fashioned customer service, rather than from "I'll scratch your back if you give me a plaudit" mentality.

There are few Indian restaurants this good in my view and I would go there far more often if only had the fortune to live closer.

wok and grill, Chronos Building, mile end road London

This restaurant used to be part of a small chain called Pandoos which was clearly designed to be a bit like Nandos.  It sells a range of grilled dishes and stir fries.  When it was Pandoos it sold curries but now it concentrates more on the stir fries.  Unusually for halal food outlets, the Wok and Grill also sells beef and steaks.

 

I had crispy chicken as a starter followed by stir fried spicy beef and rice.  The chicken was crispy though its texture was rather watery.  The beef was good and spicy but there wasn’t much of it.

 

It seems that most of the staff are the same as those who ran Pandoos so many of the same problems apply.  One member of staff speaks half decent English but the others don’t and they don’t seem to care much about what they do either.  I tried to ask what pudding they had and a member of staff babbled through about 4 of them.  I asked for descriptions and he either didn’t understand my question or didn’t want to understand so I decided not to bother with a  pudding.

 

I had to ask for the bill twice and finally got given a bill for £18.99 which seemed rather a lot for 2 main courses and a drink so I questioned it.  It turns out my bill was really £14.68.

 

That £18.99 looks like a figure the guy serving me just made up.   I don’t appreciate being deliberately overcharged by someone who either does not have the brains to calculate the bill or the prices to hand.

 

The food was fairly poor anyway but as I was nearly overcharged I don’t think I will be going back to this restaurant unless I get evidence that the quality of the staff have improved significantly.

 

I can only give this restaurant 3 out of 10

Delish Deli, 2, The Chronos Building, 9-25 Mile End Road, Stepney, London, E1 4TP

Delish is clearly an eatery which is trying to make itself a bit different from the rest.  It sells breakfasts, salads, a range of hot dishes, sandwiches and jacket potatoes.  So far I have tried the salad bowl, a shepherds  and a breakfast.  The salad bowl consist of choices of vegetables and cheese.  You have the usual lettuce tomato and onions but you also have carrots, sweetcorn, mushrooms peppers, sun dried tomatoes and also things like bean sprouts and bits of fruit.  It was really quite an extensive salad bowl which can be mixed with various meats such as chicken or turkey or you could have Tuna or prawn.  These ingredients  are available on their own or spicy so there is, for example, a Mexican spicy chicken.

 

The only hot lunch I have tried so far is the shepherds pie was quite good.  The potatoes were creamy and well mashed.  There was plenty of mince gravy and peas but I would have liked a richer tastier gravy.  Still I have had a lot worse.

 

The breakfasts  are acceptable though The sausages are really just average café quality.  There is no bacon though you can get turkey ham instead. coffee is filter coffee.  It is acceptable but it won’t blow your mind away! I find they tend to make it a little weak.  This may not be my first choice for breakfast.

 

Delish is really a cut above most of the rubbish found in Stepney.  It attracts a wide range of people including students and hospital workers and it seems to be quite successful. 

 

I was impressed by the range of food and the helpfulness of the staff.  Men and women work there and the level of English spoken by the staff is certainly reasonable.

 

In general then this is a decent place to eat and I would give it 7 out of 10.

A Passage To India, 76 Bold Street , Liverpool L1 4HR

The Passage to India has the reputation of being one of the best curry houses in Liverpool though it is said to be on the expensive side.  I had a prawn puri for starter and a Lamb  Jalfrezi with garlic rice as a main.  The quality of the ingredients were really quite good but there was absolutely no spice so I ended up feeling rather disappointed.  I have since seen an online menu available from Just-eat which suggests that the Jalfrezi dishes  are available  mild, medium or spicy.  On most menus Jalfrezi is cooked with chilli so I expected this dish to be quite hot.  We really should have been asked whether we wanted our curry mild medium or hot.  Neither myself or the friend I was with could see enough to read the menu in detail though he could read the dish names.  We therefore knew nothing about the different spice options available.

 

My starter and main dishes both came in a thick slightly creamy sauce which is typical of many of the posher Bangladeshi restaurants.  The portions were very generously sized  and I could probably have done with a bit less rice.

 

Over all then the quality of ingredients and portion size were excellent but the food was not spicy enough and we really should have been asked..

 

I give this restaurant 5 out of 10.  If the food had been a bit more spicy or we had been asked for our preferences then a score of 7 may well have been possible.

Mexigo Mexican Grill 72 Bold Street Liverpool L1 4HR

This is a take away which sells various kinds of soft pancakes full of beef or chicken with guacamole  salsa rice and beans.  The pancakes which include tacos  and Burritos.    It’s the usual British Mexican restaurant type of thing.  Not bad if you want a quick bite though all the food is a bit similar.

 

I call this a takeaway but it does have a lot of tables and chairs inside, it’s just that all the food comes in boxes with plastic knives and forks as though you were going to take it away.  I’ve never been a fan of this kind of food as a take away, particularly if you want to eat it on the go as it’s so messy to eat.  If I’m going to eat this kind of food I want it on a plate with some decent cutlery.

 

A friend and me both had beef with all the usual accompaniments with extra mushrooms and a soft drink.  The person serving us was quiet and didn’t seem particularly enthusiastic about being there.  eating the food from the box was less than ideal.  I can’t say the food was horrible, and at £8.00 the price was acceptable though it is on the high side given the poor presentation.

 

So Mexigo served Average food with poor presentation and barely adequate service.   This made this takeaway a fairly forgettable place  so I give it 5 out of 10.