British India's Thali Room - better than average curries, swanky setting

After hearing some positive things about British India's Thali Room, we decided to organise to try the place one Saturday night. According to Wikipedia (reliable source of course!), Thali is an Indian meal made up of a selection of various dishes. The way British India's Thali Room works is that each Thali comes with a set of  standard dishes, as well as naan and rice, which are then paired with a curry of your choice. Tonight the  set dishes included vegetable curry, daal, yoghurt raita and chicken tikka salad. Between the four of us, four different curries were chosen with these being butter chicken (Punjabi Thali), vindaloo (Goan Thali), prawn (Malabar Thali) and Tikka Masala (Shimla Thali).

So many curries!

The butter chicken was nice but lacked the full bodied flavour of a true curry. Vegetable curry was creamy but tasted a little strange due the the addition of mint. However, this may be a personal preference. Tandoori chicken was slightly cold but forgivable. Daal, rice and naan were deee-licious! Daal was smooth and creamy, yellow rice was flavoursome while the naan was thick and stretchy - yum! Raita was ok but I wish the butter chicken was a lot spicier so that it could be utilised.  

Butter Chicken Thali

Dining companions who ordered the Vindaloo and Tikka Masala both said that these curries were tasty and held enough flavour. Unfortunately, the prawns of the last Thali were overcooked and tasteless, although the flavour of the curry was nice. Feedback was that it appeared as though the prawns were already cooked then dressed in the curry sauce, resulting in prawns that did not retain any flavour.

Vindaloo Thali

Tikka Masala Thali

Prawn Curry Thali

The Thali Room offers a nice introduction to Indian food and an amazing setting for dinner. Inside it's dark and exotic, where you dine at low tables while sitting on plush ottomans. Although there were some pitfalls to the food this night, overall it was a pleasant experience that warrants another visit. Thali Room were also kind enough to offer us a two for one voucher for our next visit!

Ping Pong gives British India's Thali Room  14/20 chops on The Chopping Board.

Food: 7/10
Ambiance: 4/5
Service: 3/5