CUE Coffee
A brunch well exe-cue-ted 🍳
Tadka
Sizzling spices that fizzled out 😞
FridatesWe’ve driven past Tadka on numerous occasions, and admittedly it’s never grabbed our attention. But on a recent Saturday evening, we needed an antidote to the chilly wintery nights we’ve been experiencing. And what better remedy than a good curry! So we found ourselves on a very spontaneous, last minute dinner date with close friends who have eaten here before. And since it won the title of Best New Restaurant 2018 in the Leicester Curry Awards, we decided to go with it.
The venue occupies a large space. They have different areas such as a sports bar, a function room and the restaurant, all with their own separate entrances. The restaurant isn’t big and it was rather cold, despite the warm lighting of red, orange and yellow hues. But it did warm up once the kitchen started cooking.
There’s a variety of meat and vegetarian dishes all clearly labelled, including allergens, which is very useful. They even have an Indo-Chinese section for the more adventurous. We were all very hungry by this point so we opted for the quick and easy sizzlers and a vegetarian dish for that balanced diet 😆.
Our Order
Mix Tandoori Sizzler
This was a mix of chicken pieces and minced lamb kebab. The meat was well-flavoured and had a smokiness from the cooking process. The pieces of chicken were huge, which made it less appetising and I found the meat to be dry. Even our friends who have been here a few times found it wasn’t as juicy as before.
Ajwaini Fish Tikka
The fish tikka was much lighter due to the flakier texture and I found it to be spicier than the mixed sizzler. We preferred it over the mixed meat but it was quite burnt, hence we have given it the same rating.
Baingan Ka Bharta
This was a dish of chargrilled aubergines which was smokey and nicely spiced. It was a good addition to have alongside the dry and meatier sizzlers. It was slightly oilier than we’d prefer but we enjoyed it the most out of all the dishes.
Verdict
The food here wasn’t bad but not amazing either, and we probably enjoyed the company of good friends more than the food 🙈. Although well flavoured, the mix meat sizzler were just slabs of dry meat. Smaller pieces might have made it more pleasing to the eye. The fish was better in our opinion but unfortunately it was quite burnt in places. On the plus side, the service was faultless and we liked how the menu listed allergens in their dishes. We would definitely give it another go to try the other curries, but probably on those last minute ‘can’t be bothered to cook’ days.
