Burned bhajis mar a decent performance

Feb 22 2008 by Andrew Hirst, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Burned bhajis mar a decent performance

THERE’S been a takeaway at this spot in the centre of Slaithwaite for many years.

Marhaba is the most recent incarnation following on from the last, Zam Zam, which had forged a good reputation.

In terms of promptness the Marhaba matched up.

The food was ready on time, neatly packed and with a ready smile from the staff.

In takeaway terms one major faux pas is to keep the customer waiting if they’ve taken the time and trouble to phone in advance. We used to go to one that did that every time – and with no apology. We've not been back there for years.

So full marks for being ready.

But it meant I'd not had chance to see the food before it was bagged – and once debagged the onion bhajis were clearly overdone. They wouldn’t have got in if I’d spotted them.

OK, in the grand scheme of life no big thing.

But they didn’t look right and if something isn’t right, chuck it and start again. A golden rule that Gordon Ramsay hammers home week after week in TV outbursts that would make Roy Chubby Brown blush.

Once past the bhajis’ burned barrier, the inside gave more than a hint of how brilliant they could be.

The poppadoms were fine – crunchy and as big as dinner plates – and the starters came with salad, mint sauce and chili sauce.

The mains were mushroom biryani, but most of the mushrooms seemed to have been transformed into tiny peas – so small they must be petit petit pois. They were also in the mildish vegetable curry sauce.

The chicken rogan josh – cooked with pimento, garlic, tomatoes, pepper and onions – was on the milder side of medium with the chicken a bit chewy and, surprisingly, the top dish ended up being the fried okra which kicked the tastebuds into life.

The Marhaba is a culinary cosmopolitan place also offering pizzas and burgers.