Chutney Mahal

Folly Hall, Chapel Hill

Venue Chutney Mahal

Tel 01484 532244

Website www.chutneymahal.co.uk

Opening hoursSunday to Thursday 5pm - 11pm, Friday & Saturday 5pm - 12am

Children Yes

Disabled access A couple of steps down into the restaurant

The bill £50.35 for two

GREETED with a waft of incense we stepped from busy Chapel Hill into our own authentic Indian dining experience.

With a focus on traditional Punjabi cuisine, Chutney Mahal is far from the boozy late-night curry houses often associated with Indian food in Britain.

Despite looking like a run-of-the-mill Indian restaurant from the outside, this restaurant is the ‘real deal’ and is one of a handful of establishments in Yorkshire to operate a real charcoal tandoor.

For those of you who don’t know, a tandoor is an oven made from Indian clay used for baking bread or roasting lamb and chicken.

The meat that’s cooked in the tandoor is marinated in yoghurt and spices before being cooked in an oven of smouldering charcoal.

My partner Liam and I shared the Chutney Mahal mixed platter (£6.45) for a starter so we could try out the meat from the tandoor.

A medley of meats were presented on a sizzling hot plate including barbecued chicken tikka, chicken wings, lamb tikka and seekh kebab.

The meat was succulent and the chicken just fell off the bone – all served with a cooling mint sauce.

The tandoor oven gave the meats a fuller, earthen flavour and they were all beautifully and fragrantly spiced.

We later found out that the head chef grinds together the herbs and spices for each individual dish.

As well as the tandoor specialities the restaurant also serves the more familiar tikkas and masalas and a good selection of seafood and vegetarian dishes.