Restaurant review: Bengal Spice, Holmfirth

Nov 13 2009 by Val Javin, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Restaurant review: Bengal Spice, Holmfirth

Bengal Spice

Dunford Road, Holmfirth

Rating

Venue Bengal Spice, 2-6, Victoria Arcade, Holmfirth, HD9 2DP

Tel 01484 683882 or 01484 685239

Website www.bengalspiceholmfirth.co.uk

Opening hours Monday-Thursday 5pm-11.30pm, Friday & Saturday 5pm-Midnight, Sunday 5pm-11pm

Children Yes

Disabled access Steps at front of building

The bill £43.70 for two including poppadums, starters, main and sundries plus drinks.

WHEN is friendly and wholesome not enough?

All too often it seems these days.

More and more we seem to believe that a restaurant must have delusions of Michelin-starred fine dining and prices to go with it in order to be worth eating at.

The trouble is these places tend to have over-inflated egos in the kitchen and over-inflated prices on the menu.

Not to mention over-inflated opinions in many of their diners.

The only thing that’s under-inflated seems to be the taste of the dish that’s supposed to be the selling point of these places.

The antithesis of this is Bengal Spice in Holmfirth.

Arriving on a wet Thursday, a couple of waiters were outside watching fireworks but immediately ushered us in with a cheery hello.

Shown to our seats with just enough friendly patter we sat down in a restaurant that’s got a cafe feel.

It’s a bit yellow, has ceiling tiles and a traditional curry house carpet (ie heavily patterned) but, and this is what my original rant was all about, is perfectly good for a meal out with friends, family or your better/worse half.

There’s an extensive menu but as the Examiner was paying we decided to throw caution to the wind.

A couple of poppadums each with a pickle tray gave us enough sustenance to get through the extensive menu.

There’s all the old favourites and a few house specials to keep more adventurous palettes interested.

I started with a special mixed kebab which was lamb and chicken tikka with a seekh kebab on top of a pile of sizzling onions.

My dining companion went for the tandoori lamb chops.

The lamb and chicken on my starter were in decent size chunks and the kebab was a very tasty, spicy and moist affair.

Whenever I’ve had tandoori lamb chops before they’ve been French-trimmed but these rustic little numbers weren’t.

However, that didn’t stop them being perfectly palatable, if a little dry, according to my partner.

Plates cleared with a bit of friendly chat from the waiter and it was on to the main course.

I decided to go for the Dinaz Puri Spice, mainly due to the fact it sounded chock-full of meat.

The other side of the table went for a Garlic Chilli Chicken.

As hoped, my dish, which came spitting hot in the metal dish, was full of chunks of barbecued chicken, tandoori chicken, tandoori lamb and minced lamb meatballs. Blimey!

The sauce was thick and flavourful, coating the meat and had enough spice to give that warming curry feeling in the mouth.

My companion’s dish looked a lot like mine excluding the meat.

It also tasted a lot like mine, albeit with a lot more garlic. There were also a few finger chillies chopped up and mixed in at the end, giving a hot crunch.

We also had a portion of garlic rice and a garlic naan (vampires hold no fear for us) and the rice was a generous portion with bits of fried garlic.

The naan was OK – full of garlic but a bit doughy.

The bill tipped the scales at £43.70, but that included two pints of lager and a pint and a half of pop.

If you knock out some of them, a plate of chips we had (waste not want not) and the poppadums you can make that about £30.

That’s not to mention the excellent deal on Sunday and Thursday where diners can get a starter, main and rice and naan from a set, but wide-ranging menu, for just £9.90.

Bengal Spice represents a decent meal at a good price with good service – sometimes that’s all you want or need.