Ashoka

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Basil House

105-107 Portland Street

Manchester

M1 6DF

0161 228 7550

*** REVISITED ***

Actually, I've been a couple of time since Eej's original review, but mainly because there isn't much choice in Manchester city centre, and Shimla Pinks, whilst very nice is too tempting to keep the cost down.

Anyway, this visit was with Gary, who had also been once before.

On this occasion, Gary started with onion bhajee whilst I decided on the chilli chicken. No complaints from Gary and the chilli chicken was a lively lip-numbing affair.

Mains consisted of a Kofta dopiaza for myself and a chicken jalfrezi for Gary. Laiden with implending flu we figured a hotter curry might just shift his immune system into overdrive. A light persperation was observed on the forehead of the said Gary during the consumption of this meal, so all indications were positive. As for my dopiaza, well, it was ok, quite mild, but missing the chunky onions and peppers I enjoy.

Rice and chapatis were the accompanyments, and the waiters all pleasant with no major delays in service.

All that and a couple of pints of Kingfisher each took us to a gnats hair over £36. That'll do nicely.

The original review follows: –

—oOo—

Went for a wander and Troy fancied an Indian. Unfortunately we were near chinatown so not much choice.This was all we could find. I think we should have gone chinese instead.

First impressions are good. An airy, well laid out restaurant with quite a few customers. First impressions can sometimes be wrong.

We were given our menus and then left for ages before anyone asked us about pops or pints. I think we'd still have been there if I hadn't told Dean to shut his menu.

Kingfisher lager was good but very large heads instantly had me on guard. Pops arrived (no spicy pops and the only indian waiter in the world who thought we were crackers to ask AND who'd never heard of Aloo Gobi, quite bizarre).The onions were dry but the sauces weren't bad.

For starters we had Onion Bhaji, Tandoori Chicken and Chilli chicken. Deano liked the chilli chicken but Troy was disappointed by the Tandoori chicken. Quite dry and under-marinated. My onion bhaji was rubbish. Poorly spiced and poorly cooked. Soggy and dull. All accompanying salads were miniscule and ancient. So one out of three starters passed muster.

Mains consisted of a Chicken Chilli for Troy, a dhansak for Deano and a kofte masalla for me. These were good but the service was laughable. The waiter dumped the rice on our plates and then tried to hand me my chapattis instead of offering the plate. I've never been literally handed my dinner before. The kofte was spicy and hot but only 4 meatballs left me feeling a bit shortchanged. Deano was perplexed by the pineapple in his dhansak. Apparently, they don't do it like that where he comes from (Northern France, I think, somewhere called Beckenham). We assured him this was how they did it oop north. Troy's was tasty and both their meals were huge, mainly thanks to the heaps of rice they had.

Unfortunately, not good enough to warrant another visit.

Cost was £61.25 including 6 pints and excluding service.