Birthday celebrations at Nutmeg

The other weekend we went out for our good friend Jamie’s birthday. She had wanted to go for a curry after much deliberation and many messages between us, newly opened restaurant, Nutmeg in Clifton Village was chosen. I had seen many good tweets appearing about Nutmeg and was hoping that our experience would be just as wonderful. 

Situated in what used to be Bombay Spice, a particularly good curry house in my opinion, Nutmeg has modernised the interior with a lovely bright peacock frieze which catches the eye and gives a warm feel to the place. The menu here is a bit different to regular curry houses, so although you can find a few familiar faces such as Saag, Rogen Josh and Jalfrezi there are also a number of strangers, but the kind of strangers you want to get to know. They have a 29 at the top of the menu one dish to reflect each of the 29 states of India so there are lots of different styles of curry to sample.

Complimentary mini poppadoms and chutneys were brought to the table for us to snack on whilst we tried to narrow down our food choices. The chutneys were not the standard offerings but were tasty, although I did mourn just a touch for regular mango chutney, the spicy lime and coriander offering was delicious.  After a lot of back and forth I opted for the lamb saag, because a good base test of a place is to sample a standard, a portion of saag cheese aloo and some rice. Rich chose the lamb shank which was slow cooked with Nawab kitchen spice and served with baby naans.

 

Whilst we waited we soaked up the atmosphere, it was very busy in the restaurant on this particular evening so I would say booking is highly advisable. Consequently it meant the service was a pretty slow and occasionally uncoordinated but our food arrived after a reasonable wait and was greeted with hungry hurrahs.  Rich’s in particular when the big lamb shank, sitting up proudly on the plate coated in spiced sauce. 

It is worth noting that the menu doesn’t have an indication of spice level, so for those of you with a sensitivity to heat it’s worth inquiring. My saag was pretty nicely heated, I love hot food so was surprised to experience more of a kick in what is normally a fairly mild curry. Earthy and with a generous helping of melt in the mouth lamb I was delighted with my choice. The saag cheese aloo had the addition of cheddar cheese into the mix made it a more indulgent side dish to share with my carb loving bestie. 

 

 With some of Rich’s fluffy mini naans I had the opportunity to have a dip in the sauce of his lamb shank. What a sauce. Aromatic, spiced but only a medium heat it was a showstopper and he was pleased with his choice.  Finally the birthday girl was extremely pleased with her beef madras. Jamie is a chilli fanatic so she was a little concerned that it wouldn’t be hot enough but it satisfied her need for heat and the portion was a decent size.

 

 

We were pretty impressed by Nutmeg and totally stuffed, which was a shame as I had been recommended the chai crème brulee on Twitter. I hope to return to Nutmeg again very soon the curry was excellent and offered something a little different. To find out more about what Nutmeg has to offer check out their website.