Gopal's Curry Shack at Cargo 2, Wapping Wharf

After my first run in with chaat at Sholay I was interested in trying other examples of this dish. Gopal’s crowdfunded their permanent home at Wapping Wharf and after reaching their goal, thanks to many loyal fans they opened up about 6 months ago.  Sporting an all Vegetarian and Vegan menu that will warm you through the Wintery months. A menu of Indian street food with dishes such as a selection of dhals, the Mumbai toastie as well as seasonal curries.  With chaat on my mind I went in to order the samosa chaat dish.  Whilst a good deal of the cargo containers are designed for takeaway, and Gopal’s is no exception, there are a couple of stools to perch on. 

 

Gopal’s samosa chaat consists of crushed up samosas topped with spicy chickpea curry topped with various chutneys, yoghurt and pomegranate seeds. At £7.50 it might seem a little pricey for lunch but the portion is enormous, if you can finish it in one sitting you are a hero to me. This was just what the doctor ordered on such a grey day, and we had braved sitting outside. The chickpea curry was a tad hot but I popped back in and they gladly gave me a pot with extra minty yoghurt to cool it down. This dish is wholesome, warm and comforting. The samosas are still slightly crunchy and add a nice texture, and the fig and tamarind chutney adds a wonderful sweetness. Because the flavours change with each mouthful it was a delight to eat, and even when I was full I still wanted to go back for another mouthful. 

 

 I find it really heartening when street food stalls build up enough of a following to open their own permanent premises and Bristol is lucky enough to have converted the dreams of many a street food favourite. It was something I wrote about last year for Wriggle, our love affair with street food doesn’t seem to be showing any signs of a cooling off period. Check out the article here.

 

Gopal’s shows how imaginative Vegetarian and Vegan dishes can get. The vibrancy and flavours certainly don’t make you miss meat at all. I am looking forward to exploring more of their menu over the next few months whilst we endure more freezing temperatures. To find out more about their food visit their website. Gopal's will also cater for events and parties if you are looking for something a little out of the norm.

 

Friday Night Birthday Curry at The Mint Room

A couple of weeks ago Phil had booked us a table at the Mint Room for his birthday, with mixed results, Rich takes a look over our experience there.

I don’t usually like to split reviews into ‘sections’, but the service at The Mint Room was uniquely weird that it needs its own discussion. Lazily aggressive is the best way you can sum it up. Requests for water for the table and asking for someone to come and take our drinks order would be met with agreement sounds, before our waiter would disappear, and then not come back. Ten minutes later they or someone else would reappear and we’d have to ask again. And it happened a few times.

When taking food orders, bear in mind we were eight people on a long table in a busy restaurant on a Friday night, the waiter would stand one end and shout at us, and we’d have to shout back, rather than him just stand closer to us. This lead to lots of back and forth and having to repeat, and one person inevitably getting the wrong dish. Luckily being a vegetarian, it was still a paneer dish, but very much not the right one.

 The worst, and most cringe-inducing aspect however was a female friend attempting to order a hot dish with this waiter. Asking what the hottest thing on the menu was, it took a few attempts to get something that clearly wasn’t medium heat. And then when it was agreed that the jalfrezi was the hottest thing on the menu, he was insistent (quite condescendingly) that she should only have the milder version, not the hot one. It reminded me of a time a friend of mine tried to order a drink at a bar, but the barman refused saying “No, you don’t want that. You want something sexier…” – presumably as some flunked attempt at barman-customer seduction. It didn’t work – she got bored and had a drink elsewhere - whereas this waiter-customer interaction just came across patronizingly as “I don’t think you can eat hot food”. What proved it was when another one of our group (male this time) asked for the same thing, was met with a nod and “Sure thing”.

 

As for the Food, the Mint Room menu is a decent affair, with an interesting blend of some familiar dishes (with a twist) and some lesser seen things, so it was a good opportunity to choose something a little different. We were brought two dishes of poppadom fragments with some dips for us to share, although these were removed before they were finished once we had ordered our mains, which I thought was somewhat odd. As for my main I opted for the Marinated Lamb Rumps ‘Chettinad’ Style, whilst Abby decided to go for the Chicken Lababdar, and a peshwari naan. The menu description for mine was “6oz lamb rumps marinated in freshly pounded black pepper corns and hung yoghurt, then seared over hot plancha, served with saffron Basmati rice and seasonal vegetables”. The slices of lamb was hot, and very tasty, and the bed of spiced yoghurt had a distinct and tasty flavor that went well with everything on the plate. However my seasonal vegetables consisted of just one baby carrot and two tiny heads of broccoli, and the rice seemed to consist of a lot of the sticky ‘stuck to the sides’ rice you get when using a rice cooker and leaving the rice in a bit too long. It was shame as the main event itself was very good and, a little bit different, and eminently recommendable.

 

 

Abby’s chicken lababdar was a more ‘traditional’ style curry dish but with a whole chicken breast cooked in sauce with ginger, green chillies, coriander and cream, and some rice.. It had a bit of a kick to it and actually was delicious, but as with my main there just wasn't a lot of rice. But she remarked that the naan was excellent and was perfect for mopping up any curry sauce.

One big problem with the food was that it wasn’t particularly filling – a rarity with when going out to eat Indian food, and particularly for one of us who’s missing a substantial part of stomach these days. That said what we did eat was good and I can recommend it for the food. The price is at the higher end of what you’d be happy to pay for a curry (our dishes on their own were £16 each, a pint of beer was £4.50), but the overall experience because of the service and the price means we’d be unlikely to choose to go back – especially when there is such a good selection of Indian cuisine to eat out or order in from many other venues all over Bristol. Nutmeg in the village for example is tastier and less expensive, plus the service is much more what you'd expect. To find out more about The Mint Room visit their website.

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.