Restaurant Review for Masala Zone Bayswater

We were greeted at the door by a lovely young lady who showed us to our table, took our drinks order and left us to go over the menu.  

After a while another young lady; (who says you can have too much of a good thing) came over, who we later found out to be the manageress, Karen; who I have to say surprised me. Not only did she go over the menu, she described a lot of the dishes, ingredients and how each dish was presented. She knew what she was on about. Truly an asset!

 For our starters we had Aloo Tikki Chaat, Shikampuri Kebab and Dahi Puri. The Aloo Chaat was very good, the Tikki [potato cake] was well seasoned, texture was firm went very well with the chick peas, which had just the right consistency. Very often you find chick peas too dry or wet. The yoghurt wasn't sour, but I did find the Tamarind chutney a bit too sweet; I would have liked a little bit more of the sourness to come out. The Shikampuri Kebab, again, very well presented but for me I just couldn't put my finger on it, but there was a hint of a heavy earthy after-taste. 

For the main course we want with Karen's recommendation, the Grand Thali which consisted of two vegetable dishes, Daal, one meat [Dhaaba Rogan Josh]. We had an extra chicken dish [butter chicken]: which all came with an array of sundries on a big Thali. The butter chicken was excellent; Rogan Josh was what a Rogan Josh should be.  It’s been a very long time since I had one, only because you order a Rogan Josh you get a lamb curry with whatever they feel like putting on top, and hey presto, one Rogan Josh.

MASALA ZONE'S ROGAN JOSH is near prefect!!! I'm not a big veggie fan but in all honesty the Bindi that came with the Thali was actually fresh and tasted so good. Why can't more restaurants use fresh vegetables? The Aloo Saag was perfect.

When we're at home and our mother makes certain Daal’s, we all make excuses and go to the local kebab shop; but on a Sunday, you go to the temple and when its time for the communal meal [Langer], you don't say no to the Daal. You can but you don't, you enjoy it, you don't know why but you do. This Daal that came with the Thali was just that! The other thing that surprised me was the Chapatti; again, perfect! Rice was ok, may be just didn't have time enough to absorb the water or just not enough water to really fluff the rice grain. The only downside (if you can say that) was when we ordered King Prawns, we got Shrimps with the head still on. I can’t imagine many people would like to look at the face of something their about to eat. The thing is, if it says King Prawns it should be King Prawns not Shrimps.

For Desert. we had Gulab Jamun and a Ras Malai which we were told were home made. Both were actually very good.

All in all, decor, food, service; were all to a very high standard. Oh, Tim, one of the service staff; smart, well groomed; just a tip, I have to be careful how I say this, every man likes a bit of head!!!!!!!!! on his beer.. So, Tim next time you pour someone's beer, tilt the glass.

One more thing that got me was [no I'm not strange] the toilets; people say yes clean toilets, but am going to tell you they must have been the cleanest toilets I have ever seen! Even the pipes were polished! 

I give the restaurant a overall rating of 4.5 stars!