India | world-food-thursdays

Country No. 22: India

The Regency Club, Queensbury

Attendees: Ben, Kim, Lee, Ellen, Becky, PK (venue chosen by PK)

Price per head: £25 a head including generous tip

The latest episode of World Food Thursday was prefaced with unmatched anticipation. The pressure was on. PK, of Sporting Clube de Londres fame, was tasked with finding an unblemished ruby in and amongst a plethora of cheap imitations. As the date neared the expectation increased, the gastronaughts were still without a venue but were eagerly awaiting an opportunity to party with some poppadum, to natter amongst the naan breads. Finally, a mere three days in advance of our date with destiny, the location was revealed. World Food would be descending on The Regency Club in Queensbury, north London.

From the moment the venue was announced conversation turned to what time would people be arriving and therefore how many rounds of pre-starters could be squeezed in before the very continental start time of 8.30. As it turned out the attempts to line our stomachs with samosas and bhaji were thwarted at the first. The Regency Club is a beautiful hybrid of British and Indian culture. From the outside a grand spectacle, proclaiming to be a private members bar, no children allowed. Stepping over the threshold and into the building the Regency Club revealed itself to be a converted English Pub, crammed to capacity with a mixture of British and Asian punters, some of whom were standing at the bar supping on pints of the Regency’s own pilsner, waiting patiently for a table to free up. At exactly 8.30 the charming waiter announced that our table was ready and off we shuffled, drinks in hand, to squeeze into our booth.

Perhaps owing to the fact that the Regency is an Indian/ Kenyan restaurant, or perhaps owing to the fact that it’s a world apart from a British Curry House the menu offered up new and unexpected dishes, as well as dispensing with some of the favourites. The clamour for poppadum was swiftly kyboshed by the charming waiter – we don’t serve poppadums here madam. We survived this shock though and, on the waiter’s recommendation, ordered the mixed tandoori grill (upgrading the lamb chops to cutlets), the okra fries, and a portion of deep fried potato and deep fried cassava as well as the petis (deep fried, alluringly green, spiced balls of potato and pea). We held back on ordering our mains and it was a good thing we did as the portions were enormous. The okra fries had a delightful crunch, the grilled meat was deliciously spiced, especially the lamb cutlets. So spiced in fact that Ellen requested a mango lassi to help her cope with the heat – revealing another curry house staple that The Regency Club do not offer. At this stage it would be unfair of me to go any further without mentioning an inspired touch. Each and every table is provided two bottles of homemade sauces, a mint sauce and a Regency chutney – a genius move that prevented any arguments over the last scraping of sauce.

Having devoured our starters we moved onto mains, scaling back our initial desire for a dish each and one for the table to a more reasonable 4 dishes. We went for a mixed bunch, erring on the side of caution by ordering both paneer masala and chicken tikka masala to satisfy those without the taste for chilli, a saag prawn and a winning rogan gosht. We accompanied these dishes with a couple of servings of pilau rice and a mixture of different breads. With the exception of the prawn curry which unfortunately was a bit overcooked each and every item was a resounding success packed with flavour.

Indian Facts:

World Food Thursdays were too distracted by the delicious food to think about facts