All Comments

Jeff - Very generous of Diggers to buy all the drinks in the brown bear for his 50th birthday celebration (although its not a pub I like), and an excellent choice of restaurant too. It looked smarter than I remember from my previous visit, and although it was quiet, so was the nearby Empress. Excellent choice of draft and bottled beers, but the ambiance has been knocked down a mark as Alex was in a bit of an awkward corridor-like spot even though we could basically have been seated anywhere. Lamb tikka was good, main of chicken chatta matta (or similar) was tasty, rice fluffy and veg plentiful. And at £36 including 2 pints, this was excellent VFM too.

Jon - A welcome return to the Red Chilli for a great evening and a very good meal.  I often don't trust draught Cobra in Indian restaurants but I opted for it here and was not disappointed. There was a wide selection on the menu and I opted for a mix kebab starter – fairly standard for me and it was pretty good – followed by a special lamb dish that I can't remember the name of.  It was like lamb shank meat but without the bone – superb and very tasty.  As we always like spinach and mushrooms, I picked a spinach/mushroom veg combo that was very good along with the usual selection.  Definitely worthy of a top six spot in my opinion.

Dave - Tremendous meal at the red chilli - food excellent- perfect 10 for the chicken curry and 10 for booze as they served draught Kingfisher! Think this should go straight to the top of the flocks.

Neil - As Curry Coordinator for the evening I thought the Red Chilli looked worth a revisit, this having the added advantage of a great pub next door (The Brown Bear). It took quite a long time for our starters to arrive but otherwise all was fine with the service. The mixed veggie starter was very tasty and plentiful, which left not much room for the main. I did, however manage to eat most of my mixed veg/paneer curry and it was very pleasant with a thick sauce. Can't comment on the sides and breads as too full to sample but they looked ok from a distance. I'd certainly go back outside of the club but probably only if our top rated establishment (The Empress) which is next door was full.

Graeme - First of all, many thanks to Diggers for funding all the beers in the pub beforehand (to celebrate his 50th birthday) - top man! I enjoyed my meal on our return to the Red Chilli, although some aspects could have been better. The food was good without being exceptional. I had a Mixed Selection to start followed by Chicken Tikka Rezella. One thing of particular note: the Rezella was served up as a massive portion. The service was polite and efficient when delivering the food but so slow (and it was relatively quiet in there). I left the restaurant immediately after we had settled up and it was 2 3/4 hours since we had arrived. I would have marked the ambiance higher except I was put off by the horrendously poor quality painting that I was sitting opposite. I marked the beer up as they had two draft Indian beers, although I still went for the bottled Cobra! I seem to remember finishing the evening by ranting about how contactless payment cards made it too easy to spend money without being able to track one's spending (for those who don't collect their receipts).

Alex - Place has changed a bit but still pretty good if a little slow on service. Starter was very good, the main wasn't outstanding but pretty decent.

Brian - Garlic mussels to start were very tasty.  Fish main was very good, although not quite as impressive as the starter.  Draft cobra was a pleasant surprise. I had an in-built bias against this place, as I really like the Empress (the other side of the Brown Bear pub), however I thought it was an excellent meal, and the Empress certainly has some very local competition. Disturbed to see that a photo of myself from 30+ years ago is apparently doing the rounds, and there really is an explanation for my lack of trousers. Not sure I could explain the bags on other people's heads though!

Robin - My starter of Tiger Prawn Puree was quite nice although a little light on prawns, but I was disappointed by my main course of Chicken Mirchi Ka Salan, which was described as "fairly hot" but was actually pretty mild and not very flavourful. The veg dishes were good and the special rice was above average, but at £36 per head I felt it was rather expensive and not really worth going out of your way to visit.

Tim - It was good to see that there was still the larger than usual selection of beers, including Bangla, and Cobra and Kingfisher on draught. For the starter I was at first drawn to Kalamaree Puktonne which was described as "Succulent squid fish tossed with goans peri peri". Was this some exciting, exotic new breed of fish? Or just Calamari with the strangest spelling ever? Sadly the latter, so I decided to go for "Grilled salmon/monkfish tikka", which turned out to be just salmon. Perhaps salmon/monkfish means "use whichever is the cheaper". Still, it was quite tasty and the salad had enough sauce on it not to need extra condiments. The main of tandoori metta khatta, despite being described as spicy, was actually rather mild and a touch on the sweet side; other dishes I tried had more flavour. There was a good quantity of meat however. Overall, service was quite slow - almost an hour for starters and the whole meal took about two and a half hours. A free round of liqueurs at the end was nice, but as there were no discounts available, the overall price was relatively high.