All Comments

Dominic - After some recent absences, I thought that volunteering to be CC would be a way of getting back some "questionable honour" so I nominated the Depa Tandoori and its nearby boozer, the Skinners Arms. I had only ordered delivery from the Depa so was only a little familiar with their cuisine. The venue is a reasonably spartan long room with a generic wall feature running along both sides. The service was reasonable most of the night, however, once the place was full became a tad slow. I went for the Mixed Tikka starter where every item was tender and tasty. For main I went for the Lamb Tikka Naga which was again quite tasty. No standouts in the veg, however, my Chilli Naan was superb even though it quickly disappeared down Tim's end, never to be seen again! And with the venue being a BYO, the VFM was quite good. Great to see the 6 who made it although "old age" was definitely in full view with puzzling comments about birthdays /age and "phantom" free liqueurs!

Jon - Solid but unspectacular from the Depa. Mixed kebab was decent although some of the meat was a bit tough and my lamb tikka dansak main course was little better than average. Sag rice was a pleasant alternative. I was late to the party but it was a good night nonetheless.

John - King prawn puree followed by garlic chilli chicken tikka. All very tasty washed down with BYO Cobra. What's not to like.

Dave - Enjoyable evening at the depa tandoori however the enjoyment was principally supplied by the company rather than the food. The relishes with the popadoms were thin and watery and the prawn puri was at best average. The curry followed in a similar vein and I left confident we would not have to revisit next year. Well done to Graeme for asking if we could get a free round of liqueurs in the alcohol free restaurant!

Graeme - This was our first visit to Depa Tandoori, a small BYO place in the Bloomsbury area. We passed (but did not enter) a nearby convenience store based on the 'intelligence' that the restaurant did now offer alcoholic drinks but then had to double back when we found that it didn't. Confusion put behind us, we settled in for a cosy evening. The food was good, especially my starter of King Prawn Puri and main of Garlic Chilli Chicken Tikka (plenty of garlic - good for me, not for my group tennis session clubmates the next morning!). I've given a low score for service as the waiter brushed my head with his arm at least 6 times when leaning over me to deliver food or collect dishes. Apart from that, it was a pleasant enough place but not remarkable.

Tim - A good pub to start - 6 different bitters and no queue, and we were able to sit outside in the sun. The restaurant was BYO, so I'd brought a selection of things I'd had at home, as some of the prices in the nearby off licence were outrageous (£3.49 for a bottle of London Pride). The decor inside was fairly plain and seemed to me to be more Greek in style than Indian, not that it matters. The accompaniments to the poppadoms were the least viscous I've ever seen - even the mango chutney was so runny it was almost impossible to keep it on the poppadom while trying to eat it. The menu was not the most adventurous and I chose a mix tikka starter and rezalla chicken tikka main. The starter was good, when it finally arrived. There was also quite a long wait for the mains, though I don't remember the place being particularly busy. The rezalla chicken was good; though not as spicy as I expected from the description; I'd even asked for it to be hotter than normal, but I've no way of telling if that was actually the case. Both the keema nan and chilli nan were fine, as were the vegetables. I marked down the service a little as it was quite slow, though that's the fault of the kitchen rather than the waiters; I wonder how they would have managed if we were a larger group. The overall VFM was pretty good, obviously helped by the BYO policy - I really like this as I can choose beers that are not normally available, as well as it being cheaper, but I think some people prefer the ease of just ordering the default Cobra at ~£6/bottle.

Brian - Not a place I'd go out of my way to visit again. Whilst the BYO approach works out cheaper, I still prefer to order what I'm going to consume in the restaurant, as I neither want to bring too much, nor pop out to the offie for a top up (in practice I nicked one of John's, so it worked out ok). The mint sauce and mango chutney were terrible - indistinguishable from coloured water really. Chick pea purée to start was fine and a bit different, salmon tikka main was OK too.