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Ashoka

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MichaelJM
MichaelJM
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3 out of 5
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1
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Editor Pick

Ashoka

  • March 22, 2008
  • Rated 3 of 5 by MichaelJM from Nottingham, England
Ashoka

Alongside the busy Portland road is this first floor Indian Restaurant. A work colleague had been told about a Mexican Restaurant on this road and we’d both worked up an appetite for a spicy evening meal. However, when we finally found the building it was in total darkness and we rather suspected it had finished doing business. Just a few doors up is The Ashoka.

I like Indian food, it ticked the box for being spicy so we decided to give it a whirl. Although I described it was first floor it’s more like a mezzanine as there are only 10 or so steps off the Portland Road up to the restaurant’s entrance.

We were beamingly welcomed by a young waiter who took us to a comfortable table for two and we settled down in leatherette chairs to ponder the menu. To help the choice I ordered a pint of kingfisher, a very light Indian beer that I’d enjoyed several times when on holiday in India. This was on draught so I liked forward to reminding my taste buds of the Kerala experience.

The menu was huge and in all honesty there was far too much to consider. I kept changing my mind with alarming frequency and got to the stage that I was almost unable to choose. That really is the problem with massive menu choices. In the end I opted for a starter of Chicken Tikka followed by a Chicken Jalfreizi and sharing a Chicken Biryani with my colleague. We’d nibbled on a couple of complimentary poppadoms with some great accompaniments before the starter arrived (watch out for the ultra hot dips – I didn’t and needed to down a good quantity of beer to remove the “burning sensation”!).

The starter looked exceptional with nicely cooked pieces of Chicken and a delightfully crisp and fresh looking salad. My eyes hadn’t deceived me as the taste lived up to those initial expectations. We didn’t rush, nor were we rushed and I was ready for another pint of Kingfisher by the time I got round to finishing my starter.

The main courses and the Biryani were almost ceremoniously placed in front of us and the waiter stepped back admiringly and then invited us to start our meal, with an ultra polite hand gesture, a broad smile and those immortal words “please, enjoy your meal.”

The quantity was immense and it wasn’t too long before we were questioning the sense of ordering the starter and the Biryani. However, it was delicious and I for the first time sampled the Karahi (my colleague had a chicken one as a main course and was struggling to finish it). He rated this as possibly the best Karahi that he’d ever tasted – it was certainly very flavoursome.

The Ashoka is conveniently sited close to the centre of town and I’ll certainly eat here again. We’d received a friendly greeting and real decent food at a fair price.

From journal Manchester - A Taste of India

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