CURRY SCENE

The small town of Oakham boast three Indian restaurants. The longest established is the Voujon Balti Hut, established in 1995 by Mr Anwar Hussain, who now runs a number of other restaurants in this part of the country. Very well situated at one end of town, it is on the first floor and overlooks the main road and junction at the end of the high street.

Opposite is Mill Street, along which is the Rutland Balti House at number 18. This is also a long standing restaurant, opening (so I was told), not long after the Voujon. It is a small but cosy looking restaurant, seating about 30 in traditional Indian restaurant style and offering a standard menu.

Lastly, there is the Dining Room, Oakham's newest addition to the Indian restaurant scene opening 'six months ago' according to the manager when I visited in May 2007. It is towards the other end of town, in New Street. It seats 54 in  modern and contemporary surroundings, but is not your average High Street curryhouse, as you might have gathered by the name. It advertises itself as providing 'creative Indian dining' and offers a menu that, although I have no doubt uses spices common to Indian cooking, does not offer traditional or authentic Indian dishes (you don't often see dishes like Ostrich Tikka or Peppered Kangaroo on the Indian sub-continent!). But it is different (although still Bangladsehi run I was told) and offered much more imaginative dishes than your standard Indian restaurant. I was greatly tempted to go there, but unfortunately I only discovered this restaurant in the evening after I had already booked a table elsewhere, so perhaps next time.

Although an Indian restaurant, it is competing in a different market to the other two. Whether it will do well only time will tell, but the manager to whom I spoke told me that it would be necessary to book whichever night of the week. I raised my eyebrows a little, querying whether this would be true for, say, a Monday or Tuesday, but he assured me they were fully booked every night. If so, then they are clearly doing very well, but I rather suspect this was a slightly (or perhaps greatly) ambitious statement intended to impress. I couldn't help but note that at the admittedly early time of 6.30 on a Saturday evening, both the other two had three tables taken (and in the case of the Rutland Balti House someone also ordering a take-away), yet this was conspicuously empty. However, I hope they do well, as I think Indian cuisine needs places like this to offer something different to the standard fare.

Malcolm Wilkins - May 2007