Situated in the station buildings it opened in 1996 by the same family that run the Meopham Tandoori restaurant. The two restaurants have almost the same menu, but unfortunately different chefs! It is bigger than it looks from the outside and is divided into two comfortably furnished dining areas. Since my first visit and report in 1998 I have visited about once a year, and only that frequently as a check to see whether things have changed as it has never been good enough to attract me as a regular diner. 

Onion Bhaji starters very solid and stodgy with not much onion in them.  Other dishes formula curry standard, which overall have not been anywhere near the standard of the sister restaurant in Meopham. In the early days the dishes all tended to be a little oily, so much so on my first visit in 1998 that I had to spoon the oil from the top of the Mixed Vegetable Curry.  Furthermore I found the curries in the earlier years to be in thin gravy. My reports of early visits recorded that 'the Dhansak  was in a thin sauce although still ‘lentilly’ and quite tasty', and last year's report recorded that  the 'Chicken Jalfrezi was very poor - chicken in a very thin gravy with little spicing other than a few chillies (which seemed to have been boiled and thrown in rather than cooked in the dish). In fact, it looked and tasted very much as though the chicken and a few chillies had just been boiled up in a chicken stock. Very poor, although plenty of chicken'. This was probably the worst of my reports and it was a bad meal.

Furthermore, I found the vegetable dishes in earlier years to be generally over cooked with vegetables being mushy, as well as oily, and not retaining their texture. On each occasion I have noted that the Vegetable Pilao has been the best of the dishes, having plenty of vegetable in a nicely cooked rice.

On my latest visit the food has generally improved, from well below average to about average. The oiliness had gone, and while the Mixed Vegetable was not so mushy (an average example), it was very bland and lacking in flavour. Vegetable Sambar a little better but again fairly bland. Chicken Tikka Dhansak much improved as sauce was nicely thick and lentilly, with a reasonably hot tang to it, and once again the Vegetable Pilao was good.

Portions and prices about average.

It has always been quieter than it’s sister restaurant in the village, which is not surprising as the food is not as good. All in all a fairly average formula curry on this occasion, but better than it has been in the past.

Malcolm Wilkins - June 2003