MILAAD (Take Away only), 18 MILTON ROAD.

One of the first take-away establishments in town and was my regular for many years until growing competition enticed me to vary my custom to try the others. However, despite the opening of plenty of other take-aways, it still maintains a good standard and is probably still my long term favourite. It boasts an extensive menu which has expanded over the years to include a number of more unusual dishes as well as all the old favourites. For example, ‘Badami’ (mild and creamy with peanut and pistachio sauce), ‘Kata Mossala’ (fairly hot with a chilli and lime pickle sauce) and ‘Lebu’ (strong lemon flavour and not as hot as menu suggests) and the satisfyingly tasty Chicken Zalzala (tikka re-cooked in a dark, full flavoured sauce) are all tasty and interesting offerings worth a try.

All the standard dishes I have tried have been good formula curries and there has been little change in their standards over the years. The Dhansak, Pathia and Jalfrezi dishes are particularly to my taste being hot, well spiced and in a thick sauce with no shortage of chillies in the Jalfrezi. The uncommon (I have never seen it elsewhere) Agooni Chicken (fried in garlic and chilli and stir fried with coriander and sugar for a rich sweet/sour sauce) had plenty of wicked little chillis and was a mouth tinglingly hot dish. Mixed Vegetable Bhaji and Dall Samber have always been good and spicy while the Tarka Dal usually has a nice underlying garlic flavour without it being overwhelming (I say 'usually' as the last couple of times have not been so good. Perhaps the usual chef was away, but another poor showing and I'll have to think about re-writing the above!).

Quantities plentiful - the largest of all local take-aways - and prices are about average which is good for a free home delivery service regardless of size of order (handy for those who might want a single meal which comes to less than the minimum amount required by many other take-aways).

Always reliable (but see penultimate paragraph above) for a good, formula curry. 

Malcolm Wilkins - December 2005