ROSE GARLIC, 8-9 MILTON ROAD, GRAVESEND

Yet another new Indian restaurant in town, opening in about the end of 2009. It seats about 100 in comfortable- looking surroundings. Unusually it is not on the site of a previous restaurant, Indian or otherwise, but a completely new venture. Having said that it is run by the same people that run other restaurants in town - Gandhi, Cafe Taj, Tuffail etc., so it comes with a good pedigree. 

The menu contains many unusual names not found on the average high street Indian restaurant menu, but despite this encouraging sign and the good pedigree I was disappointed. The Tandoori Chicken was dry, overcooked and slightly leathery, while the Kerala Chicken curry was very ordinary - hot with chilli but lacking in any underlying flavours or character. Perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised, as Kerala is predominantly a vegetarian region, plus fish and not known for meat curries at all! The Milijilu Subji (described as 'a combination of several vegetables cooked Bengali style'), was pretty ordinary and a little oily, while the Tarka Dall was like a dry moong dall - the lentils  un-mashed -  and lacked flavour (imagine a tin of sweetcorn tipped into a bowl and you have the picture of what it looked like!). Finally, the Spinach Rice was  not, in my view, the usual long-grain basmati rice (as stated on the menu) as the grains were tiny. It was mixed with spinach, as the name suggests, but like the other dishes was fairly dry.

Prices a little higher than most competitors in the town centre, and portions adequate. No complaints about the service, but I must confess that knowing that its sister restaurants are all of good standard I came away feeling disappointed in my meal**. Perhaps it was the chef's day off (although it was a Saturday), but on that showing it will be a while before I try it again.

Malcolm Wilkins - April 2010