Situated on the main road in Corfe Mullen, which is about midway between Poole and Wimborne. A car park behind takes about 10 cars for those who cannot find a place on the main road. It opened about a year ago and is one of four owned by the same people. The others are the Wimborne Tandoori in Wimborne, Bombay Spice in Wallisdown (on the outskirts of Bournemouth) and "the one down the road", which I assume to be the Moonlight in Broadstone on the outskirts of Poole.

A fairly large restaurant seating 72 with the dining area divided into smoking and non smoking areas. Decor is quite modern with bright green colourings on the walls in the smoking section and red in non smoking, with large modern paintings of sunsets breaking up the colours. Busy on a Saturday night but the reservation system seemed to work well. In any event it is large enough to provide a constant turnover and I can’t imagine a long wait even if not booked.

The menu covers all the usuals with one or two different dishes, including duck amongst the tandoori dishes. Standard Popadoms and Pickles to start but we had only just started them when the Onion Bhaji starters arrived. The Bhajias (two flat type) were OK but with a little greasy inside as though they had been pre-fried in oil not hot enough to fully cook them- which allowed some oil to seep in - and finished off in hot oil to crisp them before serving. Main dishes were all good high street formula curry. The Adrok Chicken (chicken cooked with green chilli, garlic, tomato and ginger) was tasty but there was no hint of the green chilli ascribed to it by the menu. It was mild and fairly creamy and very much like a CTM cooked with ginger. My Chicken Tikka Jhal-Frezi (sic) did have the green chillies mentioned in the menu but they had not been cooked in the sauce, which was therefore not particularly hot if eaten without one of the chillies. Lamb Do-Piaza (sic) contained plenty of tender chunks of lamb and was a nice but standard example of this dish. Chicken Tikka Sali again quite mild but a very tasty blend of spicing and the julienne potato topping on this dish always adds and interesting dimension. Mixed Vegetable Bhaji slightly oily and an interesting flavour which I would describe as peppery and quite liked although my wife described it more as a smoky flavour and didn’t like it. You can’t please ‘em all! Rice, Nans and Chapattis all standard stuff.

Service good overall. The head man was welcoming and when I arrived greeted me by my name, which he had clearly remembered from when I had called in earlier to book a table. As this was my first visit it made a nice welcome. The only criticism was that the service was almost too quick at times. For example, the starters arrived very shortly after the picks & pops, and when taking the order for coffee it was a matter of him saying "Coffee? Yes" and walked off before we had decided if we all wanted it. Fortunately we did! Prices marginally above average (although I cannot comment on local comparisons) and portions quite sufficient.

Overall a good formula high street curry.

Malcolm Wilkins - June 2001