Whenever something new opens up in town you just have to give it a go. S o that’s what I did when it was brought to my attention that the popular Indian Ocean restaurant in West Cliff had opened a sister restaurant, Indian Lounge, on Old Christchurch Road.
With the choice of a takeaway or a full sit-down menu, I opted for the former and busily began scouring the menu from the comfort of my sofa.
We chose the Tandoori chicken (£2.95) and the Nargis kebab (£2.95), the latter purely because its description as a boiled egg covered in spicy minced meat and served with massala sauce on top, sounded brilliant.
Turns out it was. The Nargis kebab could well have been a main dish, such was the size of the portion and the Tandoori chicken, while smaller, was equally good.
For mains we ordered a chicken do-piaza (£4.95), a lamb roughan josh (£4.95), two keema naans (£2.50 each) and a portion of special pilau rice (£2.50).
The total came to a pretty reasonable £23.30 and it arrived after 35 minutes, when we’d been told 40 minutes.
The chicken do-piaza was very good indeed, with excellent chunks of chicken and a tasty sauce. However the lamb roughan josh was mild and rather bland.
The keema naans were also a bit disappointing as there wasn’t a great deal of keema meat present and they weren’t the largest naans I’ve ever seen either.
I have since been for a sit-down meal at Indian Lounge and was suitably impressed with the service and décor.
Everything is a little bit more expensive to eat in – naturally – but the quality is possibly a little higher than that of the takeaway variety.
All in all, it’s a decent addition to Bournemouth’s Indian cuisine fraternity, but the search for Bournemouth’s best curry house continues.
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