The Raj

Sector: Gunn Street (by the Oracle) Stardate: Tuesday 4 December 2001 Go back to Naan Trek home page

Decor: Dark green walls decorated with many elephants; palatial fabrics billowing across ceiling.
Music: Quiet but authentic.

• Mouth-watering cindered tikka smell at the entrance as we waited to be seated.
• Fake flames and blatantly fake flowers.
• Sultry lighting - could pass off as a harem???
• Effect spoilt by the double doors of an emergency exit across one of the walls.

Time to get served: Around 30 minutes.
Menu descriptions: Boring - the most elaborate was "A tasty tandori delicacy" (regarding the Lamb Hasina).

• Cursory service, slow to get waiters attention.
• Dirty table cloth.
• Missing cutlery and napkins - had to be pilfered from adjacent tables.
• Waiter didn't know what rum was!

Popadums and chutneys: Crispy, with four flavourful dips including Mango Chutney (with a touch of honey) and Sweet Yogurt.
Lime pickle: Liquidised but hot. Top quality.
Onion bagees (£2.60): Saucer shape, very tasty. "Nicely caked together" (Pavelin).

Vegetable Korma: "Taste of coconut, texture and colour of pumpkin soup" (Gaussiat).
Chicken Dupiaza: "Nothing special, very mild, tomatoey, OK" (Pavelin).
Lamb Dupiaza: "Quite good actually, I'm really enjoying it" (Lawrence).
Vegetable Biriani: "Tasty but fairly mild" (Hogan).
Vegetable Rogan: "Mmm, Good" (Dixon).

• Only two vegetable main courses on the menu, Korma and Biriani, although Mark got a Rogan when he asked for it.
• Naan bread was rich but slightly undercooked.

Key:

Yes

No

Too drunk to remember

• Buffet option only at lunchtimes.
• Stella and Kinfisher both on tap!
• After Eights with the bill.

An pleasant experience overall, although a few aspects of the service could have been better. The management was clearly keen to discover how its patrons enjoyed their meal, as witnessed by the Customer Survey we were asked to fill in (we used ours to point them in the direction of this web site). We award the Raj 3 Cobras: