Restaurant Review: Cardamom

When you think of a curry house, you think of ornate paintings and figurines of the Gods and hear the Bollywood and Bhangra music in the background, but here, there are modern etchings hung on the walls draped with fine and colourful fabric and not a sitar note within earshot.

While its décor somewhat confuses the customer and this is by no means a criticism, rest assured, if you are after a traditional Indian meal then Cardamom is the place to go, as long as you don't mind the slow-paced service, and this is the only aspect which left a sour taste in my mouth on Friday evening.

We ordered papadoms with the usual chutney and onion salad to tease the palette before ordering our starters.

I ordered the lamb patha, shredded roasted lamb cooked with nutmeg and fresh coriander at £3.50 and this dish looked like a vegetarian sausage on the plate.
The lamb was cooked well and was soft if a little stringy and the coriander left a refreshing after-taste in my mouth.

My partner ordered the king prawn puri with mixed spices, wrapped in a deep fried unleavened soft bread at £4.95. The prawns were succulent and plump and the encasing wasn't too saturated in grease or fat.

For my main dish, and after hearing the seafood in this restaurant is a must-try, I opted for the golda shaak which consisted of jumbo prawns cooked with baby spinach, garlic, chilli and fresh lime juice at £8.95 and accompanied with pilau rice.

This was an ample main meal and came out beautifully presented in white ceramic dishes and topped with fresh herbs.

Again, the prawns were juicy and tasted as fresh as they had been caught just moments ago and the combination of spice and lime made this dish a real winner.

My partner plumped for a chicken madras, or murg-e-madras, which, with the two chilli signs on the menu, we were prepared with water and a Cobra beer.

The chicken literally crumbled in the mouth, it was soft and flavoursome and surprisingly, not as hot as we expected. The chilli and lime in the hot sauce fused around the meat beautifully and again you couldn't fault the presentation.

To add to the meal, we ordered a side dish of saag paneer, a traditional cheese, spinach and cream concoction, said to be one of the most popular choice in Indian vegetarian cuisine.

This dish was too sweet for my liking but got the thumbs up from my partner.

Washed down with two glasses of house white, our bill came to just over £45, not bad at all; but this was the quickest item to reach our table.

Paloma Kubiak was eating at Cardamom, 86 Northfields Avenue, West Ealing, W13 944. TEL: 020 8840 1634 or 020 8840 3908.