1 Brecknock Road, London. N7 0BL. Sunday, 27th March

A late decision, this time out… we were looking for a venue close to the Poison Idea gig at the Underworld in Camden. We looked around but could not find anything really good, we tried Maharani on Camden High Road, but it was a bit greasy and overpriced; so we fell back to the regular Bangalore Brasserie.

As before, we met at the Unicorn pub next door to the restaurant around 5ish, and had a beer waiting for the restaurant to open. As it was Easter weekend, and quite a few had other plans there was only 5 of us this time. We went in around a quarter to six, and we were the only ones there as it was so early.

Cobras and coca-cola ordered, we chatted amongst ourselves and had a muted (compared to previous outings!) time out.

The usual onion bhajis and I tried the vegetable kebabs. The bhajis were up to the usual high quality so people said, and the kebabs were a six out of ten, but worth a try at least.

Main courses were ordered, a couple of madras dishes, sag aloo, rice, naan, roti, a korma, a pathia and a tikka masala. Everyone was happy with their meals and the portions were decent enough to fill us up. We could actually finish our dishes today which was good – no wasted food this time!

The service was a bit slow at first, but picked up once the tasks of opening up and getting ready was finished. The younger staff member was the only one on the floor whilst we were there and was cheerful and smiling a lot – calling everyone “Michael Jackson” when delivering or removing plates and such – a fairly weird twist but fun nonetheless.

Overall, it didn’t blow us away as previously, maybe we’re getting spoiled with recent outings! Bill including beers with tips came to about £15 a head as usual.

Overall an 8 out of 10, the ambience was missing this time as it was early in the evening.

(3 March 2015)

1 Brecknock Road, London. N7 0BL. Sunday, 13th September.

Bangalore Brasserie is a regular haunt for us – it’s not far from the centre of Camden, just behind The Unicorn which does some great free gigs with cheap (for Camden) beers. Here’s where it is on Google maps.

It’s always been a restaurant with low prices and high quality food, and one of our favourites due to their huge onion bhajis, but more about those later.

We met in the Dev as usual, a bit of confusion about whether it was or wasn’t an official curry night as we’d all got drunk and forgot over the previous couple of weeks; except for Ratu, the Prospect, who remembered and was actually excited to visit Bangalore Brasserie as he’d never been and had heard us talking about it so often!

Because it was getting later in the evening and the weather was crappy we jumped on the 253 bus for 10 mins and got to the restaurant at about 19:45. It was completely empty, which was a first for us, but many more people came in during the evening. The staff greeted us, and recognised us from many previous visits – either as a collective, or singly (we like to grab some onion bhajis for the trip home when been to a gig at The Unicorn!)

We were given a good sized 6 seater table, and had some friendly banter with the two older men (there’s an old guy with beard, a middle-aged guy and that time also a younger guy who we hadn’t seen before). Greetings and pleasantries were exchanged and beers ordered (just the usual Cobra, 3 other lagers or soft drinks). We chatted and talked nonsense amongst each other and the poppadoms with raita / mango chutney and lime pickle arrived. The poppadoms were crispy and dry, the lime pickle a decent strength, the mango not too sickly sweet and the onion raita was as you would expect.

We ordered our dishes and more relaxed chat and banter between each other and it wasn’t long until the starters arrived. Jack forwent a starter, I thought I’d try the vegetable kebab, everyone else had onion bhajis. The vegetable kebab was 4 smallish kebabs with salad and kinda ok – not very spicy or full of taste like I was hoping, the onion bhajis with salad were a hit as always with everyone – crisp on the outside, moist in the centre and both about the size of a cricket ball.

After we’d finished that, the mains arrived after a short delay. Chicken Tikka Masala, plain rice, garlic naan, Vegetable Biryani (with the vegetable curry as a side), Bhindi Bhaji, garlic naan, King Prawn Pathia, chilli naan, Chicken Kasmir, pilau rice and a vegetable madras.

All portions were generous with main ingredients (none of that 4 bits of chicken / prawn / carrot floating around in sauce here!) and tasty, those that had the naan praised it for taste, texture and fluffyness. The rice was well prepared and also of good texture and flavour.

Overall the ambience was relaxed, no one hovering over us causing stress or pressure to finish up and get out. We were given space and time to complete our food at our own pace and when the table was staring to get a little cluttered, the staff were attentive enough to clear away the clutter. The food was exemplary and good sized and generous portions with high quality.

Me: 9, Gary: 8.5, Charlie McHarper: 8, Gonk: 8.5, Ratu: 8.9, Jack: 10

Total: 52.9/60, averaging 8.8/10

Excellent as always.

(3 March 2015)