AFC Wimbledon Nov 2012

Date - Tuesday, 20th November 2012, Daal Handi restaurant

Attendees - Me, Malcolm, Peter, Dave T., Harry, Bill, Rick, JB, Kit, Gary, Julian, Roland and Alex

This trip to AFC Wimbledon enabled another ground to be ticked off the list for me. I saw the old Wimbledon at Plough Lane back in the late 1970's, but had not visited Kingsmeadow, the home of the new AFC Wimbledon that they shared with Kingstonian.  My cousin Julian, who I only normally see at family weddings, funerals and anniversary dinners, lived not far away and so he became an honorary Shrimper for the evening.  Another of our troop, JB, brought a work colleague Gary who lived just down the road as well and this swelled our travelling group to 13, although only 12 of us made the curry.

Those coming by train to Norbiton station had it far easier than the intrepid travellers from Essex who had to endure apocalyptic weather on the M25 southern section, fighting through some horrendous driving conditions.  I took Malcolm in my car with his brother Peter and another newbie, Roland (one of his sons is the boyfriend of one of Malcolm's daughters) and we managed to park practically outside the ground, about 200 yards from the Prince of Wales pub, where we were meeting up with the others, and in the other direction a literal stones throw from the restaurant.

We aimed to get to the curry house at about 6 and I met Julian outside. Some of our number were already inside, as well as about 10 others, so for 6 o'clock on a Tuesday they were quite full.  The restaurant clearly weren't expecting this as there was just one waitress on duty, no waiters and probably only one chef in the kitchen.

It took at least 5 minutes for anyone to even acknowledge our presence, and whilst the early arrivers had arranged a table for 10, there were in fact 12 so we had to fend for ourselves by arranging the additional 2 places and snaffling chairs and cutlery from neighbouring tables.  The very friendly waitress eventually took our drinks order and offered us either the a la carte menu or a buffet, but the experience so far had left us with serious concerns as to whether we would get served before kick off so we opted for the buffet, which was ready and waiting now.

20 poppadoms were also ordered.

The first trip to the buffet was initially uninspiring. There were only six options; quarters of plain Naan bread, plain Pilau rice, Tarka Dall (was it a little 'otter?  Don't worry, I'm here all week...), Bombay Aloo, Chicken Madras or Chicken Korma.  Sadly, all that was available was the Naan, rice and Bombay Aloo with the other tureens containing sauce only.  Freshly cooked dishes of the same variety were being brought out all the time but only in quantities that would serve about 6 people... consequently the dinner was eaten in instalments. The toilet was clean enough although it had run out of toilet roll completely, which wasn't a problem for me personally but it's never a good idea in a curry house to allow the toilets to run out of paper, is it?

Some of us had been up for seconds by the time the drinks arrived and we did feel for the poor waitress who was trying to keep everyone happy. Our order of 10 pints of Kingfisher and 2 cokes took an age but the beers eventually arrived; however, the cokes had been forgotten and a gentle reminder was needed.

The poppadoms turned up on the bar when most had already been up two or three times and there were no pickles, which was disappointing.  After they'd sat there for a few minutes, Malcolm called across to Dave's son Harry to bring them over.  Seeing him deliver the poppadoms, new customers arrived and promptly asked Harry for a table for 2, mistaking him for a waiter.  He'd come straight from sixth form so was in a white shirt and black trousers (having left his blazer and tie back in the car) so I guess it was an easy mistake to make.  Hurrah, the cokes finally arrive but despite 5 or 6 visits to the buffet I never managed to get the chicken korma, which had always run out, despite being replenished on several occasions.  We did manage a second round of drinks as well, which was a lot quicker.

This sounds as though it was a bit of a disaster, but it really wasn't.  OK, the service was not great but they were doing their best considering they clearly weren't expecting so many people to turn up at once.  I could have done them a favour and booked in advance, so I felt a little responsible.  They were also extremely pleasant and friendly, but the biggest plus was that the food was absolutely gorgeous.  The Madras certainly had some heat, the Korma sauce was creamy and aromatic, the rice was cooked to perfection and the two vegetarian dishes were to the total satisfaction of Rick, who is a vegetarian.  How on earth they would have managed had we ordered a la carte is anyone's guess. We'd probably still be there!

Price wise the buffet was £6.99 but with the drinks and service (?), it came to £18 per head, which made the drinks a touch expensive.

Marks (out of ten)

Exterior - 8
Surroundings - 6
Interior - 8
Toilets - 7
Service - 5
Food Quality - 9
Value - 6

Overall rating - 7 - Would certainly consider going back, but would probably book.



The match

AFC Wimbledon 0, Southend 4.

We maintained our 100% win ratio against the Wombles with a clinical and professional performance in atrocious conditions where we elected to stand in the open corner for the second half to get a better view and got completely soaked in the process.  But who cares...we won, got 3 points, looked quite good and moved up the table to just outside the playoffs.

Gillingham - September 2012

Date -  Tuesday, 18th September 2012 - Spice Court Indian Restaurant.

On our arrival at Gillingham, we parked near the ground and having taken advice from a local, headed off towards the High Street where he said the nearest curry house was located.

I use the words "High Street" in the loosest sense of the word, as that conjures up a shopping centre of some description.  Again, if we are taking the literal meaning of "shopping centre" then maybe Gillingham's High Street does qualify.  But I swear I will never speak detrimentally about Southend's High Street again, which is like Westfield in comparison.  There was one dodgy looking establishment in the High Street itself called something like "Lahore Spice" which looked as though it may well serve up Salmonella Madras accompanied with Listeria rice and Botulism Bhajis.  Just around the corner though, bang opposite the rail station, was an establishment called "Spice Court" that didn't exactly look very nice outside but was like a palace in comparison to the other one.

The interior decor was ok and the toilet was clean, albeit under approximately 1mm of water.

We were the only ones there and as there were 5 of us (me, Malcolm, Peter, Jude and Harry), it was a bit strange to find us cramped onto a table for 4 with an extra place as there were plenty of other tables available, especially a nice round one with 6 settings sitting completely empty.

We were served quickly with some poppodums and pickles.  I look for the quality of the pickles and were they home made or out of a jar/bottle?  Well, the onion/tomato one was obviously home made, but the mango chutney, lime pickle and minted yogurt sauce were definitely commercial. 

There were the usual menu choices with a few additional items as specials.  I opted for Chicken Passanda and Honey rice, which I had never seen.  This was oversweet and with hindsight would have gone better with a sour dish, like a Rogan Josh or Jalfrezi.  The flavours were, for me, a little sickly.  Didn't stop me finishing it though!  The Peshwari Naan was totally standard and again, almost certainly commercially produced.

The others had a variety of dishes; Chicken Korma, Meat Madras, Chicken Tikka (dry) and a Chicken Biryani, all with rice.  No bhajis or other accompaniments were ordered.  The standard Cobra beer was available but bottled only, not draught.

After a while we were joined by Dave and JB, who only had some poppodums and a beer.

There were no complaints about the food although there was a fair amount of dish juggling at our end of the table due to the space being too small.  It effectively meant you had to empty everything out of the dish onto the plate in one go as there was nowhere to put the dishes.

Price wise the bill came to £80 (without service) for 12 poppodums, 4 bottles of cobra, 2 small cokes, 1 large diet coke, chicken tikka, chicken biryani, chicken passanda, chicken korma, meat madras, 2 x pilau rice and 2 x honey rice.

Marks (out of 10)

Exterior  - 4
Surroundings - 4
Interior - 7
Toilets - 7
Service - 7
Food quality - 6
Value - 7

Overall rating - 6 - Won't be rushing back but it will do if necessary.


The Match - Gillingham 1, Southend 0

As for the football, Southend dominated the match but were ultimately beaten by a Gillingham side that had one shot at goal, a penalty, and scored.  Having put our keeper in hospital and ensuring our player of the year went off with a bad groin injury (which resulted in the assailant being dismissed) they parked the proverbial bus and ensured an unhappy and frustrating journey home for us shrimpers.

We've had better nights in Gillingham.