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.
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.
