Venue – Zari, 212-214 Ifield Drive, Crawley, RH11 0DQ
Attendees – Me, Malcolm, Rick (drink only)
For this JPT game, it was a reduced travelling party, with
Rick joining us straight from London and only me and Malc making the journey
from Essex. It was in fact the return of the group forever known as “The
Aldershot three” as we were the visitors to Hampshire just after Phil Brown had
been appointed manager of the mighty Blues. We only won once when he was in
charge that season, which I think was for about 8 games, and it was on that
night when we won 2-0, effectively sending the Shots down to the Conference.
Fitting, bearing in mind that their dodgy floodlights effectively prevented us
gaining automatic promotion the season before but that’s another story. See the blog entry here - http://aroundthegroundsin80curries.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/aldershot-16th-april-2013.html
Crawley has a “New Town” feel to it; many places are modern
constructions and of the 11 Indian restaurants in the vicinity, almost all of
them seemed to be in small shopping parades of 8 – 10 units. Some of the
pictures of these restaurants on Google Earth seemed to be graffiti clad
walls/garages near or in front of the said eateries. It’s not overly conducive
to want to book a table in a curry house when all you can see is a grey,
soulless wall with black/white spray paint designs in front of wherever you
would be going. I mean, anything could be behind that wall, including Harry
“the knife” who is just waiting for some poor unsuspecting soul to wander
through en route to collect their Chicken Vindaloo. Crawley isn’t nicknamed
“Creepy” for nothing you know. They’ll be sitting ducks, I tell you (or sitting
chickens, whatever, either way the portions will be poultry. See what I did
there? Sorry, enough of the fowl jokes. Oops, did it again.)
Anyhow, Crawley is in fact a town that dates back to the 13th
Century (check out the Wikipedia entry here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crawley#Origins)
but enough of the history lesson – on with the food.
The last time we were here, we went to a restaurant called
Cinnamon and a huge discussion ensued about whether to just order the usual
dish & rice with the shared naan and side dishes or go for the Indian
Banquet being offered. We didn't really have time for a banquet but it seemed
cheaper. I don’t know if it was or not as we really didn't have enough time to
eat everything, what with having a football match to attend and all that. We
lost 3-0 then and it has since been erased from the memory, but I don’t recall
the food being all that great. So we thought we’d try somewhere different.
The trouble is that nowhere looked very appealing due to the aforesaid Google snaps, but a bit
of on-line research showed that a local curry house, Zari, was up for some award
and in doing so beat off competition from a Michelin starred restaurant and The
Queens Table, the restaurant attached to Amberley House. Now that must be
something worth visiting I thought; so we did. As it turns out, it was just a
shame there was only the two of us.
Zari was at the end of a dodgy looking parade of shops
containing all the ingredients for a food tasters paradise; a Chinese take
away, a KFC imitation chicken take away place, fish and chips, kebabs, Londis,
a coffee shop, oh and a bookies, game exchange place and a small Co-op. Classy.
The pub, “The Pelham Buckle” was alongside Zari’s and looked nice from a
distance but up close less so. “Kim’s Kitchen – Home Cooked Food” was
emblazoned on the windows and made it look somehow even less appealing. But in
amongst all this was Zari’s restaurant, a double sized unit with pretty pink
neon lights and deceptive surroundings hiding an absolute jewel in Indian
cuisine.
We arrived at around 5:50 and were greeted by no less than 6
staff. They were obviously expecting a busy night as there must have been space
for over 100 covers and there were only 4 people in there already. We announced
that we were here for the football but the waiter clearly wasn't a fan of
either Crawley or the game itself as he asked who won… we had to explain that
midweek games were played in the evening and we had to be away at about 7 so
needed feeding fairly quick. The obligatory Cobras and puppodums were ordered
and this is when we got a flavour that this place was just a little different.
Everything was home made on site, even the puppodums and the spicy ones were
conical in shape (see picture). The chutneys/accompaniments were delicious and
if there was a complaint it was that there wasn't enough.
The menu was also completely different with lots of items I
have never seen before anywhere. The waiter recommended a red curry, which
Malcolm had (Madras strength) and I had a chicken dish which was incredibly
aromatic and full of flavour. I can neither pronounce nor remember its name but
it was certainly delicious. It was either that or a Biryani dish that they make
with a pastry crust, so it was like a pie. Tough call. The Keema rice and Garlic rice were also very tasty and the
Peshwari Naan was home-made and less “doughy” than I have had elsewhere.
Absolutely fab.
The toilets were spotless and I have eaten in places less
clean than they were. The staff were attentive and if there was a criticism at
all, it was that for the second curry running, the waiter came over and asked if we wanted our food.
Yes please mate, we’re in a rush as there’s a football match on and we don’t
want you to let it get cold somewhere. Just bring it over.
Rick joined us at the end for a drink and all in all it was
a cracking meal out. More expensive than usual but only to be expected and well
worth it.
Marks
Exterior - 8
Surroundings - 7
Interior – 9.5
Toilets – 9.5
Service - 9
Quality - 8
Value – 7.5
Overall - 8.36
The football
Crawley were statuesque. Southend were so far and away the
better team in a 3-0 win that it was embarrassing. Quarter finals here we come!
