Recently I?ve found myself constantly craving Indian food, so I was a pretty happy bunny when my friend Charlotta suggested that we pay a visit to Covent Garden?s Masala Zone. Part of a chain and yet with its own unique decor and atmosphere, the Covent Garden branch of Masala Zone offers delicious food with a much higher degree of authenticity than your average Indian restaurant in London. I couldn?t wait to try it out.
On arrival at the restaurant, the first thing that caught my eye was the incredible ceiling. Masala Zone pride themselves on combining different forms of colourful Indian art with an otherwise simple and highly contemporary design. I am told that each restaurant has a different theme: so whilst diners in Camden experience an array of Indian fusion poster art and diners in Bayswater are treated to vibrant pop art collages, in Covent garden we sat below a breathtaking collection of colourful Rajasthani puppets. It was a while before I could take my eyes off them, and I could currently kick myself for not having taken some pictures. There are, however, a few images on the Masala Zone website that will give you an idea of how wonderful this display is ? you can have a look here.
Although the puppets were stunning, what we were really there for was the food (and a good old natter, of course). To my great delight, Masala Zone serves a range of different street foods, including my all time favourites: papri chaat and gol gappas. On this occasion we order a plate of papri chaat to share whilst we perused the main courses. It was full of flavour, fairly spicy and a good-sized portion ? plenty for two to snack on with drinks.
Main courses at Masala Zone come in the form of thalis. For those not familiar with thalis, they are large, round metal trays, on which are served a collection of small bowls, called katoris. Each katori contains a different part of the meal, from curry to daal, raita and pickle. Thalis are a wonderful way to ensure that you get to try plenty of dishes, and in my opinion are the best way to enjoy Indian cuisine.
Charlotta and I both ordered one of the smaller vegetarian thalis, as we knew that otherwise we?d be too full to do anything other than roll home. The waiter rather unhelpfully kept pushing the larger thali on us, but we stood our ground and after a while the two thalis arrived. We happily tucked in to vegetable curry, potatoes, daal, a vegetable side dish and bread. It was all pretty tasty, and afterwards there wasn?t a single katori that hadn?t been enthusiastically emptied.
On this occasion we felt too full to embark on dessert, but I was excited to see that there is an extensive menu of traditional Indian sweet dishes, from kulfis to rasmalai. As I usually judge a good Indian restaurant by whether or not they serve chaat and/or rasmalai, Masala Zone had racked up a fair number of brownie points at this stage.
I can?t remember exactly, but the full meal came to twenty-something pounds per head ? not bad considering that we also polished off a bottle of wine. I would thoroughly recommend Masala Zone as a great place to head for an enjoyable dinner that won?t break the bank. Seriously, it would be worth it just to see the puppets ? and the good food is certainly a very welcome bonus.
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Post Published: 25 August 2011Author: Angharad
Found in section: Food & Drink
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