The Shagor Tandoori Review

July 7, 2015 by Rich - Foodie Reviewer

The Shagor Tandoori Review

Every country has a national dish right? Irish Stew in Ireland, Haggis neeps and tatties in Scotland, Hamburgers in America, but what’s ours? Some would say fish and chips or roast beef, not me! Surely its curry? I have friends who live in Australia, and there is one thing they all miss and crave from the UK; a bloody good reliable curry house! By the way, Australia’s national dish is a meat pie, they love em!

As Rick Stein (probably my all time food hero) once said, ‘Once you think of it and its engraved in your mind no other food will do’. That’s exactly what happened to me last week; I just had to go for a good ol’ Ruby! But where do we go, there just seems to be a curry house around every corner in Southend, Westcliff and Leigh? After a little research, the Shagor on Hamlet Court Road seemed one of the more established Indian restaurants in the area, and I had heard some pretty good reviews recently. We hadn’t been there for ages, so time to get down there I reckon.

When we arrived the restaurant was pretty busy, which is always a good sign! It’s a fairly large venue, so a table for two was not an issue. As soon as we sat down we were handed a menu and offered a drink, Kingfishers all round it just had to be. I honestly think, the only drink to have with a curry is beer; you just need something to gulp with all that spice. We ordered poppadum’s to start with, I’m not a massive fan of those large deep-fried poppadum’s, instead we went for the ‘spicy’ ones that are normally cooked in the tandoori oven, not fried. They refer to these as spicy; I don’t think they are, but still tasty with all the usual Indian chutneys and pickles.

So the menu, a great selection of starters and mains, all the usual suspects were present and correct, chicken tikka masala, lamb madras, tandoori chicken to name just a few. But, they also have more obscure dishes such as Lamb Garam Fry from Goa or Shahi Mustard Fish Curry, how nice to they sound! Just to point out here, most of our curry houses in the UK are run by Bangladeshi’s not Indians. Its well worth asking the chefs to knock up a traditional dish they would eat at home. More often than not, I am sure they would feel honoured to do so, and pleased someone is actually taking an interest in their cuisine, rather than just swilling back the beer and ordering something like a Phal! A dish I believe created from the demand of late night revellers, wanting the ‘hottest thing on the menu’ to act macho in front of their mates. A few years back Lou and I were invited in to a curry house kitchen, and the chefs were keen to show us how they cooked their traditional Bengali curries, and of course demonstrate the tandoori oven. Ever wondered why most Indian chefs are minus arm hair? The tandoori oven is why; it’s so bloody hot! You try chucking naan bread in a tandoor, its far too hot for me!

Well back to what we ate. To start, Lou went a little ‘off piste’, she really fancied salmon tikka, but it wasn’t on the menu, this was not a problem though, the chef was more than happy to accommodate this request. I ordered chicken chat on puri. Which is basically a sort of chicken curry served in a light Indian flat bread. I am a real spice fiend, so I asked they go heavy on the chilli, which again was not a problem. The starters arrived, and Lou’s fish was lovely, nice large cubes of salmon in a superb tikka marinade, perfect. My chicken chat was spiced just how I like it, very spicy! The Puri bread was light and fluffy, not at all heavy, and considering it is actually deep-fried, it was not swimming in grease, very nice it was too.

For mains Lou went for a lamb vindaloo. Yep, the old spice lovers staple, which she loves! I decided on a chicken jalfrezi. Ok, I guess we both weren’t that adventurous with the mains, but it’s just what we fancied! Both were perfect, spicy, rich and generous amounts of both lamb and chicken. On the side we had a keema rice to share, which didn’t disappoint, aubergine bhaji, and an aloo paratha. Now the paratha was great. Basically it’s an Indian bread stuffed with spicy potato, really tasty when mopping up the curry. We did order another side, which I had never heard of before, Masley Sag. Basically its fish and spinach. It looked just like a normal sag bhaji any curry house would serve up, but with a fish flavour. I’m not really selling this to you am I? Fishy spinach doesn’t sound too appetising, and to be honest, I don’t think it would be to everyone’s taste, but I liked it. Give it a go, its quite unusual! That’s a fair amount of food just for two, I always get carried away! Needless to say it had beaten us. What’s great about most curry houses, nobody bats an eyelid if you take away your left overs, and that’s exactly what we did. Our leftovers were boxed up, ready for us to enjoy the next day, who knows, maybe for breakfast!

My only criticism would be the pudding menu. All curry houses seem to do the same, that dreaded menu appears showing pictures of various ice cream based puddings. I am sure after all that spicy curry, ice cream would be very refreshing, but surely they could try and be a little more creative than just offer these factory produced deep frozen delights! This goes for most curry houses, not just the Shagor. So come on guys, how about some homemade Kulfi or even proper Indian rice pudding? Saying that though, when do I ever have room for pudding, I always chicken out! So I shall stop my moaning, because I would not let this put you off, everything else was great.

Our bill arrived, only £60 for two with drinks and a tip, not bad at all. As I said earlier, we have a large number of curry houses in the area to choose from, so finding a good, reliable restaurant can be difficult, but I honestly think my search is over. The food and service was great. Ok I had a little pop at the puddings, but most curry houses are the same, and we don’t go out for a curry based on the puddings do we. So please don’t let that put you off. I’m definitely going back, I really enjoyed it. They also do an ‘all you can eat’ Sunday buffet, for £6.95 a head, what a bargain, I need to give that a go!