Prashad, Bradford

[Harters]

It’s Indian (mainly Gujarati). It’s vegetarian. It’s unlicensed. It’s cracking value for money. It’s Good Food Guide listed. It’s just featured on TV in “Ramsay’s Best Restaurant”. And it’s good. Very, very good.

They have two rooms, opening one only at dinner, just for walk-ins. This lunchtime, with just one room open, every chair had a bum on it and probably a similar number were turned away. Nearly an hour’s drive from home, we’re glad we’d made reservations.

Planning for the two of us to share everything, we ordered up three starters. Hara bara kebab was peas and cauliflower mashed together, rolled into shape and fried. It was excellent – a soft but non-sloppy texture accurately spiced. The dhal kachori was a complete contrast in texture – again a soft centre of pureed lentils, punchy with chilli - but encased in a piece of chapatti (or rotli as it is known in Gujarati), then deep fried to a very crisp crispness. Our third starter was a chaat – chopped samosa, mixed with potato, chickpeas, onion, drizzled with youghurt and tamarind. This was another really good contrast, the yoghurt and tamarind bringing sweetness that worked well with the considerable savouriness of the other two dishes. There was a good pickle selection served separately – raita, mango chutney, something akin to lime pickle but wasn’t and another, I think, of mainly tamarind juice.

On to main courses and, again, we’d gone for a contrast. Although the owners are North Indian, they are rightly proud of their dosas – usually a southern speciality. We went for the simple massala dosa – the best I’ve eaten, it was a masterpiece. Light, crispy, a good filling of very lightly spiced potato & onion. Served separately, a thin lentil based sauce to drizzle over it and a coconut and yoghurt chutney that was absolutely lovely.

To contrast, chole – a chickpea curry that was as delicious as it appeared simple. Chickpeas in a thick and spicy sauce. Perfect to go with the kichdi (rice & lentil) we’d ordered as a carb – never had this before and it’s one heck of a delicious revelation. Finally, a couple of rotli helped to mop up the last bits of sauce.

Service was bang-on – with the one waiter, who was clearly on top of his game, explaining dishes to customers who seemed hesitant about what to order or, indeed, how to eat a dosa. Cost, including a tip, just on forty quid. Brilliant. Just brilliant.

http://www.prashad.co.uk/

[david goodfellow]

John, its sounds fantastic.

We have missed a large chunk of the series but after your review I looked on the website and was surprised that it is still available to view.

Its here and they mostly seem to rave about it, including Ramsay himself.

Thanks for the heads up.

[Amy D.]

great review harters! I have to say i'm a little surprised I've not mentioned this place on here before (having done so on other sites) as its probably my favourite eatery. when we lived in bradford we used to go about once a month and even now it's an hour-and-a-half away we still find reasons to head up there just to nip into prashad - I swear I start getting withdrawal symptoms if its been too long since I've had some of their lentil soup (try as I have I still can't quite recreate it!). The food and service is always consistently brilliant although we both have our favourite dishes that we tend gravitate towards - for him the special chatt followed by the masala paneer and for me the pethis (I've had good results making them from the recipe on their website but they're still nicer from the restaurant) and a masala dosa (everything about that dish is just perfect for me and has become my definition of comfort food!). I also love picking out some indian sweets and other snacks to devour after we've driving back home. though from the sounds of it we had best make sure we book before we head up next time.

[Bapi]

Thanks for the heads up John. One of the Mothers at our little chaps school did some secret dining for the Ramsay programme and Prashad was the place she raved about. Only half an hour away from us, so I have no excuse really. I'll be sure to read your review again before we head over.