Topic: tonight's dinner at kasturi

[goncalo]

So today was "date night" and I looked for a decent indian restaurant in the confines of my vilage. When I come across kasturi and I read the chef was bangladeshi, seeing as how rare of a gem is to find a bengali chef in Dublin, I said "has to be it". My rating: best restaurant in Ireland (so far...), however, strangely none of the main courses were very good (not in the BIR sense.) For example, my bombay potatoes looked like they had just been cooked in the curry base and had not absorbed enough flavour. They were also swimming in sauce. The jalfrezi was disappointing. No green chilies or peppers or fresh tomato (eventhough the menu says so.) However, the starters, the naan and the popadoms/pickles were absolutely savage.



Left-to-right: chicken jalfrezi, bombay potatoes, fried rice, keema naan, chicken passanda, garlic naan.

Prior to this, me and the missus, we had a shashlick kebab and a tandoori mixed platter.

[spiceyokooko]

...however, strangely none of the main courses were very good (not in the BIR sense.)

I think this just goes to highlight yet again, just how far you've come in your own cooking of this style of Indian food. You now have a yardstick (your own cooking) to compare restaurant dishes against and as many others here have also stated, many restaurant dishes fall short of the quality you expect.

It also goes to show just how much BIR's can vary in quality, there's some very good ones (not many), some average ones (lots) and some poor ones (too many).

Many of the participants of this forum are quite critical of the dishes they produce at home, that's because many are trying to achieve the very best results they can, what we often forget I think is that those results will quite frequently be far better than your average BIR.

Okay many can't seem to get that last nth% in the flavour, but I think that's down to the reasons already well documented on this site.

What it also highlights I think, is that dishes we think we know (Jalfrezi) for example will vary quite significantly across the various regions that make up the UK. A Jalfrezi in Scotland might be quite different to one in Ireland, which varies again to one in the Midlands which is different again to one down south. That applies to many dishes too I think.

[goncalo]

...however, strangely none of the main courses were very good (not in the BIR sense.)

I think this just goes to highlight yet again, just how far you've come in your own cooking of this style of Indian food. You now have a yardstick (your own cooking) to compare restaurant dishes against and as many others here have also stated, many restaurant dishes fall short of the quality you expect.

Hear, hear! This is exactly it and I make no distinctions about it. I have the bar raised too high and no intentions to stop until I get it right.

It also goes to show just how much BIR's can vary in quality, there's some very good ones (not many), some average ones (lots) and some poor ones (too many).

Many of the participants of this forum are quite critical of the dishes they produce at home, that's because many are trying to achieve the very best results they can, what we often forget I think is that those results will quite frequently be far better than your average BIR.

Okay many can't seem to get that last nth% in the flavour, but I think that's down to the reasons already well documented on this site.

What it also highlights I think, is that dishes we think we know (Jalfrezi) for example will vary quite significantly across the various regions that make up the UK. A Jalfrezi in Scotland might be quite different to one in Ireland, which varies again to one in the Midlands which is different again to one down south. That applies to many dishes too I think.

Absolutely. One thing I also forgot to mention was that the jalfrezi was very much saucy, which isn't something I've experienced in Cambridge or London (though I only had one curry in London and couldn't really say it was surprisingly good, but had a BIR like je ne sais quoi) and that was another massive disappointment.

[curryhell]

...however, strangely none of the main courses were very good (not in the BIR sense.)

I think this just goes to highlight yet again, just how far you've come in your own cooking of this style of Indian food. You now have a yardstick (your own cooking) to compare restaurant dishes against and as many others here have also stated, many restaurant dishes fall short of the quality you expect.

It also goes to show just how much BIR's can vary in quality, there's some very good ones (not many), some average ones (lots) and some poor ones (too many).

Many of the participants of this forum are quite critical of the dishes they produce at home, that's because many are trying to achieve the very best results they can, what we often forget I think is that those results will quite frequently be far better than your average BIR.

Okay many can't seem to get that last nth% in the flavour, but I think that's down to the reasons already well documented on this site.

What it also highlights I think, is that dishes we think we know (Jalfrezi) for example will vary quite significantly across the various regions that make up the UK. A Jalfrezi in Scotland might be quite different to one in Ireland, which varies again to one in the Midlands which is different again to one down south. That applies to many dishes too I think.

I agree with all the comments, which is a rare thing for me  :  But everybody should read the above and recognise how far they've come on their own journey and smile with some satisfaction. And then carry on, with the never ending task of perfecting their skills and trying to satisfy the desire to produce the very best that BIR has to offer at home