This month’s meeting was a significant meeting for a couple of reasons; Firstly, this was the most curry members ever to attend a meeting – including our sister organizations in the UK and Florida. Secondly, this was the first time the Cincinnati club has revisited a restaurant that hasn’t come top of our scoring. The restaurant was deemed worthy of a second visit due to its very impressive 2015 score of 8.34. So, how did the restaurant rate with our largest crowd ever?

 

In summary, pretty damn good…

 

As we entered it was clear that they were prepared for us (quite a few restaurants aren’t!). They had placed us in a small well decorated room off to the side of the main area – probably for the best knowing that some of the louder members of the group were attending this month (Butler, Taggart, etc.).

 

The restaurant has a very ‘classy Indian’ feel to it – quality sitting area, decor, cutlery and plates – all playing well into the experience. First up were complimentary poppadum’s – they were fresh and crunchy, and seemed to go down very well with the group. The condiments were very tasty but ran out quickly, and unfortunately not topped up as quickly as they were being eaten.

 

More than half of the group ordered starters – this is not a common occurrence. The realisation that Shorba was on the menu swung most people and it didn’t disappoint, with some members commenting that it was the best they have ever had. Quite a compliment.

 

The wait for the mains was about 35 minutes – this wasn’t ideal (as it gave member Levi an opportunity to teach us about bubbles in popular cola), but the manager Mike did come out to explain that with such a large group they were working as fast as possible out the back to fulfil our orders. When they arrived the waiting staff delivered efficiently and correctly to all of the table – something that is very rare in the Cincinnati curry world.

 

The compliments for the food continued to come in – “very tasty”, “everything’s fantastic”, “great spice levels”. There were however some negative points that were brought up. The quality and preparation of the naan wasn’t the best – it was dry, hard and in some cases quite tasteless. The amount of sauce (to dip the naan) was seen as a little light in the Chicken 65 and Makhani dishes. This shouldn’t take away from the quality of meal though – it was of very high standards.

 

To wrap up the night the checks were asked for. This is often an area of the night that can swing people a whole point either way on their scores, with some restaurants really dropping the ball here. Unfortunately, while the check distribution was swift and efficient there were a number of beers that had snuck onto people’s bills. When this happens we are never sure if this is intentional or a mistake – either way it isn’t what is expected from any establishment.

 

Other comments were that the bathrooms were lovely and so were the pictures of the British Indian army. What more could you ask for?

 

Indian Spice Train scored 0.01 more than it did in 2015 showing that it is consistently excellent. Bombay leads the 2016 leader board so I think our next visit to Spice Train will be when we give it a shot of the 2017 title – and I can’t wait.