Bangla Cottage Indian Restaurant, Hillsborough

[Meaks]

A small group of us went last night and enjoyed it. We had a selection of curries all of which were enjoyable. Mine wasn't particularly spicy (although I only like medium curries anyway) but tasty enough nonetheless. The poppadoms and nans were spot on.

 

Their house 'Bangla' beer wasn't bad for a premium lager and at £2.45 a pint we couldn't complain, especially since the glass was so nice!

 

They were also very friendly and couldn't do enough to make sure we were OK. The Forum got a mention as well.

 

They were very quiet (it was a Wednesday night) but said trade was slowly picking up, so I hope they do OK.

 

Will probably be going again next week.

 

Went to the Bangla Cottage last night - it was lovely! Excellent service, and the food was gorgeous (the naan breads were ).

 

Ooh look, we posted at the same time!

[wreck]

we are going again on saturday night for my friends 30th can't wait!

[rosaespanola]

it's never as nice though, and other places deliver so I'd rather have it arrive hot and fresh.

 

When you've got a place that is as nice as this one apparently is, it's worth treating yourself to a meal out instead of a takeaway anyway!

Although there are definitely times when a takeaway in front of the TV is the only thing that will suit :-)

[hennypenny]

I love most Indian spices, but hate chilli or any kind of peppery food, which means that Indian restaurants are usually off bounds for me. Do you think that they would do a sauce without any chilli in for me if I made a special request? I have had some do it before, but it is a bit hit and miss, as they seem to be unable to imagine curry without chilli. Usually they will only offer Kurma which is also off the menu for me as I can't have dairy products either.

 

I do cook my own spicy sauces at home, but it would be nice to have a meal out.

[tracysmith21]

I love most Indian spices, but hate chilli or any kind of peppery food, which means that Indian restaurants are usually off bounds for me. Do you think that they would do a sauce without any chilli in for me if I made a special request?

 

I picked up a menu last wk and must say it looks really nice inside. It did mention on the takeaway menu that they make all dishes to order and that the chef is happy to accomadate special requests, that always is a good sign-freshly cooked food. Can't wait to try it.

[rosaespanola]

I went to the Bangla Cottage last night with a few friends. It was quite busy when we got there (about 8.15pm) - there were a couple of tables for 6 left, but no smaller ones, so it's probably an idea to book if you're going on a weekend. There is a small seating area where you can wait & have a drink if there isn't a table straight away though.

The menu is reasonably interesting and has some exciting-sounding chef's specials which lean more towards interesting meat/fish dishes than vegetarian ones. That said, there's still a fairly substantial choice of mixed veg curries with the more standard curryhouse sauces so vegetarians still have a decent number of dishes to choose from. There were some tasty starters and we had some very nice lassi to drink. I wasn't massively impressed with my main course (mixed veg kharai), but I think that was more down to personal taste than the quality of the food. It was described as being quite garlicky & gingery, but it was actually very very mild (to the point that I couldn't detect any heat at all!), I couldn't taste any garlic or ginger, although I could smell the ginger so it was obviously there, and it was very heavy on cumin which I'm not all that keen on in large quantities. But everyone else seemed fairly impressed with their food, so like I said, I think it was just a bad choice on my part rather than the food itself not being good. There's a wide range of different rice/breads - the naans were fantastic and one of my friends recommends the coconut & lemon rice.

The service was excellent - very friendly & helpful staff who were unobtrusive but there straight away if you needed them, and the food got to us quickly. I'll definitely give it another try sometime, hopefully I'll choose something I like a bit more next time!

They also do takeaway, and 10% discount for students or Unison members. I hope it survives, Hillsborough is in dire need of a good curry house and that building seems jinxed, judging by the number of different restaurants that it's been since I moved here, so fingers crossed this one will stay!

[ynguk]

I started this thread some considerable time ago now but I have to say I have been good to my word and nearly every week I have visited my friends at the cottage. Again I have popped down tonight and I must say, it's just great. The food gets better and better, so if you are looking for a really nice Indian and friendly sevice then these boys deserve a visit. I would like it to become as popular as possible so we can have an established indian restaurant locally and then I can continue to go every week!

[Meaks]

Have to say we prefer Taste of India on Bradfield Road.

 

We went to the Bangla the other Saturday - to be fair it was quite late, we hadn't booked and there was six of us - but everything took ages. The pickle tray arrived before they'd even taken our drinks order. No draught beer. They kept apologising repeatedly (not just to us, everyone else was waiting) which would have been appreciated once, it just got annoying after an hour. When the food arrived it was OK, nothing special.

 

I think its got a lot of potential, they are always friendly, and we will no doubt give them another try, but our last visit left a lot to be desired.

[Max Power]

Thanks for the info. Will definitely try this out.

[spooferman]

Tried this Tuesday night, was very disappointing! It was the most English curry that I have ever tried.

 

Taste of India on Bradfield Road RULES