I caught up with a friend for dinner at Delhi 6 in Acton one weeknight. I’ve walked past this place on numerous occasions so I was keen on trying it out.
I ordered the deluxe non vegetarian thali ($23.90) because it provides a little bit of everything. What the menu doesn’t indicate is that you don’t get to pick any of the curries. It is the chef’s decision of what is provided in the thali. Mine came with butter chicken, lamb korma, dal handi (black lentils), chicken tikka, rice, garlic naan, a pappadum, raita and a gulab jamun for dessert. It also included a soft drink.
I thought the korma, though full of flavour, was too watery for my liking. The lamb had a bit of gristle and fat on it. The butter chicken was very much tomato based – a pretty average dish with 3 large pieces of chicken in it. The dal handi was okay but still slightly hard. I usually pour lots of dal on my rice but left most of this in the bowl. I’ve had a better black lentil dish at Bollywood Masala. The chicken tikka was probably my favourite – tender chicken with just enough coating of spices all over it. There was a lot of raita (a cucumber yogurt dip) for this meal and most of it was left in the bowl, not because it tasted bad, but there were so many other curries to soak up with the naan bread that I didn’t bother with the raita.
The gulab jamun is a popular Indian dessert – think of a sponge that has been soaking in sugary syrup for about 7hrs. It was only a small piece and just enough to give me a small dose of sugar at the end of the meal.
My friend ordered a vegetarian dish – the Lemon Pumpkin ($14.90). Both of us had never seen this dish on a menu before (and we go to quite a few Indian restaurants) so we were both curious about it. The pumpkin cubes were perfectly cooked and not too soft that it turned mushy if you mixed it through the sauce. The curry had a lemony zing that hits you after you’ve finished a mouthful. It was different and we both liked it.
I always order a mango lassi – as soon as this came out I could tell it was too thick. It had a lot of thick yogurt in it, that I had to pour a little bit of water in after taking a few sips. Very very sweet.
The inside of the restaurant is much bigger than expected. Decorated with plush white seats, chocolate tablecloths and quite swanky looking lighting. I thought the set up was lovely.
Overall, I like the idea of the thali to sample a few of the restaurant’s dishes. I didn’t like the fact that I couldn’t choose which dishes were included. The Lemon Pumpkin is a unique dish and I rather liked it. In terms of flavour, it’s not quite up there amongst the better Indian restaurants such as Blu Ginger and Rama’s. However, it’s still good food, service is friendly and it didn’t take long for our meals to arrive.
