Leeds’ top-rated curry house and takeaway served up an expensive assortment of diminishing returns – with a particularly unsightly main course.
Adel's Indian restaurant Dastaan, in Otley Road, tops the charts on Tripadvisor throughout the city with a five-star rating with almost 400 glowing reviews. It serves a wide variety of Indian cuisine, a huge selection of chaat, tandoori and tikka dishes.
The menu is very impressive, it goes into detail of the food’s origin and has all the hallmarks of a more upmarket curry house venue. The takeaway prices may cause some hungry customers' eyes to bulge however, when hoping to order a simple delivery service.
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The bill included a £9.50 starter, £15 main, £3.25 naan and rice for an eye-watering £5, and came to the grand total of £34.34 for the four items (including service charges). One would imagine the food’s quality would justify the exceeding price.
For starters, I ordered the Pink Prawn and Fish Amritsari – a deep-fried dish made with gram flour and spices. Aesthetically, the vibrant orange dish looked very pleasing and crisp.
The fried morsels of fish and prawn offered a subtle aromatic flavour with a lingering aftertaste. Yet, I couldn’t help feeling disappointed with the ratio of prawns and fish in the starter. There were overall nine morsels in the starter and only three of which were prawns. With the high price, I couldn't help feeling short-changed.
The garlic naan bread was smaller than I am usually accustomed to and was cold upon arrival. The bread was thin and moist, it seemed as if it had been lingering in the delivery bag for quite some time.
I ordered the Nalli Nihari for my main dish which consisted of a lamb shank in an onion and tomato sauce. The shank was served no frills and looked rather unsightly, plonked in the middle of the Tupperware dish , surrounded by the thin oily sauce.
The glob of meat however was tender and it came apart quite easily. But that didn’t make up for the rest of the rather plain tasting dish.
For the ample price of £5, I thought I was in for something special with the Saffron Pulao side dish, Dastaan’s take on pilau rice. This wasn’t to be.
The rice didn’t have much in the way of variety to justify its inflated price, a few flecks of vegetables here and there with a garlic flavour present.
While the food was overall adequate, I felt it really did not represent a value for money and did not match lofty expectations.
The bill
- Pink Prawn and Fish Amritsari - £9.50
- Garlic naan bread - £3.25
- Nalli Nihari - £15
- Saffron Pulao - £5
- Total (including service charges) - £34.34
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