Dining Out: Scarborough Tandoori, St Thomas Street

We ventured out across the frozen wastes of town to the Scarborough Tandoori, which, as always, provided a warm welcome.

I was glad to see a few other diners had also chosen to leave the comfort of their homes on what I expected to be a quiet Monday night – and one of the coldest of the year.

The restaurant’s decor is modern and attractive – it’s one of the most stylish Indian restaurants I’ve visited.

And also worth noting is the amazing cocktail menu!

The Scarborough Tandoori could teach many bars I’ve been to a thing or two about cocktails.

Who’d have thought it, but it turns out a mojito is a perfect, refreshing accompaniment to a curry!

The menu is extensive and features all the favourites you’d expect at your local curry house – plus a good selection of special dishes.

We ordered the customary poppadoms and pickles, plus an aloo palak pakora and a fish pakora from the starters menu.

Both were presented beautifully and were not greasy, despite being deep-fried dishes.

The vegetarian pakora – which contained spinach, sweet potato, black pepper and fenugreek – was a real treat.

It was tasty, surprisingly light and made a nice change from the usual onion bhajis.

I’m told the fish pakora was lovely too and the portion size was generous.

For my main course I ordered a vegetable balti, which comes with pilau rice and a choice of naan bread (I opted for a garlic naan).

My dining partners went for a chicken tikka masala and a chicken tikka rogan, with rice to share.

We also ordered a side dish of sag paneer – spinach with Indian cheese.

We thought we’d ordered sensibly, but when the food arrived the table was full and it looked like a banquet.

Everything was colourful and prepared with attention to detail.

The food was delicious, a real feast of flavour.

The balti was great and had a good mixture of vegetables and a gentle heat.

My dining pals loved their curries too – they were packed with chicken in generous chunks and both had a rich, tasty

sauce.

The real star of the show was the sag paneer – a creamy, flavoursome accompaniment which we all enjoyed and managed to polish off.

The meal was lovely from start to finish and the service was great too.

The only downside was that we were so full we didn’t have room for dessert!

The meal came to £63 for three of us and that was with a cocktail each – well one cocktail and two ‘mocktails’, which I can highly recommend.