Popat`s Madhuri Restaurant

Popat’s Madhuri RestaurantLeicester
Belgrave Road in Leicester has long been celebrated for its
proud Indian heritage. From sari shops to sweet shops, there
is a distinct air of unpretentiousness about the family-run
businesses here.
Have you heard? In the Belgrave Road restaurant world there is
a new kid on the block. The restaurant formerly known as Jalsa
has now been converted into a wonderfully simple pure
vegetarian eatery called ‘Madhuri’. Headlined with an Indiaevoking deep red sign, Madhuri offers deliciously simple homecooked food at competitive prices. From traditional Gujarati,
Punjabi and South Indian cuisines to the more contemporary
Indo-Chinese dishes dominating our palates, plates and menus;
this restaurant offers them all. And they do it beautifully.
Madhuri have a simplified menu consisting of a few dishes from
each region. This is a joy to me as I have visited so many
restaurants in this area which present lengthy,
overcomplicated menus and leave me baffled every time. Madhuri
have perfected the balance of variety and simplicity to an
exceptional degree.
Having sung the praises of the variety and simplicity of their
menu, the same must be said for the first-class Gujarati thali
they offer. At £4.99 for three curries, rice, daal/kadhi,
chapattis, a sweet item and poppadoms their thali is one of
the best I have ever ordered at any restaurant. Indeed, you
haven’t heard the best part yet… Each item on the Madhuri
thali is refillable (excluding the sweet). You can eat as many
chapattis as you like, without that ever-present problem of
running out before your curries run out. I get that a lot. The
hot, buttered chappatis, steaming curries and delicious soups
are brought out fresh upon request. Heavenly.
The exceptional prices of the thali made us quickly opt for
this, interrogating our very polite, smiling waiter about
which curries we will be eating on our thali. After around a
20-25 minute wait (I presume this is because the food was
being prepared freshly, for which I have no problem waiting
for) we were devouring a simple potato curry, a Jain undhiyu
(vegetable dumplings, aubergines and potatoes) and the most
terrific sweetcorn and patra (curried leaf) curry. These came
with a generous portion of basmati rice, kadhi (or daal) and a
decadent bowl of phirni (hung sweet, spiced yogurt blended
with kheer rice pudding). Oh, and as many chapattis as you
like!
After eating our thalis there really wasn’t much space for
anything else except a cup of traditional masala chai which,
in my opinion is the perfect way to finish any meal. I
sincerely hope this restaurant is here to stay and that they
do not change one bit. Bravo!
So, next time you’re hungry and in Leicester try Popat’s
Madhuri restaurant. You will leave feeling full and warm with
a sense of home-cooking about your stomach.
Value for Money- 10/10
Deliciousness- 9.5/10
Service- 9/10
KO Rasoi is in no way affiliated with Popat’s Madhuri
restaurant and has not been paid monetarily or otherwise to
carry out this review. All thoughts and opinions published
here are my own.
Contact:
Popat’s Madhuri Restaurant
87 Belgrave Road
Leicester
UK
0116 319 8467
Open everyday 10.30am-10pm
*Popat’s Madhuri Restaurant also offers no onion/garlic dishes
upon request.
P.S. Thanks to everyone who supported the BBQ Season and left
feedback! If you have any requests or questions about the
recipes then please leave a comment or e-mail me!
Indigo- Restaurant Review
Where: Indigo pure vegetarian restaurant in Leicester (that’s
lacto-vegetarian, although they also serve vegan and no
onions/no garlic dishes)
When: This week
With Who: Two fabulous friends
KO Rating: 3/10. Disappointing
Menu Choice: Indian, Indo-Chinese and Italian
Website
I went to Indigo Vegetarian Restaurant on Melton Road in
Leicester at the beginning of this week and was expecting some
really great things. Sadly I was really disappointed. We were
greeted immediately and shown to our table in the far corner
of the restaurant. We ordered our drinks (a jug of tap
water… Ha. And a Pepsi) and read through the large menu. The
menu at Indigo is filled with snacky ‘fast foods’ like dosa’s,
pau bhaji, bhel, chaat, samosa, pizzas and noodles. One friend
decided on ‘chutney
powder dosa’ which comes with a
sambhar (it resembled THICK Gujarati daal and definitely
not sambhar). Another decided on a spicy ‘paneer pizza’
and I opted for ‘Indigo special noodles’ (hakka noodles
with mushrooms and spinach). We also shared a large ‘chilli
mogo’ (cassava stir fried with green peppers, green chillies
and spring onions).
The waiter took our order and asked us if we would like him to
turn the fireplace on, and although we declined it was a
hospitable gesture. Our drinks arrived promptly as did our
SMALL chilli mogo. We ordered a large. The waiter apologised
and returned within five minutes with our large dish of chilli
mogo.
The highlight of the ‘meal’
Next came my Indigo special noodles which didn’t look that
special at all.
There were only 2 mushrooms in this and the spinach had done a
disappearing act!
Then the chutney powder dosa arrived. My friend looked at me
in disappointment. As she began to eat I asked her if she was
enjoying her meal, to which she didn’t respond. Poor lil lamb!
She was expecting something better than dosa spread with a
brown looking coconut chutney which was meant to be green!
And a phoney sambhar which looked like it had been replaced
with leftover gloopy daal. She left half of it and I don’t
blame her for doing so.
It seemed as if my friend’s pizza was being prepared in New
Delhi and flying out to Leicester within the week. It really
did take that long to come! So meanwhile, as we all munched on
noodles and mogo a particularly noisy family arrived
complaining that they would like someone to WATCH their car
while they ate. No joke. That’s what they asked. I’m not sure
whether they asked because they wanted all the diners to look
out of the window at their expensive ride, or because they
SERIOUSLY thought that a small-town restaurant offered that
kind of service. Anyway, the manager informed them that it
would not be possible and that their car park was safe and
secure (it is). Bah! Enough of my restaurant rants.
Looks yummy, huh?
The pizza arrived. It looked pretty good, in fact I was so
lured by the smell of it that I decided to be a massive fatty
and have a piece too (for the purpose of giving my verdict in
this review. Yes, that’s my excuse). All was well until I got
halfway through and realised that the ‘soft texture of the
cheese’ was indeed uncooked pizza dough!
BEHOLD! The worst offender of them all!
*insert gag-face here*
My friend decided to go and tell a waitress about the pizza
horror as there were no waiters coming to check if everything
was okay at our table. She seemed not to believe my friend at
first and told him she would show it to the chef. When she
came to pick it up from our table I was dissecting the corner
of it with my knife just to see if the other slices were the
same (I was curious and paying!) She told me to ‘LEAVE IT
ALONE’ (as she would take it back to the kitchen). I was
super annoyed! How dare she speak to a customer in such a
manner when they were at fault?! Needless to say I didn’t see
her for the rest of the night, and good job too! The waiter
came back to ask us if we would like another pizza but we
decided that one uncooked pizza was enough for the
night. We got up and paid the bill at the front desk which
came to around £24 even though they knocked off the price of
the pizza. Not great value for money considering that the food
and service were definitely not up to standard. Will I be
going back? Not on your nelly.
Oh and we didn’t get to see which car ‘loud’ family came in.
Although I’m sure that it didn’t get robbed. We would have
heard them complaining if that was the case…
Ciao!
Mirch Masala- Leicester
Where: Mirch Masala pure vegetarian restaurant in Leicester
(that’s lacto-vegetarian, although they also serve vegan and
no onions/no garlic dishes)
When: Late lunch today
With Whom: My dear parents
Value for money: 7/10. You get a heck of a lot for what you
pay for
Menu Choice: The restaurant prides itself on offering a wide
selection of international dishes including those from; India,
Italy, China and Mexico
Okay, so today we went to Mirch Masala for some serious
eats. I was starving (as per usual, I could have eaten a
horse… HA! Just a little vegetarian joke for ya there! I’ll
shut up now). We were greeted by a nice young chap who
promptly showed us to our table. The restaurant was buzzing,
especially for a Sunday afternoon (partially due to the large
number of people doing their Diwali shopping nearby on
Belgrave Road). My dad decided on the Vegetarian Hot
(surprise surprise) Pizza Platter which consists of one
7inch pizza, fries and awesome eggless coleslaw. After much
deliberation my mum also opted for the pizza platter (it IS
excellent value for money at £6.95-7.25) however she decided
that today was not a spicy day and got the regular veggie
pizza. As for me, I could NOT physically bring myself to
choose what to order. The eclectic range of dishes was proved
to be counterproductive (sometimes I just wish restaurants
would give me a simplified menu of maybe 10 dishes. It would
really make things much easier). My dad was, as he says ‘not
best pleased with my performance’ when I said I didn’t
know what I wanted. It was a horrible dilemma.
My brain: Paneer Uttapam? Or Deluxe Samosa Chaat?
Uttapam? Or Deluxe Samosa Chaat? Paneer Uttapam? Or
Samosa Chaat? Paneer Uttapam? Or Deluxe Samosa Chaat?
Uttapam? Or Deluxe Samosa Chaat? Paneer Uttapam? Or
Samosa Chaat? Paneer Uttapam? Or Deluxe Samosa Chaat?
Like seriously?
*Waiter: waiting* (oh how very ironic)
*Dad: glaring*
*Me: blank*
*Waiter: still waiting*
Mum: Do you want something South Indian?
*Dad: glaring more*
*Waiter: looking confused*
Me: uhh, I’ll have mutter paneer and a plain paratha
Waiter: Plain naan?
Me: Paratha.
Waiter: Yes. Naan?
Me: I WANT A PLAIN PARATHA!
Paneer
Deluxe
Paneer
Deluxe
Waiter: You want something to drink?
All of us: TAP WATER (Indian custom. It’s free… Ha.)
Dad: Falooda. One falooda for her *points at me*
Me: HUH?!
(N.B: Falooda is an Indian ‘milkshake’ made with rose syrup,
vermicelli noodles, ice cream and tukmaria- edible vegetable
seeds). It is notorious for its extreme sweetness.
Dad: Oh, and a mogo sizzler!
So as we waited for our food I decided I would write this
‘review’ (It’s more of an ‘experience’ than a ‘review’, huh?)
I sat thinking how I would try to covertly take pictures of
the food in a way which wouldn’t make me look like a food
pervert.
Time up. Here comes the Falooda
Who put frogspawn in my falooda?! Oh… that’s the tukmaria. My
bad.
And the Mogo (Cassava) Sizzler
NomNomNomNomNom… Sizzle-y
And the Mutter Panner and Naan. I mean Paratha.
And the Pizza Platter
I WANT BIG DINNERS! *Gobble, gobble, gobble*
Truthfully my paratha was a little too chapatti-like for me,
although the mutter paneer was lovely and mild. Or as my dad
calls it: ‘too creamy’.
I’m not gonna lie, the portion sizes are HUGE as you can see.
But the value for money is excellent. We waited around fifteen
minutes for the food to arrive at the table which isn’t too
bad. I ended up taking half of my mutter paneer home in a
‘doggy bag’ (so much for eating a horse. I’m gonna blame the
falooda for being so goddamn sweet, rich and delicious!) Or I
could blame the little boy on the next table shouting ‘I WANT
CHICKEN MUMMY!’ He put me off. Honest.
I did keep the receipt for reference to write this but I
regret to inform you lovely people that SOMEONE threw it in
the bin ‘by accident’. But, for the first time my usually
short-term memory has not failed me and I remember that the
bill for everything came to around £28 for the three of us.
Not bad at all. All hail tap water!
Ciao!