Rajpoot

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Rajpoot

At the time of writing, the head honchos at the Rajpoot are eagerly anticipating the sixth British Curry Awards ceremony, which takes place at London’s Grosvenor Park hotel in November. Last year’s ceremony attracted an audience of over 1,600 esteemed spice girls and boys, and this year’s event will be beamed live to almost 150 countries across the globe. If the event itself is A Very Big Deal (which it undoubtedly is), winning an award is an even bigger one – and last year the Rajpoot walked away with not one but two sparkling accolades: a gong for Best Indian Restaurant in the South West, and another for being nominated one of the 10 Best in Britain. So how does it fare in the build-up to judgment day?

The Rajpoot separates itself from comparisons with Bath’s other Indian restaurants from the off. While several curry houses dotted around the Heritage City offer authentic, upper-crust grub, only at the Rajpoot are diners greeted by a smartly dressed doorman in full Raj regalia whose sole purpose is to usher us down the stairs to a sumptuous, sensual, subterranean haven where several ornately decorated spaces include two cosy, intimate bars, a cheerful, barrel-vaulted cave and plenty of romantic tables for two, all linked but subtly discrete. It was at a booth table in the cave that we embarked on a voyage around the Indian sub-continent, starting with a mellow, velvety mulligatawny soup that I personally could live on for the next month without tiring of its delicately spiced, supremely comforting attributes. While I was fantasising about bathing in my starter, BF indulged in a tandoori machlee: a whole rainbow trout infused with a well-balanced blend of non-invasive spices and barbecued until satisfyingly crisp, resulting in a dish that evoked similar emotions about turning it into a permanent domestic menu fixture in his imagination, too. But the thing is, none of the Rajpoot’s dishes could be replicated at home, ’cos it’s all the stuff that only very experienced Indian kitchen gods can conjure up. Our main courses substantiated this theory: having been marinated in yoghurt, saffron, ginger and all manner of toasty roasted spices, the chicken in my murgh tandoori had been elevated into a dish fit for a queen, while his lamb rezala –tender, yielding but subtly illuminated with a kicking blend of fresh chillies – was, to say the least, a dish that an empire could be built on. To accompany our main course superstars, we chose lemon-infused basmati rice, soporific chana massala and a sweet peshwari pillow. We made free with the glorious house red wine throughout our meal and shared halwa and pistachio kulfi with our coffee (which comes in a suitably posh pot) afterwards. And yet, despite a feast of such magnitude, our bill barely scraped the £70 mark. Are the BCA judges paying attention? This critic sincerely hopes so.

RAJPOOT 4 ARGYLE ST, BATH, BA2 4BA. TEL: 01225 466833; WEB: WWW.RAJPOOT.COM

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