Dabbawal, Newcastle
Dabbawal, Newcastle
69-75,
High Bridge, Newcastle
upon Tyne NE1
6BX
(0191)
232 5133
There's
been a lot of interest in Indian street food in recent years, so it's
probably inevitable that a restaurant would come along serving up its
own more refined versions of this cheap, cheerful and popular fare.
Dabbawal
has been operating in Newcastle since 2011 at two sites – one in
the city centre and the other in the student enclave of Jesmond. The
city centre restaurant, which is just off the magnificent Grey
Street, is something of a regular haunt for us as it offers a handy
escape from the midday shopping crowds – and their fabulous
vegetable thali is reason enough to visit at lunchtime. But we felt
it was time to sample their evening menu.
In
fact, there are few major differences. Dabbawal specialises in 'small
plate' dishes of the kind of snacks you'd typically find being sold
on the streets of Mumbai – crunchy bel puri, samosa chaat, tiki,
bhajias and the like – and they helpfully suggest you take a tapas approach
by ordering three plus a side dish of dahl or rice. It's an excellent
suggestion and a great way to eat, but they also offer so-called 'Big
Eats' too, so we decided to try these for a change.
Not
that we completely ignored the small plates. We ordered Onion Palak
Bhajias and Chick Pea and Potato Tiki as starters and were not
disappointed. Each was beautifully presented, the tiki topped with a
sprinkle of jewel-like pomegranate seeds and the bhajia served on
paper in homage no doubt to the way they'd be served to passers-by in
India - a nice touch. And they were delicious too, colourful,
flavoursome and perfectly cooked.
The
menu isn't huge but there's plenty here for the vegetarian to choose
from. Their Big Eats menu had a choice of 7 dishes, three paneer, a
vegetable Jalfrezi, Kofta and a Masala Dosa (I'll be coming back to
try that one). We chose the Paneer Dil Bahar which the menu told us
was cooked with mushrooms in a cashew nut sauce, and Kadhai Paneer
which boasted chunks of paneer mixed with onions and green peppers in
a tomato sauce.
The
cashew nut sauce was a revelation – sweet yet savoury, packed of flavour and the combination of mushroom and paneer worked
brilliantly. The Kadhai Paneer was equally delicious, the sauce a
little milder than the cashew nut but every bit as tasty with just
the right amount of sauce to keep everything rubbing along. We'd also
ordered yellow lentil dahl as a side dish and this was garlicky and
creamy – absolutely gorgeous. If there was one slight criticism it
was that the rice was a little plain, though this scarcely mattered
given the culinary pyrotechnics happening elsewhere on our plates.
And
what of the restaurant itself? Well the decor is a comfortable blend
of informal modern and Indian rustic which is eye-catching but not
overwhelming. Access to the restaurant's three ground floor rooms is
down a short flight of steps which might be awkward for some, but it's probably worth the struggle just to take a look at the toilets.
There's a kind of post-industrial Steam Punk thing going on in there
and it is definitely worth a look! Most entertaining toilets on
Tyneside? Well, quite possibly...
We've
come to absolutely love Dabbawal. The variety of vegetarian main
dishes perhaps isn't huge, but when you combine these with the small
plate options there's always going to be plenty to choose from. And
having visited numerous times I can certainly confirm that the food
is always uniformly gorgeous. Raising street food to the level of fine
restaurant dining is a really neat trick, and it's one which I reckon
Dabbawal have pulled off to perfection.
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