Wednesday 24 April 2013

Sher Akbar, Chorlton.

I'm not going to lie to you, I'd enjoyed a couple of beers. Well three to be precise. Unfortunately those pints were of Redwillow IPA which at 5.9% ABV is quite high in alcohol. It was gorgeous though, and pretty good value costing me just £3.40 at the Marble in Chorlton. But it's super strong, and my eyes were rolling round my head when we went to eat. I knew just what was needed; a curry!
I'd booked a table across the road at Sher Akbar. We went a year ago and found the service wanting, but it was time to revisit. There were eight of us, so I'd reserved the large booth. This works brilliantly if there's a group of you, as often on long tables you can only talk to your near neighbours.
The restaurant is quite plush inside, they've clearly modelled themselves on 'glamorous' Indian restaurants such as Eastzeast and Akbars, they even have the 'hanging' nans which are faintly ridiculous.
It's like a mini version of the chandelier at The French.

This trip to Sher Akbar was a lot more successful than the first. To be fair it was when they had just opened so teething problems are to be expected. The service was now spot on. We can be a rowdy bunch our lot, especially after several cold refreshments. They dealt with us with good humour and aplomb. I think we even entertained them. To be honest, the night gets a bit hazy at this point, but I'll do my best to recall it. Firstly the poppadoms were fresh and they brought them over without delay. The dips were good. I'm not sure if the onion needs to be so red though, but the poppadoms were clearly made to order, and hadn't been hanging round for a while that's so often the case.
I had two starters being a greedy guts as I am, Lamb chops tikka (£3.95) which were nicely char-grilled and a Seekh kebab (£2.50) which I enjoyed (I think).



For mains I had a Chicken Karahi Punjabi (£7.95) this was fairly decent, spicy and flavourful. The garlic nan (£2.20) was pretty good as well, crispy and not too oily. The beers (Cobra, a reasonable £3.50 a pint) kept coming, and a fine time was had by all.




The food perhaps wasn't up there with my favourite The Great Kathmandu, but it was gratifying, spicy and fresh, and a whole lot better than the last time that we went. The service was excellent, the atmosphere was congenial and the booth worked really well for our large boisterous group.
Overall the whole experience was a really enjoyable one, whilst it may not be the greatest Indian restaurant in the world, the surroundings and the service make it one that I'd be happy to return to again and again. It's a lesson to competitors that a good restaurant is partly about the food, but you need to get the service and the atmosphere right too or it won't be as agreeable as a whole.
Sher Akbar had all three just about right, so it's now one of the best Indian restaurants in Chorlton along with Coriander in my opinion.

Price: Good value.
Service: Excellent, they looked after us well.
Food: Good.
Score: 7/10.

sherakbar.co.uk/chorlton


Sher Akbar on Urbanspoon

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