Indian Tiffin Room

Situated in a trendy part of Manchester, the Indian Tiffin Room is one of the more hip indian spiced food eateries around.

The dishes, mostly consisting of street food from around India, is served tapas style for the most part.

• Dishes tried:
  Grazing platter – Starter consisting of bhel puri, dahi puri and sev puri.
  Chicken Ishikar – WARNING HOT.
• Butter Chicken
• Chicken lollipops
• Garlic Naan – Naan with garlic ghee.

The grazing platter ended up being the star of the show, tasty and filling, I can reccomend this to anyone.

The chicken Ishikar dish, while warned it was to be HOT turned out to be a lot milder than expected.

Ordering from the ‘curry’ section of the menu will net you your curry along with either rice or naan (your choice) included in your selection. And the prices are very competitive – the butter chicken was £9.20 and that includes either your rice or naan. So it’s a good choice to opt for rice with your main and pick up a naan to share from the sides menu as you can pick from the many flavoured naans on offer.

The curries come served on a metal tray with your sauces and rice in tiffin dishes, helping to keep everything tidy and confined instead of several bowls and dishes all over the table.

The garlic naan is fairly standard, slightly crispy with a strong flavour, a favourite to be sure, a moderate sized serving, the naan is presented sliced into quarters in a basket. This is becoming a preference of serving styles for the naan we have started to notice as of late, while it’s probably just down to how the restaurant wants to do this as to why they do. We have found it creates less mess when ripping the bread and a bit more manageable, especially in a lot of curry houses where table space is limited – you don’t have a gigantic naan just laying over everything and being in the way.

The setting is excellent, plenty of room at the table we were seated at, large menus – these are presented as your table mats too, which lends itself to the tapas style serving here, so you can always keep the menu and always be looking at what else they have instead of wizzing away the menu as soon as you order. They even a had a separate vegan menu, and a the majority of the menu is actually vegetarian friendly.

The staff were friendly and attentive, we were given table water without having to ask, for the children – some pieces of blank paper and a cup of crayons were also on hand to keep them entertained during the wait – something which we find in a lot of western based restaurants but not so much in curry houses, it was a nice touch.

The menu also contains a selection of deep fried foods for anyone who will only eat like an american.

The number of tables are probably on the low side for what you would want from a place this busy, but it keeps in with the atmosphere in providing a real hustle and bustle feel around you – I would think is a bit of a simulation as to the ‘real streets’ of India. Booking before you show is highly recommended if you are planning on going in the evening, without a booking you might get turned away, suffer a wait or be given a time restriction on your table.