‘A local favourite for a reason’: Eastern Revive, Wilmslow, reviewed

Since my nephew was born in August last year, I’ve had to adapt in certain ways. First and most punishing, smoking cigarettes. Fair enough, I buckled and bought a vape. 

Secondly, swearing, the thing I’m often doing in-between dragging on rollies. Again, understood. It’s all white noise to kids until it’s not, when you see their eyes light up, a synapse fire and fuse and know it’s only a matter of time before it’s bollocks this and bullshit that. Funny, but not great come parents evening. 

Most discombobulating of all, however, has been what time we as a family eat dinner. But then if, like my sister and her husband, I envied the sleep patterns of a Guantanamo Bay inmate I’d want the evening wrapped up by 7pm as well. 

And so it was on an autumnal Saturday evening that I found myself sitting down for a curry at the previously unheard-of time of 5pm, just as the doors of Eastern Revive in Wilmslow were opened.

At first we had the place to ourselves, which isn’t necessarily the vibekiller that you’d expect. It was nice to not have to order around a gathering storm of incoming tables, endless trays of Cobra hovering overhead and an increasingly busy waiting staff. We had a Cobra and perused the menu. 

Inside, the decor of Eastern Revive is that tricky mix of understated decoration while also maintaining a sense of being slightly plush (this is Wilmslow after all). The walls are lined in faded wood panels while the colour comes from a series of small trees scattered throughout the place, which do manage to somehow be if not understated then at least not too grand. Just a bit of fun.

The tables, brushed metal and tastefully laid, are a nice alternative to the tablecloth alternative, but they still couldn’t compete with the brightly coloured land grab from the nephew’s various bits and bobs. His favourite distraction, a spinny thing of some description, was largely ignored as he spent the next hour rubbernecking and noseying at everyone that walked through the door.

It almost goes without saying that we started with poppadoms and a chutney tray, which were devoured in minutes. I’d had the lightest of lunches and an afternoon in the garden so even a few plate-sized poppadoms weren’t going to make a dent in my appetite. We did decide to keep it light on the starters, though, opting simply for some onion bhajis (£5.50 for three).

These were just the type I was hoping for, delivering on the fritter side of things rather than simply being chock full of onions. They were crispy and that lovely shade of yellowy brown. Pulled apart and dipped in the chutneys, it’s just enough to excite the appetite without scuppering the whole point you’re there in the first place, curries.

It was a good job we went easy on the starters, as we made up for it on the mains. You tend to try and cover a few bases when it comes to mains in Indian restaurants, while still playing much of the greatest hits. So it was a tandoori mixed grill (£17.50 for tandoori chicken, chicken tikka, seekh kebab and a lamb chop), king prawn karahi (£19.90), bombay potatoes (£7.50) and finally, crucially, tandoori butter chicken (£13.90).

Along with both garlic and mushroom rice (both £4.90) and garlic and peshwari naan (£3.90 and £5.50 respectively) you’ve got yourself something of a banquet for three, as well as a bit of naan for the nephew to turn his nose up at and play with instead.

I’ll start with the toppermost of the order - the butter chicken was the best I’d had in quite a while. I put this down to Eastern Revive not shying away from the flavour that makes this dish so much more than a creamier curry - the sweet, sharp note of almonds and raisins cutting through. 

When a butter chicken is disappointing you just trudge on through with a sense of duty, and when it’s done well you’re trampling over one another to ensure you get your fair share. This was definitely the latter, the chicken in succulent smaller strips rather than the skewered ping pong ball-sized chunks which, while perfectly nice, don’t quite give enough room to the sauce, which is why we’re all here. 

The king prawn karahi had plump and tasty prawns but wasn’t quite spicy enough for my tastes. If you’re hitting the velvety heights of a great butter chicken you want to offset it with something that smacks you between the eyes, and a karahi is best for this I’d say. So while it was a perfectly nice curry, it could’ve handled another chili or two.

The tandoori mixed grill, arriving audibly sizzling, ticked all the boxes you’d hope it would: the tikka a deep orange, with signs of the grill charred on but still tender; the seekh lamb kebab succulent and heaving with garlic; the lamb chop was a deep crimson and kept on the right side of tender, far from tough and chewy; and the tandoori chicken kept especially tender due to being served still clinging to the bone, which made for a dish you can return to towards of the meal - or even later in the evening when I gave in to temptation and sought out my leftovers.

The sides, while always the bridesmaid when it comes to Indian restaurants, were each in their own way a winner. The bombay potatoes were brought to the brink of crumbling and served with a sauce that had definitely sat with the spices for plenty of time. The garlic naan was the right combination of bready, chewy and snappable, but the peshwari took the crown. The mix of almonds, sultanas and coconut were an ideal accompaniment to the butter chicken and, in fact, all of the above. When you then add in rice with garlic cooked to that toffee consistency it’s just the array of flavours and textures that you want in this sort of meal.

By the time we were finishing up at 7pm, the place was filling up fast. When I popped back from the pub about 9pm to collect Ed’s forgotten jacket, it was absolutely heaving. Whenever I’m around this neck of the woods and walk past, it pretty much always is. 

While I’m probably at least a few years off having kids of my own, I might get ahead of the schedule and start to sit down at Indian restaurants before 7pm, a time I often disparagingly said was only for toddlers and pensioners. 

It’ll take a little while longer to kick the cigarettes, and even longer when it comes to swearing, but the early evening curry is a revelation, and when it’s of the quality Eastern Revive served up on Saturday, I can happily call myself a convert.  

Eastern Revive, 5-6 Warham Street, Wilmslow, SK9 1BT