REVIEW | Namaste, West Didsbury

NAMASTE Nepal is an Indian-Nepalese restaurant in Didsbury, the interior of which takes you back to the Curry Mile in the mid-1990s. Red seats? Tick. White table clothes and weirdly contemporary light fittings? Present and correct. The owners have even gone so far as to place a red carpet on the pavement outside to warn passers by that this is not a trendy establishment. So, why review a curry house that time forgot?

Topped with a Himalayan snowfall of grated coconut, the smoky-pink meat tastes like two meals in one. Half curry, half kebab. Genius

The restaurant is brought to my attention by Manchester-based chart-topping indie band, Everything Everything. A friend tells me that after their Manchester shows, the band insist on a Namaste Nepal takeaway of chilli paneer and tandoori chicken makhanwala for their supper. Keen to know more, I book a table and find that Namaste’s chilli paneer (£7.75, main image) is indeed the stuff that Mercury-prize nominated bands are made of.

Big enough for four to share, the giant, scampi-style nuggets are served in batter so fresh and so crispy that you could crack it with a spoon. Battered paneer could be unique to Namaste Nepal; I’ve had ‘halloumi fish and chips’ before but never paneer. However, it’s not the style of cooking that nudges this dish into the curry hall of fame, but the sauce. An intense tomato, onion and green chilli relish is draped across the top of the paneer, and it is dangerously moreish.

Tandoori chicken in a creamy tomato sauce (tandoori chicken mahkenwala, £8.25) is another Everything Everything-endorsed winner. Topped with a Himalayan snowfall of grated coconut, the smoky-pink meat tastes like two meals in one. Half curry, half kebab. Genius. It’s also so rich that you probably only need this one dish to conquer Mount Everest.

Namaste Nepal

Nepalese chicken ‘chaat phat’ curry (like most Indian food, tastes better than it photographs)

Nepalese chicken ‘chaat phat’ curry, flavoured with mustard oil and green chilli (£7.70) is lighter, as is the tender and fragrant lamb pilau (Nepalese fried rice, £10.50). The pilau is not quite up there with my favourite rice and lamb dish in Manchester, Mughli’s lamb biryani. But Namaste’s hits the keynotes with clove and cinnamon, in particular, coming through. A non-descript vegetable curry on the side seems like a wasted opportunity to do something different.

Starters include tandoori prawns and shashlik kebabs, as well as traditional Nepalese ‘momo-cha’ (£6.50). These eight vegetarian dumplings, a similar shape and size to Japanese gyoza, are served with a spicy tomato relish. I remember buying a pot of something similar from the Nepalese dumpling place, Tibetan Kitchen, years ago and wishing I had bought a case. Paneer pakodas (£7.50), pakora-style bites in deep-fried tumeric-gram batter are another welcome companion for the relish.

The curry house that time forgot

Paneer pakoras

The standard curry house salad garnish of iceberg, tomato and wedges of flavourless cucumber has nothing to recommend it, while other less-than-brilliant moments include an under-spiced, oily aubergine bringal curry (£5.10) and the aforementioned vegetable dish that come with the pillau. Breads, however, are excellent and the bill comes in at £62, with enough food to feed six. We have loads to take home.

So, there’s no doubt that this Didsbury favourite is old fashioned - and that’s part of its allure. Drinks are classics - Cobra, generic white wine, diet coke - and the interior decoration trends that warm more fashionable curry houses (such as low lighting and vintage artefacts) have yet to reach Namaste. Small plates are not something they offer either, other than as starters. I do enjoy it. But I’ll probably follow the band's example next time and get my order to take away.

Namaste Nepal, 164-166 Burton Road, Didsbury M20 1LH. 0161 445 9060

Rating: 12.5/20

Food: 7 (momocha 7, paneer pakoda 7, tandoori chicken curry 6, chaat phat 6, paneer chilli 9, aubergine 4, pillau 6, breads 8)

Ambience: 2/5

Service: 3.5/5

Oily aubergine bringa

'Momo-cha'

Lamb pilau