"Expectations were high. Expectation were exceeded! Sam's 25 Dec menu and experience is not one that I'll forget, long into the New Year. I arrive to a warm welcome and it seems a hive of waiters at my bidding. I usually know what I'm ordering, but this menu sure puts the brain cells to work. The choice seems as wide as the ocean, and I imagine that I'm reading something from the Queen Mary or Titanic (without the sinking feeling) Let's start with starurrs, as they say round here. I go for lentil soup. Now this is a useful bit of multiculturalism to find this served. It's culturally perfect. Warm, sweet, cosy, comforting. Crunchy too. Cooked just right. It calls associations of winter evenings, fires flowing, cats purring and grans nodding on rocking chairs. Course two promptly arrives. The service is excellent. I've gone for a razzla. Never heard of it? Neither had I! Its ra ra indeed. Hot and sweet and exotic dish, made me think of jungle, rainforest, diners sitting together in a circle, discussing, eating, savouring. Well, they say all good things come to an end. Not there yet though as there is pudding. Note that name. Not desert, which I always associate with camels. Here I go traditional and take a good home made xmas pudding. Rich and tasty, not too sweet, nor thankfully too much. All this is washed down with a lovely hot coffee. The atmosphere is merry, seasonal, but not artificial or falsely exuberant. In fact, everything about today, welcome, waiters, dishes, service and seating chimes perfectly. Talking of chimes, I'll ensure that I come back here early in the New Year. Alasdair."
Dal Tadka
