Delhi6- Wednesday 25th May
Delhi6 in Burnett Road, Streetly, is not your average Indian restaurant. Brothers Mac and Liton are attempting to target the fine diner with their a la carte’ Indian menu; which they describe as fusion.
Upon entering, the door boasts a five star certificate from the food standards agency incurring confidence of a clean well managed kitchen.
The interior is well furbished with a modern contemporary look. The seating is comfortable with a good mix of tables, including booth seats and a large circular table in the front window which seats eight. The stylish French designed cutlery, glassware and place settings add a touch of class. Despite the subtle authentic music playing in the background I did feel that the dining room lacked ambience. However it was a Wednesday evening and there were few other diners.
Mac and Say are front of house and Mamun serves the bar. They are friendly and well informed. We are greeted warmly and shown to our booth seats.
To start we are served onion salad and mint sauce with two homemade chutneys; pommegranate and pineapple and the second, mango. They are clearly freshly made and both include fennel seeds, a lovely accompliment to the crisp popppodoms.
The starters range from £4.50 upwards and offer a good choice:
Salmon Dil Tikka- salmon fillet marinated with hung yogurt, chaat Masala, ginger garlic paste; served with mixed baby leaves and honey, mustard sauce
Is cooked very well, a difficult dish to get right as it is cooked in a clay oven. The level of spice is spot on and does not overpower the subtle flavour of the succulent Scottish salmon fillet. The smooth mustard sauce compliments the fish.
The Dhoomer kebabs are excellent, firm in texture but juicy and have a lovely smoked flavour.
Say tells me their main cliental are couples and adult diners; this is not a place to take the kids. If you require a good Balti or the nation’s favourite- chicken tikka masala, this is not the restaurant for you.
Delhi6 offers a fine dining experience of delicious Indian dishes. They roast and blend their own spice mixes here to produce authentic, original Indian cuisine, from north to south the mains menu is a trip around India. The chef liton has chosen classic Indian recipes to include sea bass, cod, prawns, chicken, venison, beef loin and lamb which represent the Goan, Bengali, southern and Kashmiri regions.
The chefs here are so confident in their marinades and seasoning, they do not offer salt and pepper! In fact whilst there a diner requested extra salt and was told there was none available. However do not mistake this for arrogance, after tasting the food in this restaurant I feel they are entitled to have this level of confidence.
I was impressed to learn that they do not use ghee (a clarified butter) in their cooking, so there is no unpleasant film of fat hovering on top of your plate as is very often the case in many an Indian restaurant. Quite the contrary the Kashmiri Rogan Josh was the highlight of the evening. The lamb melted in the mouth, free from artificial colours and flavours the Rogan Josh was divine. The side dishes of spinach and the pilau rice were well portioned and cooked well. If I have one criticism it would be the lack of serving spoons, which I understand are on order!
The Gulab jamun for desert was deliciously rich and delicately spiced with cardamom was fragrant on the nose and very Moorish! I did feel the choice of deserts was disappointing but the chef assures me he is at present in the process of developing more homemade dishes.
There are a lot of good Indian restaurants in our area and I hope the team at Delhi6 can do enough to impress their diners to make a success of it. My advice to them is to stay true to what they have set out to achieve and continue to produce authentic, high quality, well presented Indian food.
I would recommend this restaurant and mark it as one to look out for in the future. If you want sophisticated, tasty Indian food Delhi6 is the place to go.
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