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Restaurant review: EastzEast

29/ 8/2007

By Neil Sowerby

THE Lal Toofan is a mysterious red dust storm that sweeps across the barren desert sands of Rajasthan. EastzEast had the same effect on the arid curry scene in Manchester.

Becoming the first Indian to scoop restaurant of the year at the 2006 Manchester food and drink awards, it cocked a snook at the complacent Rusholme curry mile.

It wasn't alone in this. Shimla Pinks, though hardly a culinary groundbreaker, promoted its own Asian cool in central Manchester, the much more ambitious (and with it, now sadly defunct) Saffron Lounge, in Hale, brought a distinct glamour and fusion sensibility to the cuisine and Dilli, in Altrincham, promoted its healthy credentials without being too wholesomely worthy on the plate.

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But EastzEast, ostensibly Punjabi regional but quite conservative in not abandoning much-loved Indian restaurant staples, somehow captured the limelight - and not just because of the major domo-wallah in full traditional robes who gladhands allcomers on the pavement outside. Newcomer Akbars, in Liverpool Road, an offshoot of a West Yorkshire chain, is far flasher and attracts a Bollywood-gorgeous, young Asian crowd but their food is quite standard fare. So EastzEast still rules the roost, but is that just on reptutation?

Has the Lal Tofan abated?

Rules exclude it from competing for the top restaurant award this year, but there was a strong lobby for it to make it in the best veggie section, yet didn't, but I was committed to testing its meat-free credentials and it was the perfect opportunity to catch up with it one year on - and with bit-part Bollywood siren Mopsi Chopra, who I last shared a vindaloo with at Portuguese (with a debt to Goa) eaterie Luso.

Mopsi's opening gambit was: "Vegetarian? I need flesh - and why, darling, are we dining in the lobby of a chain hotel?"

"It was convenient for the restaurant-owners, new to Manchester, to hire the ground floor of the Ibis and it still looks cool with its encased waterfall and black and brown decor. At the end of next month they are opening, in addition, new larger premises on Blackfriars Street, close to the Ramada Hotel. May I order you a Lal Toofan?"

"Sounds like a sordid scrub with a loofah, darling, but I'm game."

"Actually, it's an Indian beer, brewed from basmati rice under licence over here naturally, named after a big Indian wind and nicer than (what's your venom?) Cobra - clean crisp and a fine accompaniment to spicy Indian food, it says here."

Spicy Indian food wasn't quite what we got, alas, after agreeing to 'medium' for our vegetarian expedition. When you are asked for your level of curry heat, I always smell 'compromise'.

One of my few dreams of veggie heaven centres around the chilli, coconut and curry leaf-fixated cuisine of Goa and Kerala, which is naturally hot, but balanced. Punjab is less defined.

Perhaps EastzEast is resting on its considerable laurels, but the food we tasted lacked imagination, being a veggie shadow of a meat-centred cuisine - and had that compromising sweetness that aims to please (like commercial wine). The menu promised the veg mixed starter (£7.95 for two) would sizzle on the platter and, boy, it did. Routine deep-fried pakora and the like, it was fine - unlike the bizarre garlic mushroom kabli (£2.95) Mopsi had ordered.

Having failed to secure a walk-on role in the avenger epic, Kabli, Daughter Of Death, this was her revenge. Stringy melted cheese on top of coarse, garlicky fungi, ugh! Chilled chana chaat's potato cubes with chickpeas on a date and tamarind sauce was also surprisingly sweet and unsavoury (£3.55). Not a good start.

The Lal Tofan was fresh-tasting and characterful, but we switched to a white Alsace, the aromatic Gewurztraminer from the Pfaffenheim co-operative (£13.95) and this coped well with food that was hardly going to sear the tastebuds.

We ordered naan just for the sheer grotesque sight of seeing the poor griddle breads hung out like torture victims on a rack. As on previous visits, they are cold within minutes. Service is still hot, though.

For mains, we strayed a touch from the vegetarian template. Mopsi's Karahi tiger king prawn makhani (£12.95) was a cloying North Indian creamy sauce of almond, pistachio and tomato-smothering grilled prawns that were tough and tasteless in themselves - and meagre in quantity.

The vegetarian biryani, at £7.95, was better. Saffron-infused, slightly crunchy basmati, containing al dente veg and raisins, accompanied by a rich chickpea-pocked sauce, it was eclipsed by a gorgeous karahi mater paneer (£7.95). The fresh curd cheese cubes were far removed from the shop-bought sterile stuff, the peas and tomato lifted by mustard seed and ginger.

We also liked an unusual dal dish featuring similar spices and red kidney beans - dal pohti (£6.95).

But, ultimately, we felt that straying beyond meat and fish, we had missed the Punjabi point of EastzEast, hence the mere three stars. The place is till a gem, but its limitations are obvious.

Mopsi, big in Bangalore, feels like me; the time is ripe for a more challenging Indian eaterie to come to Manchester, somewhere akin to places in London tackling Keralan cuisine like Rasa, or defiantly upmarket and adventurous like Rasoi Vineet Bhatia. Any takers?

EastzEast, Ibis Hotel, Princess Street, city centre. Tel: 0161 244 5353.