Mel experiences true Indian street food

Whether you like it or not (we like!) street food is here to stay, taking the restaurant world by storm substituting 2012’s burger mania.

If you want a German bratwurst, Colombian arepa or Mexican empanada you can get it either at your local market, regional food festival – or in Mel’s recent discovery, a Cheadle restaurant.

Indian Tiffinroom (ITR) opened on Chapel Street earlier this year and has more positive reviews on TripAdvisor than most.

Offering an amalgamation of various regional dishes that are very popular in different parts of India, most of the menu focuses on the south of the country.

Having failed to get a table by walking past last month, Mel used her head and booked one last Friday (6.30pm was the only slot left). A busy restaurant even at that time, it was a great sight to see and started the evening off very well.

The starters consisted of staple snacks you could get on the streets of any bustling Indian town. Mysore bonda (second image), samosa Punjabi style with tamarind and mint (third image), a chicken tikka kebab, an ITR Mysore masala dosa and a grazing platter of various puri (bhelpuri, dahipuri and sevpuri).

If like Mel, you have never tried a puri before (top image), I’d strongly suggest going here as the grazing selection gives you a full experience. Both the dahipuri and sevpuri are delicate pastry cases filled with various spices, potato, yoghurt and onion whilst the bhelpuri was made of puffed rice, pomegranate seeds and tamarind.

Another hit was the dosa; a lentil crepe filled with a blend of spiced potato with a coconut sauce, a sour lentil sambar and chilli oil; all for dipping your dosa in. The lentil fritters were also very good along with the huge samosas and smashing kebab (we needed some meat!).

Not often we eat EVERYTHING however in this case there was nothing left. Sure I saw Mel licking a plate too....

The mains are a bit more ‘sit down to eat’ but were anything but the typical mains you get in your average Indian takeaway.

We ordered the house chicken curry, a Kerala fish curry (bottom image) and a chicken biryani along with some plain naan and a raita (mains come with either rice or bread). The chicken curry was really good with a nice thick dark sauce full of spice and packed a punch (glad we had the raita!). The chicken biryani was also an excellent dish which arrived with a tadka dahl and raita; however I'd of loved a bit more sauce to keep it wet. The star main was the fish curry with tilapia. Rich, flavoursome and aromatic, it was an accomplished curry which we'd return to have again.

All in all, I'd say this is the nicest meals Mel’s had in quite some time, not only because of the great service and food, but mainly because a lot of it was new and refreshing.

If you have ever heard people say that Indian food in Britain is not 'real' Indian food, then go to ITR and shut those people up!

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Posted: Thursday 5th September 2013
ID: 10644 - 1038