Life

Eating Out: Glad I didn't pass on the Khayber

Picture by Declan Roughan
Picture by Declan Roughan Picture by Declan Roughan

The Khayber

Antrim Road

Glengormley

Belfast

028 9084 9414

THERE are times when you make arrangements to eat out, book a restaurant weeks in advance, get your glad rags on and head off full of hope and anticipation. Then there are times when you're driving around feeling like you could eat a small child trying to find somewhere – anywhere – to eat.

It was on such an evening that I stumbled into The Khayber in Glengormley. There was no real thought process – it was there or KFC.

Glengormley looks very festive at this time of year; lots of flags and a big archy thing. Think it has something to do with a man on a horse but I'm not totally sure.

The restaurant is upstairs in a sort of small complex with other restaurants and sandwich shops. The outside is far from salubrious; inside, though, is lovely – very Indian, lots of red and hanging beads and funky Bollywood music I like an Indian restaurant to look and sound like what it is.

We were shown to a window seat overlooking a car park – there's not much they can do about the location. The seat was fine but a little cramped and too close to the adjoining table.

Don't get me wrong – they seemed like nice people – but I was practically in their company, we were that close.

Poppadoms and dips arrived before our bums had even warmed the seats; I was delighted. Our waiter, who was friendly and pleasant, got us some drinks while we looked at the menu. I'm a bit of an aficionado when it comes to Indian cuisine but there were a few starters I'd never heard of before.

The prawn puri sounded interesting – king prawns in a madras-style sauce wrapped in a pancake, so we ordered that and a tandoori mixed platter which is my 'go to' starter.

The prawn pancake thing wasn't at all nice. It was greasy and the prawns overcooked and grainy. The platter with lamb and chicken cooked in the tandoori oven were just OK.

I was worried for our mains. What would become of them and could we have more poppadoms if it all went pear shaped? I worried needlessly. The butter chicken, lamb jalfrazi, pilau rice and naan all arrived pipping hot and looking delicious.

They were beautifully presented in little copper pots, the butter chicken was deeper in colour than I'm used to, it was a dark terracotta rather than the usual pale yellow. That's one of the things I like about Indian food – the taste and appearance change depending on what region the chef is from.

It tasted like liquid gold, beautiful, delicate rich and calorie laden.

But it was the lamb dish that really won me over. It had layers of flavour. The heat at first smacked you in the face and then gave you a big hug. It was deep, the lamb so tender it fell apart, succulent and slow cooked, the sauce rich and dark brown, expertly spiced.

The rice was fragrant full of clove warmth and the naan soft and delicious when submerged in the butter chicken sauce.

We couldn't finish it all and got what was left boxed up, which our server did obligingly. Service was excellent and when I paid and thanked the waiter he said "God bless you" which sounds a bit silly but made me want to go back because such service is sadly rare these days.

It really was a game of two halves but the mains and service made me glad I hadn't gone for a KFC after all.

THE BILL

Cobra beer £2.95

Prawn puri £4.95

Tandoori mix £5.45

Butter chicken £10.95

Lamb jalfrazi £10.95

Pilau rice £2.60

Nann £2.60

Total £40.45