Eating Out: Cafe India

Sep 22 2011 By Ben Spencer

Address: 29 Albion Street, Tel: 552 5115, Web: www.cafeindiaglasgow.com

STEP inside Cafe India and you're greeted by a flurry of colour, paintings and flower petals.

It's quite a sight and makes what could be a regular meal out feel that bit more special right away.

I visited Cafe India with a friend relatively early on a Saturday night but the restaurant was already buzzing with diners.

A waiter dressed in a stylish overcoat showed us to our table.

There's a wide choice of dishes on the menu but I was drawn to the garlic aloo zarmman - fried spicy potato cakes with garlic buttered mushrooms and a mini bread (£4.95).

I thought the creamy sauce worked well with the mushrooms.

My friend loves seafood and plumped for the metha kathe king prawn - sweet and savoury king prawns cooked in garlic butter and covered in a mango and honey lemon sauce (£7.95).

The prawns were perfectly cooked and his only complaint was that he could have eaten even more.

For my main course I chose a meatballstyle dish.

The raja keema kofta masala was made with lamb and came with a sauce of ginger, garlic, onion and tomatoes (£13.95).

I ordered some chapattis on the side (£1 each) and couldn't resist dipping them in the sauce.

My pal was also impressed with his chicken hara bhara (£11.95). This was a curry with a rich, creamy mint sauce.

Ravenous after a hard day's work he also ordered a vegetarian side dish of tarka daal - yellow lentils fried with cumin butter and tomatoes (£6.95).

Despite the size of the two dishes both were polished off with relish.

I finished off a colourful meal with white coffee (£2.25) and a traditional Indian ice-cream dessert made with saffron, pistachios and almonds (£5.95).

Served in a ceramic bowl, it was a complex but refreshing end to the evening.

The only downside to our meal was that an order for some water to accompany the food did not arrive.

But with both colourful surroundings and food, Cafe India is well worth a visit.