Baby G was away for the night so my lovely wife and I decided to go for an old school date night. This invariably involve a drink at the “Hillgate”, a bite to eat and a movie at the Coronet. After a nice pint and the very buzzy “Hillgate” we decided to wander down to “Chakra” the newish Indian down the bottom end of Notting Hill. We’d been wanting to try it for a while as we are bit limited in Notting Hill for indian food. “Malabar” is nice enough but it does get really very busy so it’s not quite right for a nice catch up with the missus. I’ve wanted to try Chakra for a while but was a bit put off by the lack of menu outside (thankfully that has now been rectified) it is fine looking all cool and exclusive but you do need to show people what sort of food and prices you do. Anyway a quick look at their website showed that prices were more than “Malabar” but not barking so we thought we would give it a go.
It does look very cool indeed inside, studded and padded white leather walls at the front of the restaurant and a dark wood area at the back. Nice comfy chairs in the same colour scheme. The welcome was friendly, it wasn’t that busy so we were offered a choice of tables. To be honest I was hoping for somewhere a bit more lively but I thought I would let the food do the talking. We skipped starters in favour of a mini feast so we went for some tandoori chicken, a lamb curry and also a prawn one. We ordered some rice with this and their mixed nan bread tray. We also had some Saag Aloo. The food came up and it was very nice indeed. Really nicely cooked, good clean flavours, well sized portions. I was a real hit with us. They also had a good wine list so we eschewed the usual beer in favour of a lovely Albarino.
It was a very nice meal and a nice space like this deserves to be a lot busier. I noticed that they do a weekend brunch so I will try and give that a go soon. The service was very nice, unobtrusive so perfect for a date night. The bill wasn't exactly cheap but I thought it was fair for the quality of food we had. After such a nice meal I was sorry the film we took in wasn’t better. Ted really was like a poor Family Guy episode.
Monday, October 08, 2012
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 7