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“On the first night of our recent visit to York, we...”

written by sharkel on 08/05/2007

On the first night of our recent visit to York, we ventured out to find somewhere to eat, as the hotel was a tad expensive for us commoners!



When we entered the city walls, we asked the first people we met where the best area/restaurant was to eat. Both of them immediately answered Akbars, an Asian restaurant, which luckily was just around the corner on George Hudson Street. They also gave us options for Chinese and Mexican food, but both of them were adamant that Akbars was the best.



We walked round to the restaurant and had a look at the menu outside the front door. As I'm a vegetarian I need to ensure that any restaurant I visit is going to have a good selection of meals for me to choose from, and not just one or two veggie options. There was a very large amount of meals for me to choose from, and we happily went inside.



The restaurant inside is modern, very chic, and not, I wouldn't say, the traditional d cor of an Asian restaurant. The floors were tiled with large cream ceramic tiles. Some of the walls are painted in a deep aubergine colour, and some of them are painted cream. There are modern lights hanging from the ceiling, and framed modern pictures hanging on the walls. Overall, the colour scheme throughout is aubergine, cream and brown, which sounds strange, but it works really well and gives a comfortable but contemporary feel to the surroundings. At the sides of the ceiling are lights which emit different colour lights, adding to the funky feel of the restaurant. On the left hand side wall of the restaurant is a large light box with the word Akbars in it. From the door the restaurant looked very large.



We were immediately aware of how noisy the restaurant was. All of the tables were full and everyone seemed to be having a good time. There was a host at the door, and he told us we would have to wait about 10 - 15 minutes for a table as we hadn't booked. This was fine with us, as there are some seats next to the bar. We ordered our drinks, which were added onto our bill, and sat down and waited for our table. Thankfully we only waited 5 - 10 minutes.



We were shown to a table in the middle of the restaurant, and once seated, we noticed that a large section of the back wall was a mirror - giving the impression that the restaurant is large than it actually is. We realised that the restaurant was a lot smaller than initially thought.



Our table had two side dishes, cutlery, wine glasses with napkins, and no table cloth. Simple, but effective. The chairs were high backed cream and brown leather chairs.



We were given two large menus and asked if we required more drinks, which we didn't. The menu was impressive, particularly the veggie section (yee-hah!). To be honest, this menu had one of the largest selections on a menu that I've seen for a long time. While we were looking at the menus we were brought popadoms and a selection of sauces to dip them in - yummy. These were finished within 5 minutes I think!



The restaurant specialises in Pan Cooked baltis from Baltistan; an extreme mountainous region North of Pakistan, and the sections on the menu were:



Starters, Vegetarian Starters, Old School Favourites. Chef's specialities, Vegetarian Specialities, Allam han's Lahori Style Dishes, Original baltis, Special baltis, Handi of the day, Traditional Desi-Apna Style, Sundries a Desserts.



Because the vegetarian options were so varied, it took me a while to decide, especially as there are quite a few dishes that I had never seen before, which seemed quite traditional. I was glad to see this, as a lot of Indian/Pakistani restaurants seem to give the same meals over and over. We decided against starters and wanted to get stuck straight into our main meals.



I chose a Vegetable Dupiaza (£4.95) which the menu described as "A traditional curry prepared with double the amount of fried onions", and my partner chose a Chicken Korma -(£4.65) described as "A curry originally for the British Paj in India. A mild and creamy taste (very mild)". We also asked for boiled rice and a cheese naan, but were told that they didn't do this. I may be wrong, but this could be a Scottish thing? We decided to settle for a plain naan to go with our dinners. To the left of our table was the kitchen, which you could see into - all those hard at work chefs making our dinner!



When our meal was brought to our table we weren't given dinner plates - our rice was brought on small plates, and our meals were served in Balti dishes! This confused us thoroughly, as in Glasgow your rice is served onto your dinner plate and then you spoon your main meal onto the rice on your plate. I tried to peer around the restaurant to see what everyone else was doing, and it looked like we had two options - eat from the balti dish or eat from the small side plate. We decided to go for the balti dish option as that seemed a bit more fun! I noticed half way through that most people were eating from their plates, and only a couple were using their balti dishes, but we didn't care - we just kept eating! Our naan was brought and served hanging up, which we had never seen - we're used to it being cut up and served in a basket. It looks as though the restaurant cooked the naan dependant on how many people were at a table - one of the tables across from us had four seated, and they had a massive naan hanging from their naan-hook thing. When we wanted some we simply ripped it off and munched away. This is an excellent idea, as it saves on table space - and you can fit another plate in!



The meal was served by the chefs from the kitchen, and I found this to be a lovely touch. I've never been in a restaurant that does this before, and it made me feel a bit special, even though everyone was getting the same treatment.



My meal was fantastic - a lovely rich tomato based sauce with plenty of onions, potato, cauliflower and peppers throughout it. There was a definite kick to it! Normally I'm a bit of a wimp when it comes to currys and spicy food, but this one was just right, and I managed just fine. The portion was a good size, not too big and certainly not too small. I was glad to see that there was a decent amount of vegetables in it - big chunks of potato and plenty of cauliflower, which is exactly what I like. It's been a long time since I finished a curry, but this one was fully polished off, and the sauce wiped up with the bread. The naan bread was 100%, hand on heart, the best naan bread that I have ever tasted - it was fluffy, light - yet dense at the same time. Normally we fight over certain parts of the bread, but there was none of that since it was the same all over - perfect! My other half's meal was also excellent, and he thoroughly enjoyed it. I asked him to comment on it for the benefit of this review, and he said "lots of chicken" - he obviously doesn't appreciate how serious I take my ciaoing!



The staff in the restaurant were extremely helpful and pleasant, and there seemed to be loads of them! The waiter who served us was great. He explained items on the menu, and when I asked him about the balti dish/side dish dilemma, he happily explained that a lot of people prefer to eat out of the balti dish instead of a dinner plate. We had quite a bit of banter with him during the course of the evening.



We had a fantastic night in the restaurant, we talked and laughed the full time we were there, and whilst we are naturally gifted conversationalists (or just really mouthy Glaswegians); we felt that there was a great atmosphere in the restaurant which definitely added to the enjoyment of the evening. The restaurant seems like a popular choice with the locals as well as tourists, and we counted three birthdays where the waiters and chefs brought out a slice of cake with candles and sparklers and sang (ear splittingly out of tune) happy birthday to the lucky guest.



Our bill came to just over twenty pounds, including three drinks and the naan bread. This is an absolute bargain for such an enjoyable meal. We made sure to add on a generous tip, as it was well deserved. Although the restaurant was busy, at no point did we feel rushed and we took our time over our meals.



The only bad point - and (I'm afraid it's a biggy) was that when I visited the ladies, the girl from behind the bar came out of the cubicle and walked straight out of the toilet without washing her hands. I could give her the benefit of the doubt and say that she may well have used the sink behind the bar, but she should have realised that a customer would realise that she was staff and see that she worked behind the bar. This is why there were only there drinks purchased during our evening! When we returned from our weekend away, I emailed the restaurant and let them know that I witnessed "a member of staff" not washing their hands after using the toilet. This might seem to be taking it too far, but I believe in feedback. If you don't tell someone they are doing something wrong, it isn't going to change. I didn't mention who it was, so hopefully there will be a general reminder to the staff.



Akbar's Restaurant's owner decided within six months of working in his first job that he wanted to open his own restaurant. The restaurants are named after his father, whom the restaurant is dedicated to. There are also Akbars restaurants in Manchester, Leeds (2), Bradford and Sheffield. There are further plans to open Akbars restaurants in Birmingham, Glasgow (yesss) and London.

Akbar's specialise in Birthday parties, weddings, anniversaries, leaving parties, or any occasion that you would like to celebrate. Flowers, birthday cakes and photography can be arranged. A limousine service can also be arranged to collect you and take you to the restaurant. Akbars can also provide a magician for your evening!!



Awards and comments:

The Good Food Guide - 'Recommending Akbars'. The only Indian restaurant recommended in Yorkshire.

Yorkshire Evening Post - 'Restaurant of the Year'
Daily Mail - 'Best Indian in Bradford'
Telegraph and Argus - 'Restaurant of the Year'
Times Magazine - 'Brilliant Restaurant'




Thanks for reading.