Village Cuisine, Farnborough

Wednesday 24^th April 2013

Submitted by Murali Para

This week saw another successful meeting of the CCB, this time at Village Cuisine, Farnborough. The evening was a very good one and, although only four Connoisseurs were present, by the end of the meal there did seem to be a general opinion among us that the food and service had clearly been above average.

Village Cuisine is a small restaurant that has been open since 1992 - it prides itself on the fact that it offers "Indian food with a difference". I personally quite liked the decor which is modern and lively, with brightly coloured wallpaper, orange seating and large mirrored panels. All this, together with authentic and upbeat Indian music made for a very pleasant ambience.

Wednesday night is banquet night at Village Cuisine so I was expecting it to be busy. Strangely enough though, there was only a handful of occupied tables in the restaurant throughout our meal. On offer for the banquet night deal were four courses - a starter, a main, a vegetable side and rice or naan - for £10.95 which represented great value for money.

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Garlic chilli lamb masala

While the other Connoisseurs opted mostly for chicken dishes, I thought I would go for the king prawn butterfly for starter, the garlic chilli lamb masala for main and the buttered mushrooms for side dish. The deep-fried king prawn butterfly in breadcrumbs was very large and had a nice texture to it, while the buttered mushrooms were something different and the creamy sauce offset the heat of the chilli lamb well.

There was a moment of confusion when the dishes came out, as my main - listed in the menu as simply garlic chilli masala but said to be lamb in the description - had somehow become garlic chicken! Even so, this mistake was acknowledged straight away when I prompted the staff and a dish of garlic chilli lamb masala was promptly brought out to replace the garlic chicken. To be fair, this minor blip was the only real mistake or lapse in service for the whole evening.

buttered mushrooms

It was encouraging that Village Cuisine got the little things right. For example, there were not four but six different dips for our papadoms. The portion sizes were generous for all the dishes, especially our main courses. The service was very prompt throughout the meal without ever being pushy or intrusive. The staff were also friendly and helpful at all times. I do wonder just how well the restaurant would have coped if it had been busier and if we had shown up with a full complement of seven or eight Connoisseurs. Still, you can only judge on what you've seen so I have no major criticisms

  

MENU	Village Cuisine
MAIN:	The garlic chilli lamb masala was very nice. Nice meat and well-spiced.  Generous portions	18/20
STARTERS/     SIDES:	Lovely king prawn butterfly, deep-fried and in breadcrumbs. Very tasty!  Lovely buttered mushrooms too.  Again, all good sized dishes.	8/10
VARIETY:	The range of dishes was fairly decent. The best part was the fact that you could order anything off the menu for banquet night including king prawns.	8/10
HEAT:	Not the absolute  hottest, but a flavoursome spice.  No complaints.	4/5
DRINKS:	Standard choice of beers.  Nice pint of mango juice!	3/5
VENUE
ATMOS:	We very much liked the colourful decor and the atmosphere of the venue.  It’s a cosy curry house - small, relaxed, friendly with attentive staff.  They play authentic upbeat Asian tunes!	17/20
SERVICE:	Excellent service throughout the meal. Prompt, efficient and friendly. Took away a point for their mistake in bringing garlic chicken rather than lamb initially but they did replace it without much fuss	9/10
VALUE:	£10.95 for four courses was excellent value. The £24 per head we paid overall (inc. service) was also fine for what we had.	9/10
LOCATION:	Quiet village, near a few pubs, parking ok.	2/5
BONUS:	No free drinks were offered.	1/5
	FINAL SCORE	79%

I definitely would recommend Village Cuisine, Farnborough - especially at banquet night prices - and it is my favourite restaurant so far in this year's curry season!

 

Village Cuisine
145 High St  Farnborough
Orpington
BR6 7AZ
01689 860077
http://www.villagecuisine.com/