RILYS, Evesham

ALMOST four years ago, staff at Rilys in Waterside, Evesham, were literally up to their eyes in the river Avon.

The restaurant suffered disastrously at the hands of the summer floods and water rapidly rose up to six feet inside the building.

After 18 long months recovering from the devastation, during which time Rilys underwent a complete refit, the restaurant reopened its doors to customers in December 2008.

And it would appear to have made something of a spectacular comeback, if my evening out with my wife and two friends was anything to go by.

Living in the vale of Evesham I had previously enjoyed a number of visits to the pre-flooded Rilys in the 20 years it has been established and I was keen to discover how the new-look restaurant fared in comparison. I have to tell you, the food, the service and the ambience were all exceptional.

We were off to a flyer when the poppadoms arrived with the most generous array of chutneys and pickles I have ever had set before me in an Indian restaurant.

Then to start, I went for the Tetul mix special (£4.50), which consisted of succulent pieces of chicken and lamb tikka cooked with crunchy green peppers and onions, pan-fried in tangy tamarind and served with puree.

It was a superb starter and one of my friends equally enjoyed his tikka tikka (£2.95), which consisted of chicken marinated in various spices. For a main course I decided to deviate away from my usual chicken tikka massala and try something different, so I opted for one of Rilys’ signature dishes – lasani ghust (£8.95).

This was made up of tender pieces of fillet lamb, cooked with pickled garlic, onions and fresh chillies.

I asked for them to go easy on the chillies and that really allowed the flavour of the lamb to come through. It was all thoroughly enjoyable.

My wife found her dish equally to her liking. She chose Jaipuri mist (£7.95), made up of marinated pieces of chicken tikka in a thick gravy cooked with mushrooms, green peppers and onions.

She declared it to be lovely and fresh, with an exciting array of spices adding to the delicious flavour. As with all our dishes, the portions were very generous, too.

One of our friends could not fault her choice of main course either – she opted for chicken biryani (£7.95).

To cool our mouths a little, my wife and I shared a nougat ice cream (£3.95).

All in all, I found it hard to fault our evening at the “new” Rilys.

The service was first-class, albeit on a relatively quiet Thursday evening, and we enjoyed some entertaining banter with the waiters.

With a couple of rounds of drinks thrown in, the bill came to just over £79 for the four of us.

HOW IT RATED

Food: 4
Service: 5
Ambience: 4
Value for money: 4