NAZ’S, Tenbury Wells

CURRY fans take note.

I may now have found my mecca for curries and already I’m counting the days until I can revisit for some more spicy tastings.

While I’m a fan of a good curry, the food I had at Naz’s in Market Street, Tenbury Wells, could possibly be the best Indian I have ever tasted – and that’s saying something.

Only open for a few months, the restaurant is already doing a roaring trade. It was somewhere I had been itching to try out and was only too happy to visit.

For appetisers we chose the vegetarian platter to share (£7.95), which included a selection of samosas, allo tikka and piyaze fritters. The dish arrived quickly and beautifully presented with an oriental salad alongside some tasty dipping sauces. It was all quickly devoured.

It took us quite some time to decide on our main courses because there was a great selection of very interesting dishes, the kind you don’t normally find on a menu at an Indian restaurant – although all the regular favourites were there, too. After much deliberating and a promise that we could each try the other’s dish, my friend decided on one of Naz’s fusion dishes – king prawn silsila (£12.95) which included large prawns barbecued in the sigri with onions, green peppers and tomatoes, to which mushrooms and green herbs were added. On the side was a bed of noodles, which she said were incredibly good and had a “taste of India”.

I too chose a selection of seafood; garlic monkfish (£11.95) which was a succulent lightly spiced fillet with cardamom powder, mustard oil, mustard paste and garlic. The dish was slowly cooked in the sigri and served on a bed of mixed vegetables.

The monkfish was beautifully cooked; very meaty and full of flavour. The sauce was incredible, packed full of fresh vegetables and something I would even eat just on its own.

For side orders we shared a portion of pilau rice (£2.50) and also one of my favourites, a saag paneer (£2.95).

Both main courses were sizeable portions and attractively presented.

Our welcome at Naz’s was very warm. This continued throughout our stay and our waiter for the evening – Naz himself, no less – was very attentive. Our drinks arrived quickly, the cutlery didn’t have a mark on it and we felt spoilt by the attention to detail in this clean and fresh restaurant with a modern twist.

For pudding, even though we were very full, we decided on a lemon cheesecake (£4.50) which was a good end to the meal.

We’ll certainly be going back to try some of the other dishes on offer.

HOW IT RATED

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