Gary Mitchell of the Leicester Mercury reviewed Little India for the Eating Out section of "theweek" on Thursday 6 March 2008.
I should have had high expectations of Little India, writes Gary Mitchell. After all, the last time it was reviewed in The Week, in 2005, it earned a five-star rating. Later that year, it was crowned best Asian restaurant in the first Leicestershire and Rutland Restaurant of the Year Awards. Impressive stuff, then. But when my girlfriend and I went there all we really wanted from our visit was for the radiators to be on.
We had chosen what felt like the coldest night of the winter to visit, and the fact that the restaurant is on a windy hill in the middle of nowhere made our expedition an even chillier one.
Luckily for us, the indoors turned out to be as warm as the welcome - a beaming waiter swung the door open, ushered us in from the wilderness and offered drinks almost straight away.
Inside, the restaurant turned out to be just as inviting - it's a Grade II listed former pub which has been refurbished with modern, stylish touches.
Apart from the small cosy bar, there appears to be two dining rooms - one for big groups and a smaller space with a handful of tables, which was where we took our seats.
It was pretty empty when we arrived at 7pm and I wondered why I'd bothered to book, but we were amazed by how quickly it filled up. An hour later, the place was buzzing.

There's plenty of choice in the menu, which is made up of traditional favourites and many speciality dishes and chef's recommendations.
We kicked the night off with a couple of crisp poppodums accompanied by the usual pickles and a tasty tamarind dip.
Helen went for the aloo chat starter - a favourite of hers - and it was loaded with coriander and tamarind. Just, what she'd hoped for, she said.
I had the lamb hasina, which included grilled meat, peppers, tomato
and plenty of onions, smothered in a spicy tandoori sauce. Apart from a few too many slithers of lamb fat for my liking, I cleared the plate. The leftovers were swiftly taken away by a waiter and quickly replaced by our mains.
My shahi jalfreze was billed as chicken in a hot and creamy sauce with green chillies and fresh cream. There was no mistaking the chillies because, well, it was incredibly hot. I couldn't see the cream, though, and certainly couldn't taste it. I didn't bother raising the issue because, it has to be said, it tasted pretty good and I enjoyed every last bite.

Helen had the chicken murrobbah, which was drowning in an uninspiring dark green sauce. What it lacked in appearance it made up for in taste. With particularly strong flavours of garlic and ginger, it tasted like no curry we'd had before. Superb.
We had no complaints about the naan and fluffy pilau rice, either.
5 star rating: Overall 4 starsSadly, Little India's menu is let down by a flaw pandemic among curry houses - rubbish puddings. That's probably a tad harsh because we didn't even try them, but they looked like the same bought-in, frozen blobs we've seen elsewhere and we steered clear.

Dessert aside, it's clear to see why any­one I speak to about Little India heaps praise on it. The food is among the best Asian cuisine I've had and it's a comfortable, pleasant place to eat.

The service is sleek and professional without being too fussy. The waiters know what they're talking about and are happy to share some banter with the customers. Even though the place was heaving, one of them thought to open the door for us as we went back out into the cold and windy night. After the meal and a few drinks, I had £45 less in my pocket - but I didn't really miss it.
Little India on Radio Leicester
Following their win in the Restaurant awards, Syed and chef Jaynal Miah were interviewed by Ben Jackson in his breakfast program on 10 November 2005. Some of Little India's specialist dishes were taken in to the studios and enjoyed by everybody involved.



 A competition for listeners to win a meal for two was run during the program and the winner, Andy Corbett and his wife Debbie visited the restaurant in December. Read Andy's comments on their experience.
     The Leicester Mercury's Tom Mack visited the restaurant in Januuary 2005 and his review is reprinted below:

It's a bleak, starless January night on a windy mountain top in the middle of nowhere. Maybe it's not a mountain, as such, and rather than being the middle of nowhere we're on the A5199 outside Arnesby, but with the orange sodium glow of Leicester's street lights invisible over the horizon, it feels pretty remote. You get the picture.

Braving the gusting storm winds we make our way to Little India, where a hot, tasty curry is waiting. Never have I wanted a curry more. The first thing to say about Little India is that it's a warm environment - a Grade II listed building, formerly The Old Cock Inn, with half the bar ripped out and turned into a stylish restaurant. My girlfriend, who notices these things, loved the chairs.

The second great thing is the service. The staff like to chat to the diners about all the changes they had made to create the restaurant and turn it into a successful venture over the past eight months, since it opened.

As for the food, the quality was high and the prices reasonable. My girlfriend and I had decided to avoid unnecessary bloating on a curry night by staying clear of the lager. We tentatively ordered starters - a single king prawn for me and a few little mushrooms for my girlfriend, we thought. But no. A huge prawn and seven giant mushrooms arrive, stuffed with spicy minced lamb and lots of salad.
We took it slowly, then left a nice big break between courses to loosen our belts and prepare for what was to come. Choosing a main course was hard with the huge variety of prawn, lamb, biriani, tandoori and chicken dishes on offer. Usually, I'm a chicken korma man, but on this occasion I decided to be adventurous and opt for a medium chicken curry. My girlfriend had a chicken thawali, which is barbecued chicken with tomatoes, capsicum and onion with coriander.
Leicester Mercury Star rating It was all delicious, but neither of us got anywhere near the last mouthful. We're such lightweights. Afterwards, a waiter came by with one of those brilliant little rolling things that cleaned the table. I'm a very messy eater when things taste good, so I claim it reflects well on the chef that my side of the table was covered in rice and bits of poppadom.
So, overall: warm environment, warm welcome and warm, delicious food. It all cost £37.10 with drinks. The restaurant also does takeaway and a £7.50 Sunday buffet between 1pm and 5pm.