The Guide - Food Section
November 24th 2007
If you believe Wikipedia, it's possible that the word Bengal is derived from an ancient tribal word Bonga - meaning Sun God.
Whether this is true or not, Bonga wasn't much in evidence as we battled through the distictly nippy British autumn in search of some warming Eastern cuisine.
We'd heard good things about Market Weighton's Bengal Brasserie, part of a chain of four Bengali Indian restaurants dotted around York and Leeds, and had long planned to pay the High Street eaterie a visit.
So, with expectations high and a need to throw off the chill winds with a nice hot curry, our party of four descended on the restaurant like four ravenous winter wolfs.
The restaurant itself is a bright, contemporary affair, fronted with attractive blue and gold livery. Even though we arrived on a depressingly bleak Monday night, the place was already half full, creating a decent hubbub of conversation and easy atmosphere.
Throwing caution to the wind and the car keys in the wife's direction, we orderd a round of lagers (orange for the driver) and perused the menu which offered a mix of tandoori house specialities, "connoisseur" dishes and vegetarian options.
An appetisingly extensive menu, with plenty to pick through to meet our four very diffrent curry tolerance levels,we finally plumped fot two tandoori mixed kebab starters(£3.95 each),an aloo-sag kebab(£2.95) and a prawn chotpati (tiger prawns marinated in herbs and spices and battered - (£4.25).
Two giant poppadoms and a decent pickle tray arrived(you can tell a lot about the quality of a restaurant by its mango chutney) were demolished in the short wait before the starters to arrived.
The Kebabs came with a decent selection of meat, while Ii was particularly impressed by the deep fried chotpati prawns, which came enclosed in a crispy golden brown batter.
Noticing duck on the house specialities menu and realising I'd never experienced the bird indian-style before I choose the duck massalla (£6.95) for my main course-hoping the creamy sauce promised on the menu would combine well with the fatty meat.
My partner chose a chicken tikka massalla (£7.15), while our friends picked king prawn sag (prawns gently cooked spinach - £10.95) and a chicken jalfrezi (£6.95).
To put extra pressure on our already bulging belts we also ordered two keema nans, two peshwari nans, one pilau rice and another round of drinks.
What had started out as a quiet night out was rapidly evolving into a bloated orgy of Eastern cuisine. Which is no bad thing.
My massalla was perfectly acceptable, although the meat could quite easily have been chicken. The duckyness of the dish-the main reason I'd taken a punt on it - didn't particuarly spring out at me.
Sampling each others dishes from the plates in the middle of the table, the massalla and jalfrezi were both rich and appetising - although the jalfrezi lived up to its promise on the menu and proved a little hot for my wimpy tastebuds. The prawn sag was excellent and probably my pick of the meal.
All the dishes came with decent helpings of meat and by the time the waiter came to clear our plates we were all too stuffed to even contemplate a dessert.
All in all, an enjoyable and satifying night out in a decent little curry house. Well worth a try - especially when the absence of sun god Bonga leaves you in need of a little eastern colour to cheer you up.