Fancy a ruby?? (Shadhana Indian Restaurant)

Member Name: GentleGenius

Product:	Shadhana Indian Restaurant
Date:	23/06/09 (93 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quiet location, good & tasty food, efficient & polite service, pleasant decor/surroundings

Disadvantages: Portions on the small side, fairly expensive, no mulligatawny soup, limited dessert selection

SHADHANA INDIAN RESTAURANT

LOCATION: Hawkwell, Essex (approx. 4 miles north of Southend-on-Sea, bordering onto Hockley)

DISCLAIMER (possibly an excuse!!!): This is my very first restaurant review, so I hope I don't make a complete mess of it.

I love Indian food, and it's rare that I get to have the experience these days. Since I moved to the area where I now live, my address is so difficult to explain to anyone how to get to (as it's not logical, plus it's off the beaten track somewhat), so rather than go into lengthy descriptions of turnings, alleyways, misplaced signposts etc. only to still be misunderstood, I've reluctantly chosen to go without the deliveries of Indian meals which I used to enjoy so much at other places I've lived. There is an Indian restaurant in the village which is about 10mins walk from my home, but sadly their food leaves a lot to be desired, and isn't an enjoyable experience.

For my birthday treat (about 10 days ago), a friend said she would take me out for an Indian meal, and she suggested the Shadhana restaurant in Hawkwell which is joined onto the south end of the town of Hockley in south east Essex. Neither of us like to sit in any kind of restaurant where the guests are noisy/rowdy, and sadly this for both of us has become a very frequent thing, in that wherever we choose to go, seems to be packed out with diners who are unable to keep their voices down to an acceptable level.

It is also our feeling that the food served in many of the Indian restaurants in and around the Southend-on-Sea area has deteriorated to a point where, even if we loved those restaurants years ago and would frequent them on a regular basis, we'd now prefer not to eat what for us is a sub-standard meal. Also, we don't really feel safe walking around the areas (or my friend parking her car) where our old favourite Indian restaurants are, especially as the now poor food quality doesn't warrant that nervousness.

Probably sensing that I was desperate for a curry, my friend said she'd for the first time a few days previously, visited the Shadhana restaurant in Hawkwell (which is a pleasant area), and as she'd enjoyed the experience, she suggested we go there for my birthday celebration - I agreed, so off we drove in her little car to the Shadhana, approximately 3 miles from where I live.

THE RESTAURANT

From the outside, unless you know the restaurant is there, it could easily be missed as it stands with houses either side, rather than in a row of shops and other restaurants. The style of the outside is similar to that of a house built maybe in the late 1980s or early 1990s, and the restaurant sign is quite small. There is a little driveway at the front, which leads to a car park for customers behind the restaurant. This car park is well concealed, and I'd imagine isn't an immediate temptation for car thieves, yobs and vandals.

Inside the restaurant, there are two steps to walk up which lead to the main dining area, and these steps aren't easy to see - but the waiter who greeted us warned us that they were there. There is also a sign saying "mind the steps", but it is quite small and I don't think most people would notice it unless they were staring straight at it. From the outside, it appears that the inside of the restaurant would be very small, but it actually isn't, as it goes back a long way.

Most of the tables are dotted around the walls, with a few in the middle of the very large room, and there is another dining area up two more steps, plus a bar. The kitchens are at the rear of the building, well away from the eating area.

The décor is tasteful, mostly different shades of creams and soft oranges. That sounds very 1960s/1970s kitsch, but the mood created by this colour scheme isn't old-fashioned at all. Each table has an interesting idea that I'd never seen before, whereby two long, slim snow-white linen tablecloths are laid in a cross-shape on the surface of the tables. The convenience of this was that firstly it was aesthetically appealing, and secondly, when I sat down, I didn't have to feel the weight of a traditional tablecloth pressing against my arthritic legs. The high-backed dark wood chairs were padded (on the bits that your body touches) with cream coloured cushioning.

Each place was set with a laminated table mat, and the cutlery provided was a knife, fork and spoon at the side of the table mat, and another spoon and fork at the top - e.g. as if for dessert. Every table had a slim glass vase containing a flower - sorry I don't know what type of flower it was.

ATMOSPHERE

The general aura inside of the restaurant was easy and relaxed. There were a few groups of diners dotted around, and for the most part they were reasonably quiet. My friend did find the group sitting closest to us a little on the noisy side, but I was fine with it - it was borderline though, as if they'd have been making any more noise, I'd have found it very uncomfortable.

This isn't one of those old style restaurants with dull-coloured brocade wallpaper - the walls are painted a subdued orange, with cream panels, and there are a few pictures placed at tasteful, and not "in your face" angles.

The lighting in the restaurant was subdued, giving off a warm and relaxing glow. I did wonder if it would be too dark to see the menu properly, but it turned out not to be a problem.

Indian music was being played, which I was pleased about - for me there's nothing worse than going to an Indian restaurant (because I'm a sucker for authentic atmosphere), and having to listen to Girls Aloud blaring through the speakers. The music was of Indian Theatre variety, and wasn't too loud - it was just a nice, atmospheric and gentle sound in the background.

The waiters were of mixed age, and we were greeted politely at the door by one, with a warm "good evening". He showed us to a table for two, then after changing the flower in the vase for a fresher one, walked away. Each waiter was dressed smartly in standard waiters' apparel....black trousers and dazzling white shirts.

FOOD

My friend had previously informed me that the Shadhana still used real chicken in their dishes......not the reconstituted lumps, which both she and I hate, that almost all the Indian restaurants (and Chinese too) seem to have been using for the past few years. In more recent years when going out for Indian meals, I've tended to stick to seafood dishes, because of finding reconstituted chicken very unpleasant.....so, being as we had now found a restaurant that served real chicken, I decided to have a chicken dish.

We had to wait a fair while to receive a menu, to the point where my friend actually had to ask a passing waiter for one. When it arrived, with a smiling apology for keeping us waiting, the menu was reasonably extensive, containing a few dishes I'd never seen before. The dishes were divided into easily readable sections, but after scanning the starters, I noticed there was no mulligatawny soup available - which is what I always have to begin with. I did notice there were a lot of duck-based dishes which I toyed with the idea of having, before changing my mind.

The starters were mostly tandoori dishes, skewered kebabs and various bhajees.

A short description was printed above each main dish, which was very handy from the point of view of me not having heard of some of them, despite me being an impassioned and long-seasoned Indian food consumer.

After ordering a Coke each to drink, we were left to study the menu at our leisure, and to keep us occupied while we chose our food, a different waiter to the one who'd greeted us brought a silver basket-type plate, with two large, freshly cooked poppadums, along with our Cokes. He also brought along the pickles which were in one of those hanging dish style steel containers, as opposed to a plastic "party Susan" type contraption, and we were also given a dish of yoghurt, which was flavoured with turmeric and chopped fresh coriander leaves.

My friend and I shared the poppadums, but as she doesn't like yoghurt or Indian pickles, she left those to me. I began to smear some pieces of poppadum that I'd broken off with mango chutney, and the others with the yoghurt. The poppadums were crispy, very fresh, and still warm. The mango chutney was pleasantly sweet - definitely not Sharwoods, as I have unfortunately experienced in some restaurants - and the yoghurt was cooling, tasting beautiful, with the fresh chopped coriander giving it a delicious zing.

The Cokes which we slowly sipped, were authentic - not some el cheapo supermarket own brand of cola - served in tall glasses, with lots of ice and lemon.

The waiter returned, asking if we were ready to order. Both my friend and I chose onion bhajee as starters, and the waiter said he'd thus leave the yoghurt on the table for us to use with the onion bhajees.

For our main course, my friend opted for Chicken Tikka Massala Balti, and I went for Chicken Tikka Dansak. We didn't have to order rice separately, as a portion of pilau rice each was included in the dish description. A naan was also part of my friend's Chicken Tikka Massala Balti order, and we decided to share it. We ordered a portion of Bombay Aloo between the two of us.

After about 10 minutes, our onion bhajee starters arrived. The serving for each of us was four, fairly small onion bhajee balls, with a generous mixed salad garnish, consisting of shredded iceberg lettuce, with little strips of tomato and cucumber mixed in. The salad garnish was lightly sprinkled with fresh chopped coriander, which was delicious, and we each had a lemon quarter on the side of our plate.

The onion bhajees were very light, crispy, piping hot, and utterly delicious, blending perfectly with the yoghurt. I cleared my plate, and wished I'd ordered a double portion, all for myself, but then of course I'd have been too full up for my main course.

Very soon after we'd eaten our starters, a different waiter appeared to take our plates away, and he put the standard heated metal food warmers on the table, ready for our main meal.

After just a few minutes, the same waiter reappeared with our food on a trolley, together with heated dinner plates - which he warned us not to touch, as they were burning hot. He was right!

My friend's Chicken Tikka Massala Balti was bright red, and there was a lot of sauce. I couldn't see any chicken in the sauce, but as she stirred it, I could see some long strips of what appeared to be the real thing. My Chicken Tikka Dansak similarly seemed rather heavy on the sauce, which was a light tan-colour (typical of Dansak), and on stirring my dish, I noticed about six long, thin chicken strips inside - although they didn't appear to have had the tandoori treatment. I wasn't too worried about that though.

Each of us had a stainless steel plate containing a fairly small portion of pilau rice; we then began to eat.

My friend said her Chicken Tikka Massala Balti was delicious, and she was enjoying it very much. My own Chicken Tikka Dansak had a beautiful tasting sauce....just how Dansak should be....sweet, sour, rich, thick, with lots of lentils and a hint of lemon flavour. It was also quite hot, from the spicy aspect, and I ordered another Coke to cool my mouth off with. I didn't find that a problem though, as I expect Dansak to be hot. The naan which we shared was light, fluffy and delicious, and the Bombay Aloo was fairly small pieces of well-cooked, tender potato and a few tomato quarters, in a thick, mildly spiced sauce. Sometimes I can find Bombay Aloo a little too oily, but this one wasn't.

I cleared my plate entirely, but my friend left some of hers - that wasn't because she found fault with it in any way - merely that she has quite a small appetite, and I've never yet seen her finish a meal in a restaurant. She told me that her meal had been thoroughly delicious, and I dipped my spoon in some of the sauce which she'd left bubbling away on the hotplate. Though I could tell that the sauce was cooked to a very high quality, I found it a little too rich for my palate, and it was a touch on the grainy side too - of an otherwise creamy consistency, and very mildly spiced. I was glad I'd had my Dansak.

The only tiny, tiny complaint I had regarding my Chicken Tikka Dansak, was that though real chicken was used, the portion was rather sparse (as my friend's chicken portion also was, by my own standards), and seemed to be mostly sauce with just a few thin strips of chicken. All the same though, the sauce was absolutely delicious.

Overall, the portions served for both starters and main meal, I personally would consider to have been on the small side, despite being piping hot, perfectly cooked and very well presented.

A waiter came to clear our table, and gave us the dessert menu. We studied what was available for dessert, and the choice was rather limited. It was either one of a selection of ice creams which are standard these days in most Indian restaurants (e.g. orange ice cream inside an imitation orange skin, coconut ice cream with a cherry on top inside half an imitation coconut shell - no doubt those of you who frequent Indian restaurants regularly will know what I mean), or kulfi, which is Indian ice cream made from goats' milk (pistachio or vanilla flavours), being a small portion pre-packed into a tapered white plastic container.....or banana fritters. There wasn't the choice of ordinary ice cream, or anything to accompany the banana fritters.

My friend decided not to have a dessert - she mentioned to me that she'd had banana fritters in this restaurant before, and wasn't keen on them because they weren't sweet enough for her, but that sounded good to me, as I normally find them far too sweet; so, I opted for banana fritters for my own dessert. The waiter brought my fritters to the table very quickly - the dessert comprised a whole banana which had been cut into four pieces, coated thinly in that bright orange Indian batter, and drizzled with a little sauce, which was also orange coloured, and very sweet.

These banana fritters were superb, as the batter wasn't too thick plus it was very light, and the fritters weren't overpowered with too much sweet sauce, as they sometimes can be in other Indian restaurants. I ate them very quickly, savouring every delicious mouthful.

To complete our meal, my friend and I ordered another Coke each - she had coffee too, which I declined. The waiter offered us a free shot of Baileys on the house; which I went for, but my friend passed on. I thought this was a nice gesture at the end of the meal, and with my friend's coffee and my Baileys, the waiter brought along a little stainless steel cask containing four slim dessert chocolates, wrapped in gold paper. We both ate the chocolates, two each, and they were delicious.

The whole meal came to approximately £37 which I found rather steep, considering there were only two of us and apart from my Baileys which was on the house anyway, neither of us had any alcoholic drinks, and considering the rather sparse chicken pieces in our main meals and portions of curry and rice being on the small side. Also, my friend hadn't had a dessert. My friend, who was paying, seemed happy though, feeling we'd had good value for money.

The bill was quickly paid by credit card, and a very generous tip was left.

SERVICE

The waiters were cheerful without being effervescent, and after the initial little delay in providing our menus, had got their attentiveness levels just right. They made sure they were available to attend to our needs, yet didn't unduly disturb us and didn't keep hovering. We were only asked once if we were enjoying our meal, which was fine - it can be very irritating if waiters ask several times, over and over again. In summary, I'd say the service was spot on. Everything we ordered was present and correct, laid out in a nicely appetising fashion.

ODDS & SODS

Taking everything into account, this was a very nice, well prepared and tasty meal which I enjoyed immensely - I just wish the chicken portions in our curry dishes had have been larger.

The waiters were attentive, and apart from the slight delay at first in bringing our menus, delivered everything quickly, yet simultaneously allowed us enough time between courses to digest what we'd just eaten.

After the meal, my friend visited the restaurant loo, which was situated far at the back, and she declared it was well kept and clean.

The Shadhana probably isn't that easy to find unless you know it's there, although it is on the main road (called Main Road funnily enough!) that runs through Hawkwell, Essex. I'd imagine it's a restaurant which is very popular with people who live in Hawkwell, and the nearby small towns of Hockley and Rochford. It's about five minutes' drive from Rayleigh in Essex, and I'd guess (traffic permitting) around 15 minutes' drive from the centre of Southend-on-Sea.

You don't necessarily have to book a table, but the staff will be happy to reserve one for you if that's what you prefer, plus all major credit cards are accepted.

Unfortunately I haven't yet been able to find out the restaurant's opening times, but I shall investigate and amend this review accordingly, once the task is completed.

I'd guess that when full, the restaurant probably holds about 50 to 60 people, and if you're sitting at one of the tables by the walls on a busy night, you could find that you may be placed a little too close to others, if you're the type of person who likes a bit more space. For some space and privacy, I'd suggest opting for one of the tables in the middle of the room - OK if you're in the middle of the room, you can be seen by everyone else, but you would be physically far enough away from them so as to feel as if you are in your own space.

The Shadhana offers a takeaway service, and will deliver a meal to anybody ordering by phone, within a radius of a mile or so (that counts me out, but my friend lives close enough to avail herself of this service if she wishes). No delivery charge is made, regardless of how much or how little the meal costs, so long as it falls within the area the staff are prepared to travel to.

CONCLUSION

I definitely would like to visit The Shadhana again, and when my friend's birthday is upon us in September, no doubt we shall return. Though I didn't feel as if it was first class value for money bearing in mind the generally small portions (particularly the chicken), I feel that eating food in a largely peaceful ambience speaks volumes. The only thing which would put me off if and when I revisit, would be a bunch of rowdy diners too close to my earshot for comfort. The food was good quality, even if a little sparse - the restaurant was clean, relaxing and well decorated. The waiters were nicely helpful, being attentive but not overly so, and my friend said the toilets were clean and pleasant.

I'd say if you are in the Southend-on-Sea/Rochford/Hockley area of Essex and fancy an Indian meal, The Shadhana would be a good place to visit, bearing in mind how most other Indian restaurants in the vicinity have deteriorated so badly. The food here is still of a traditional nature.

Thanks for reading!

Summary: One of the very few good Indian restaurants remaining in the area