We headed to SOI (Spice of India) in Melton Mowbray for February. This is a sister restaurant to the Spice of India in Syston which is well known to all of the Leicester Curry Club appraisers. The Syston restaurant has over the years been consistently good so as you can imagine we were really looking forward to February’s choice.

Could it come anywhere near the standard of Syston? Have they varied the menu and have they made it different enough to travel to Melton Mowbray.

Well here’s the full findings;
It isn’t the easiest restaurant to find, and due to it being a Monday there was plenty of parking available. We entered the restaurant and was very impressed by the large bar and selection of wines displayed. Obviously the decor is new as it hasn’t been open for too long now but clearly the owner has spent a lot of money on this place, and it is clearly looking for an upmarket clientele. It’s just very fresh and welcoming, the neutral colours of the furnishings give an impression of an old gentleman’s club.

We were met by Fernando who in fact is Portuguese, he gave us a comprehensive talk through the renovation and was very proud of what had been achieved at this restaurant. It is exceptionally clean and fresh, and the toilet facilities were spotless.

We were seated in the luxurious waiting area and served nicely chilled beers and then invited to our table. In true LCC fashion poppadoms were ordered with a pickle tray which was one of the best we have had, some very nice additional pickles that went down well. Fernando was attentive but not in the way and gave us enough time to settle in and peruse the extensive menu that thankfully was very different from the Syston restaurant.

We ordered a Tawa Chicken Vindaloo, Kenya Kuku Chicken, Tawa Chicken Madras, Chicken Chana Sag, Lamb Hotpot Masala and a Tawa Lamb Madras accompanied by steamed rice, vegetable rice, Keema Naan, Chilli Garlic Naan and a Tandoori Naan.  All the dishes were really good and came out together, this meant that we were all able to eat at the same time. A lot of restaurants fall down in this area. There were some delicious flavours; clearly every dish has different elements, but we could really distinguish them at this restaurant.

So a big well done to SOI Melton and thank you for a great meal.