The venue for our October visit was a restaurant that I had been to numerous times in the 1990’s and at that time was the ‘go-to’ curry house in the market town of Melton Mowbray… in fact Prince William once ate there when he was in the area.

It is now under new ownership (hence the name New Apurba) so thought we’d give it the ‘Leicester Curry Club treatment.’

In 2018 the previous owners decided to open a second curry restaurant in the town which we visited in 2019, but soon after, decided to leave the Apurba and concentrate on their new adventure.

It is situated on the main A607, and there is a large public car park across the road.

I dropped the guys off outside the door and went to park the car, so unfortunately cannot comment on the greeting that we received.

Although it was a Thursday night, it was nice to see a few other diners in, presumably for ‘Banqueting Night’ where they offer a 5-course meal for £11.95, which is extremely good value.

As is usual amongst our Curry Club members, we opted for the traditional menu, and ordered the statutory ten poppadoms and two pickle trays. We were especially looking forward to the assortment of mango, lime, chilli sauce, coconut & onion relish, as advertised on the menu, but unfortunately the chilli sauce and coconut were missing and we were told that these were not now available – the waiter consequently spent the next few minutes or so with a marker pen crossing them out on all the menus (see photo).

We then ordered our Mains, these being a South Indian Lamb Chettinad, Honey & Chilli Chicken, Chicken Tikka Karahi, Bangla Nobabi, and a Whole Breast Chicken Gourmet Ke Thezz.

The accompaniments we chose were a Coconut, Garlic, and a Boiled Rice, along with a Cheese & Garlic Naan, a Stuffed Naan, and a Plain Naan (without Ghee or Butter)… the extra Coriander that one member always requests also arrived without a prompt.

The Mains were generally ok and were served at the required strengths… one member did comment that his dish could be crowned ‘the hottest in Leicestershire.’

I personally enjoyed my ‘Whole Breast Chicken Gourmet Ke Thezz’ although it was actually slices of chicken rather than a whole breast? Again, we were told that this had been changed, and you’ve guessed it, the waiter then spent another few minutes or so with a marker pen crossing it out on all the menus (see photo again)… To be honest I’m not sure I’d have chosen this dish at £13.95 had I known it was slices of chicken rather than a whole breast.

Overall, we would say that the evening was ok, although most members agreed that the service was a little lacking.

A couple of messages that I received the following morning from our members were;

‘It’s 6.5 for me, food was ok, but they just couldn’t be bothered.’

‘Yeah, same thoughts… 6 from me’

After paying the bill, which was £143.15, we left and again were not really acknowledged by the two members of staff.

Our regular readers will know that we have now visited five restaurants in Melton Mowbray, over the past 11 years, and although this used to be the ‘go-to’ curry house in Melton, unfortunately, based on our recent visit, they are currently well off the mark, which is disappointing in a town that relies heavily on local trade.

The score out of 40 based on the venue/surroundings/food/service/cost was 25.5… which looks as though it will be in the bottom two for 2022.

Please note as always, our reviews are personally subjective and isn’t necessarily what others may think or experience when they visit.