Update – Restaurant now closed/Feb 2013

The Olympics are only a few days away. I must admit that I’m not quite sure what to expect – will I be able to get to work? Will the tube be pushed to the limit? I guess that we’ll have to wait and see. I’m excited though that I’ll soon be at the games – going to watch the basketball.

On Sunday the Torch came through Walthamstow and guess who was five minutes too late? Yes well, I can only blame the tardy other half of the foodies. My partner is responsible for the photos on this blog – we were too late to take any pics. So what should we do? We went for dinner.

We went to a restaurant called Chennai Spicy, I think, (formerly Elephant God) on Hoe Street, Walthamstow. We chose a decent bottle of Muscadet for about £12. The previous time we visited they were just under new management and didn’t seem to have had a wine delivery, but this had changed and there was a choice of 4-5 reds and whites.

We skipped the poppadoms, and for starters ordered Kingfish Fry – which was spicy fish steak which didn’t look too appealing but was really tasty. We also had Chilli Paneer which was less successful as I found the sauce a bit too sweet for me.

For mains we ordered a Tandoori Mixed Grill – it was great. For £7.99 it was a bargain –  it had 3 lamb chops, a sheek kebab, 2 pieces of masala fish, a couple of large pieces of chicken tikka and a few spicy prawns too. It was excellent value as it came with a big salad garnish and we added a couple of vegetable dishes and some rice and chapattis and had far too much food! We took home enough for lunch the next day.

We ordered some vegetable dishes – an  aubergine curry and okra masala which were both fresh and tasty.  Only  £3.50 each.  I must admit that I’m a recent convert to Okra – I use to think that it was slimey and best avoided. I had it recently at the wonderful Tayyabs restaurant in Whitechapel, London and it was crispy and tasted great. They too do a fantastic sizzling plate – Lamb chops, shami kebabs, masala fish….yum! but that’s for another post.

The service was prompt and attentive if at times a little bit confused, and we spent less than £40 in total. They also have special reduction offers for first time and regular customers. We will definitely return.