EastZeast

This Punjabi restaurant, which opened in 2012, is in the Kings Dock area of Liverpool. The restaurant is owned by two brothers who formerly ran a restaurant in Manchester, their family having been in the restaurant business since 1976. There is also a branch in Preston. The place is huge, seating 300 downstairs and up to 200 upstairs in a private dining room.

The head chef here was Lavid Udin. There was a short wine list, with no vintages shown yet some quite ambitious wines like Don Perignon (£199.95 v at least £180 retail depending on vintage) and Cristal (£379.95 compared to at least £312 retail), presumably in case a stray footballer wanders in. The still wines ranged in price from £25 to £55. Kingfisher beer was £6.75 a pint.

The chutney tray had no less than eight different choices to go with the crisp popadoms. I particularly like desi chutney, which had tomato, coriander, chilli, mint, yoghurt salt and spices. There was also plum chutney, coriander and chilli chutney, mixed pickle, garlic pickle, pickled onion chutney, mango chutney and tomato chutney. 

Mixed vegetable pakora was quite crisp on the outside and had. Good mixed average filling with some spices (13/20). Aloo tikka did not look like much but the pair of fried potato patties were excellent, laced with spices and having quite a strong kick of chilli. Even the onion salad with lettuce was good (14/20).

A garlic naan was enormous, probably four times the size I was expecting. More to the point it had very good texture, soft and with lots of garlic flavour, arriving piping hot (14/20). Aloo gobi was the only disappointing dish of the night. It was cooked too long so the potatoes and cauliflower were a touch soggy, but it was also oddly bland given the quite punchy spice levels of the other dishes (11/20). Palak paneer was very good, the spinach having plenty of flavour, the paneer firm rather than chewy (13/20).  Methi chicken had plenty of fenugreek and the chicken pieces were tender, and in this case the spices were reasonably vibrant (13/20). 

The portions here were unnecessarily vast. We ate barely half the naan between us, and I managed less than half the chicken curry. Rice was decent but rather less good than it could have been. Service was very good and the bill came to £52 each with plenty of beer to drink. Given the portion sizes you could certainly eat for less, maybe £40. I was pleasantly surprised by this restaurant, whose food was, except for one dish, very good indeed despite the huge size of the operation.