Madhus

Madhu’s has unusually smart decor for Southall, having a tasteful dining area over two floors (plus private dining room) that could easily be in the West End.  There are many good value Southall restaurants, but this was the first one to really go up-market.  Owner Sanjay Anand has hired excellent chefs recently (one from the Taj New Delhi, the other from the Grand Hyatt in Delhi) and the cooking has stepped up a notch.  The cooking is traditional Punjabi.  Service under manager Ajay is excellent.

Sanjay Anand runs the leading Indian wedding catering business in the UK, so in some sense the restaurant is an advert for his catering business (to give a sense of scale, in the last year they catered for over 250 events, with a range of 225 to well over 1,000 diners). The Madhu's menu keeps many favourites but does evolve slowly, e.g. my May 2009 meal had an excellent dish of fried cauliflower and broccoli in a rich, spicy tamarind coating, and my December 2008 meal saw a new (and very tasty) dish of fried cauliflower with garlic sauce. A June 2010 meal included an excellent potato vada (little deep-fried balls with a potato and spicy filling) starter.

Here are notes from my most recent meal.

Achari prawns were a pair of large but very tender marinated prawns which had been marinated in a subtle blend of spices; this was top drawer Indian cooking (15/20).  Aloo tikki is a Southall speciality, with a vegetable pattie topped with chickpeas, tamarind, yoghurt and coriander. Here the chickpeas were tender and the spices nicely balanced, with enough tamarind to add a hint of sweetness (13/20).

Prawn biryani has always been one of the best dishes here. In this cases not only were the prawns very tender and the spicing accurate, but the rice was very well defined, the individual grains distinct (15/20). Murgh malai tikka was very good, the chicken marinaded in spices and yoghurt, producing a soft texture in the chicken pieces before they are being cooked in the tandoor (14/20).  Gobi (cauliflower) was properly cooked in an attractive blend of spices, but was a little salty, even for me (12/20). The breads are the weakest element of the cooking here: naan and romali roti (12/20).  The bill came to just £21 a head, including drinks. Service was very professional.

Further reviews: 19th Sep 2015 | 25th Nov 2013 | 02nd Jun 2013 | 01st Jun 2010 | 01st Jul 2005