Masala Zone

Here are my more detailed notes on a meal at the first Masala Zone branch (Marshall Street) in May 2001.

The Masala Zone is a brisk, lively restaurant serving authentic Indian dishes, a rare sight in central London. The ingredients are OK, the spicing capable and even the desserts are home-made. There is no pretension to greatness here, just straightforward food, capably cooked. A solid 11/20, a distinct notch up from the lager and vindaloo brigade. The main gripe is that the non-vegetable ingredients e.g. prawns and chicken, are served in cynically tiny quantities, it being cheaper to fill people up with potatoes and pulses. 

There are full drop windows to the street, letting in plenty of natural light. The décor was predominantly brown: brown lino floor tiles (two shades), plaster walls painted brown, then enlivened a little by white painted designs (flowers, stars etc) with brown chairs. The last are simple wooden chairs with extremely low backs. The ceiling is plaster in the form of square tiles, with recesses for ceiling lights. The lighting was bright when we entered, though the lights were dimmed later. The ceiling is quite low, but there is some sense of space because the dining room has an offset area that is down a few steps; this adjoins the open kitchen showing the chefs at work. The clientele is young and casual, the restaurant clearly aiming to get covers through as quickly as is decent. To this end they bring out the dishes in no particular sequence (except for desserts), which involves the odd notion of getting your main course then a starter, then perhaps a side dish. This, while no doubt very convenient for the kitchen, is not an endearing trait. Waiters wear black trousers and red Masala Club T Shirts, and are of mixed nationality, but the chefs all appeared to be of Indian origin. The tables are plain wood with no tablecloths and just paper napkins. There is muzak, modern house music with no vocals. By the welcome desk is a tub of flowers floating on water. The wooden bench seating shown has lighted panels on top of the benches, in mock art-deco style. 

There was a brief set of wines on the large menu, which contains all the dishes and drinks on one large page. Mineral water was Hildon (despite the menu saying Highland Spring) while Cobra and Tiger beer are available, as well as the somewhat bizarre choice of Phipps beer (Sweden not being noted for its spicy food and matching beers). The wines are at least fairly priced, all between £9.75 and £15 e.g. Thorne Hill Shiraz/Merlot/Cab blend at £13.50. Popadoms were crisp, with two home-made chutneys: spicy mint chutney and unusual pineapple chutney with very small cubes of pineapple. These were interesting and well made (11/20).

The concept of “starter” has no meaning here, since every dish just shambles along when it is ready. Sev poori had five pieces of poori, hollow shells with a potato filling, coriander, spices and topped with sev, the potato filling topped with a sambal, itself garnished with small pieces of cucumber. These were quite good, though miles away from the perfection of those at the Sabras. Perhaps the ratio of sambal to potato filling was a little low for my taste, but the pooris were crisp and the spices lively enough (11/20).  Aloo tikki chat, usually not seen outside Southall and Wembley, was also good. The potato and vegetable patti was accompanied by a tasty sambal, yoghurt laced with coriander and fairly tender chickpeas (11/20)

Butter chicken featured an almost vanishingly small amount of chicken, but this was cooked tenderly enough and the tomato and butter sauce with it avoided the usual traps: it was not oily and the spicing was fresh. This was served in a bowl, with a mound of plain boiled rice in the centre. Apart from the stinginess with the chicken this was quite good (11/20). Potato curry was served with unannounced spinach i.e. sag aloo, and both components were fine, the new potatoes maintaining their texture, the spinach not over-cooked (11/20). Chapatis were very small (just one chapati per order) and were a fraction hard with a slightly sour taste (10/20). My wife had the thali, where there is a choice of the main dish. This consisted of a prawn curry with slightly chewy small prawns (and a measly four of these) but a capable sauce that tasted of prawns, along with a reasonable, non-watery dhal and a vegetable curry of pumpkin, interleaved with long strips of lemon grass. This maintained its texture well and soaked up the spices nicely. This also had the same plain boiled rice and sag aloo, as well as a popadom (11/20). A side order of raita was fine (11/20).

Dessert was a cut above the norm, with shrikand i.e. strained yoghurt flavoured with saffron, in this case served on top of a few sliced bananas, raspberries and some grapes. Shrikand is another dish not usually seen outside authentic Indian areas, and can be overly rich, but here the saffron was not overpowering and the dish had good balance (12/20). Kulfi was home-made; I had caramel kulfi, the usual cone shape split down the middle and served with a solitary raspberry for decoration. This was also well made, served at the right temperature and tasting of the caramel (12/20). Espresso was just a little chalky but acceptable (11/20). This could not be said of the Masala Tea (surely it would make sense to offer normal tea as well?) as this came ready brewed in a pot with milk, tasting too strongly of spearmint and aniseed (10/20).

Further reviews: 07th Aug 2010