Rajdoot

This Indian restaurant opened in 1969 and is one of the oldest in the city (the Taj Mahal on Theatre Approach has been running since 1962, Akash on Pershore Road since 1965 and Manzils in Digbeth since 1966). Rajdoot is in a central location in a quiet street, with a lounge and bar as you enter that leads into a large dining room that can seat 75 people. There is also a private dining room that can accommodate up to 65 more people. The a la carte menu has plenty of familiar North Indian dishes, with set meals available at either £34.95 or £39.95.

There was a short wine list with eight whites, nine reds, two rose and seven sparkling, though no vintages are shown, which is simply lazy. “The vintages might change” they would doubtless say. So if the food menu changes should you just leave that set in stone too?  I didn’t think so.  The wines ranged in price from £19.95 to £225 for Dom Perignon, which retails at about that depending on the vintage. Dom Perignon 2013 is £203 but 1982 retails at £749 – this is why vintages matter. Cobra beer was £6 a pint.

Excellent fried popadoms were crisp and light, served with mint chutney and a spicy salad. My tandoori lamb chop dish was rather disappointing, the meat overcooked and grey when cut open, without even a hint of pinkness. The chops were reasonably tender and there was some gentle spice from the marinade, but these were cooked a lot longer than ideal, accompanied by a simple mixed salad (11/20). Much better was fish tikka made with cod, flaking nicely and having absorbed the marinade. The fish had excellent texture but was rather bland, again accompanied by a little salad (13/20).

Murgh malai methi had tender chunks of chicken and reasonably fenugreek flavour in the sauce (13/20). Goan king prawn curry had nicely cooked prawns but, I a recurring theme, the spicing was very mild indeed (12/20). I enjoyed gobi masala, the cauliflower florets having ma8ntained their texture well (13/20). Dhal makhani was pleasant though it did not have the smoky depth of flavour of the best versions of this dish (12/20). A garlic naan was very good though, soft and supple and with plenty of garlic flavour (easily 13/20). Rice was fine.

A homemade kulfi for dessert was very good indeed, with lovely texture and lots of almond flavour, served at just the right temperature. So often kulfis served in UK restaurants have ice crystals or appear rock hard, but here everything was nicely judged (14/20). Also enjoyable was gajar halwa, the carrot flavour coming through nicely and avoiding the over sweetness that can afflict this dish. Quite why the halwa came with a glacé cherry, though, is a mystery only the kitchen could explain (13/20).

Service very good, with our waiter spotting when drinks needed replenishing and the dishes arriving at a steady pace. The bill came to £80 a head with beer to drink, and that did seem a little higher than I was expecting. I observe that, to take an example, at Delhi Social the superb methi murgh costs £12, almost a third less than the £17.50 here, and it was a similar story with the prawn curry. For sure, this is a smartly decorated restaurant and doubtless they know their clientele, but when you are charging a lot more than equivalent places in London then you are quite fully priced. This caveat aside, Rajdoot was an enjoyable experience and I hope it keeps going for another fifty years.