‘I’d recommend the Pessarattu’ is not a phrase I’ve ever written before. I regard myself well versed in the byways of South Indian cuisine. Dammit, I even own my own idly steamer to recreate (very occasionally) those delicious rice and lentil dumplings, gossamer light to be swathed in lentil sambar sauce. But Indian Tiffin Room’s moong dal crepe was a revelation. A big green, crisp envelope, cut into revealing a scattering of pomegranate seeds, nuts and browned onions.
Utterly delicious, it was served just like the more familiar Mysore Masala Dosa with some of that sambar, with spicy tomato and coconut chutneys.
We had both and some mini idlys in the ubiquitous sambar for old time’s sake, the three dishes coming in respectively at £4.50, £4.85 and £4.
All were off the ‘Tiffin meets ITR’ section of Indian Tiffin Room’s lunch menu created specially for their swanky new 90-cover outpost at First Street. There’s more choice in the evening with sauced dishes with rice. We had lunch before grabbing an afternoon screening at HOME next door. This is the perfect spot for an affordable pre-theatre meal, too. We saw the Coen Brothers’ bonkers Hail Caesar, if you must know but after ITR and its own slightly bonkers visual homage to street food (loved the bamboo, guys) we would have been up for a bit of Bollywood.
Though tempted by the Indo-Chinese specialities influenced by Kolkata’s small Chinese communities – this is the choice of a surprising amount of the sub-continent when they eat out – we started with a spot of grazing. Street food is a term as abused s artisan. There’s an awful lot of folk peddling the ‘concept’. In Manchester it works well at Mowgli in the Corn Exchange and TOM can’t wait for the belated arrival of Bundobust in Piccadilly. It looks like May now when we’ll get to enjoy the heavenly fusion of the craft beer and Gujerati veggie that has wowed Leeds.
So how does the Tiffin Room, so successful out in Cheadle, stand up? Pretty well. Not on the beer front – we settled for a couple of halves of draught Kingfisher (and beware the Indian wine). A heap of Bhel Puri (£3.95) was crunchy and date-rich, while the six Dahi puris gave that lovely yoghurt, herb explosion when you popped them in your mouth. The slightly tough puffed pastry wasn’t a patch on Mowgli’s, though.
At lunchtime there is only the slightest of concessions to the non-veggie. We ordered the slightly odd goat keema pav (£5.50), spicy mince in a brioche like bun. As with the amount of spicy potato filling in the dosa I felt a mite underwhelmed. The plan is to check out the extended evening menu before tackling the bleakness of Samuel Beckett’s Endgame at the Library Theatre – about as far away from Bollywood as you can get!
Indian Tiffin Room, Isabella Banks Road, First St, Manchester M15 4RL. 0161 228 1000.