Chappati Corner

Cheetham Hill Rd
24/11/10
After almost a year we returned. Last time it was OK but expensive. It still is. It's fine but probably our least favourite in the area. £6.40 for rice & 3 - chicken, lamb and daal. Not even a large portion. To mitigate this slightly chicken, keema and daal was £5.90 and 2 roti were exchanged for rice for one of us - which was a decent gesture. But with Top Quality just round the corner its hard to justify the extra expense and smaller portions. As a result we rarely come.

Original Blurb
Chappati Corner is another Cheetham Hill  curry Café. The place is exactly what you want: low key but pretty efficient, jugs of water on the tables, limited daily changing menu etc.  The staff were polite and helpful if not chatty – again, perfect.  Our one problem is that we were on a kebab trip and this is really a Curry Café – the more kebab orientated places were not open.  We will return for curries – which looked good but can not really comment just yet, other than they’re pretty pricey – rice and 3 £5.80.

Kebabs
As is often the case in curry cafes there was a very limited range – just seekhs and chicken.  The chicken was well marinaded and the bread was good.  The salad was pretty bland and pointless and the sauces similar, although they were served separately so as not to soak the kebab. The meat samosas were nice too. They were decent if not amazing kebabs – however the point of this place is the curry.

…Minor issue: One kebab had two hairs in it and one of the chunks of chicken wasn’t cooked in the middle.  There’s no reason to suspect that it happens often – just a side note.

Scores out of 10
Meat 8.5
Bread 7.5
Salad/Sauces 6.0
Service/Setting 7.5
Average 7.4

Curry
As stated this place has all the right vibes however I left slightly dissatisfied, which was basically due to the price. It's interesting how expectations change when handing over more cash than you want to. Lamb on the bone, chicken masalla and daal were all pretty good if not exceptional. The lamb had too many chilli flakes and was a wee bit too hot for a 'standard' dish.  The other two dishes were a little bland but fine - again if paying very little you're happy to receive anything tasty and hot. That's the brilliance of curry cafes and where Chapatti Corner falls down.  A meal for 2 with bread, some pakora/samosa and one can of pop was £18. There was nothing wrong with the food here - slightly non-descript (hence the lack of detailed description!) however that's often the case - but you don't mind when it's around £5, it is a great alternative to £3.95 panini or whatever. Top Quality is very near Chappati Corner and costs £5 for Rice & 3. In all honestly I don't see any reason to pay more to come here.

Key Ingredients 16 (out of 20)
Other Food 8.0 (out of 10)
Service Setting 7.5 (out of 10)
Value for Money 2.0 (out of 5)
Range 3.5 (out of 5)
Average Rating 7.4 (out of 10)


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