Paan House

Ayres Road, M16

 Starters

Roti, Rice, Karahi Dall Tarka, Karahi Fish, Lamb Tikka Masala

September 2011
A hell of a mixed grill, featuring lamb, chicken and fish tikka, chops, seekhs and chicken wings. It's about £10 but well worth it and plenty to share.

August 2011 - very similar order, very similar result - an absolute feast for a modest outlay and something really authentic about it - just not the usual bland takeaway rubbish - with some of the best prices around. Just Eat.co.uk helps with the ordering too. Much less ambiguity and no language barrier.


About a week later....
Unfortuantely not as good this time. It took over an hour - it seems they were closing up and just banged some OK grub out of the door, it was fine but clearly rushed and a bit lacking in the finishing touches.  Probably stick to prime time ordering in future.

June 2011
If you check the net you'll find some pretty favourable reviews for Paan House - using terms like 'authentic' and 'traditional'. They're adjectives we're in favour of at Flavours of Manchester, it's also reasonably priced - another key feature from our point of view. Price is certainly no guarantee of quality when it comes to authentic curry dishes. However, one area where it seems to matter is starters. Low cost places often do batches of starters early in the day and them microwave them up - more expensive places can't get away with this as a soggy bhaji is notceable to all customers even if bland, generic curries may not be. That certainly appeared to be the case with our tandoori chicken wings and chappli kebab - microwaved and a pretty tough, though mitigated by price and size. The chops were fresh and tasty, but cut very thin. The veg samosas were also small - but at £1 for 2 who can argue? So far so so - the starters were fine, nothing special but pretty cheap, so no complaints given the price. Moving on to the curries everything went up a notch or three - karahi Dall Tarka, Fish Karahi and Lamb Tikka Masala. All distinct and interesting. The 'Tikka Masala' was an aromatic and rich lamb dish, heavy on the garam masala type spices but without the sugar and cream - nor was it lamb tikka. Oddly named but a great dish. In contrast the fish was fresh with coriander and more subtle spicing. The dall was excellent, not over cooked, retaining some bite and earthy with cumin - a main course at £3.50 is great value. The Roti were some of the best I've had in a while and at 4 for £1 another bargain. We got a feast for £20, but that was being greedy - there are many main courses under £5 and starters from £1 to £3.

Paan House isn't faultless - which is probably for the best. It doesn't look like the sort of place that'll will get too big for its boots. It has lots of interesting dishes on the menu - if only we could figure out what they all were - Nahari, Paya (trotters) and Gurda Kalegi (kidneys and liver) are on there but some of the dishes I've never seen before and are seemingly un-goggle-able due to variations in spelling (notice dall instead of more usual daal, Kalegi instead of more usual Kaleji etc). Any ideas on Kaphoore or Batere?

We like it here and will be ordering again - though, as ever, it's all about what you order.