Meluha, Park Street

Meluha
51 Park Street, Bristol, BS1 5NT
http://www.meluha.co.uk


My best friend and I have birthdays three days apart do we normally do a joint party/meal out. Last November we decided to give Meluha on Park Street a go. I contacted the restaurant to book a table and was surprised to have a private party proposed by Jay at the restaurant. He told me we could use the private room upstairs, have a drinks reception to start and eat a personalized menu designed us for us based on our tastes! How fantastic!

Jay worked with me over the course of a few weeks to design a bespoke menu for our table to share. We were privileged to be able to try a new dish as part of our meal and also have a discounted drinks package.

The menu Meluha designed consisted of a new amuse bouche which was strawberry and vanilla chicken tikka with cold hickory wood smoke. A selection of starters - balchao dusted pork on tomato charasa, hyberabadi mince cupcake and Westcombe Dairy cheese samosa. A selection of mains - prawn bollywood, a hot lamb gunpowder and Punjabi butter chicken which was great as I'd specially requested a hot lamb dish knowing the tastes of our guests and the whole meal was accompanied by unlimited rice, naan,  garlic naan, and an intriguing chilli and chocolate naan. Jay also promised to follow up with birthday cake and coffee for dessert.

It all sounded perfect.

We arrived at the restaurant and we were shown upstairs to our room and met our butler for the evening; Abbas. We had a few drinks whilst we waited for the rest of the guests to arrive then took our seats around a large table. The room upstairs was a little sparse so sounded quite echoy and felt a little cold, but it was soon forgotten once everyone arrived and sat down and starting chatting. The drinks flowed and then the amuse bouche was brought out for everyone to try. It was absolutely delicious, perfectly cooked chicken with a delicate hint of vanilla and strawberry.

The amuse bouche did exactly what it was designed to do, and everyone's mouths were watering in anticipation of the starters. The starters were presented on a plate as a trio and the standout starter was surprisingly the Westcombe Dairy cheese samosa. It was divine, creamy cheese encased in crisp pastry. Totally unexpected.

The mains came as a sharing course with big plates of curries spread across the table and fresh hot fluffy naan. The prawn Bollywood coupled with the chilli and chocolate naan was a revelation and the best main. A spot on recommendation from Jay and the team. We followed up with coffee and birthday and reflected on an excellent meal with fantastic service from Abbas. Chef Stephen Gomes came up to check on how we were enjoying our evening, but I doubt the table noticed as they were far too busy enjoying themselves.

I highly recommend Meluha for a private party, all the team were fantastic. From Jay's careful menu planning, Abbas's skill at plying us with booze and Chef Stephen and his team wowing us with the food.

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Meluha recently launched a new £10 lunch/early evening deal and also a takeaway lunchtime special. I'm hoping to sample the early evening deal soon but a couple of weeks ago I found myself looking for a spot of lunch on park street with some friends; so I dived into Meluha to sample the lunchtime takeaway treats. We order two of the "Naan-wiches"; a chicken tikka wrapped in fluffy naan with curry mayonnaise and salad leaves and a paneer roshni tikka wrapped in fluffy naan with red onion and chilli tomato salsa. We took advantage of the £6 offer to include a mango lassi and a biscuit selection.

We placed our order and waited in the restaurant for about 20 minutes for it to arrive. I didn't expect it to take so long, but we were warm and dry so didn't really mind. Our other friends who had chosen to eat elsewhere weren't so happy as they were outside waiting with their food going cold. I would think if I was starving or short on time, I perhaps would eat somewhere else but as I had time to spare it didn't matter. I chose the paneer roshni tikka based on my experience with the Westcombe Dairy cheese samosa previously and it was lovely. Warm and tasty with wonderfully creamy paneer, it was lovely and I preferred it over the bite of chicken tikka naan I sampled. The lassi was lovely; and the biscuits were a really cute touch. They somehow made the meal feel a little bit personal. The ginger biscuit was great, a lovely hit of warmth and spice. yummy!

I will add to this post once I've sampled the lunch/early evening menu.

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My dad turned 63 today and he loves curry. He spent much of his working life around the Telford and Bradford areas and was the one who introduced our family to curry. Our traditional Christmas day meal is a selection of homemade curries made by him over the days preceding Christmas which we all tuck in with gusto on Christmas day.

So when my mum said she was thinking of taking him out for lunch I suggested Meluha, mainly as I wanted to sample the delicious looking lunch menu and I knew he'd love it.

I contacted the restaurant over twitter and asked if I could book at table for Dad's birthday. They replied super quick with a confirmation and when I logged into my work PC the following day I was met with a confirmation email in my inbox. Very impressive!

Further surprises were in store when we arrived at the restaurant, a complimentary glass of champers to celebrate. A lovely touch.

We browsed the lunch menu and went for a selection of the dishes to be able to try them all. Dad and I went for the Green and Divine - a Goan chicken specialty, marinated overnight with green spices and cooked in the tandoor served with cumin lentil mashed rice, dehydrated banana and a coriander lollipop.

Husband went for the lamb achaari - which was lamb with a spicy tomato pesto and pickled juice smoked in cold whisky with cumin rice and Mum went for the salmon tikka kaeng phet - which was salmon sous vide done in the tandoor with coconut rice topped with red chilli and lemon grass reduction and sea lemon air.

We also had a teenager with us, who was a little scared by all the fancy descriptions and wanted something a little more simple. She asked if she could have a chicken tikka naanwich which Abbas complied and even offered to dig around in the kitchen to see if he could find some chips to accompany her dish. She was very pleased at this suggestion.

Shortly after ordering our amuse bouche arrived which was a crème de coriander soup with little balls of yoghurt on the spoon to stir in. This was lovely. Warm, creamy with a lovely flavour and green colour which everyone enjoyed.

Our mains arrived after a short wait and it shows the restaurant are on the ball when it comes to serving kids; making sure the teenager was served first. An absolute must in my eye, so lots of brownie points scored! She really like the naanwich which was a great choice for her and of course chips always go down well. Although they were warm rather than hot, she didn't complain.

Mine and my dad's mains were delivered first and it looked superb. Beautifully cooked chicken with a Goan sauce to pour over. This was more like a Indian roast dinner than a curry which was a surprise. The portion was generous and although it was served without the lollipop, as soon as I mentioned it to Abbas, he was on the case with sorting it out. The dish came with a mini naan basket containing garlic naan and chocolate naan, both fluffy, hot and tasty. Meluha really can do naan!

My mum and husband were left salivating for a while whilst they waited for theirs and I do have to confess I slowed down eating to make sure I wasn't finished by the time theirs arrived. This wasn't helped by the fact the food was warm rather than hot, I was concerned if I slowed down too much to wait for them to be served I'd be eating cold food. This was a little frustrating seeing as we were in the restaurant on our own - but I appreciate the kitchen is probably being run on minimal staff.

Theirs arrived eventually and my dad and I declared ourselves the winners with our food choice. The lamb although plentiful was quite fatty and not really to my taste but husband enjoyed it. My mum was a little put out at the quantity of salmon compared to the generous portion of chicken we got, but enjoyed hers also.

We had enjoyed our two courses so much that we decided to sample dessert. There were three to choose from; chocolate and coriander mousse, lassi cherry parfait and chocomosas with tikka masala ice cream but only the lassi cherry and chocomosas were available. We went for a combination of the two. The chocomosa was really impressive and had I not been such a cherry fanatic I would have been miffed to have not selected it. As it was the cherry parfait was right up my street. A cheesecake style dessert with cookie dough base, a ice cream centre and then the most fantastic hit of intense cherry flavour from the topping. For me, it was divine. Husband is not quite such a cherry fan as me and he admitted that he wished he'd picked the chocomosa. The teenager went for the selection of biscuits which are offered as part of the Naanwich deal which she enjoyed although I think the chilli biscuit took her by surprise.

All in all, a fantastic meal. Such excellent value, for 5 of us the bill came to £56. Abbas was fantastic with service and it was wonderful having such undivided attention. My only gripe was the speed of service which in a busy evening service you might not notice, but in a lunchtime setting with few covers on a express menu aiming to serve within half hour was disappointing. The food however, was amazing. The complimentary champers was an unexpected surprise and my dad loved it!

Highly recommended.