Bollywood, Southsea
Bollywood isn't quite as old as Hollywood, but Indian film-making did start as early as 1913, the era of the silent films.
Today's Bollywood is a high-octane, vibrant musical thrill, exuberant song and dance woven into the script as soon as a smouldering look between very handsome man and a beautiful woman takes place.
Bollywood, a six-month-old restaurant in Southsea, pays homage to the genre, the walls peppered with posters.
Film and food come together in the Indian sub-continent, those three-hour-plus extravaganzas also known as masala films, Hindi for spicy.
Indian curry westerns, another genre, created the cult film Sholay which ran for five years in one Mumbai cinema. Beat that, Harry Potter.
Will Bollywood the restaurant be able to withstand the pressure of so many restaurants in the area and stay the course as per Sholay?
Owned and run by a chef whose previous restaurant closed and who then went on to open a food shop, there's a good chance: if the cooking is worth choosing over the competition, it will prosper.
The Indian menu is a typically long one with the tandoori oven offering pieces of lamb, chicken, duck and king prawns marinated in a masala sauce.
This sauce also turns up under Makhonwala dishes, the meat cut into long strips, marinated and cooked with a variety of spices with added fresh cream and nuts. Those less adventurous will find balti; dupiaza; pathia; dansak; jalfrezi; biriani and bhoona dishes.
The kitchen also does very hot vindaloo; fairly hot madras; very very hot phalli; very mild Kuma and fruity Kashmir meat, fish and vegetable dishes. Vegetables abound freely as do English meals (but why bother?) and set menus.
My quartered chicken with a vibrant masala sauce placed in the tandoor for extra succulence was one of the best examples of its kind, the large portion sadly crammed onto a small plate with a salad. It deserved a better fate to show off its fine flavours, wrestling with a bird on too small a dish counterproductive.
The young and rather wonderful waiter, overseen intently by a large man with a black beard who turned out to be the chef, delivered with style the next course, a mutton Bhoona dish in a spicy sauce with tomatoes and herbs. This good deal (10.85 for three courses, tea or coffee) included a mushroom curry, pilau rice and fruit.
Bollywood the restaurant doesn't do glitz and glamour (but the music gives an air of Asian tinsel town), none of the food done up to the nines on the plate. Food here is cooked for taste and taste alone, all dishes just oozing quality of cooking.
A chafing dish was piled high with the three hot dishes, each mouthful showing the chef's impressive palate. I would gladly return for that tender mutton in its spicy sauce, the earthy mushroom dish moreish.
My bill came to 13.05 including a small Kingfisher beer but not a well-deserved tip.
Bollywood, 36 Osborne Road, Southsea PO5 3LT.
Tel: 023 9275 4888.
Open from 5pm–midnight Monday to Friday; and midday–midnight on Saturday and Sunday.
Food: ****
Service: ****
Atmosphere: ***
Disabled access: Narrowish entrance for wheelchair users.
How to get there: Make your way to the Queens Hotel on Clarence Parade, Southsea and turn right into Osborne Road. The restaurant on the right. Parking on-street.
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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