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Mela, Clanfield
There's a small, quiet community hard by the A3(M), a cluster of shops and restaurants forming a well-ordered circle.
Not somewhere, perhaps, that you'd be likely to find two gleaming modern restaurants. But there they are, one a brand new wine bar and the other a smart, colourful Indian restaurant coming up to its fifth birthday.
Clanfield's Drift Road is home to Mela. No shrinking violet, Mela puts its glossy cards on the table from the outset as the signage is the brightest of pinks and blues.
A fabulously well-stocked bar, more akin in design to a hairdresser's reception than the usual restaurant bar, is flanked by two vast palm trunks. There are also two vast, startling well-manicured hands and two beaded decorated feet which line one wall above swish, comfortable banquettes in the long room.
Small booths line the other wall. Art is bathed by orange lighting, blue and pink lighting adding a further glow. Stylishly dressed blue-shirted waiters are of the solicitous welcoming kind who know their onions, literally.
The menu, a mix of Indian and Bangladeshi dishes, has many specials rarely found elsewhere. The owners and chefs sensibly don't shrink from offering these on the familiar takeaway menu. Korma; pathia; dansak; dupiaza; madras; kashmir; balti; biriani – yup, they're all there as well as a plethora of tandoori dishes including tandoori king prawn masala; lamb jalfrezi and chicken tikka sag, a tandooried chicken served with spinach and a medium-spiced sauce.
The only nod to western food is chips. I salute you, Mela, for not giving in. This is, after all, an Indian restaurant. Would you expect a curry at a steak house?
Prices are moderate (my starter 3.90, a main 9.90, those peripherals – rice (2.80), naan (1.90) pushing up the bill.
The chicken chat, onion bhaji, king prawn butterfly and reshmi kebab, minced lamb with spices, shallow fried and covered with omelette were ignored in favour of lamb fingers, these billed as deep-fried and served with onions and peppers. This was an odd dish: odd as it was so sweet. But it was tender, lovely lamb.
Goan fish curry came served in a smart oblong dish, my dining plate a square one with a sizzling hot orange design. The fish was exquisitely cooked, the sauce, however, bland in the extreme, none of the billed spicing coming through. The side rice dish was faultless.
If I were a Clanfield resident I'd be extremely delighted to be able to walk to a choice of good, smart restaurants rather than heading up or down the A3(M).
Mela gets my pedestrian vote thanks to mostly well-cooked food and a great atmosphere, customer care and service.
My bill came to 19.50 including an acceptable glass of French white wine but not service.
Mela, 40 Drift Road, Clanfield, Hampshire PO8 OJL
(023) 9242 7772.
Open: noon–2.30pm lunch and
5pm–11pm evenings all week
(closed Friday lunch).
Food: ****
Service: ****
Atmosphere: ****
Disabled access: good space for wheelchairs
How to get there: Follow the A3 Portsmouth Road then the A3 London Road, coming off on the slip road, also confusingly the London Road, Drift Road on the left, Mela on the right once reaching the cluster of shops. Or take 41 bus.
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Wednesday 23 May 2012
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