Waltham Tandoori, Bishop's Waltham | Food review

After Covid last time out, this week another stick in the spokes got in the way of eating out properly. But a weekly establishment still has to be evaluated, and so it was that we started to scour suitable takeaway ventures.

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We settled on one that that we have visited once before and would dearly love to again, being set inside a wonderful old building. The Waltham Tandoori sits in an old coaching inn, and under its many guises features in many black-and-white pictures and indeed etchings throughout Bishop’s Waltham’s history. It’s been a curry house for years – although the Dish Detective is sure they remember it briefly serving Italian food as well a few years ago, but this may have just been a fever dream as we can find no trace of this history online – and once you step inside you really do what to settle in for the night, just as a coaching inn would want you too. White-washed walls, beams, it is very welcoming.

However, not tonight. Tonight we are collecting, and so want the opposite, to be in and out as quickly as possible. And first impressions on this are good – food ready when predicted, and a quick check of the bag shows that the right number of items have been provided (is there anything more dispiriting in this world than getting a takeaway home only to find you’ve been given the wrong order? Few, I would say).

And so on to the food itself. Which, glad to say, was excellent. We ordered a chicken shashlik massala (£9.50) – a mild curry of barbecued tomatoes, peppers and onion cooked in a sweet but not cloying sauce. It was touch coconutty and had the sweetness of a quality ketchup. It was very good, and possibly topped naga chicken (£9.25), which was spicier but despite its forbidding name (naga chillies have been the wreck of many a man, or woman) was not overpoweringly hot. The fragrant, fruity nature of this chilli was emphasised rather than the fact that in excess it can leave you gasping for milk. The Dish Detective was impressed – it’s good to find a dish which can excite your tastebuds without destroying them.

We also chose a pilau rice (£2.75), a lemon rice (at £3.75 well worth the extra £1, the DD maintains) onion bhajis (£3.50), a chilli naan (£2.75) and as a treat a sag paneer (£3.50) and some poppadoms. All were great – if we had to pick any holes we’d say the chilli naan could have had a bit more kick and that the poppadoms could have had some more crunch. But small points only; this was a big treat of a takeaway. It doesn’t come cheap, but then that’s inflation for you, as nothing does now. But as a way of brightening up a day, it was second to none, even if it didn’t involve dining out.

Waltham Tandoori, Bank Street, Bishop’s Waltham

walthamtandoori.com // 01489 894684

Food 5

Value 4

Ambience n/a

Child-friendly n/a