Woondal – Indian deliveries

For dinner this evening, we both wanted authentic Indian (as opposed to my homemade) and felt like trying somewhere new.

We had a browse of Just Eat and settled on Woondal (a Hungry House ‘Top Takeaway 2013’).

As ever, ordering and paying online through Just Eat was straight-forward. The estimated delivery time was one hour, but pleasingly it arrived after about 45 minutes.

For starters we shared:
~ Sheek Kebab – minced lamb flavoured with nutmeg, mint, brown onion + ginger, cooked in the tandoor @ £3.75
~ Paneer Tikka – six cubes of paneer marinated in a tangy sauce, with salad + mint sauce @ £3.25 *divine*
~ Onion Bhajis – sliced onions mixed with chickpeas, lentils, flour + spices, deep fried to a crispy texture @ £3.25 (four chunks)

Woondal starters (l-r): chunky onion bhajis, paneer tikka cubes, sheek kebab

All of the starters were really tasty. The chunky bhajis were full of flavour (nice and soft in the middle in contrast with their crispy shell) and the minced lamb sheek kebab was also really tender, spicy and tasty but the highlight was the paneer tikka (marinated cheese with barbecue flavours) – gorgeous.

For main course I had Bengali fish fry @ £8.45 – a whole fillet of tilapia (lightly battered in a spicy flour coating) served with seasoned sliced onions, peppers and tomatoes (a dry dish, no sauce) which was very good but not dissimilar to something I regularly cook (and is easy to cook) at home.

Plentiful onions, peppers and tomatoes in the fish fry – a dry dish

Woondal signature dishes: Bengali fish fry (left) + lamb shatkora (right) on coconut rice

K had ordered lamb shatkora @ £7.45 – described as “lamb cooked with the finest Indian vegetable, shatkora, which releases a wonderful fragrant aroma”.

The nicest way of describing this is that it was like chewing a lemon hand-wipe. Shatkora is a citrus (from Bangladesh I think) and while it was supposed to “release a fragrant aroma” and give a citrus flavour to the lamb, it completely overpowered it (I suspect a slippage with the shatkora quantities…). K couldn’t eat any of it, neither the sauce nor the lamb. It wasn’t pleasant and it got left.

Including a side of coconut rice @ £2.95 and two breads – a chapati @ £1.20 and plain nan @ £2.25 – the total for this food delivery came to £33.00. We’ll definitely order from Woondal again but we’ll avoid shatkora.

Left over lamb shatkora

To avoid wasting the lamb shatkora the following day I looked up ‘how to negate the flavour of lemons‘ and found this helpful advice on ehow.com. I added butter, plenty of tomato sauce and rosemary to combat the overpowering citrus flavour, which did work to a certain extent.

Restaurant info:
~ Lardbutty rating: 3.5 / 5
~ Type: Indian, Bangladeshi
~ Address: Delivered from 5 Ascot Parade, Clapham Park Road, London, SW4 7EY
~ Deliver to: SW4, SW2, SW8, SW9, SW11, SW12, SW16, SW17, SW18 & SE17, SE21, SE24, SE27, SE5, SE15, SE22
~ Open: Sunday – Thursday: 5.30pm – 11.00pm, Friday & Saturday: 5.30pm -11.30pm
~ Tel: 020 7627 2099 / 020 7720 0169
~ e: info@woondal.co.uk (or catering requests to: catering@woondal.co.uk)
~ Nearest station: n/a
~ Website + menus: Woondal website
~ Photos on flickr: images of Woondal food

RELATED LINKS

More Indian deliveries (South West London):

~ Noiya – Indian restaurant + deliveries, Battersea
~ The Gurkha’s Diner – Nepalese restaurant + deliveries, Balham