Review written November 2009
Braw and nae tae nippy!

WE LOVE CURRY IN SCOTLAND AND SURUCHI TOO ACKNOWLEDGES THIS FACT BY OFFERING FIRSTLY, A MENU THAT BOASTS NUMEROUS DISHES FROM DIFFERENT REGIONS OF INDIA AND SECONDLY, BY QUIRKILY EXPLAINING THE DISHES IN SCOTS DIALECT. SOME DISHES ARE DESCRIBED AS, ‘NIPPY’ OR ‘NAE TAE NIPPY’. IT MAKES AMUSING READING BUT I AM SURE TOURISTS NEED A TRANSLATION!

On a rainy, Monday evening we just knew a curry was going to hit the spot and after gorging on crispy poppadoms and delicious dips (sweet, fruity tamarind, hot lime pickle etc) we delved into our starters. My panir pakora with chick peas (£3.50) was a dish of Indian cottage cheese in gram flour. The sumptuous little devils were served with a fruity sauce, plenty of chick peas and a lovely fresh salad. Mr Bite had the seafood soup (£4.50) which was equally good. The texture recalled that of the classic French soup de poisson, but was choc full of chunks of fish and seafood and was of course, nicely spicy. I had a mango lassi (£2.50) to accompany my starter which was sweet, fresh and fruity.

For mains we chose two ‘nippy’ dishes; the pukka Punjabi with prawns (£9.95) for me and lamb Malabar (£8.95), a south Indian speciality, for Mr Bite. My prawns had a good, juicy texture and the sauce was fruity and deep, it had obviously been cooked slowly layering the flavours. The fresh green chilli gave it the heat I like. Mr Bite was super-impressed with his lamb. It was aromatic and unusually light and zingy for a meat dish. Freshly grated coconut elevated and added to a sauce already flavoured with garam masala and black pepper. Sides were a fluffy, yellow lemon rice prettily dotted with black mustard seeds £2.50), an aloo paratha, which was rather like a huge Indian tattie scone and a vegetable dish of aubergines (£5.75) roasted in the tandoor until they are soft and smoky.

Desserts were a sweet milky coconut ice cream with a sticky, syrup gulab jamon and an interesting chilli and chocolate ice cream.

We left Suruchi Too sated and extremely happy. A braw meal indeed but the weather was a little tae nippy.