This little tussle between Saint-Tropez and London lost its way somewhat amid a Salut! posting about something else, Helen Mirren's enjoyable film, The Hundred-Foot Journey. The outcome offered an unexpected development in my continuing search for a truly good Indian meal in France ...
As I always conceded, the French have a perfectly good excuse: their colonial tradition makes couscous as easy to find as a tandoori in the UK. Yet they have also made modest progress. I have just had the chance to make a quick comparison between two Indian restaurants, one in west London, the other behind the harbour of Saint-Tropez. Both are long-established and it proved an interesting exercise.
- Location: the Gandhi is next door to one of the better known of Saint Trop nightspots, the VIP Room, which plasters images of the A, B and Z list stars who have been there. That doesn't really impress, but the proximity of the picturesque harbourfront does. Monty's is close to Ealing Broadway station. 8/10 for the Gandhi, 6.5/10 for Monty'
- * Welcome: equally warm. Both restaurants have been in business for decades and know how to treat customers. 8/10 and 8/10
- * Food: a) there is no finer Indian starter known to me than prawn puri, though I always take care to ensure the sauce for mine is not sweetened. Monty's was superb. The nearest the Gandhi got to it was prawns pakoda, also tasty but less refined and, well, less good. 7/10 and 9/10 b) My tandoori chicken was poor, the meat burnt and the flavours diminished. Madame Salut's chicken Madras was good but not exceptional. Our chicken tikka and thali choices in Saint-Tropez were marginally more successful that the Madras, infinitely better than my charred tandoori. 7/10 and 5/10 3) accompaniments: the nan in France was buttery enough to melt in the mouth, and came free with the thali, the Gandhi's garlic version merely adequate. No noticeable difference in the quality of the rice. A half-litre of basic rosé at €9.50 (Saint-Tropez) and £14 bottle of Spanish Manto red (Ealing) were of broadly equivalent value 7.5/10 and 7/10
- * Service: good at the Gandhi, outstanding at Monty's, where the Nepalese waiter instantly knocked £4.58 off the £6.75 tandoori dish without hint of a request from me. 8/10 and 9/10
- * Value for money: €41.22, even with a shared bottle of Indian beer as a greedy apéritif is a snip in the rip-off south of France. Coffees pushed up the bill a little at Monty's but a London meal for two at £67.50 is still reasonable. 7/10 eac
So my ratings worked out with only a wafer-thin margin between the two, but the Gandhi of Saint-Tropez nudging ahead with an average of 7.5 out of 10 against Monty's 7.35.
It being a rough and ready exercise, we might even call it a draw, but it's more fun to have a winner so the Gandhi it is.But a rematch may be on the cards. I have been back to the Gandhi and will doubtless be reacquainted with Monty's when the UK hibernation starts from next week. Watch this space ...
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