Monty’s and Indian/Nepalese cuisine: bouncing back from an unfair defeat

 

 

When it comes to Indian food, I have grown to be a bit choosy.

The proliferation of basic curry and tandoori houses around Britain means that standards have, in my own view, fallen. It is much easier than used to be the case to eat badly and/or feel ripped off. You can dine very well indeed but that often means splashing out on posh Indian. 

When I lived and worked in Paris, and my duties as The Daily Telegraph's correspondent covering all things French included a blog for the paper's newish website, I embarked on a leisurely and haphazard search for France's best Indian restaurant.

It was a popular initiative among readers and, even more so, to me. In this strictly professional cause, I ate at the newspaper's expense at just the right number of places, once even taking the TGV down to Angoulême to check out a recommendation.

Then, just over seven years ago, I compared experiences at two restaurants, both long established and both familiar to me: the Gandhi in Saint-Tropez and Monty's just around the corner from Ealing Broadway station in West London.

It was a deeply flawed exercise, the outcome influenced by a rare disappointment at Monty's, and Gandhi came out marginally on top.