Bihari (Newlands) - kids dig it

The Silver Bear and The Dragon touched down from JHB on Friday, which meant I spent this weekend eating for the A team. We didn't feel like anything too hectic on Friday so we popped in to Bihari in Newlands. The space (next to The Southern Sun hotel on Main Road) has seen a couple of restaurants come and go but the place was packed so hopefully this is here to stay.

The staff are pretty cool here and after talking cricket with the manager and politics with the barman I was taken through the masses of kids to our table. Now, I'm no snob but there is something about going to have a good dinner and being swarmed with children that irritates me. I know I might piss some people off by saying this but children running around, screaming and bumping your chair has the potential to ruin dinner for me. There is a reason I didn't go to Spur on Friday and unfortunately that is exactly what it felt like. Anyway, let's not get too worked up about things - two glasses of Boschendal Shiraz (good but not WOW!) and all was forgotten.

The food. We were a table of four and got a mixed platter for two to share. This was more than enough and the samoosas, chicken tikka and lamb kebabs served with mint yoghurt and poppadoms were all delicious. For mains, I had the prawn korma which was awesome - plump, decent-sized prawns and plenty of them. There was also a lamb rogan josh and a chicken kasoori which was the tastiest meal of the lot. Unfortunately, the lamb korma was a shocker. Tough lamb and a pretty uninspired sauce that didn't even compare to the prawn version.

Dessert was...weird. We ordered a pistachio kulfi which the waitor suggested. He said it was like ice-cream. It wasn't. Instead, it was a strange texture that left my palette feeling confused. It was like hardened condensed milk. I tried to tell my brain it was ice-cream but I just couldn't enjoy it. The four of us shared one little blob of the stuff and we couldn't even finish it.

All in all, the food here is worth going for. The service is top-notch but don't go for a romantic dinner or if you feel like unwinding.

Get hold of them on (021) 674-7186

Cheers,

Jamie Who