Leicester Mercury Review February 4th 2010
Reviewer George Dryden
visited the restaurant on a cold January evening. His review follows:
As the latest addition to Lutterworth's culinary experience, Indian Vojon sticks out like a thumb that's been caught on the oven door. But in a good way, you understand. Even the exterior shines like a new pin. Somehow, it just looks like it's landed in quaint little Bank Street, straight from outer space.
And it's as stylish as it is spotless. A theme of red and black dominates, but without the retrospective nod to the 80s you might initially expect. It was only 7pm when we arrived, and apart from a table of three, we were the first diners of the evening. But within half an hour, the place was steadily filling up, and by the time we left, it was more than half full. Not bad for a cold, dark, January evening in the grip of hard times.
As the customary penance for being so early, we were seated in the window. Why do restaurants always do that? But the good news was, the gleaming glazing prevented us from becoming part of the window display Next came the tricky bit - choosing from the menu that could arguably have been mistaken for an A-Z of Indian cookery while trying to ignore the soft rock playing in the background. Settling down to the task in hand with a nice bottle of Hardy's Shiraz (£11.45), we ummed and ahhed over 33 specials, as well as the usual suspects (biryani, rogan josh, madras, etc).
I was slightly miffed that of these 33 specials, only one was a vegetarian option. (I'm not a veggie, but I don't always feel like eating meat). I did ask if any others could be adapted, but the answer at this stage appeared to be no.
Eventually, we decided on a couple of poppadums each, chicken tandoori, (£2.95) and a mixed kebab, (£3.50) as starters, followed by chicken begum bahar (£6.95), chicken suka (£7.95), a pilau rice, garlic naan and saag aloo.
The starters and poppadums were demolished in a flash. The poppadums were crispy and light with a tasty selection of pickles, and the meats were tender, non-greasy and evenly-flavoured. During the main event, not one, but two whole cardamom pods sneaked their way into Jon's share of the rice, and then - guessing by his pained, screwed-up expression - down the hatch.
When accidentally crunched into, these little critters rank at roughly number three on Jon's undesirable solids list. But after a quick recovery and a gulp of Cobra, I hardly heard another word from him as he happily munched his way through the mild, sweet begum bahar. That was until he found a hard-boiled egg lurking in the gravy (Weighing in at number two on the aforementioned list). "There was no mention of it in the description," he protested.
I'd never even heard of chicken suka before, let alone tasted one. I was told it was a bit on the sour side, like a pathia, but it was a little on the sweet side for me, although the meat, again, was tender. I ended up hijacking most of the saag aloo to compensate as the suka proved just a bit too rich.
After the meal, we tucked into some palate-cleansing orange segments as we chatted to one of the waiters, Noor, (also a chef with 24 years' experience). I asked about the lack of veggie options in the specials section and he pointed out three more dishes which could be "vegetised". And he promised that the next time I came in, he'll cook it for me himself. Now how often do you experience service like that these days?
The bill came to £51.75, including all drinks, which we felt was very reasonable. Despite the odd glitch, we'll definitely return - we have at least another 32 visits to make, if only to get through the specials!
