Yet Another Cycling Forum
Off Topic => The Pub => Food & Drink => Topic started by: Wowbagger on 24 April, 2019, 06:05:12 pm
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When I used to come to Scotland quite regularly when I had a real job (1990-95), I noticed how expensive Indians were compared to England or Wales (I did visit NI once but never had an Indian meal). I’m looking at a menu for a restaurant in St. Andrews now and they food is still eye-wateringly expensive. http://maisharestaurant.co.uk/category/main-courses/ refers.
Does anyone know why this is, other than Because They Can?
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It's probably more to do with the fact that it's in St. Andrews. :P
I've never noticed Indian restaurants to be particularly pricey. Perhaps that's just because I don't eat at the expensive places!
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My work experience with Indian restaurants would have been mostly in Aberdeen or Glasgow. I may have stayed in Edinburgh too but don’t recall.
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Can't add anything on price, but just that Glasgow ones were right, not like soft southern restaurants. If you order a Vindaloo in Glasgow, it is hot, not mild like down here.
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It's a long time since I lived in Glasgow but the Indian takeaways kept us full, fat and seemed good VFM.
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Likewise, I never thought Glasgow’s South Side indians were expensive. Everything in Aberdeen was.
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Don't forget to try the haggis pakora.
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Thankfully I never came across that particular delicacy. The local (Cathcart) Indian restaurant menus were fairly conventional, and the first time I'd had Dhansak and Patia.
The local (Mount Florida) chippy however was truer to stereotype. No Mars Bars, but all the pies were deep fried (a shock to this nesh southerner), as were the pizzas. And there was only a choice of "Fish Supper" (battered fish with chips) or "Special Fish Supper (Breaded fish with chips). And white vinegar too.
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Don't forget to try the haggis pakora.
I've used Macsween Vegetarian Haggis in a curry - really good (and probably one of the reasons why I used to be known as 'Windy').
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Murphy's Pakora Bar was A Thing when I lived in Glasgow as the locals loved anything battered and deep-fried.
(I doubt Murphy was Indian.)
Never went there.
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We were always commenting on the fact that the Indian restaurant at the end of our road in Edinburgh never seemed to have more than a single customer, but I recently noted that twenty years later, it's still there (and still empty).
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Is most of their business meals on wheels?
There are eateries around here I have never visited.
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I assume it's delivery that keeps them afloat. Compared to London, I was reassured to see how many places seem to have survived.
That said, there's used to be an OK restaurant called Albert's Table in South Croydon which closed and became a ubiquitous Italianesque 'Mediterranean grill and bar' (refit at looked like significant expense) which lasted about six months. Now it's being refit again. As a 'Mediterranean grill and bar.'
I'm not sure how the restaurant business works.
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It's probably more to do with the fact that it's in St. Andrews. :P
I've never noticed Indian restaurants to be particularly pricey. Perhaps that's just because I don't eat at the expensive places!
Despite the location, I haven’t noticed other restaurants being particularly pricey.
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Murphy's Pakora Bar was A Thing when I lived in Glasgow as the locals loved anything battered and deep-fried.
(I doubt Murphy was Indian.)
Never went there.
Murphy's Pakora Bar was an Indian, a spin out from the local Ashok "chain". Murphy's referred to the stout. Pakora was very popular around the Glasgow Indian takeaways and usually had piece sizes 2-3 times bigger than you see down south. Similar size variation to that seen between French Fancies and strawberry tarts in a Glasgow bakery and those down south.
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When I used to come to Scotland quite regularly when I had a real job (1990-95), I noticed how expensive Indians were compared to England or Wales (I did visit NI once but never had an Indian meal). I’m looking at a menu for a restaurant in St. Andrews now and they food is still eye-wateringly expensive. http://maisharestaurant.co.uk/category/main-courses/ (http://maisharestaurant.co.uk/category/main-courses/) refers.
Does anyone know why this is, other than Because They Can?
I used to live in St Andrews - ALL restaurants there are eyewateringly expensive. They have a captive audience of rich-ish students and extremely rich American golfers.
If you want a good curry - there used to be a great one in Broughty Ferry just outside Dundee. The Gullistan or something it was called. This is not very far away, though it's probably a decent cycle ride
Thobut - I left St Andrews in 1998 - things may have changed.
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I haven't checked the link but the Indian in St Andrews has a (fairly genuine-ish I think) claim of being the first one in the whole of the UK so uses that as a way of boosting its prices.
iirc a tarka dahl in there cost about as much as a main meal in any other Indian restaurant I've been in (apart from the recent-ish emergence of gourmet ones).
*comes back from checking the link* - Hmm, OK they have a whole THREE now :thumbsup: The Balaka has closed permanently :jurek:
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When I used to come to Scotland quite regularly when I had a real job (1990-95), I noticed how expensive Indians were compared to England or Wales (I did visit NI once but never had an Indian meal). I’m looking at a menu for a restaurant in St. Andrews now and they food is still eye-wateringly expensive. http://maisharestaurant.co.uk/category/main-courses/ (http://maisharestaurant.co.uk/category/main-courses/) refers.
Does anyone know why this is, other than Because They Can?
I used to live in St Andrews - ALL restaurants there are eyewateringly expensive. They have a captive audience of rich-ish students and extremely rich American golfers.
If you want a good curry - there used to be a great one in Broughty Ferry just outside Dundee. The Gullistan or something it was called. This is not very far away, though it's probably a decent cycle ride
Thobut - I left St Andrews in 1998 - things may have changed.
I used to go to School in StAndrews finidhing in '99.
This was before the Royal surge so it was just the gowfers.
PMs and Joes wern't eyewatteringly expensive to a school kid and the Queues at Janettas or Burns was tolerable, and mostly us.
Last time I went to StAndrews I realized it was school lunch time and expected to be stuck with huge queues of school kids, but only about 5 of them had strayed out of the school.
The town was otherwise rammed.
I was dissapointed to discover that most of the shops I remember are no more, boots is where the canaries used to be, wanky piss cafés and shops have replaced the bakers and baked potato shops
that Joe's is now the Tailend and I think the prices are comparable to their takeaway in Dundee at the old Deep Sea.
That living 12 miles away I only really ever go when passing through on the bike says a bit about the place.
The Guilistan is still in the ferry and still highly rated, never been though.
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Never particularly felt that Kalpna (20-some years ago) or (more recently) Mother India in Edinburgh were that expensive.
Dearer than Bradford, granted.
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Never particularly felt that Kalpna (20-some years ago) or (more recently) Mother India in Edinburgh were that expensive.
Dearer than Bradford, granted.
I've used Kalpna too and I don't remember thinking it was expensive.
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I am at the nearest Indian restaurant to Waverley station. Cheapest main is £13.95. For comparison I googled Pimlico Indian restaurant and the one I picked is £3 a dish cheaper. And I reckon that is an inflated West Central London price.
Mind you, I can look at trains.
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I am at the nearest Indian restaurant to Waverley station. Cheapest main is £13.95. For comparison I googled Pimlico Indian restaurant and the one I picked is £3 a dish cheaper. And I reckon that is an inflated West Central London price.
Mind you, I can look at trains.
Cheapness?
In central Edinburgh in the run-up to the festival?
If cheapness is your main criteria, I'd suggest going somewhere else...
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Prices at the good "expensive" one in Dundee
https://dilse-dundee.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Dilse-Restaurant-Menu-Web.pdf
The Guilistan's menu is suspiciously short of prices
https://www.gulistanhouse.com/menus
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I am at the nearest Indian restaurant to Waverley station. Cheapest main is £13.95. For comparison I googled Pimlico Indian restaurant and the one I picked is £3 a dish cheaper. And I reckon that is an inflated West Central London price.
Mind you, I can look at trains.
Cheapness?
In central Edinburgh in the run-up to the festival?
If cheapness is your main criteria, I'd suggest going somewhere else...
Mother India (https://www.motherindia.co.uk/index.php/mother-indias-cafe-edinburgh-home) would have been easily close enough, assuming you're on the sleeper back - you'd still have paid fifteen quid plus drinks, but it wouldn't have been for one dish, and it would have been more than worth it.
A PEDANT interjects to plead for a singular criterion ...
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I am at the nearest Indian restaurant to Waverley station. Cheapest main is £13.95. For comparison I googled Pimlico Indian restaurant and the one I picked is £3 a dish cheaper. And I reckon that is an inflated West Central London price.
Mind you, I can look at trains.
Cheapness?
In central Edinburgh in the run-up to the festival?
If cheapness is your main criteria, I'd suggest going somewhere else...
Well, the summer school was at a specific date and place and that involved comin through Edinburgh. Not much choice really.
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Mother India is highly recommended.
Anything near Princes Street will be expensive. Pimlico is hardly in the same league, tourist-wise.
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For stuff like curry & beer, central Edinburgh prices are sadly on a par with central London. The good news is that as Edinburgh is so small that it really only takes about 5 minutes to find somewhere that isnt a tourist trap. Mother India (and a pint in the Captains Bar) being a good example.
In comparison eating out, price of a pint and other associated stuff are a veritable bargain in Glasgow - which aside from being bigger also benefits from having more of a culture of "eating out not as a big/expensive set piece" so there are more mid range options.
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Kalpna is great. I make a beeline for the lunch buffet whenever I'm in Edinburgh.
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Cracking channa aloo here... Didn't try the scallop pakora though
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190815/0d2d94f775480ec66779775251656dac.jpg)
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Having just returned from two weeks in Scotland, I didn't find eating out cheap anywhere.
But why would it be?
The only thing cheap in the further reaches of Scotland is housing. Everything else is more expensive, simply due to transport costs. So why should we tourists expect to be fed cheaply? Do our foreign English Pounds suddenly become more valuable?
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Well......
I’m in Edinburgh for the weekend & as several people have recommended “Mother India “ I thought I’d give it a try.
I had coffee & a pastry early in the morning & tea with a scone in the afternoon so was fairly peckish.
7:30 on a Friday night & people were waiting for tables. Luckily there was 1 seat free on a bar/counter area so I squeezed in there.
Chana Dal, chicken chilli dhosa, chilli fishcakes, lemon & cashew rice , washed down with a pint of Bombay Bicycle. All delicious, flavoursome without being too hot & £24.75 for the lot.
I then decided to go for a walk.... 10 minutes later..... rumble..... walk a bit more, rumble, gurgle, rumble...
I think I’d better get back to the hotel.
I just got my pants down in time & decided it was better to have a shower afterwards rather than waste time with paper...
I’m now hoping that’s it for the evening!
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There you go, Delhi authenticity.
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I’m just trying to imagine the Jay Rayner review...... :jurek: