THE soft-styling of this Indian restaurant may mean it blends into its city surroundings but there’s much more to this hidden gem than the exterior suggests.
Corner Cafe has actually been unassumingly serving diners for over 30 years, but a recent refurbishment and growing drinks menu has made it an ever-popular hang out for its loyal followers, young professionals and more than one or two students.
The split-level interior is littered with fairy lights, deep red walls, warm wooden features and hazy mood lighting that make it warm and welcoming.
We went for the early bird menu which advertised a poppadom, starter and main course for £9.95. It was explained to us as we ordered that this menu offered a smaller than normal main course portion.
Choices are limited to either chicken, mutton or vegetable dishes, so kofta, fish, prawn and biryani dishes were not an option, but there was still plenty of alternatives.
Everything was explained to us through the extremely talkative and friendly owner. An explanation of the early bird menu, which runs from Tuesday to Thursday every week, was delivered in depth along with a jargon busting card to explain Indian terms on the menu before our choices were tailored to our tastes in terms of spiciness and free-of-charge additional ingredients like potatoes or spinach.
The poppadoms arrived with a complimentary mint yoghurt sauce, which was suitably creamy and tangy, before our starters arrived.
We chose mixed bhajis and tikka pakora as starters and they were average sized and very nice indeed. The batters were well spiced and the portions were generous both in terms of meat and size and they were served with some more mint yoghurt and a small accompanying salad.
For the main course we chose a chicken bhuna madras, which I asked to be medium to hot, and a medium korma with added spinach. The main courses also come with a tandoori naan, two chapattis or a portion of pilau rice so we chose a combination of the latter two.
There’s no denying they were a lot smaller than your average main, which is quite disappointing, nevertheless the bhuna madras was perfectly spiced and seasoned and the korma was creamy and fresh.
Two small portions of sweet ice cream topped off what was an extremely tasty and satisfying meal, served promptly and with that extra touch of personal service.
All in all we spent just over £27 for two early bird meals, a soft drink each and two portions of ice cream, which is decent value for money.
But it should also be pointed out that most main courses outside the early bird menu are priced at around £7 or £8 and the starters around £3 to £4. Which means you could spend £10 to £12 on a starter and a main at Corner Cafe and get far larger portions than the early bird deal which is almost £10 anyway. However, it would mean you foregoing the poppadoms.
Still, the food was great and my only qualms would be the conservative size of the main course, as we were probably filled more through the rice and chapattis than the curry itself.
Rating 4/5
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Open Tuesday to Saturday 6 – 10.30pm
Call 0113 234 66 77 to book a table
104 Burley Road, LS3 1JP