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The Review - RESTAURANTS with TATIANA VON SAXE
 

Manager Ajaz Akram outside his restaurant
Blueprint of a great menu

THIS tiny restaurant in the middle of Hampstead has recently reopened after some refurbishment. It is colourful and cosy. The gauze curtains in stripes of bright colours add to the light inside. Green tables, blue chairs, burgundy and blue walls. It sits 28 but caters for a great deal more as they have a booming take away service.
With free delivery on orders over £12 their motorcycles go to and from Hampstead to Camden, Highgate, St John’s Wood and other areas covering a three-mile radius. Everything has been thought of. The dishes are packed in plastic heat-sealed containers with the name handwritten on customised wrap-around labels of different designs. They are not that easy to open but ensure that the food arrives piping hot.
The choice of the take-away menu is the same as the one in the restaurant (but cheaper) and offer four Bombay banquets ranging from £12 for one up to £44 for four or more.
For appetisers we had the Malai Kebab (chicken in a cheese and yoghurt marinade baked in the tandoor £4.65), Seekh Kebab (grilled minced lamb with garlic, ginger and fresh chilli £4.35), and Vegetable Pakora (Mixed vegetables coated in a highly spiced gram-flour batter £3.45).
To follow we ordered: Prawn Malawar in a spicy coconut curry with sun-dried red chillies and black mustard seeds (£10.45), large chunks of white fish in curry sauce £ 9.95, Aloo Gobi (cauliflower and potatoes £5.45), Chana Masala (chick peas £ 5.45) and Mushroom Pilau (£3.25). The prawns were delicious, the fish flaked the way it should and the chicken was very tasty.
The sauces seemed to have a common denominator in colour and texture but were very good indeed.
The breads are made fresh to order using the traditional baking method of ‘intense heat in clay ovens’. From a large selection of naans stuffed with a layer of spicy minced lamb, with almond and coconut and with garlic and coriander amongst others we had the plain one which was especially good (£1.95).
There is a choice of two non-alcoholic beers and soft drinks but patrons are invited to bring their own alcoholic beverage. No corkage and service charge are levied on these although they are consumed in the premises.
This is the only restaurant in London that I know of which offer this – unless you do in which case please let me know.
No service charge is included and departing from the stereotype wording used by most restaurants, Bombay Blueprint bring this to your attention as follows: “If we have done a good job please feel free to leave a tip. Thank you.” How very nice.
For the salad enthusiasts, four contemporary Indian salads form part of the menu – something not usually seen in Indian restaurants.
Manager Ajaz Akram confirmed that everything is home made in the premises from authentic recipes.

Bombay Blueprint
66 Heath Street
NW3
020 7794 5252
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