Birmingham – The Indian Streatery
This relatively small Indian restaurant was the dining choice for our first evening in Birmingham. As the name suggests, there’s a focus here on Indian street food and this is how the business was first established, from mobile stands. I didn’t like the spelling of Streatery initially, until I realised that it also has the word ‘eatery’ in, so it’s actually quite clever.
The menu, with a specials menu also presented separately. I liked how the member of serving staff also pro-actively explained the menu concept and how it fitted together.
There’s some bright artwork on the walls of various parts of India.
We shared starters, and from left to right these are (i) the deconstructed samosa chaat, the (ii) pani puri and (iii) the chicken chaat. The chaat dishes are what the restaurant say they were founded on, their popular street food which got them started. Although the dishes looked simple, there was a depth of flavour with all of them and the chicken was tender and had a touch of spice to it.
The various roti, with the yellow ones being infused with turmeric and gram flour and the red ones are infused with beetroot.
The dish on the left is the methi chicken and the dish on the right is the house black dhal. The main courses dishes didn’t arrive together, but there was only a couple of minutes wait for the third main to arrive.
Nicely presented, the chicken was tender with the sauce being creamy and peppery. Again, there was a depth of taste to the curry and the portion size was sufficient. The dhal was smooth and had a rich taste, with numerous flavours being evident.
This was the other main which was from the specials menu, which was dhaba chicken, served on the bone and with chilli powders to add some heat. It did have some heat, although it wasn’t over-powering, with the sauce being rich and peppery along with some ginger notes.
As a restaurant, the service was professional and friendly throughout, with no unnecessary delays. We were asked to move during the meal, but this was done politely and it was clear that if we moved the restaurant would be able to cater for a larger group. I preferred the table that they moved us to, so everyone gained from that arrangement.
What has become known as Indian food in the UK is usually now sadly generic and often lacking in flavour and taste. Efforts to serve street food and more traditional Indian dishes seem to be more common now, which is a marvellous trend. In places the restaurant was perhaps a little quirky, but it felt on-trend and offering something a little different.
