Ireland – Oranmore – Oran Tandoori

For our final evening meal of the week we decided that we’d opt for an Indian meal, the first time I’ve had this cuisine in Ireland. There were nine of us so we were a little concerned about getting a table, especially as there was no-one there when Susanna rang during the day. I don’t like calling people, but Susanna seems to be fearless and so she was making the calls. However, we walked by the restaurant when we arrived in Oranmore and by good fortune there was a staff member going in and he kindly took the booking outside of the restaurant.

Our table was set out when we arrived and we were welcomed promptly. For some reason the staff thought that Dave must be in charge of this booking, I’m not sure why they felt that he looked the most important….

The staff pro-actively brought over poppadoms, although the waiter missed that we wanted even more (some of us are quite greedy), but we made do with what we had. Half of them are visible in the above photo, with the dips being as expected and the lime pickle having some bite to it.

This is the chicken pakora starter. Firstly, I love that they presented the lemon in a squeezer like this, it’s very rarely done and the last time I was given one of these was in Australia some years ago. The chicken was tender and full of flavour and the salad was crisp and fresh. A nicely refreshing little starter option.

A Peshwari naan to the left and pilau rice on the right, with the naan having a pleasant flavour but it didn’t have the slightly crisp base that I really like. Behind is my chicken dopiaza on the left which again had tender chicken, a rich sauce and plenty of onions, which is inevitably important since it’s a component part of the dish. Perhaps there wasn’t the depth of flavour that there could have been, but the curry had a pleasant aftertaste and was entirely acceptable. The other two dishes are Susanna’s and she was complimentary about them, as indeed were all the other diners (I mean about their own dishes, not Susanna’s).

The service was attentive throughout the evening and we were given a couple of free bottles of Cobra when leaving. The staff had a pleasant and helpful attitude, being willing to make slight amendments to the cuisine where required. We seem to have made a tradition of going to an Indian on these Hike Norfolk trips, there was an excellent one on the Hadrian’s Wall walk and another slightly less impressive one in Goring.

For the price paid, this was a very lovely evening and I’d be very tempted to come again if I return to Oranmore. The only slight doubt I might have is that there is another Indian restaurant a few hundreds metres away which is nearly as well reviewed, and I’d be tempted to try that. However, knowing me, I’d just go to both anyway.