Indian Lunch Review Day 1: Thali

As part of India Week, we are trying a different Indian dish for lunch every day this week. Each day we will be eating something from the menu at Masala Zone and will be reviewing it for you. Today's dish is the Thali.

For the first day of five we were looking forward to indulging ourselves on one of the most popular dishes in India; the thali. A thali is basically a collection of lots of smaller dishes all served together as one larger meal and is the most common way that Indians eat at home. The separate dishes are served in small bowls all on a large stainless steel platter (as the pictures show).

We went for the Grand Thali, which seemed to have about half the restaurant's dishes on it. It is a complete meal comprising of rice, a curry of your choice, lentils and vegetables all of which are nutritionally balanced. From Masala Zone they range from £9.05 up to £12.15. The exact dishes change each day, but today we EACH had the following dishes:

- Red kidney beans (below left)
- Okrah, tomato and onion (below right)
- Potato and cashew with a yogurt sauce (below middle)
- Yogurt with Pomegranate (to cool down)
- Pilau Rice
- Pineapple Chutney
- Mint Coriander
- Onion bhaji
- Chapati
- Poppadom

When something like that arrives at your table, the hardest bit is where to start. However, all the dishes worked together perfectly. If you found any of them too hot then there was the yogurt to add to it. If you fancied a sweet hit then add a bit of the chutney. Without exception, every one of the dishes was delicious, but we both agreed that the okrah dish was the best. The slightly crunchy and chewy, green vegetable worked brilliantly with the spicy tomato and onion mix.

However, that wasn't all we had. Ten different sides wasn't enough, and on top of all that, we got to choose one of the curries Masala Zone offers as well. I went for the Tilapia Kadai Masala (below left) which was pretty stunning. The fish was flaky and moist, and the rich sauce had nice kick to it without being too hot. My colleague had the Dhaaba Rhogan Josh (below right), which is described on the menu as "slow cooked mutton curry with intense flavours". That too was seriously tasty, with the succulent lamb matching perfectly with the spices.

Overall the thali was an amazing (if huge) lunch. At first it may look a little intimidating for lunch, but I think as the picture below proves, it can be done (just don't expect to move much for a few hours afterwards)!

If you fancy trying a thali, then you can visit a Masala Zone at one of seven different locations in London. What's more, if you are a student then you can get 10% off the bill with student ID on Sunday to Thursday before 6.30pm or after 10pm.

Visit the India Week Home page to see much more...

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