Jai Ho is an Indian restaurant situated in a former a pub, the
Coppingham Arms, and has been a local favourite for 9 years. We have visited Jai Ho quite a few times over
the years and it soon became not only our favourite Indian restaurant but our
favourite restaurant full stop. It’s a
great set up - you have the bar area where people generally come in for a drink
whilst waiting to pick up their takeaways and then a pretty large dining area,
which I have to say, every time we have visited, it has always been busy, no
matter what time of day, its therefore always advisable to ring ahead and book
a table.
Jai Ho Homemade dips |
As with a lot of people we generally stuck with our safe
dishes, those tried and tested favourites that we would have pretty much every
time we visited. This time we had been
invited along by one of the owners, Sam, to come in and sample some dishes with
him and his partner Jane, after much deliberation we said why not, ok, it took
all of a nano-second!
Chilli Naans |
We popped along last Friday and once again the bar area was
pretty busy as was the restaurant. We
sat and had a drink in the bar area before heading through into the restaurant. As with any Indian meal, we had the
obligatory poppadum’s and dips, all of which are made fresh apart from the
mango chutney, however the Chef gives this the Jai Ho twist with the addition
of some spices. I have to say this is one
of my favourite parts of any Indian meal and these dips are no exception, especially the chilli
and tomato relish, I need to get the recipe for this as it is amazing!
Paneer Shashlik |
Sam ordered a selection of starters for us, junglee bhajia,
which consists of an assortment of vegetables dipped in the Chef’s special
batter and golden fried. We also had paneer shashlik, Indian cheese to you and I,
which is stir fried with onions, peppers and tomatoes. The vegetables were very tasty and the
paneer, which I had never tried before, is now on my favourites list, a bit
like halloumi and firm cottage cheese but taken to another level with the
vegetables.
Tandoori King Prawns |
We were then brought a portion of salmon tikka and tandoori
king prawns. The salmon fillets are
marinated in spices and broiled, the prawns are dipped in a creamy spiced
marinade and grilled until golden in a clay oven along with the salmon. Both dishes were well received and quickly devoured;
they were delicious with a capital D!
Chilli Garlic Cauliflower |
Chicken Dhum Pukht Biryani |
Some 3 hours later we had finished what turned out to be a
feast of fantastic food, packed with flavour, spice and more importantly freshly
cooked. This visit was a real eye opener
in terms of trying different dishes rather than the same old tried and tested,
so many thanks to Sam for his hospitality and for introducing me to some
wonderful new dishes, especially the cauliflower! Sam tells me that they have a new lamb shank
dish on the menu, I think I will be needing to try that the next visit and also
push myself out of my comfort zone and try some more new dishes, there are
plenty to choose from so I’m thinking it is going to take a while to get
through them all.
All in all my partner and I both agreed it was a fantastic
evening, amazing tasty food and great company and service from the staff. I would like to add that having been to Jai
Ho numerous times over the years, the service has always been spot on as has
the food so it wasn’t just a case of who we were eating with!
Jai Ho gets a well deserved 10 out of 10
from me and is certainly somewhere I would recommend, even if you are not a
spice fan, they have something to tempt all palettes so give them a go, again,
I recommend booking a table as they do get rather busy! www.jaihorestaurants.com
01293-782283
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