26 Oct 2024
Does the Indian takeaway have what it takes to stand out from the crowd?
We can’t ignore the elephant in the room. Touch of Spice occupies the same premises as India Garden in Catherine Street, a takeaway closed down in 2022 after a drugs raid by police. But despite the building’s previous notorious history, this is a brand-new business carving out its own reputation in a crowded marketplace.
So what is it that makes this new venture special? Why choose their offerings rather than one of the other dozens of Asian takeaways found across the district?
Fresh food and ingredients are par for the course, with potatoes, peppers, onions, cucumbers, coriander and lettuce all purchased from St Albans Charter Market, supporting local traders despite any additional expense this might incur compared to buying wholesale. The chicken used is also of a higher quality, so lacks that rubbery texture you sometimes find in takeaways.
They offer discounts to blue light cardholders – like police and NHS staff – and donate excess food to local homeless charities, so they’re obviously keen to give something back to the local community.
Within the industry, they’ve received recognition from their peers with finalist nominations in the Asian Curry Awards and Asian Restaurant and Takeaway Awards, so they must be doing something right.
Aside from this, getting their food to the customer hot and on time is a priority, so they don’t use any of the mainstream delivery platforms, preferring to rely on their own team of drivers.
They also offer alternative dietary options, like gluten-free and vegan food, in a bid to tap into that market share before their competitors do.
Business owner Alok Das said when his customers sit down at their table he wants them to have an all-round good experience, so always provides free poppadoms, onion salad and chutneys, to ensure they have a variety of different tastes and textures.
“I am confident I can beat any other takeaway or restaurant in terms of the taste, quality and freshness of our food,” is his proud declaration.
So can he deliver on his promise? Does Touch of Spice have what it takes to rise above its peers?
We ordered a comprehensive choice of dishes in order to test the talents of their team and see whether they lived up to Alok’s hype.
For a starter I opted for the reshmi kebab, spiced mincemeat wrapped in egg, followed by murgh bahar, a mix of tandoori and tikka chicken cooked a spicy sauces with green chillis, tomatoes and fresh herbs.
My vegetarian partner had the hydrabadi dalcha, a pumpkin-based dish with a wide range of ingredients including pepper, chana daal, tamarind sauce, ginger, garlic, onion, cumin and chilli. For side dishes we had tarka dall, bindi bhaji and chana masala, accompanied by chapati bread and pilau rice.
As promised, the food was piping hot when it arrived, and came with the complimentary poppadoms and extras, which were devoured alongside the kebab, a well-seasoned and spiced dish which worked surprisingly well with the fried egg as it offset some of the heat from the very tender meat.
We each sampled as much as possible from the mains and sides – my partner forgoing the chicken – although no matter how hard you try,
transferring takeaway dishes onto a plate is never going to capture restaurant presentation for our photos.
Rather than follow our usual pattern of ordering everything as hot as possible, we decided to take everything as it comes in order that the flavours weren’t lost to an onslaught of chillis.
In all items, the taste experience was a layering of ingredients which complimented each other in the overall dish, with a subtle fusion of flavours that never overwhelmed in isolation. The pumpkin was tender yet not stodgy, and the different pieces of chicken not only maintained their own identities, but were noticeably better than the standard of meat you usually find in takeaway curries.
There was very little oil, something which you often find drowning Asian food, and it admirably passed the leftovers test, being both massive portions and reheating to a similar high standard as the original delivery.
Perhaps we could have done with a bit more spice in the end, but that’s more personal taste rather than criticism of the various items. Was it the best Indian food we’ve tasted locally? Probably not, but it was certainly a contender for one of the top takeaways of recent memory.
