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Al Nawaz [closed]

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Address: 78 - 84 Wilmslow Road, Rusholme

Phone number: 0161 249 0044

Rating: 3/5

Visited by the Curry Night on: Thursday 12th November 2009 (1)

Website: None.

General comments: Yet again a new curry venue for the Curry Night, although some had possibly been before.  Dodders signed off before her crazy charity driving trip to all sorts of place by selling beers for money.  It certainly took out any waiting time (apart from when we couldn't get a bottle opener for a short while).

"That glass floor creeps me out.  Rumours that a fish was seen swimming in it when we entered but was absent when we left, Osbo [erm, Ozzy - or Ozzy Osbo possibly] having consumed a fish tikka, are unconfirmed.  The menu was very hard to read, being largely red text on a purple background, but the chairs were comfy.  For starter, I had prawn purée (very similar to prawn puri, as was noted at the table), which had a decent prawn content, a reasonable kick and a large and well textured pancake thing.  For a main course I had chicken ginger as a result of my dawning realisation that anything more than no chillies on the ubiquitous chilli scale is now too many chillies [a sad conclusion].  This was medium-ish, with good lumps of chicken, but possibly slightly too gingery.  You live and learn.  Day-glo basmati and large naans were good.  Beer was adequately provided by Dodders.  Good work on the charity front, and a fine selection of ale by a non-drinker (i.e. lots of Cobra).   Have I now earned a humorous write-up in the hall of reviewers?  [Yes, yes, ok - welcome aboard.]"

"Thought Al Nawaz was fine - typical Rusholme really. I had the standard mushroom pakora/sizzler combo and it was OK - nothing special . Naan breads were very good though.The service seemed good, altough we weren't ordering drinks so this would have made it easier. I was not impressed by the loos - looked a bit dirty - and the word "Gents" was scribbled on the toilet door in marker pen!"

"I think I'd been to Al Nawaz before.  I am a big fan of their floor o' fish, and the resulting discussions about whether they can get from one side to the other or not.  My starter was nice - a solid performance of lamb tikka, but I continued my run of choosing adequate but uninspiring mains; this time an interesting chicken tikka variant.  It was nice, but the meat felt a bit sub-par [um, felt or tasted?].  A nice level of heat, though - never felt like a battle to eat, but never swept up in a wave of curry rapture, or anything close.  Naans were a delicious highpoint, and I'm sure the Cobra money has helped some monkeys [cows] and that, so that's ok.  Basically, it'll do, but only made me more resolute to try more of the latest places to spring up in Rushholme, to see what I'm missing."