Taj Mahal
This place looks more like a shed than a restaurant, so it is not the place to take a prospective boy/girlfriend or your boss, bank manager, etc. But the food is well above average when compared to most other establishments in the Paddington and Bayswater areas.
There are some unusual dishes on the menu, such as Ada Gosht — “succulent lamb cooked with shredded ginger”. And there is a whole range of Batak (duck) dishes, including Batak Balti, Batak Korai and Batak Tikka. These make a welcome variation from their usual chicken counterparts.
But it is the Chicken Phall that really deserves high praise. It describes this curry as the “hottest in the house” and it really is very, very hot — so hot that I have seen many people completely defeated after just one mouthful. I am so tired of restaurants that over-sell the spiciness of certain bland dishes that it really is refreshing to find somewhere that is not scared to “set the dial to 11”.
My rating for the food would be 8/10, but the setting has to be taken into account, so it’s…