Indian Tiffin Room Cheadle

Indian Tiffin Room Cheadle was one of the first local places to step away from the typical menu of the average flock wallpapered curry house and focus instead on Indian street food.

The ‘grazing or starters’ reflect the fact that a huge proportion of India is vegetarian, although carnivores can chew their way through a marinated chicken lollypop or an Indo-Chinese chilli chicken

Paani puri is comprised of six delicate pastry shells with lightly spiced potatoes and chopped salad. Add chilled mint water then pop into your mouth for an ‘explosion’.

The 15 ingredients of bhel puri defy the modest menu description of ‘crushed crispy pastry, seasoned potatoes and puffed rice coated with date chutney’. Each dig of the fork reveals new combinations of vegan buried treasure topped with shining pomegranate rubies.

What they don’t know about combining rice and lentils isn’t worth knowing; giant pancake dosas and uttapam are uniformly excellent.

Mains could include coconut Kerala fish curry and the house slow-cooked lamb. While authentic desserts might include rasmalai, made of two gently pressed tabs of homemade milk curd flavoured with saffron, cardamom and pistachio.

This restaurant has been favourably compared with London’s Trishna, and the drinks menu contains a varied and unusual selection of signature cocktails (try a Spiced Desi Toddy – a lassi drink spiked with gin, or a Bombay Delight with curry leaves) as well as some tweaked favourites. The wine list even includes an interesting selection from India.