Dabbawalla Club- City Road, Cardiff

Thali menus are like the old gag about buses. You wait ages for one since the demise of Chai Street,  then two appear at once. Having already visited and enjoyed The Bombay Café (West Bute St)- original review here - I was keen to give City Road's Dabbawalla Club a go. They had been kind enough to invite us to their launch night, where bite-sized snacks were on offer and eaten on the hoof, so a more leisurely revisit seemed sensible.

In addition, this is a major rethink and rebrand of the site's former incarnation, Haveli, which had never disappointed, with its presentation being a strong point. Since the refit, a mural pays homage to the restaurant's eponymous food deliverers. There's something rather lovely about that system: I have no idea whether they have plans to implement something similar to Bombay Café's tiffin box system, but I can think of worse selling points in the city. A wall of Bollywood posters recalls Crwys Road's Katiwok and preparations were being made for a Hindu wedding party, so a cart of sweet treats swathed in silver and pink and good luck reds was well under construction.

Poppadoms -not the most adventurous start, but often a useful indicator of things to come- were excellent. The chutneys were the usual suspects (a lime pickle slightly runnier than typical, a cooling raita, a mango chutney and a simple kachumber) but the poppadoms themselves were excellent. Thin and crisp and warm, and a reminder of how the simple things done well can start a meal off so happily.

Dabbawalla Club makes stresses the adaptability of its menu. It's a lean affair, but with plenty of scope for sharing, mixing and matching and the like.

The menu is not yet up at their website but they had posted a version on their Facebook page so knew what we were in for. Their 'shared plate' option seemed a good option for an earlier-than-usual meal so a combination of murgh tikka, bhel puri and Bangladeshi king prawns was the choice.

The bhelpuri (a mixture of puffed rice, sliced tomato and red onion, Bombay Mix and coriander) was on the wishlist because we had tried it on launch night and been fascinated by the textures and tastes. It had been served in a 'newspaper' cone and I found myself missing that little visual nod to its streetfood roots. The chicken was as tender as you'd like and the prawns, in a sauce thick with onion, came with a righteously flaky puri bread. Three sauces were provided: a coriander and mint chutney, a reappearance of the starters' raita and a tamarind dip as sour as Dylan's With God On Our Side. As I'm a sucker for anything even within the same postcode as tamarind, this was the winner. All in all, a good start and probably perfectly sufficient for anyone with eyes smaller than belly. At £7.50 for three dishes (and a £2 seafood supplement) it'd be a substantial lunch for one.

The main attraction though was the thali tray. Having been wowed by Bombay Café's mutton version, this was always going to be what I went for. A tray with individual pots of goodies- with shattering predictability I had gone for the 'meat lover' version.

A smoky lentil dhal, a handful of salad, a lamb bhoona, a dense chicken curry, a mound of rice and a roti made for a good spread- and at £6.95 this seems almost ridiculously good value for such flavour and variety. A roit- indeed, any form of bread- was one component I felt was missing at Bombay Café, so this was very welcome.

A keema naan wasn't on the proffered menu, though it does feature on the (slightly different) version online. Our server explained they were still in the process of finalising elements of their dishes and would soon be launching a rickshaw-based advertising campaign. Slightly cheekily, I asked for one (a naan that is- not a rickshaw...) as you can tell so much about a curry house on the strength of its keema naan- and it didn't disappoint. Buttery and with that crisp-yet-doughy-in-parts texture, it hit the spot nicely.

Undeterred by the sufficiency of food already spread before us, I had to try Railway Lamb Curry. Partly because my unofficial catchphrase is 'Oh, I do love a lamb curry', and partly because its name intrigued me.
(Look, I realise it's not quite up there with 'Go ahead, make my day', 'They don't like it up 'em!' or 'I'll be back'. It's not even much of a rival for 'Shut that door' or 'To me, to you'. I get it, right..?) 

It came with a finishing criss-cross of coconut milk as a nod to the titular transport system; apparently, as India under the Raj saw a rapid expansion of its rail network, so travellers bound for long journeys required feeding both in the stations' refreshment rooms and on board. Hence- Railway Curry: a mild(ish) combination with curry leaves and black peppercorns featuring prominently in the thick sauce. I do love a lamb curry.

So. All in all, a rather decent (and very competitively-priced) option for your consideration. Good food, good presentation, great value. While I didn't have anything that knocked me for six like the mutton curry at Bombay Café, everything I tasted was of a uniformly high standard and there aren't many City Road options to rival Dabbawalla.

P.S. 

One final note: because we were the only, very early, diners in that section of the restaurant (a larger party was seated elsewhere) a Certain Young Lady who seems to have decided that this walking lark is the most fun you can possibly have, was free to go on the prowl. And prowled she did. And at no stage were we made to feel this was an imposition on the staff. 

Which was nice.