The Thali Room
This is a very highly-rated Indian restaurant.
The Thali Room itself isn't open, but it's actually just an annexe of the British India restaurant. I'm sitting in the British India, but I'll be feasting from the Thali Room menu.
Things are very ornate in here. There are wood panel walls, and all kinds of trophies and artefacts line the rooms.
At Indian restaurants, I'll almost always be recommended the butter chicken. They assume I'm just some guy looking for some feed, not someone who's writing for thousands of readers online. I ask them to recommend something else, and they suggest the prawns.
Prawns in a smooth, mild coconut and curry leaf sauce.
I'm told this has a small amount of fake coriander powder in it. I've never heard of that before.
Going anti-clockwise, the piece of red-coloured meat is chicken, heavily infused with curry flavour, and not too spicy. 8/10
Next is the dahl. It oozes strong and tasty vegetable flavours, and all kinds of spices. 9/10 can't type. Too busy eating this dahl. It's worth spending my limited naan bread on.
The prawns, third, are cooked more than prawns I've had before. They're almost fish-like in texture. There's an odd citrus or tangy flavour here, and there are strange granules in here. It's a bit like occasionally chewing on grains of sugar. 4/10
The last pot is vegetables. It's just a regular assortment of beans, cauliflower etc. However, it's bathed in an unusual and out-of-place cumin sauce. It doesn't add to the taste of the vegetables. It just replaces it. 5/10
Date pudding with rhubarb and cardamom sauce.
This brick o' pudding has a smooth date taste. It's very moist and syrupy, and doesn't really need any cream or anything.
The pudding sits on a small amount of tangy rhubarb, which adds an interesting taste whenever I include it in my mouthful.
This place is full of huge paintings of British nobles or monarchs. It's very striking.