When a close friend of mine came to visit from Malaysia and he suggested going out for an Indian meal, Drummond Street came to mind! Drummond Street is just behind Euston Station and has plenty of Indian restaurants!

Massala Hut has recently been refurbished. The decor is dark wooden furniture against a white tiled floor. The chairs were pretty funky with their space age like frame! There was a TV screen on in the background playing Bollywood songs!

There were plenty of staff on hand, but at times it felt like they were just hovering around the restaurant and the diners. Saying that though, they didn’t bother us and didn’t rush us with our meal! The staff were friendly and efficient.

For something to nibble on, we had the vegetable samosas. They were fairly small but tasty! The pastry was crisp and the vegetable filling was delicately spiced.

Rice was what I felt like that day and so I had the vegetable biryani. This dish was cooked with saffron and mostly had potatoes and onions. It was slightly greasy which was disappointing. It was served with some vegetable curry and this did make a good accompaniment.

The fish achari that my friend had was served in a little balti style dish! It was supposed to be a really spicy dish, but he wanted it to be a little less hot. The waiter said that it would be fine, as long as he just didn’t eat the whole green chillies in the dish!

Massala Hut was an average restaurant but maybe it was just my choice of dish that made me think this!

Massala Hut, 161-163 Drummond Street, London, NW1 2PB

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Sodermalm is a lively and quirky area of Stockholm, but it’s nice that Shanti is located in the quieter part of this island! Saying that, it is only a short walk from the centre area of Sodermalm.

It was another hot day so we decided to dine outdoors. Hence, I’m not sure what the inside of this restaurant was like, although it seemed to look like it had interesting decor and a turquoise colour theme!

Shanti did provide us with an English menu, but we’re not sure how much we trusted it! The first thing that we noticed was that there were nearly double the amount of items on the Swedish menu in comparison to the English one.

Also, when we asked for one of the dishes on the English menu (the Masala Dosa), the waiter looked at us blankly. He went indoors to ask what this dish was and if they served it. We were then told that that item was not available! Luckily, my friend was on hand to translate the Swedish menu for us, so that was very handy!

The vegetarian thali was the meal for the evening and it had everything to make it a filling dinner! It was made up of the following dishes: samosa, cabbage and vegetable roll, poori (small fried bread), vegetable curry, spinach curry, rice, pickle, chutney and salad. The portions were of a hefty size and if that was not filling enough, it also came with a naan bread!

Both of the curries had good strong flavours and were also mild enough. The vegetable curry was made of courgettes, broccoli, carrots and peas. There was so much food in the vegetarian thali; even though it was really tasty, I couldn’t finish it all.

The staff were friendly but the service could be a little slow at times. The outdoor dining area was quite large and there were mostly metal chairs and tables. I liked it that Shanti provided blankets for the outdoor seating so you could cosy up once the temperature started to drop!

If you’re looking for a good hearty meal after a day of walking around and travelling, then Shanti is definitely the place to go!

Shanti, Sodermalmsallen 34, Sodermalm, 11828, Stockholm

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Masala Zone has quite an extensive menu with food that they say represents different regions of India. The food on the menu ranges from street food snacks, grills, noodles, curries and thalis. So quite a lot to choose from and there is something for everyone!

The vegetable samosas had a thick crispy pastry and were not oily. I’m not quite sure what the filling was but it did contain cashew nuts. The samosas were good and it made a nice change to the usual potato filled ones. They were served with chickpeas in a tasty sauce.

The dahi puri were great little balls of puff pastry filled with tangy yogurt. They were topped with pomegranate seeds. This was a cold starter dish.

We had no complaints at all with the grand vegetarian thali! This is called the balanced meal and it consisted of little bowls of different curries and accompaniments. It was a really good selection of dishes. It was great as you were able to taste a variety of dishes altogether and it was surprisingly filling!

We got to choose the two main curries of the thali. I preferred the Gujarati dish of undhiyo and lentil khichdi. This was made up of sweet potato, purple yam, baby aubergine, raw banana, val dal and snow peas. It also tasted like it had some coconut in it. The second curry that we had was paneer makhanwalla which was paneer in a creamy tomato sauce. It was ok but not outstanding.

The other items in the thali were aubergine pakora, lentils, cauliflower curry, spinach and potato curry. It said on the menu that those dishes are changed daily. The lentils and cauliflower curry were particularly tasty. The final touches to the thali were rice, chapatti, raita, salad, poppadom and chutney. It was all nicely presented!

The grand thali was definitely enough for two people although the staff said that it would be just good for one person. The chapatti tasted homemade and very fresh. It was also perfect as it was made from wholewheat! The thali only contained a little bit of chutney and kachumber (salad). The Indian canape was just one piece of pakora. Saying that, I would still highly recommend the thali for the main meal!

For dessert, I had the falooda. This was a sundae made up of strawberry ice cream, pistachio kulfi, vermicelli and milk. It was a very rich and creamy dessert.

Falooda is traditionally served in tall sundae/milkshake glasses and it also usually contains tapioca. Masala Zone served the falooda in a dish! When we asked the waiter about this, he told us that they used to serve it in tall glasses, but then customers told them that it was not easy to eat from such glasses. So that’s why they changed the way that they served it.

Masala Zone have a range of hot and cold drinks. One of the things that we were intrigued by was the masala coke. This was coke with added spices; not something that I would have again. The orange and mango juice was a lot nicer! They also do masala chai – a milky spicy sweet tea.

This restaurant had quite an individual feel to it. It had quirky decor with lots of retro posters on the walls! There was the open kitchen at one end of the restaurant. The staff were really friendly, helpful and efficient. We experienced great service with a smile!

It was nice that at the end of the meal, the waiter asked us if there was anything that they could improve on with the food. We told them that the dahi puri’s pastry balls were a little soft due to the yoghurt and we would have preferred to have them crispy. The waiter said that he would mention that to his manager. It felt like Masala Zone does value their customer’s opinions.

Masala Zone, 25 Parkway, London, NW1 7PG

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