The Sitara describes itself as “The Indian Jazz Restaurant”! We were intrigued and not quite sure what to expect. Entering the restaurant, we were welcomed by the friendly staff. Framed pictures lined the red walls, tables lit by candlelight and jazz music softly playing in the background all contributed to the mood of The Sitara.

Our round table had the turntable in the centre, which made it a lot easier for us to share the dishes throughout our meal. As the menus were black, we had a little bit of trouble reading them as the restaurant was dimly lit. The kitchen was at the back of the restaurant and it was nice that we could see the food being prepared from the dining area.

For the starters, we had the meat samosas, pakoras and special mixed grill. The meat samosas came as a portion of two and were filled with minced meat and onions. The pakoras were deep fried onion bhajees and were fairly spicy.

The favourite was the special mixed grill. A sizzling plate of tandoori chicken, chicken tikka, sheekh kebab and lamb tikka. All of the meat was cooked perfectly and it had a wonderful delicious thick sauce. The sauce of onions, tomatoes, fenugreek and capsicum completed this special mixed grill.

Originally, we chose a few main dishes to share as we were not sure how big they were going to be. The main curries came in small silver bowls and after they were brought to the table, we decided that an extra one was needed. A selection of meat, chicken, lamb, vegetables and fish made up the main meal.

The karahi chicken was a tomato based dish with tender chicken cubes. The tasty sauce was made with garlic, spices and capsicum. The saag gosht had a fair amount of spinach in it and the taste slightly overpowered the lamb. Saying that though, it was still nice enough.

The dish that we added at the later stage was the fish masala. There was a good amount of cod pieces coated in the masala sauce. The fish was not overcooked and remained flaky.

For the vegetarian option, the matar panir was chosen. You can’t go wrong with the cooked cubes of cheese, together with peas in a spiced tomato sauce. We were also tempted by the classic dal tarka but this will have to wait for another visit.

To accompany the curries, rice, plain naans and garlic naans were chosen. The naans were piping hot and were freshly made. The rice was served on oval silver dishes.

The staff made sure that everything was the way we wanted throughout the meal. Even though the food was freshly made, we didn’t have to wait too long for our meal.

The Sitara is a gem of a restaurant! It’s great that all the food at The Sitara is made fresh to order and not prepared beforehand. The Sitara will definitely be our local Indian restaurant of choice!

The Sitara, 784 Holloway Road, Archway, London, N19 3JH

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

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

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars