Food Review Arti

Chapel Allerton's Old Police Station has become a thoroughly modern Indian restaurant, says Tom Goodhand

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Food Review: Arti

Chapel Allerton is an area hardly short of food and drink establishments. Just stand on Stainbeck Corner and take a look around the streets in front of you: they’re teeming with cafes, restaurants, bars and the like. Thus, for a place to do well in this part of LS7, they must be doing something right.

We visited Arti on a wet and windy Monday evening (great summer we’re having, no?) and although when we took our seats at around 6.30pm the restaurant was very quiet (just two other diners), by the time we left 90 minutes later almost every seat on the ground floor was taken. Not bad at all for a Monday night.

So are Arti lucky? Or are they on to something good? We’re pleased to report that they’re actually doing pretty much everything right. The good impression starts before you even enter. The restaurant is situated in the Old Police Station, a grand old Victorian building dating back to 1900. The imposing front turret and gorgeous old stone create an instant sense of class.

Walking into the restaurant, they’ve clearly put some thought into the design and feel of the place. Built around the old features of the station – a spiral staircase, and old cells that are now nice little booths – the restaurant is modern without being gauche and is decorated sparingly with a henna tattoo-style design.

We’re seated promptly and the waiter brings over the menus for us to choose from. While the menu is slightly confusing in places (it seems to be divided into ‘non-vegetarian’ and ‘vegetarian’, with vegetarian dishes springing up in both sections and the distinctions between mains and starters a little unclear) its scope is impressive – especially in offering up more unusual dishes from across the country – and the description of each dish is helpful in establishing taste, content and heritage. It’s actually quite an education once you unpick it.

But does the food live up to the décor and the promising menu? Again, yes it does. We start off with vegetable Manchurian (£3.95, although as we order ours on recommendation because the starter we wanted is sold out, we were charged for the cheaper original dish – always a good sign), lightly fried, doughy balls of vegetables served with a rich spicy sauce and a cooling yoghurt, and paani poori (£2.95), crispy shells packed with chickpeas and vegetables, served cold and very refreshing indeed.

Inevitably we over-order for our main courses, picking up a portion of pilau rice (£1.75), three chapattis (small, but well priced at a mere 50p each), aloo saag (spinach and potatoes, £4.50), darbari gosht biryani (£8.50, slow cooked lamb in saffron with rice and spicy tomato sauce) and makkai khamb do pyaza (£5.95, baby sweetcorn and mushrooms with fried onions in a rich, creamy, mildly spiced sauce) and side of raita (£1.25, yoghurt with cucumber, carrot and spices). The portions are very generous, not to mention richly flavoured and packed with substantial ingredients, rather than swimming in sauces. The standout dish was the biryani, served in a clay pot and packed with succulent lumps of lamb, the heat of which was nicely taken off by the gorgeously flavourful raita.

Thanks to our gluttonous ordering at the main course, desserts were well and truly off the menu for us, so we sit back to let our food digest, watching the restaurant gradually filling up – and feeling it is very well deserved indeed. A final pleasure comes with the bill – a mere £36.25, including drinks. A very reasonable outlay for both the quality and quantity of the food.

Posted on Wednesday 1st September 2010

Arti

Old Police Station, 106 Harrogate Road, Chapel Allerton, Leeds, LS7 4AZ

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