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Dhonia

gargoylegargoyle
edited March 2009 in Reviews
Lazy as I am, I have been enjoying curries delivered to my door from Dhonia for a few months now, since I moved to the area. They do a lovely jalfrezi with tandoori chicken in it, and a delightful channa masala, and I'm afraid I've not been greatly impressed by Jai Krishna, so Dhonia has become something of a habit. I have even more reason to like them now - the other day when our curries turned up, the delivery man rewarded our loyalty with a free bottle of beer! I've never actually eaten in their restaurant (cf laziness), but would highly recommend delivery.
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  • JamberJamber
    edited 7:09AM
    I must say I have become addicted to Dhonia too - and very much enjoy eating in. The food there really is fab and the guys that work there are so friendly and always have a good old chat!
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  • DavidDavid
    edited 7:09AM
    Can of one of you stick it on the map directory please? I'd like to go pick up a menu...
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  • andyandy
    edited 7:09AM
    It changed ownership about six months ago and has really improved since then.
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  • DavidDavid
    edited March 2009
    IMPORTANT UPDATE - I've just been informed that we do actually have this menu at home, I'm just so lazy I can't even go find it in the lounge. Could still do with a map tag in the directory though.
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  • rainbow_carnagerainbow_carnage
    edited 7:09AM
    This is the first I've heard of Dhonia. Will have to give it a go, simply because they deliver.

    They appear do have <a href="http://www.dhoniarestaurant.co.uk">hideous website</a> with a takeaway menu.
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  • unaestheticunaesthetic
    edited 7:09AM
    jesus, that's one of the most offensive websites i've ever seen! crappy shape tweens in flash like animated gifs in 1995! wow.
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  • DavidDavid
    edited March 2009
    It's so shocking I'm quite enjoying it. Let the food fusion shape tweening wash over you while keeping one eye on the parsley floating behind the title yet soak up the Swish styled rotating letters that make up "Famous Indian Curry House" in the top right. Throw in an animated gif of a poppadom and you're witnessing a modern classic. Van Gough chopped his ear off for less.
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  • mattmatt
    edited 7:09AM
    I'm happy to try this for a curry. Is it on the map yet?
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  • gargoylegargoyle
    edited 7:09AM
    It's not on the map yet - to my shame I couldn't work out how to put it on. Any pointers?
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  • ShaunGShaunG
    edited 7:09AM
    Somebody's done it now, though it's hiding shyly behind Front Room.
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  • mattmatt
    edited 7:09AM
    Tried it last night, they got the order wrong but were more than happy to make amends (bring us the correct, missing dish). Curry was nice enough
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  • DavidDavid
    edited 7:09AM
    Me too, well, night before Matt. Thought the guy was really nice and friendly. Highlight was the sag aloo, might go experimenting through all their spinach dishes now, decent curry I thought. Stuffed paratha wasn't up to Jai's but then Jai's paratha's are made by the Gods.
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  • mattmatt
    edited 7:09AM
    Our curries were a bit oily, but they tasted good.
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  • poxypoxy
    edited 7:09AM
    Oily food of any description is a real turn-off. Thaitanic in CE does great food including a fantastic tasting Panang curry. But, I can't bring myself to eat one as they're always swimming in oil.

    Thaitanic (dontcha just love the name?) is probably our closest Thai restaurant. I always find take-away food from Cats to be far inferior to the eat-in stuff to the extent that that I believe Cats has two separate kitchens.

    Matt: How does our new local curry emporium rate on oiliness?
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  • mattmatt
    edited 7:09AM
    It didn't seem oily at all, but it had been dished up. Will reserve judgement until I get a delivery. The cook was so proud he was almost bouncing off the walls! they need to sort their website out, though.
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  • gargoylegargoyle
    edited 7:09AM
    I haven't found Dhonia curries oily. I agree about the Thaitanic ones, though - or at least the one I tried, a green curry which was not only oily, but also had that vague taste of over-watery powdered soup, and featured slimy, gristly chicken chunks. But that was delivery, too. Maybe, like Cats, they have second-class kitchens for the lazy folk.
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  • poxypoxy
    edited 7:09AM
    Great. I'm hoping it's as good as Tiffin Tin but without the 90-120 minutes delivery time. I may even drag myself out of the house to collect.
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  • Philistine'sMonsterPhilistine'sMonster
    edited 7:09AM
    Ooh, yes. Dhonia. It's larvely, innit? Great stuff. I eat their food weekly but then I’m no expert, just a greedy fat bastard.

    They recently hired a new chef, I believe (by recently, I mean last year) and there was a big improvement. And as everyone says here, they’re a very friendly lot. So go!

    That said, if you like Jai Krishna, which does the traditional style of cooking you find in India, then you may not like Dhonia as it does the more familiar “British restaurant” style if you get what I mean. Does that make sense? And that means they use a bit more oil.

    But not as much as you get from the Red Rose Tandoori. Has anyone tried this? Cor blimey, it has to be the oiliest curry I’ve eaten… bleeeegh, pah-pah spit-it-out!

    And yes, David, I believe the parathas at Jai Krishna are actually made by gods. I saw Kali juggling bread dough in the kitchen last time I visited the toilet out back, and Shiva was washing his hands. Ace.
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  • rainbow_carnagerainbow_carnage
    edited 7:09AM
    We got takeaway from Dhonia last night. Not bad. Definitely good value for money. You can actually identify most of the ingredients by taste and sight (which is more than can be said for Mezbaan).

    On David's recommendation, we got the sag aloo. Very nice. I'm a bit of a sag aloo connoisseur, you see, and it pains me that Jai Krishna's isn't all that great.

    Will have to try Dinner Box next.
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  • mattmatt
    edited 7:09AM
    Top post there, Phil
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  • ColetteColette
    edited 7:09AM
    Yep, you're right there about Jai's saag aloo. It's a shame. I didn't try the dinner box version, but their menu does claim that they use fresh spinach, so it sounds promising, and based on what I ate last night I reckon it really is fresh spinach.
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  • DavidDavid
    edited 7:09AM
    Another two menus from the Stoke Newey direction on our doormat last night - I think the recession is upping our take out options at quite a rate.
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  • gargoylegargoyle
    edited 7:09AM
    Another excellent Dhonia meal on Tuesday. I highly recommend the garlic beans and the Goan fish curry. They've stopped bringing me the free beers though. I suppose a good takeaway knows not to be an enabler.
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  • wideboywideboy
    edited January 2010
    First time I went here must have been about 2006(?) when I think it new-ish. It was great, really good stuff. From that point on there seemed to be a slight decline. In about Dec 2007 which I think was the last time we ate-in, we brought friends too. It was pretty grim that time, the meat was really poor and had been obviously hammered-out desperately thin in order to make it vaguely edible. Because of that we haven't been back since (now use Dinner Box, which is consistently good imho), but it sounds like they may have turned it around with a new chef again.

    Will have to give it one last shot methinks.
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  • ActionVerbActionVerb
    edited 7:09AM
    We had Dhonia the other day based on the recommendations here. It tooks about an hour to get to us, even though we are literally three minutes away on Fonthill Rd (it was during the snow 'storms' - we didn't want to go out, so perhaps the delay is understable). It was pretty good - the ingredients were pretty fresh, and the two chef specials we tried were both good and distinctive in their own way. The lime curry was a bit too err limey for me, but my housemate loved it.

    I don't think it was better than Dinner Box though, which is our current favourite, their ingredients always taste fresher than most others, and especially with the 10% off voucher which they seem to hand out with every order cancelling out their slightly more expensive prices.

    Certainly be going back to Dhonia again though for the variation.
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  • sophiesophie
    edited 7:09AM
    i like it to eat in. they have real hot towels, which the waiter was very proud of & told us "yes they are more expensive, but we really think they give our customers joy". and they have elvis nights, with an elvis "as seen on bbc itv sky"! as for the [truly amazing website](http://www.dhoniarestaurant.co.uk/).. what more could you ask for?
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  • andyandy
    edited 7:09AM
    everyone's favourite animated parsley
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  • TallboyTallboy
    edited 7:09AM
    Haven't eaten at the Dhonia for 6 months and I really enjoyed it then, so sounds as though it'll be even better know with new management/chef. Waiters were very friendly (although as it's not that big, they did give the impression that they were standing over you at times and over eager to clear your plates).
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  • IanIan
    edited 7:09AM
    I like dhonia - really good people and perfectly good curries.
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  • taff bachtaff bach
    edited 7:09AM
    I must get the guy who designed the Dhonia website to do my front room.
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