K2 Curry Lounge

Cheetham Hill Rd.
K2 Curry Lounge is an interesting place. It looks and feels like a kebab outlet – with an almost identical menu to those in the surrounding vicinity. The marinading skewers are visible – as are all the usual things. However, at the end of the long counter are the familiar steaming pots indicating I was in Curry Café territory. Having been in once before but never having eaten I (yes, another solo trip) was intrigued as to what the ‘curry buffet’ entailed.  In short it seems to be a plateful of whatever you want. The very obliging fellow behind the counter started spooning rice on to my plate and asked if I wanted more – then proceeded to go through each of the five curries, seemingly waiting for me to say 'when'. He waited a while for that. He then offered salad and yoghurt sauce as well. This resulted in a very large plate of food.  It was good too – although no lamb, other than keema, was available. It's hard to tell if that was an economic decision or merely a case of what was there on the day. In all honesty it felt slightly wrong asking why something wasn't there when I was getting so much - so I didn't bother. The chicken, chana, aloo keema and tarka daal were all pretty decent. The assumption with a buffet is self service and you can go back for more.  However, it hadn’t been self service and I’d already eaten so much that it seemed churlish to ask if I could have more – particularly at £4. For food quantity/price K2 Curry Lounge is hard to beat – though you might prefer a little less of something slightly higher quality, but there’s nothing wrong with the food here. Also there's something quite comforting about not having to run the gauntlet of which staff member you're going to get and if they're feeling generous or not  and therefore if you'll need a chapatti or not (Yadgar springs to mind) etc etc - either that or I'm a pig - or a bit of both - in either case I will return.

29/01/10
Return trip with reinforcements - same again, £4 - which was encouraging and this time we served ourselves. So again, loads of food - too much for some diners who couldn't help getting over excited. This time there was also chicken wings and spinach and the rice was nicely flavoured.  It was all decent and excellent value - though one issue remains: Do you want/need tons of pretty decent but not amazing curry? - For a special occaision you'd pay a couple of quid more for better food and for a non-descript lunch you don't need a staggeringly large palteful.  So when is it a K2 day?  I can't really answer that - or possibly it's stupid to ask. If you want loads of grub for £4 go.

Key Ingredients 14.0 (out of 20)
Other Food 7.0 (out of 10)
Service Setting 8.0 (out of 10)
Value for Money 4.5 (out of 5)
Range 3.0 (out of 5)
Average Rating 7.3 (out of 10)

Lahori Kebabish (Cheetham Hill)

Pakistani/North Indian style

Cheetham Hill Rd. 

Most recent 24/06/10

After the comments below we thought we should get our backsides back here to see what the fuss was about. - the unfortunate conclusion was that the kebabs aren't that great. We realise that the complimentary stuff from you guys below is about the curries - but we're centred on cheap and cheerful lunchtime endeavors here and unfortunately Lahori Kebabish isn't really our favourite in this area and to be fair it doesn't really try to be. It's clearly not one of those places that are geared up for churning out tons of tikka - it took ages, the orders were slightly forgotten about and the meat was done and done and chopped up and then done some more - to the point where the lamb was dry and tough. The salad and sauces were OK and the tandoor bread was excellent. As Dave below says the £20 deal seems a real winner but the grill stuff just isn't up to scratch - especially at £5 for a simple kebab on chapatti. We like the place and the other food looks great - but the nipping in at lunchtime for a good feed for around £5 is what we're about here and unfortunately Lahori Kebabish isn't really that sort of place.

Initial trip

Although it serves an extensive range of curries we regard Lahori Kebabish as a Kebab House. The distinction is based on the lack of rice &3 – so it’s not a Curry Café. The curries here are £5-£6 plus rice or bread which takes it away from that price range. OK, so far as day time eating (and this website) goes it’s a kebab house! Right, enough said on that matter. There was a good selection available – and one welcome and unusual choice of a skewer of half chicken/half lamb – perfect to get a measure of the two 'main' kebabs.  Bread was done in a tandoor and was excellent.  Salad and sauces were served separately AND put on the kebabs which was a bit strange and probably a bit of cock-up – though no harm done.  The salad, yoghurt and chilli sauce were all very good.  The cooking of the meat was interesting – initially the skewers were put in the tandoor – they were then transferred to the grill and chopped up and mucked around with – presumably to speed things up.  The meat was very tasty, probably better than the others in Cheetham Hill - none of which do lamb tikka and don't seem as grill orientated as this place, though unfortunately the lamb was rather tough – it wasn’t really overcooked. Just a bit of a tough cut – not the end of the world. The only real negative with this place was the price - £5 for the ½ and ½  kebab was high. £4.50 for chicken and £5 for lamb are the standard prices. Rusholme and the city centre are nearer the £3.50 mark for this sort of kebab.
Scores out of 10
Meat 8.5
Bread 9.0
Salad/Sauces 8.0
Service/Setting 7.0
Average 8.1

Greenland