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)