The Original Third Eye

Wilmslow Rd. Didsbury

This is a ‘proper’ restaurant and was a night time trip - so therefore it doesn’t really qualify for scoring and whatnot however if you come to this site for information it seems churlish not to include some sort of impressionistic view – if it helps you choose (or avoid ) a venue for a meal at some point then great.
The Third Eye is in Didsbury – a first for us here as there are no lunchtime kebabs or curries available. In fact a recent trip down here showed that even on Sunday afternoon the usual suspects of Ghurka Grill and Great Kathmandu were both closed. – No wonder we’re not here much.  I digress.
The Third Eye is rather well regarded, as a quick Google search will show.  In common with other places round here they profess to serve Indian and Napalese dishes. The menu certainly reads slightly differently from the usual Manchester Pakistani/North Indian type but I found it slightly confused. Apart from different spellings, the menu read much like the usual – pakoda instead of pakora, Tieka instead of Tikka. Are these peculiarly Nepalese translations? I've no clue.  The poppadoms arrived promptly and interestingly were the thinner, smaller (in my view tastier) Southern Indian type – accompanied by the usual suspects, lime pickle, mango chutney etc. Three of us opted for a variety of the usual types of starter – ‘pakoda’, chops and a ‘House’ mix starter. These were all OK – 2 small chops was a bit mean perhaps – in fact everything was noticeably a bit smaller than usual – a relief to some, a panic attack to others. The flavours were good and a little different from the usual. Clearly some care had gone into it – starters check. The main course was a little more difficult to navigate – all the standard dishes were around but it was hard to tell what was good from the menu – and more importantly what was the usual bland stuff and what was more interesting. No lamb on the bone was not a great sign. Prawn Makhani was good if very rich – though what do you expect with Makhani? It was one of the best I’ve ever tasted. The mixed grill was good if possibly a bit dull and marginally dry – and did not contain any chops. The staff were very accommodating about the accompanying sauce – I opted for a karahi sauce which was very good, green with herbs and pungent garlic.  The third choice of main course was an odd one. Shai Lamb Kurma Badami – presumably a slightly strange spelling of Royal Lamb Korma with Almonds. This was not a great dish – clearly pre cooked lamb in an incredibly (in my view sickly) sauce with whole almonds and desiccated coconut all over it.  The gap between conception and execution was too great really.  Rice and naan were decent and the place and staff were pleasant.
It’s a little bit difficult to know what to make of this restaurant – the food’s very tasty however it’s also very rich – which can sometimes be a sort of substitute for proper cooking. I don’t get the impression that they make any dishes individually – it’s all base sauce, fair amount of ghee and chuck it all together with plenty of extras. – It’s done well but after rave reviews and calling themselves Nepalese I was hoping for something a little more subtle and different.  All I can really make out is that apart from a few different spellings and minor tweaks this is just a decent curry house – serving much the same type of food as all the others. It’s a shame they hadn’t gone to the effort of making some Nepalese speciality dishes or at very least one ‘from scratch – non-base sauce’ curry. However, a decent, standard Curryhouse is no bad thing in my book and I’d happily return.