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

Pub News and Beer Festivals

Quaff Ale remains the most reliable source of information about UK beer festivals. The site can be found here: http://www.quaffale.org.uk/php/festivals.php

The next major event is the large Winter Ales Festival being held again in Manchester. However, there has been a welcome change of venue from the disappointing New Century Hall. This does mean the festival is no longer being held in the city centre, but is instead located at the Sheridan Suite on Oldham Road. This seems to be a fair trek from town on foot. The website for the festival provides a lot of information, and it can be found here: http://www.alefestival.org.uk/winterales/

Pi

This bar has become a firm favourite on the Chorlton scene. It usually serves three draft real ales and one cider, with Bank Top's Flat Cap being the one permanent beer available. There's a good selection of continental draught lagers and a huge array of bottles.  Pi is a small place, and consequently feels lively even when there aren't many people inside. A key feature is the food served. This is restricted to inexpensively priced pies from Pieminster. These are available with minted peas, gravy and a creamy mash. The food is hearty and very tasty.
The staff in Pi are extremely friendly, and they offer free nuts when you get a pint at the bar. This is a small gesture, but helps to make the punters happy. There are also mini salamis on offer (not free, but they go very well with a beer). Finally, the bitter is always served in the traditional 'dimpled' glass with a handle. This is an excellent bar, and is one of the best places to drink in Chorlton at the moment.

After numerous visits Pi has remained consistently good and most notable of all the service and general atittude in the place is second to none. If we gave awards it would win one for customer service - shame we don't.

Trof (Northern Quarter)

Thomas St
We've been here a few times at lunchtime, but the most recent visit was the worst. Trof is very food and coffee orientated. The sole staff member informed us (the only people at the bar) that she had some people to see to before us and carried on mucking about with the coffee machine while taking in information about orders from customers. A breif moment of clarity allowed us to decide that paying £3.60 for a pint of lager here wasn't worth it - so we left. We've had  fun here before, but not today - it's expensive and food, rather than drink, orientated at lunchtime. Being literally next door to This & That makes it an obvious post Rice & 3 stop but being overpriced, not having the basics (real ale) and generally feeling more style over substance makes it almost opposite in terms of outlook.
A fun, if fancy and expensive, bar on the right day.

Kabana (Cheetham Hill)

Cheetham Hill Rd
This establishment seems to qualify as both a kebab house and a curry cafe (view review of 'curry trip'). Many of the people eating here on this visit were having kebabs, much more than is normally the case at curry cafes. It could be related to the Kabana in the Northern  Quarter, but we don't know. The kebabs initially looked cheap at around £3. However,  the chicken kebabs actually cost £4.50, which is not good value. The kebabs were alright, but not up to the high standard of some of the places in Rusholme. There was no chilli sauce available, and the salad was not great. The chicken was tasty and the chapatti was good. However, the naan was too thick and doughy. This is a pretty lively place, but the expense and the kebab quality mean that it is not a patch on the best.

Scores out of 10
Meat 8.0
Bread 6.5
Salad/Sauces 6.0
Service/Setting 7.5
Average 7.0