Shropshire Star

The Masala, Shrewsbury - food review

A traditional curry house with a warm welcome is a staple in towns up and down the country. Andy Richardson dined out at his local . . .

Published
Rice, rice maybe – chicken tikka biryaniPictures by Russell Davies

For a while, the American sitcom Cheers was a staple on TV sets on both sides of the Atlantic.

Set in a Boston bar and running for 275 episodes across 11 years, it featured stars such as Ted Danson, Woody Harrelson, Kirstie Alley and Kelsey Grammer – aka Frasier Crane. Becoming one of the most popular series of all time and receiving critical acclaim, Cheers had a memorable strapline – the bar where everybody knows your name.

The Masala, in Shrewsbury, is unlikely to propel any of its characters into the TV stratosphere. Yet the tagline ‘where everybody knows your name’ is apposite. For long-standing manager John Mustafa is an integral part of the community, a brilliant and experienced restaurant leader who is on first name terms with most of his customers.

On a typical evening at The Masala, Mustafa will be welcoming customers in a small seated area to the front of the premises as he dishes out takeaways. Back in the restaurant proper, he’ll be waiting tables and asking customers whether they are enjoying their suppers. The answer, for most, is yes.

Eat in or takeaway – The Masala in Shrewsbury

But The Masala is a local phenomenon, the sort of curry house that is mimicked in towns and villages across the county. With the exception of Mustafa, it’s an unremarkable place; the interior needs a lick of paint, the cooking when my friend and I visited was imprecise and Mustafa’s solid gold bonhomie and pure class service couldn’t mask aspects that were otherwise mediocre.

The Masala runs buffet evenings on Sundays and Mondays, which offer frighteningly good value. Customers can eat their fill for less than a tenner, which is absurd. A wide range of curries are available to suit all tastes for less than it costs to buy a new CD. Bonkers. And brilliant value.

Traditional tastes – inside The Masala is reminiscent of a British curry house

My friend and I, however, opted for the standard menu, rather than over-indulging at the tables strewn with spicy meat and vegetable stews.

Drinks were a faff. I ordered a large bottle of sparkling water, though they didn’t have any. So, instead, I had to order two small drinks instead. I’m not convinced that my expectations are too high in seeking a large bottle of water. On a scale of one to ask-the-chef-to-do-something-out-of-the-ordinary, it feels like small potatoes, but there we go.

We started with the obligatory poppadoms with dips. They were underwhelming. The onion salad felt like it had been left over from the day before – it lacked freshness – while the minty yoghurt dip was almost yellow – neither my friend nor I were quite sure why. The mango was sweet, sweet, sweet with no sign of fruit.

Bits and pieces – the classic poppadoms and dips

Our mains were fine, though nothing to get excited about. My friend ordered a chicken biryani, which was served with a vegetable curry. It was the finest dish of the evening. One of the most popular dishes from the British Raj in the Indo-Bengal subcontinent, it was seasoned well with spices and Basmatic rice, fried with gee. The flavours were mild, the textures good and my friend was profoundly satisfied.

I opted for a dish that I’ve only eaten once before – and that was at The Masala. It was advertised as a new dish, though I recall eating it two years ago at the same venue. Tamarind featured chicken tikka marinated and cooked with fresh tamarind to give it a sour, warm taste. The sauce was delicious, piquant and intense. The chicken wasn’t. It was dry and overcooked so that any moisture that should have been present had been cooked away inexpertly. A side dish of chicken fried rice was worse. Greasy and lacking flavour, it was insipid and bland. Though there was a little sweetness from the onions, the overwhelming taste was that of oil. And no good ever came from that.

We skipped dessert. We’d left room, but the selection was awful. We were presented with a menu of bought-in frozen desserts, including a Punky Penguin Ice Cream from the Crolla that features a plastic toy with ice cream inside. It’s marked up as being unsuitable for young children – though I think they ought to edit that caveat and simple mark it ‘This is unsuitable. . .’ Leave it there. Forget the bit about children. Keep adults, grannies, animals and drunken men on Friday evenings who think ordering a penguin toy is funny away from it. Sorry, Punky, you might be full of ice, but you’re decidedly uncool.

Sweet eats – chicken mango delight

I’ve no idea why restaurants imagine it’s okay to go to the trouble of creating half-decent dishes – even if the rice is too greasy – but then throw in the towel when it comes to dessert. It smacks of being not bovvered. Dunnit.

There are plenty of half decent curry houses in Shrewsbury and the most notable feature about The Masala is the guy who runs it. And yet as important as good service is – and it’s something we bang on about week-in, week-out – a restaurant must serve memorable food to deserve a recommendation. There are a small number of Indian and Bangladeshi restaurants in Shropshire that do that, though there wasn’t anything memorable – and I’m tempted to write likeable – about dinner at the Masala.

Nice and spicy – tandoori chicken

The dining room is down-at-heel, the food was so-so and even with our resolutely positive, try-to-find-the-best-in-everything policy, there was little of merit. A decent biryani does not a good dinner make – and that’s the only thing that was worth the ticket price.

The Masala probably doesn’t need much to help it to re-energise. A lick of paint, a chef who pays more attention to detail and shows the same level of care as his boss – precision and consistency are everything when it comes to the kitchen. Add in a selection of drinks and desserts that make it worth stepping out of the front door – or, you know, that are marginally more attractive than those on offer at Asda – and, hey presto, there’s a reason to dine.