now this is a difficult review for me to write , having nothing to compare thisrestaurantwith. back in u k after more than 12 years and in the city of birmingham for the first time am totally at sea as to the quality standards and prices , this diner being my first meal after i reached here .
located in a quite neighbourhood , in an residential area quite close to the acook greens , this , as apprentice by the name is a punjabi cuisine specialist place. set up in a bright and setting , with a well stocked bar to greet you as you enter. they serve kobra and another beer from the tab . the feel of the place is very friendly and relaxed. the serve staff came across as quite professional , well informed and friendly.
on this trip to birmingham , i am staying very close to , rather in a lodging house on top of this establishment. so even though we checked in around lunch time we discovered that the punjabi rasoi is only open for dinner so still quite full from the flight meal , we decided to skip lunch and instead go for an early diner.
at around seven pm , in spite of it being a friday evening , a weekend , only one table was occupied , but as we progressed with our meal the entire place filled up , so am guessing it is quite popular with the locals .
i started my meal with a pint of cobra ( gbp 3.75) and as my companion is a vegetarian , the entire meal that followed was vegetarian with a punjabi kofta ( gbp 2,95/-) starter , and a dal makhani ( gbp 6.95/-) and a bhindi masala ( gbp 5.95/- ) accompanied by a jeera rice ( gbp 2.80 ) and two plain nan ( gbp 1.50/- each ) as the main.
first let me mention that the quantities of all the dishes were ample , just by ordering some more bread we could have easily fed another person , with still some leftovers. the presentation of the entire meal was simple and nice.
the punjabi kofta starters were delicate and tender deep fried cottage cheese koftas in a nice flavourful and tangy tomato based thick sauce , will say kind of a tawa curry , quite delicious. in the mains , the ample serving of bhindi masala was okra cooked nicely , the punjabi way , tender and soggy , not the rajasthani crispy style. brought back memories of good old whole sum home cooking , nice. however , found the dal makhani to be bland , creamy but lacking any pronounced flavour , actually did not care much about it , though in its defence it was quite light , not smothered with ghee and butter like at loads of other places. the rice in the jeera rice was aromatic and cooked al dent , perfect. but then again the nan were just about ok , nothing to write home about. in all a pleasing meal , not overtly feisty but quite homely and at gbp 25.40 , a reasonable value for money. hopefully will taste some of there more elaborate dishes in my subsequent visits and going by my first impressions am quite sure that they will be nice too.
going back ? yes. and recommending ? certainly yes.
enjoy.