Manchester’s new Asian small plates restaurant, Indian Tiffin Room, has won us over. The menu includes fish, pancakes, curries, chaat and more, with everything priced around £6 and designed to share. The staff recommend you take a voyage across the menu, starting with small dishes like the chaat sharing platter (bhel, dahi and sev puri) or Indo-Chinese spiced cauliflower (gobi Manchurian) followed by a choice from the 20-strong dosa and pancake selection and a couple of mains. Food is served on shiny tin plates and the crisp dosa (ITR Mysore Masala Dosa) and sweet-sour skin on the ‘Dhaba-style’ chicken set a standard that’s upheld throughout the meal. A real, curry-flavoured curry leaf mojito sounds weird but tastes great, while a tiny disc of pistachio-packed kulfi is a dessert worth waiting for. Decor-wise, the shipping crates, fake palms and neon lights make us feel a little like we’re in an Indian take on Wahaca; in fact, the most obvious comparison is probably London’s Dishoom group (also specialising in Indian small plates and tin crockery) or Manchester’s own Mughli. Yet ITR is better. With national food writers like Tom Parker Bowles already converted to the cause, it’s worth booking a table before the word gets out.

Indian Tiffin Room, Isabella Banks Street, First Street, Manchester, M15 4RL. Tel: 0161 228 1000, indiantiffinroom.com

Fri 25 Mar - Sat 30 Apr
Words:
Ruth Allan
Published on:
Mon 25 Apr 2016