The Tiffin Club

What a wonderful change from the usual Sunday Lunch! Two of us "ladies" visited The Tiffin Club along with our husbands. We don't often let them into the secret world of Ladies Who Lunch but we thought on this occasion it would be an experience to share together since such food is not on our home menu. Certainly not in this case as the food was "out of this world".

We were warmly welcomed by Miff (the owner), his brother Rocky and we also had the opportunity to meet the star of the show - Sebastian - The chef. He chatted to all the diners and we were particularly impressed that he took a lot of time explaining the dishes to some children... obviously getting them converted young! They are all passionate about the food they serve, freshly prepared, often Hampshire produce and a far cry from the usual Indian cuisine. They subscribe to the ethos of Slow Food "Let us rediscover the flavours and savours of regional cooking and banish the degrading effects of fast food". This was a culinary experience for us and it was truly one of the best. The surroundings are attractive, spacious and there is also an upstairs area for private functions.

Whilst we studied the menu and sipped our wine we were served four different dips with poppadums. Miff the owner was very helpful and we decided to leave our decision making to him as we were perhaps a little naive not having eaten from such a gourmet Indian menu before. We were delighted with the wonderful variety of tastes we didn't want the arrival of different dishes to end!! He also suggested an Alsace Gewürztraminer to accompany the food, they complimented each other wonderfully.


The dips were hot chilli & relish, tamarind and honey, mint yogurt & chopped onion salad.	Mixed platter of sheek kebab, chicken & lamb tikka & onion bhaji	Chilli crab & potato cakes with a hint of coconut, dusted in chickpea flour	Asparagus & sesame side with wild mushrooms


Whole roasted green pepper with an aloo chat (tangy potato) filling	Tender squid with a herby & hot stuffing of prawns, chilli & coriander	Dahl sag, spinach & whole lentils	Chilli nan


Broughton Water buffalo bhoona	Suraya barramundi, New Forest Marque tropical fish enhanced with lemongrass, lime & chillies, honey & fresh ginger & inspired by Miff's wife...aaah!	Goan style king prawns, chilli, coconut milk, saffron, turmeric & curry leaves brought together in this South Indian dish	Anjali, chicken tikka cooked in refreshing lemongrass & lime sauce

As we have already said all the food was a delight, so many yummy flavours. We shared our dishes so we could all appreciate them, we also shared a couple of servings of Pilau rice, more than sufficient for the 4 of us, usually there is so much waste in an Indian restaurant but not here, the plates were scraped clean!

At lunch time they have a Specials Board which includes.... Vegetable Thali £5.95, a meat Thali £6.95, or a Tiffin Platter £6.95 a great way to try several taster sizes of their dishes. (All their dishes are available as take away at a 15% reduction in price.) Must tell you that we persuaded Miff to participate in our Discount Directory at least until the end of Jan '08, he is offering Card Holders a generous 15% on TOTAL bill and on every day including Saturdays! All details in the Discount Directory .

We finished our meal with China Jasmine Phoenix Pearl tea, not sure I will ever be converted to such a refined taste but we all left absolutely converted to the delights of The Tiffin Club and highly recommend that you try it soon!