Sangam Restaurant

We've always enjoyed eating at the Sangam and don't ever recall a bad experience there. We love our curries and are quite discerning. The Sangam is our most visited 'curry mile' restaurant. Their food is always excellent in our opinion.
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Graham Harfleet
Friday, January 11, 2008

Reviewing food is, at the very least, extremely subjective. What one person might consider to be delicious, another person may not. Take marmite as a prime example of a case in point. You know the old saying you “either love it or hate.” I only say all of this, because the subject of this week’s review, Sangam, on Manchester’s “curry mile” unfortunately falls more into the latter category and its all to do with the taste of the food they serve. I’m sure for some of you this is your idea of how a curry should be, but for me, sadly it isn’t.

Let’s start with the exterior and things are in a word impressive and not just compared some of the other dumps, sorry cheap ‘n’ cheerful restaurants, I came across in my travels on the ‘mile,’ but other restaurants I’ve encountered in the South East of England. As our party walked inside on our left I saw an Indian sweets counter. Normally this starts ringing alarm bells in my head. From past experiences when I’ve been to Ambala another half sweet-half Indian restaurant, things haven’t been great. Yes, the sweets were incredible, but at their Ilford branch, on Ilford Lane- (which incidentally “feels” remarkably similar to the Curry mile, in a way I can’t quite put my finger on) -the dining experience was close to awful. The eating area itself was dingy and unpleasant plus the food was nothing to write home about.

But when a smartly dressed waiter, complete with a bow tie and funky maroon waistcoat showed us to our table all seemed well. There was little to dispel this notion when we were escorted to the dining area, I wasn’t even put off by the slightly low rent menus either. The dining area itself seemed quite pleasant, well-lit, with paintwork to exacerbate the spaciousness and the bright, airy nature of the restaurant. There was also, to my complete surprise, considering this is one of those half-half joints, a well-stocked, vibrant looking bar.

My utmost praise also has to go to the service, which was brilliant frankly. I’d go far as to say it was the best I’ve yet encountered. The three of us went on a busy Saturday evening, with no prior booking and the place was packed. Yet our orders were taken promptly and our food was delivered piping hot, so expediently, that everyone at the table was so impressed as to commend the waiter--highly.

But when the food was on the table and the waiter left, things started to go awry. In places like Ambala, where some branches have this half sweet/ eatery arrangement going on I can accept that things are, to put it mildly, a notch or two below my expectations. But I can accept that, because the little things give it away that such a place is not an out and out restaurant. What “little things?” well at Ambala I ordered my food at the counter, there was a jug of tap water clearly having been left there all day and there was no carpet on the floor.

But I cannot afford such a defence to Sangam’s. They go the whole hog in making you feel as though you are in a bona fide restaurant-- the decor is that of which is fitting of a restaurant, so are the dining tables and the seating arrangements. You feel completely isolated from the “shop” part of the building.

Onwards to our review of the food beginning with the starters, the popadoms complete with the usual array of chutney’s and mint sauces were fine, I couldn’t fault them. But that’s where my praise ends I’m afraid. Sure the veggie somasa’s and the portion on onion barji’s ordered were piping hot, but the somasa’s didn’t feel or taste fresh. They tasted a bit soggy and flat, in a word ‘characterless’ as though they’d been heated in a microwave. The onion barji’s tasted fine, but were served in a completely disinterested way on a bed of utterly meagre salad. Also the barji’s weren’t drained properly so were delivered caked in the oil they were fried in.

But the major disappointment was the main course. The pilau rice was brown, not necessarily a bad thing, it means it consists of wholemeal grain which in turn is better for your digestion. In my view rice is so simple to make and as a dish, its almost impossible to get wrong. At every restaurant I’ve been to I cannot tell the difference between their respective samples, as I usually can with other dishes. But I can here. At Sangam’s the rice tasted decidedly “home-made” and I don’t mean that in a good way.

The rice had these hard “flavour balls”- most probably nigella seeds ‘sprayed’ over it as if it was ground pepper. Being rice it didn’t taste bad, I commended it on tasting different- for sticking out in my mind, but it just felt ‘wrong,’ it just didn’t sit well with me at all.

The chicken jalfrezi and the Bombay potatoes tasted fine and the portions were quite generous but they both had one major problem. They were far too oily. They were like something you’d expect to be served at student bed-sit. The paneer we ordered was creamy and quite rich, but the peas they served with it were too mushy and the tikka sauce the paneer was served with lacked spark.

With our meals we also ordered a tandoori roti and a peshwari naan each. The tandoori roti was generally palatable but suffered from being a shade too rubbery. But my biggest disappointment lay with the peshwari naan. It was too buttery almost as if the chefs compensated for the fact the naan wasn’t sweet enough by smothering the top layer of the naan with ghee- like one would normally spread margarine on their slice of toast. Also the lack of hot towels afterwards was particularly unforgivable to one companion dining with us, lamenting that the provision of such materials is part and parcel of the Indian cuisine dining experience.

There are those who would disagree with my assessment of the food, some people like their curry’s oily, that have that “home made” feel to it. But to my taste buds Sangam’s represents a classic case of the food souring what has all the ingredients of a surprisingly good dining experience.

That, to my mind, is very frustrating, because the staff are genuinely friendly and the fact that because competition is ferocious between the zillions of restaurants on “Curry Mile” there’s shall we say “keen” pricing. Furthermore, because one of us is a student we got a 10% discount on our bill. Which is quite handy if you are running a little short of cash and you realise the restaurant doesn’t accept you’re debit card.

However, despite this, my verdict on the whole is I’m afraid much like my review of the food, not very favourable.

Verdict: Aside from expedient service and nice ambience there’s very little else I’d recommend… Although after having been there yourself you may disagree

Rating: 2⅔ / 5
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Shahzad Ayub - View all reviews by this user
Wednesday, June 20, 2007

I recently ate at the Sangam, There were 4 of us in our party. The restaurant was nicely decorated and seemed clean and well presented.

The food was great we all had starters from pakorahs to bahjis and chicken tikka all were very nice, the main meals were also really nice again very tasty and the portions were just right.

Inclusive of a couple of drinks each I think we paid £17 each, it was great value, also the staff seemed quite pleasant but we did feel a litle rushed as it became busy.
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Friday, March 17, 2006