Restaurant Review - Cardamom Bay

09/05/06 - by John

The Cardamom Bay restaurant is to be found on the Queensway in Bognor's town centre. It's not a massive place, but it's very welcoming and the staff are very eager to please.

The menu is somewhat different to the usual run of the mill Indian menu, which usually seem to have various meats served in a variety of different of the shelf sauces. Instead, a relatively slim looking menu is on offer, but that's no bad thing since the quality is excellent.

The cuisine appears carefully prepared and is not of the "simmer for 5 minutes and serve" variety.

This care in preparation seems to extend to things as mundane as the ubiquitous lime pickle. I've eaten in quite a few different Indian restaurants over the years, and the lime pickle is usually hot but also quite bitter. Not the case at the Cardamom Bay: It's hot certainly, but not harsh. Warmth without fire.

I was eating with a couple of mates. We missed out the starters, being a little full having spent a couple of hours in the William Hardwicke. I can't remember what they had, but I tried chicken Morisa, which is cooked with green chili, tomato, coriander and capsicum. Again it was hot without being bitter. I ordered a garlic nan bread which was seriously loaded. Various side dishes were shared. We couldn't eat it all.

The bill for the three of us came to about £45, which I thought was pretty good value.

This was my second visit, and it's true to say that the experience this time round was just as good as the first. I'd recommend this restaurant to anyone who likes Indian food.