Assam’s

We were looking for a tasty fresh curry, which suited a party of three hungry folks. None of us had been to Assams in its current location (but do remember it when it was in a different location, further down the street, in a basement — one of the photos on here shows their older location).
On entering the restaurant we had fond memories of a Scottish bar/​restaurant which used to be there many years ago (McLachlans) and were happy to try it out in this ‘new’ version! The décor of Assams seems to be under some sort of review as there were some pieces of wood at the back of the restaurant (but if you sit in the window and people watch like we did, you would never know unless you go to visit the toilet. I would have taken marks off for that but I can’t give 4.5 stars and 4 is too little given the standard of the food).
I was concerned that the food menu at Assams was all fitting on one page, but my friend did point out that it meant we did not have to spend half an hour choosing what to order (slight exaggeration, but I’m sure you can get what I mean with that). Good food, done well is a good thing, and they were happy to personalise choices (adding additional garlic or ginger, changing the heat level, adding coriander, adding chickpeas). The drinks menu was quite limited, but we noticed that they also do cocktails and special offers on certain days of the week from the adverts outside, there are no draught beers but several bottled choices. The member of staff who served us was really pleasant and attentive, taking our order and repeating what we had ordered.
I ordered a mango lassi, it was so delicious and freshly made. Frothy, zingy and refreshing, but not so filling that I couldn’t finish it. Both beers were cold and served with or without ice as desired.
The food was simply outstanding. I do not use this term lightly, as we are very much Indian cuisine fans, having been to many restaurants and different places to get our ‘curry fix’ at home and on our travels. For starters we had vegetable pakora, spinach stuffed mushrooms and channa poori. The pakora were a really odd shape (round like patties, rather than golf ball size) but were rather large, and came with a home made tomato based sauce. Beautiful! The mushrooms were spicy hot and the poori was flaky and tasty, with a lovely sauce and some fried onions. Salad which accompanied the pakora and poori was shredded carrot, some cubed onion and no iceberg lettuce– hoorah!
The naan was a respectable size, and teardrop shaped. It was the most delicate naan I have ever had, almost melt in the mouth (yet how can bread have this texture? I don’t know, but Assams does it well!). We also ordered a mushroom rice which came lightly spiced with basmati grains, and fried mushrooms and onions stirred through. No grease at all. My friend had lamb and mint for a main, which he said was really nice (couldn’t taste this as a vegetarian, but I respect his judgement as an Indian food fan too!) and my husband had turka daal which had a lovely texture (cooked just right, where you can enjoy the texture of the lentils but they are neither too hard nor too mushy). My vegetable chasni was subtly spiced (as I had requested a hot dish) and both the daal and the chasni had a beautiful flavour. So good! Left feeling pleasantly full but not to a ‘waddle down the street’ level– we will be back!

We got into the city late and were scrambling to find a place for dinner. Assam’s was the one place still open and nice enough to serve us at 10:30pm. We ordered three main dishes and a few sides to share with the three of us. And good lord was it delicious! The butter chicken was my favorite, but everything else was done incredibly well. Delicious on every level and very friendly service. Highly recommended and will go back again in the future!

went with good expectations
the place is great. good ambience!
Great service.
well presented food.
But the next day both me and my husband were sick :(
Didnt go there again.

I visited this restaurant with high hopes! Ive seen good reviews for it and it always seems busy…
Me and my boyfriend visited Assams on a friday about 6 o’clock after a long day of shopping, we walked down the stairs and were immediately impressed with the décor and the ambience. We were led to our table then offered some drinks by a lovely waitress.
We chose our starters and mains and they arrived in good time! They presentation was lovely but once we actually started eating i hate to say it but it was quite bland and not very exciting. The mains arrive and again they were very average ive had better from a takeaway!!! all in all the service was great which led to high expectations but these were seriously knocked down by the taste of the food! Im not sure if they were trying too hard to do ‘modern and trendy food’ but it just didnt sit right with me. Wont be coming here for a curry again anytime soon.

The location of Assams was a bit interesting. There’s a staircase that leads to downstairs underground the level floor. Through the glass double doors, a nice waitress welcomed and seated us.
We were just in time for Tapas Lunch. My flat mate and I got to choose 3 different dishes accompanied with either rice or nan for £7.50.
I ordered the potato fritters (potatoes smothered in spicy batter), lamb karahi (tender lamb cooked in a wok), and vegetable karahi (mixed vegetables cooked in a wok) with nan.
I LOVE nan! They gave us a large portion of nan. So yummy. The lamb was not dry or too chewy. It was yummy. I have to be honest, I’m not very experienced with Indian food. But everything tasted delicious. The sauce was not too spicy, which is good because I can’t handle spicy.
We decided to try the desserts. I ordered the chocolate fudge cake with ice cream. I may not know Indian food, but I know my desserts! The menu said it would be a warm chocolate fudge cake served with ice cream, but the cake was dry and cold.
My flatmate ordered the traditional Indian ice cream. It was just 2 mini scoops of mango ice cream. It was okay, nothing special. I think the presentation was the only thing that kinda made it visually yummy. All in all, definitely not worth the price.

Some of the best Indian food I’ve had outside India. The food is delicious and very fresh. The chilli fish pakora was spectacular and more than enough to share as a starter. Portions are very generous there and the nan bread is the size of a squash racket head. The butter chicken was perfect with large chunks of succulent chicken mmmm!

We booked this through a deal on
which gave you 2xcourses from the a la carte and a bottle of the house red/​white/​rose for £34 for 2 people, which I thought was really good value, unlike some other deals which exclude tikka sizzler dishes this one didn’t.
My husband had chicken packora followed by the chicken tikka which was 6 big chunky bits of chicken (none of that nasty fake marinade) it came with rice and was really tasty. I had a veggie poori followed by a garlic chillie chicken which had loads of green chillies. The portions are really generous and are made fresh to order. The waiter told us that they didn’t «boil» chickens like other establishments. You can really taste this as even the rice tastes authentic as opposed to dyed to death basmati you usually get.
Staff were friendly. Overall a great meal with real value for money in the heart of the city.

Assams is another of those difficult to find places. I just don’t get it, if you want to do good business, down in the basement is a bit awkward to draw people in. The sign however is pretty prominent on street level which works well.
Anyway, it is really quite good, the buffet on offer lets you have way more than you would get from any Indian when buying a set meal from a standard menu. This way you can go from Bhoona to pakora, to dumpling desert thing, or even the opposite way around. Oh and do not be in dismay, there are spiced onions and popadoms to accompany every course. A bit of advice, don’t fill your plate up too much, and return as often as you like without shame.

Indian food is not my speciality. I have found that I don’t like many varieties of curries, but I wouldn’t have known this if I hadn’t sampled the lunchtime buffet at Assam’s.
This is a great idea for those who are a bit afraid of curries or want to try something new. I’m not very good with spicy foods so I thought I’d ease myself in by trying a Korma. Hated it.
After trying a few dishes I was surprised to learn that my favourites turned out to be Chasni and Rogan Josh. For Indian food lovers this is a great way to have a good selection of your favourites, and in the almost impossible event that you don’t like any of the curries, there is always rice and naans for the unadventurous.
This restaurant is situated in a basement, with speedy efficient waiting staff. All of the food is cooked to a high standard, and it is deservedly popular.

went in today on way back from my trip to brussels, gagging for a curry ‘so tried the buffet (6.50) lunchtime’.
the starters were generally excellent especially the chicken pakora, that had been flattened into a pâté shape with especially crispy batter, the only down point on the starters were the chick peas which were lukewarm and a bit tough, thats when it all went downhill the mains were very poor, partly because they hadn’t been topped up and had dried out, and the one’s that hadn’t were virtually tasteless, apart from the lamb achari which tasted of nothing but salt, all in all a mediocre experiance