Karnaphuli Restaurant

I’ve eating in Stoke N more times than I care to remember in my life, but for some reason I’d never even clocked this place. Normally I’m hitting up the South Indian joints on Church Street, but my friends were going for a curry here and I was due to join them so why the fuck not. There were 15 of us, I think we had 5 bottles of wine — some kind of Rioja which tasted worse than normal (not a fan of Rioja FYI) and stained my lips within 5 minutes of drinking it. The food was a lot better though. I had a Chicken Makhani which is a mild North Indian specialty dish apparently, consisting of tandoor cooked Chicken in a thick red coconutty sauce — decent. I also had a Tarka Daal on the side which was solid too. All the vegans with us got vegetable dhansak and seemed to fucking love it though my friend complained that his Lamb Dish wasn’t spicy enough. To be fair, he is from New York and they know fuck all about curry over there it seems but the people from the restaurant still brought out some vindaloo sauce for him. I tried it too and it hit the mark spice wise but had quite a strong aftertaste of coriander seed which I found confusing. Anyway, we were all satisfied but unfortunately forgot to tip as we were all quite pissed. Not cool, and I can only apologise. Especially as one of the Americans with us left his passport in the toilet and had to go back and get it the next day. So I’m giving this place a 4.

Very nice restaurant in a road full of very good restaurants.
This one stands out due to the quality of the food and service.
It gets very busy and you need to book.
Food has a slight shift away from your usual run of the mill Indian Restaurants and it makes it all the more special.
Food is well prepared and the staff really look after you.
Well worth a visit, you will not be disappointed.