delhi2go

Oof. What a disappointment. A long day at work followed by a massive craving for curry lead me to the only local place that I could think of that wasn’t a proper sit-​down curry house. (Besides, there’s an alarming dearth of good curry houses in Manchester city centre proper).
Let’s start with the price. £8.50 for curry, rice and naan isn’t too bad.
Or it wouldn’t have been too bad if the food was actually, y’know, nice.
The garlic naan was just a microwaved 40p chewy, thick, not-​at-​all-​naan-​like bread with garlic butter (from their pizza selection) on it. I Was Disappoint.
The curry, a chicken madras, was far too hot (in terms of temperature) and from this it was really very difficult to judge the flavour of the dish — my taste buds having all been obliterated on the first bite…
A crying shame, really, because the chicken was actually quite tender and there was, credit where credit’s due, enormous amounts of it. Easily double the amount I’ve been given at much (much) higher-​end and higher-​priced establishments like Mughli or Zouk.
The rice was definitely, 100% microwaved (I saw them do it). No problem, except they’d obviously forgotten about my order, which was just really irritating. No prizes for guessing the service was forgetful at best and dismissive at worst.
I left half my meal and trudged, with considerable despondence, home. I’m going to cry into a corner until someone manages to come up with a decent curry within spitting distance of the Northern Quarter. Help!

I enjoyed eating in Tastemasters a couple of times, which was the precursor to delhi2go, operating from the same premises and with some of the same staff.
Tastemasters was good for a budget Indian meal including tandoor chapati cooked to order, which made up for their lack of the usual bain marie of food hot and ready to serve offered by most other curry cafés — in fact more than made up for it for a picky vegetarian type like me. Indeed, the thought of Tastemasters’ Dahl Saag or Mixed Vegetable Curry cooked in proper butter ghee to be mopped up with a couple of chapatis fresh from the tandoor brings a tear to my eye at the thought of how good they were!
I applaud whatever management has given delhi2go their bright new modern branding and décor — anyone who ever saw the old Tastemasters will know just how much this was needed!
However, I still feel to pan this place with a two-​star review for the vegetarian. Air quality — specifically, a general pall of deep fryer aroma coupled with plentiful meat-​barbecue smoke reduced my appetite most effectively! On the bain marie, slack business means that rice, lamb curry and chicken curry are the options, although they were happy to cook to order whatever else I might want from the menu.
Across Oldham Street from delhi2go is the new Blue Daisy Café at Mod Pop Boutique. Whichever place I end up in, I can imagine myself gazing wistfully across the street! But I do like daisies — they smell nice, and BDC has daily specials.
I’m torn — I had a great rapport with some of the Tastemasters staff who still work their. One guy in particular offered to rustle me up whatever I wanted from the old Tastemasters menu, such as bindhi bhaji which I had never got round to trying. (I popped my head round the door to say ‘hi’ on the way to the Unilocal Elite event at Lomography.) Maybe I will go in and sit near the door for some fresh air, maybe I won’t. I’ll be sure to write an update if I do.