Mogul

Sefton Street, Whitefield, Manchester

In all the years I’ve lived in Whitefield, one of only a couple of the local restaurants I’d never tried was Mogul. It’s an Indian restaurant housed inside a converted church on the corner of Sefton Street, just off Bury New Road.

Why have I never been? In all honestly, I’m not entirely sure. I don’t eat Indian food very often and, as a family, the Forts of India, located further down Bury New Road, has always been our go-to Indian restaurant of choice. The Forts of India is the superlative Indian restaurant and is the highest-end of curry houses. You could consider the Forts to be the fine-dining of the Indian restaurant world, whereas Mogul is much more of a middle-market curry house.

That said, across the festive period, they were running an excellent set price menu, where you could enjoy a four course banquet for £30. We decided this was a good option for New Year’s Eve. This is an exceptionally good price for New Year’s Eve, as many of the other restaurants were changing extortionate prices of £65 per person.

Our table was booked for 7:30pm. The table was ours for the night, with the idea being that you can stay to let the New Year in if you so wish. The restaurant was packed to the rafters when we arrived, with no staff around to greet and seat us – not exactly a good first impression. The small bar area at the entrance was full of people either waiting for tables or waiting for takeaways. I had to ask the manager twice before we were taken to our table ten minutes late at 7:40pm. They’d squeezed in as many tables as physically possible, so there was no room to swing a cat. We were placed slap, bang in the middle of the restaurant, surrounded by two large parties and spilling over into the aisle where the staff were struggling to squeeze past – quite possibly the worst seat in the house.

The banquet began with poppadums – two each – along with the traditional accompaniments of mango chutney, red onions, mint yoghurt, coleslaw and lime pickle. We got two poppadums each, which I was impressed by, as they’re large and, by the time you’ve piled your toppings on, are quite satisfying. They were served warm but not quite crispy enough for me. All the accompaniments were delicious, however, and they didn’t hesitate when I asked for the tray to be refilled.

The second course was a mixed starter, which consisted of an onion bhaji, a meat samosa, a sheikh kebab and a spicy chicken wing with a side salad. I ordered the vegetarian alternative, simply because I preferred the selection of an onion bhaji, a mushroom pakora, a vegetable pakora and an aubergine pakora. I’m not sure the aubergine pakora was included in mine. Whilst I can’t be sure exactly what it was, I seemed to have a tofu pakora on my plate, given that the filling of one of them was white and tasteless with a foamy texture. Whatever it was, it definitely wasn’t an aubergine. The samosa, mushroom pakora and onion bhaji, however, were delicious and the salad was fresh and crisp.

Mix Starter

Vegetable Mixed Starter

As they served our starters, we ordered our main courses. There was plenty of choice available as part of the set menu, but they were very flexible and were willing to accommodate more or less whatever you wanted. I had a Vegetable Korma whilst my friends had sizzlers – one chicken, one lamb. The sizzlers were huge and full of big chunks of meat along with peppers, onions, mushrooms and capsicum, accompanied by a sauce of your choice – one had masala, the other pasanda – both of which were tasty and not spicy, which is exactly how I like my curries.

Chicken Tandoori Sizzler

The sizzlers looked impressive and they’re certainly a lot bigger and hence better value for money than a normal dish, but the idea of being presented with huge chunks of dry meat just doesn’t appeal to me. For me, meat is just not essential and I find vegetables much tastier. It also meant it wasn’t as filling so I could enjoy more of the side dishes. As part of the banquet, we were given sides of pilau rice, a plan naan bread and chips to share between the three of us. The chips were thick cut and very tasty, definitely my favourite accompaniment. The naan bread was bland and the pilau rice was unremarkable; I’ve had better. The portions of rice and naan were very generous; there was more than enough for the three of us.

The main courses were served with pilau rice, chips and naan bread

 The korma itself was deliciously creamy and full of coconut, whilst not being overly rich. There was a good selection of vegetables in there as well for plenty of colour and flavour, including carrots, potatoes and cauliflower.

Vegetable Korma

Unfortunately, having finished our starters, we had to wait 55 minutes for our main courses. It was 9:30pm by the time they finally arrived, a whole two hours since we arrived. We had to chase them up twice before they finally came out of the kitchen. The staff were clearly rushed off their feet and, to their credit, were apologetic, but to wait almost an hour between courses is totally unacceptable. Yes, it was New Year’s Eve and yes, they were very busy, but this really is no excuse. A restaurant should be able to run efficiently at full capacity on what is one of the busiest nights of the year. Poor service simply cannot be excused. We also had to chase up a second round of drinks which we’d ordered to go with the main courses.

To the manager’s credit, he apologised for the wait and, half-jokingly, offered us an extra slice of cake for dessert. There was no way we could have managed two puddings, given the amount of food we’d already consumed. Perhaps a free drink or some money off the bill would have been more appropriate compensation.

We were suitably stuffed after our main courses, but when there’s a dessert included I simply can’t say no. It’s unusual to have dessert after an Indian meal, but I appreciate the fact that they made an effort with proper puddings. There was a choice of chocolate fudge cake, sticky toffee bomb or carrot cake, all served with ice cream. I had carrot cake, which was light enough to squeeze in after the first three courses. Carrot cake isn’t a dessert you see very often. It’s more of a cake you’d tuck into with a cup of tea in the afternoon rather than something you eat after a meal, and it doesn’t really work with ice cream, but it was enjoyable all the same.

Carrot Cake

Being incredibly greedy, I helped my friend finish her sticky toffee bomb. This was a sponge soaked in sticky toffee sauce with a hint of ginger. It wasn’t a traditional sticky toffee pudding but was enjoyable, with the sponge being light, fluffy and moist.

Sticky Toffee Bombe

The restaurant had become much quieter by the time we’d finished our meal. I expected a DJ to have made an appearance by this point, but it hadn’t happened, so we decided against sticking around until midnight and headed home to watch the fireworks on the telly instead. There wasn’t really much going on, which was a shame. I was hoping for the opportunity to dance after our meal.

We’d paid a £5 deposit per person at the time of booking, which they failed to deduct from the bill at the end of the night until I asked them to do so.

The quality of the food was excellent and the banquet menu was superb value for New Year’s Eve. The a la carte menu is also very reasonable and considerably cheaper than the Forts of India, although the quality of the food certainly isn’t quite on the same level. As in life, you get what you pay for. Despite the sensational value for money, the poor service would perhaps make me think twice about going again for a special occasion.

Website: http://www.mogulrestaurant.com/