I’m rather partial to a curry. The ultimate treat for me is having a takeaway for dinner. It gives me a night off from the kitchen and I can put my feet up after driving to pick it up. I don’t have takeaway food often, but when I do, my favourite has to be Indian. I’ve been to Mint takeaway several times now and I can honestly say I’ve never had a bad curry.
A delicious chicken tikka masala, pullav rice and peshwari naan
After telling friends and family about this takeaway, it surprises me that most people, including those in Penrith, don’t know it actually exists, which is a complete shame. Mint is located 3-5 Harker Yard, Penrith, next to Sykes gunsmith and the New Squares development.
After a snowy weekend, we opted to have a curry on Sunday night. I ordered the takeaway by telephone and was greeted politely and efficiently. I was directed that my food would take 20mins to prepare. Perfect! Just enough time to drive to Penrith. Arriving at the takeaway, our order was already ready which meant no waiting around. Even more perfect! The total cost of three currys, (a prawn jal masala, a chicken passanda, and a chicken tikka masala) one pullav rice, one Mint special rice, a garlic naan and a Peshwari naan was an extremely reasonable and fantastic value for money – £21.60.
Arriving home, the takeaway is extremely easy to re-heat as the rice and curry are served in plastic containers. These can also be usefully re-used or recycled. The only criticism I would make is that without prior knowledge of what the curry should look like, sometimes differentiation is difficult, particularly if you’ve ordered a lot or the same curry with a different meat. Some sort of label would be a useful idea. Fortunately, I could differentiate our curries, as we’d had them before and the prawns were noticeable, while the passanda was lighter than the masala, as tradition dictates.
After re-heating the curry and the rice in the microwave and popping the naan in the oven for a couple of minutes, this quick and lazy on our part dinner was served.
I had that number 1 favourite British dish, chicken tikka masala. This is one of my favourite dishes and Mint does my all time favourite masala. It was extremely tasty. Mint’s masala incorporates marinated chicken tikka with fresh cream, coconut and ground roasted almonds. The menu describes it as mild and creamy. It was creamy but it had a nice spicy kick making it not completely mild.
A spiciness to a tikka masala, I have found, can be hard to find. I like currys that are in between mild and hot. Most masalas are too creamy and mild for my liking, so this curry is ideal. It wasn’t too hot just perfect. Importantly, it didn’t have that awful dyed quality that many Indian restaurants and takeaways now heavily rely on. (I once had a bright red curry that looked full of food dye, it was completely offputting and apart from anything it’s completely unnatural) This masala however, was a lovely orange colour.
Perfect colour, taste and portion size
Another plus point, is the portion size. (I once had a curry, I think it was the same aforementioned red curry that contained 4 or 5 small chunks of chicken swimming in a deep pool of sauce) This portion had 10+ pieces of chicken and the sauce to meat ratio was perfect. I even found I had enough for lunch the following day. Economical to say the least!
I only eat half a portion of pullav rice, to make way for my guilty pleasuure of naan bread.The pullav rice is sufficiently fluffy. It is yellow in colour and is very lightly spiced. It perfectly accompanied my curry. I also added a dollop of Geeta’s premium mango chutney to my plate which is delicious.
The only low point with Mint is their naan bread. I love naan bread and I’m afraid that some other local restaurants quite simply do naan better. While the bread itself is perfect with regard to texture and consistency it lacks in flavour. The garlic naan, in my view, was insufficiently garlicky. It had a light garlic flavour, but as I love a strong garlic taste it was lacking. I usually only opt for a garlic naan, but this week I decided to push the boat out and go for a peshwari too. Still craving sweet food from any other available sources as a result of Lent, (Read previous post) I thought a peshwari would fulfil my sweet urges. Unfortunately, although it was delicately flavoured with almond and coconut and was perfectly pleasant. I was craving sickly sweet: a naan bread stuffed with coconut, almond and sultanas. This naan didn’t have any sultanas, despite it being stated on the menu. In all, it could have offered more flavouring, I felt.
This minor criticism aside, I believe that this is a hidden gem of a takeaway. By writing this, I am aware that this might alter that situation but I’m desperate for others to try it and share their views.
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