Lagan Tapas – Indian – Nottingham
Lagan Tapas marks the 20th Indian restaurant I have reviewed since starting to write about food in Nottingham. They haven’t all been good but we are pretty spoilt for choice as a city. This Lagan is a sister restaurant to their other site in Beeston and opened at the end of last year opposite Pitcher and Piano. It’s a large, modern space that is split into quite a few smaller areas which makes for a nice atmosphere although may cause some issues, more on that later.
As per the name the Tapas theme exists although in truth they could call the tapas starters and it be any other Indian restaurant menu. As well as the small plates they offer; many curries, several biryani options, wraps and thalis. I was excited to see Meantime IPA on the drinks list, alas it had been disconnected so I was left with the standard Kingfisher and Cobra. I decided to go for ‘tapas’ given the theme of the restaurant.
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Everything arrived together, a vibrant array of dishes. I think it’s hard to beat a chaat and the samosa version here was a generous portion for £6.95. Plenty of tangy tamarind cut through the rich casing and potato contents with crunchy raw onion and sev noodles. Fried momo were also good, particularly the smoky, buttery sauce that accompanied them. Chilli paneer (£6.95) could have done with a little more heat but the peppers and onions were pleasingly charred, a classic combination with the firm cheese.
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I am unsure if chicken tacos were a recent edition to the menu but I struggled to find them on the one that appears online. It seems a relative bargain at £6.95, for some people they might be enough for a meal! It probably was quantity of quality. The general flavour was ok but I could have done without the cheap cheese. The accompanying sauce was really acidic and unpleasant and my taco shells were stale. Another new addition was gobi manchurian which I was pleased to see as a perennial favourite of mine. This was probably an even bigger disappointment. A fairly mean portion managed to suffer from soggy batter AND undercooked cauliflower. I’d much rather pay £2 more for the delicious and consistent cauliflower mountain you get at Bar Iberico.
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Gobi Manchurian at Lagan Tapas
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Service had already been pretty poor but sitting with our finished plates for over 15 mins, as well as having to hunt someone down to pay the bill, was inexcusable. The aforementioned layout may have been a reason for slowness, even on this quiet midweek evening? Trying to look past this the food was generally good and I was impressed with the value for money. Larger dishes included butter chicken at £13.95 and Biryani at £14.95. A decent chunk cheaper than its Maid Marian way counterparts but with the inconsistencies I can’t recommend it too highly.
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