Where do you take a large party of people, keen to try the best curry in
Bradford? Where else but the Mumtaz on Great Horton Road. This restaurant
has been our favourite ever since our first official visit in 1999. There
was a slight relapse in 2000, where it fell back into the chasing pack, but
since then it has held its head high in the lead, a yardstick for others to
follow.

With thirteen mouths to feed, the Mumtaz was certainly going to have a job
on its hands to keep us all happy. It was a warm evening and since the
restaurant was bulging to capacity, we were shown to the last table
upstairs. Fortunately, an air conditioning unit sat alongside, and as long
as we didn't mind the gentle thrumming of the compressor, it would only be
the food raising our temperatures.

Starters were ordered a plenty and we were soon tucking into Mumtaz's finest
fair. Due to the large numbers of reviewers, and the lack of Eric, the
guide's author, I failed to capture the highs and lows of these first
dishes. I can still report though, a general thumbs up from the revelling
diners.

Fortunately, the main courses were recorded and comments and ratings
proffered from newly found experts. My own dish, the karahi murgh was very
hot and I was grateful for a side bowl of yoghurt to tame the fiery chilly.
Another reviewer, with more tolerance for the heat, loved the dish, rating
it a good 9 out of 10. The remaining dishes under scrutiny received a mixed
reception:

• Karahi paneer shahi - "Really cheesy"
• Daal paneer - "Nicely spiced" and "Really cheesy"
• Fish curry - "Cod didn't really mix well with the spices. Perhaps try a
  different fish?"
• Lamb karahi - "Tasty but very hot and spicy for a medium dish"

Fine coffees were ordered to complement the meal, and to finish off a
pleasant evening.

After all the ratings were totted up, would the Mumtaz remain the king of
the hill? On the meals served on that evening, the answered would be a
disappointing no. The chilly heat soured some of the diners' experiences,
and I could be counted among that number. Even so, I'd like to think that
Friday was a minor blip on a usually polished performance, and I would still
recommend the Mumtaz to the curry connoisseur.

(Roti and rice, etc, do not some with the main dishes, and must be ordered separately: roti 80p, naan £1.35, garlic naan £1.60, pilau rice £1.10.)

We had a guest over from Manchester dining with us tonight, so in a bid to show him the best that Bradford has to offer we took him to one of our favourite restaurants.

We had to queue for around ten minutes, but it was well worth the wait. For those of you who have yet to have the Mumtaz experience, the place itself is like a curtained greenhouse, with plush fittings of the mirror-and-brass variety. The restaurant serves high quality, up-market curries, not at all Anglicised, at pretty reasonable prices.
We kicked off with vegetable samosa (£1.50), masala mirch (90p), vegetable pakora (1.60), and paneer roll (£1.15). The best of the lot was the paneer roll, which was divine: moist Asian cheese in a filo pastry roll, with a deceptively mild foretaste and a slow-burning sting of an aftertaste. Highly recommended. The masala mirch (deep fried chilli pepper) wasn't as hot as we'd feared - so give it a go. The vegetable samosa was fresh, crisp, and stuffed full of mouth-watering fresh peas, carrot, and peppers. The only slight disappointment was the veg pakora: we thought them a little on the bland side, and overcooked.

The main courses were sublime. We all went for the smaller of the two weights of curry on offer (220g and 440g) and the portions were more than ample. We asked for them to be prepared apna-style, for authenticity. I had karahi daal, and it was one of the very finest I've sampled in the city. The lentils were of an excellent consistency (not boiled to a mush) and piquant with a hot, tingly-spiced sauce. The matter paneer boasted big, succulent, and what tasted like fresh, peas, in a sauce in which individual spices, especially cumin and coriander, stood out. Again, one of the finest examples of this dish we've sampled. The karahi paneer shahi, cheese cooked with tomatoes, mustard seeds, and cream of chestnut, was milder than the others, but no less tasty, and as with the other dishes the portion was excellent. The karahi chana was mouth-tinglingly hot: high quality chick peas in a rich, abundant sauce. We ordered a big salad with the meal - which contained oranges, melon, strawberries, kiwi fruit and lettuce, among others - and while it might have been a trifle unconventional, it beautifully complemented the heat of the curries.

Our only - minor - complaint was that the tandoori roti were too thick!

All in all, then, the very best curry we've had the pleasure of sampling this year. We wholeheartedly recommend this restaurant to those of you who've somehow missed the experience.

(Roti and rice, etc, do not some with the main dishes, and must be ordered separately: roti 80p, naan £1.15, garlic naan £1.30, pilau rice £1.50.)

We last visited the Mumtaz over a year ago, and we raved about it. It earned the only five star review in the Curry Guide. Then we wrote: "Without doubt they were the finest curies we've sampled for a long time - perhaps even the best since we began the... Guide."

So, a year on, would the Mumtaz still be serving the same high standard of Asian fare?

Well, the atmosphere certainly hasn't changed in that time: still the tasteful decorations, potted plants, Indian music. The service is still as friendly and attentive as ever.

And, pleased to report, the food is very good too.

We began with garlic pakora (£1.10), panir roll (£1.50), aloo tikki (£1.50), and chicken samosa (£1.30). We thought they were very reasonably priced, and of good quality: fresh, crisp, and subtly spiced. (They came with a free pickle tray which included baby olives - hot and salty - which we'd never sampled before.)

As my main dish I had aloo palak, and it was superb. The potato was perfectly cooked, not to small so as to disintegrate, nor too large not to absorb the flavour of the curry. IanW had the same dish: "Tasty and well-flavoured... but just lacking something to promote it to a 9." The karahi daal was distinctly flavoured, heavy on the garlic, and like all the other dishes scored highly.

The matter panir was greatly enjoyed: "Exceptionally tasty. The panir was plentiful, the sauce rich with a strong 'freshly cooked' flavour to it." MickH's only complaint was: "There was a lot of ghee floating around the top of the dish, but this is a taste review not a calorie count!"

The karahi chana, according to the verbally-limited JohnM, was, "On tip-top form." I nicked a mouthful and thought it excellent, the chick peas not as hard as found in some restaurants, and the sauce delicious.

The karahi gosht contained big, succulent pieces of lamb, was nicely flavoured and, but for the excess of ghee, would have scored a nine out of ten.

All in all, this was one of the best curry experiences we've had since the last time we visited the Mumtaz. (And the prices, in the year since we were last here, have remained almost the same.)

We finished with some fine coffee and the best barfi we've ever sampled. All in all, highly recommended.

(Rotis, naan bread, and rice do not come with the meals, and must be ordered separately.)

Mumtaz is an extremely popular restaurant situated a mile or so from the city centre. It's not your usual cheap dive (our bill came to £10 per head) and the atmosphere reflects its up-market aspirations. The décor is authentic Indian sub-continent without being over-the-top, with tasteful decorations, potted plants and accompanying background music.

The restaurant was packed the night we dined, and we had to queue for a few minutes before a table was free. We'd heard so many good things about the Mumtaz that we were prepared for a disappointment...

We started with pani-puri (£1.95) and bhel-puri (£2.00), the former a Bombay-mix-and-chick-pea style cold dish, very spicy and refreshing, the latter a cold chick pea soup with crispy bread shells. The meat-eater amongst us didn't care for either, though the rest of us found them very acceptable - but they are an acquired taste, and next time we'll go for some of the other varied starters.

One distinctive feature of the Mumtaz is that the main dishes are sold by weight - in bowls of half a pound and a pound. We were advised that a half pound bowl would be sufficient for two people, but we disagree. We ordered three half pound bowls between four people, and were nicely satisfied. We sampled a karahi matter paneer, a karahi aloo palak, and a karahi chana khoya between us... and our verdict?

Without doubt they were the finest curies we've sampled for a long time - perhaps even the best since we began the Bradford Curry Guide. The matter paneer was superb (two of us marked it ten out of ten, the other two nine out of ten). The sauce was rich and pungent without being overpowering, and the generous chunks of paneer were spongy and perfectly cooked. The chana khoya was my personal favourite, chick peas in a light, subtle mouth-watering masala sauce. The aloo palak was almost as good as the two above, the potato cut not too large (a frequent mistake) and the spinach hot and spicy. All the dishes were hot without being unpleasant, (unlike in some upmarket establishment which err on the side of caution and provide bland, perfumed curries.) We also had roti (80p), a garlic and coriander naan (£1.70) and a plain naan (£1.35).

We finished off with above average coffee and a selection of sweet desserts: barfi, rass-malai and gulab jamun - all of the highest quality and delicious.

As you might have guessed by now, we can't recommend the Mumtaz too highly. It's an exceptional restaurant and we'd dine here a lot more often if we didn't have to review the city's other restaurants.