Updated: 9 Feb 2023

We went back, after our first review in 2017, and how things have changed since then. Cheltenham will always be the OG, but now they have eight more locations, a new menu, plenty of awards and a win on Come Dine with Me: The Professionals. Has success changed them for better or worse?

It’s still in the middle of nowhere, and by that I mean a residential area of Cheltenham Town – a place like this is out of place.

What do I mean by a place like this? Its shabby chic urban, trying to be cool – why? It’s a Sri Lankan street food tapas bar, so it has to try to look the part, you know, among English terraced housing – it’s pretty unusual to be honest, outside of London anyway.

It’s in an old, neighbourhood, street corner boozer, its painted grey and doesn’t scream colourful South Asian Island in the Indian Ocean, until you get inside where it transforms and you are transported.

It’s not a traditional Indian style restaurant, no sit down white clothed tables with regional music in the background and those little tea light heaters.

The thing you notice the most is how busy it is, packed with cool, good looking people listening to bassey chilled out music. You need to book ahead for this one and I mean it – especially at the weekend.

The dude that decorated this place has a gift. The lighting is sweet and low – tables are hung from chains in the wall, high stool long tables or low with cushioned beer barrels to sit on and the bar is made of old crates and coins.

You’re greeted quickly and ever so smoothly by any number of baseball cap wearing and smiling front of house staff – who care whether you’ve been before or not – they have a story to tell you, and what a journey these guys have been on, with no end in sight.

The story – 5 guys wanting somewhere to live chose an old pub and with the permission of the owner, ‘shoved’ in an authentic and vibrant Asian Tapas Restaurant.

They didn’t win Masterchef and tell the same back story ‘one day I want to have my own place’ but they did go on to win Come Dine with Me Professionals with 38/40 – the numbers don’t lie.

Ultimately, they just did it and now…after all quitting their full time day jobs they now have nine locations:

• Cheltenham – The OG
• Clifton Triangle, Bristol
• Bristol Glos Rd
• Oxford
• Bath
• Reading
• Birmingham
• Cardiff
• Bournemouth

Like any decent tapas bar they’ll tell you to order about three dishes per person and it comes when it comes – just chill.

The Coconut Tree’s new menu has what seems like a surprising volume of vegetarian options – but this in actual fact is quite normal in Indian and Sri Lankan cooking.

We ordered a broad selection –  to see if anything can top the Cheesy Colombo, more on that in a mo.

I have mentioned that it is busy, quite simply, along with all I’ve said, the food is superb, and I mean exceptional without any airs or graces, sometimes not even plates, just the serving dishes and cutlery.

The stand out three on the new menu were:

• Chicken Curry on the Bone – this bangs, and I mean BANGS. If you like spice, this is all you – you’re tasting this again the next day you lucky thing.
• Black Pork, which is slow cooked in spices and a semi dry sauce
• Stir Fried Chickpeas – this is a very lovely little dish that will go nicely with so much of the menu, good for sharing too.
• Cheesy Colombo (the capital city). Think sweet and sour paneer. Yes, this is four and an original dish, I don’t care, Cheesy Colombo is going on any list.

The new menu is very good, lots on there for everyone and still pretty good on the price, bearing in mind the economic challenges.

From this point on, just look at pictures and you can see how to book below.

Check out the image gallery from 2017

You need to go here, remember to book in advance – way more than the week they suggested – it’s popular.

As always – I paid the bill to keep it real.

Thank you Sri Lanka

PRICE: £

WEBSITE: THECOCONUTTREECHELTENHAM.CO.UK

TELEPHONE: 01242 465 758

The post What’s it like to eat at The Coconut Tree, Cheltenham | Restaurant review of hidden Sri Lanka | Updated appeared first on National Dish.

It’s definitely new, but I hear you, what’s so different about Indian food? How about Indian street food, influenced by vibrant Mumbai itself (that’s the modern, non-colonial and independent name for Bombay). STREET FOOD! YAAS!!!

Bombay & Co is situated in the lower High Street in Cheltenham.  It doesn’t look flashy or trendy, but who care’s, this is Mumbai right? You can almost hear the constant beeping of the rickshaws at you enter to a transformation and a very friendly greeting, the staff are amazing.

The decor is almost like a gallery of colour and street art, you’re under no illusion of what these guys are trying to do and immediately your mind turns toward the food – expectations climbing.

Initially we began picking out dishes that sounded vaguely familiar, it’s hard to stray from your comfort zone when it comes to Indian food. However, the owner put a stop to this and offered to bring out a selection of dishes for us to try and share. I don’t want to sound over the top here, but the colours, the flavours – these dishes knocked our socks off turned my hair even more pink. I wanna be a Bollywood star so bad right now.

These were just tasters!!! Now, I don’t know if this is the norm, but take it from me, if you go here, don’t treat it like a ‘curry house’, try something new.

The food in this place is unlike any Indian food I have ever tasted before – it’s insane.

Here are some the dishes we tried, I am not going to explain them all, go find out….

Pain Poori
Chole Bhatura
Ghee Roast Masala Dosa
Chicken Lollipops
Railway Goat Curry
Vangi Masala
Dal Fry

We didn’t drink Cobra or Kingfisher or anything like that, we just went for a couple of bottles of very usual wine.

The bad bit? The toilets, what’s up with the bloody toilets, they were disgusting. Maybe that’s part of the experience, slum bog millionaire.

The whole bill, £96 including the tip – for six of us!

I feel like I went to Bombay and I can’t wait to go back. Seriously, I need to go back soon. When your table makes stupid ‘mmm’ing’ and ‘aah’ing’ noises all evening, you know you’ve had a good night.

Conclusion is simple, if you haven’t tried Bombay & Co yet, you gotta.

PRICE: £

WEBSITE and RESERVATIONS:  bombaynco.uk

MENUS: bombaynco.uk/our-menus

TELEPHONE: +44 (0) 1242 584 301

Email: dine@bombaynco.co.uk

The post Bombay & Co Restaurant Review | Cheltenham | Indian Street Food appeared first on National Dish.

There aren’t lots of recipes around for Indian crispy duck.

Most of you will know that Indian cuisine isn’t all wet curries, quite the opposite. The country is huge and the cuisine incredibly regional. I am partial to a Dhansak, and when I was in Mumbai I mentioned this, which was greeted with ‘oh, they eat that up near Delhi’. How cool is that, made me love it even more.

Britain has a wonderful love affair with Indian cuisine, with many British favourites actually coming from this very island. This Indian influences dry spiced crispy duck breast and it’s friends, I guess you can say, follows that same tradition.

This is a very healthy Indian dish, Paleo friendly and extraordinarily pretty.

I had some ingredients lying around and went for it – and it went, well.

The post Indian dry spiced crispy duck breast with char-grilled peach, crusted paneer and hot green salad of spinach, peas, asparagus and beans | National Dish India appeared first on National Dish.

I’ve done this to accompany a Dal Bhat, a match made in heaven, or as near to it as you can get in the Himalayas.

In Nepal they would use mutton or goat rather than lamb, but it makes for a close substitute in the UK. Not that mutton is that hard to get, if you really want it, lamb is plenty good enough.

It starts with marinating and as always, the longer the better, but even if you can only manage an hour, take it, it’s totally worth it. How do you make Nepalese Lamb Pakku?

The post How do you make Nepalese Lamb Pakku? | What is the national dish of Nepal? appeared first on National Dish.

Cooking Himalayan food is nowhere near as difficult as climbing Mount Everest but the result is equally enjoyable…ok, safer.

Dal Bhat (Lentil Rice) could be argued as a side dish here in the UK rather than a main and the meat eaters among you will probably want something else other than lentils and rice. To help you why not add in a Nepalese Lamb Pakku (in Nepal they would use mutton/goat) which you can prepare at the same time and uses some of the base spices from this dish – although on a much grander scale, seriously, it’s mental.

You’ll appreciate that rice forms part of the staple diet for much of the world, especially those areas that are heavily impoverished. Our western bodies aren’t geared up for such an energy rich diet, so for those of you wishing to manage that, I’ve replaced the rice with cauliflower rice – which quite frankly, adds to this dish. Don’t forget, the lentils carry a fair old whack of carb energy themselves, so this avoids doubling up.

But, if you must use rice, use white basmati rice – why not give this one a whirl first eh?

The post Nepalese Dal Bhat with Cauliflower Rice | दालभात | What is the National Dish of Nepal? appeared first on National Dish.