Review: Maharaja

Authentic Indian Spices

As an Englishman living in Barcelona their often comes the point when nothing but a curry will do. The problem with this though is that Indian and Pakistani restaurants in Barcelona really cater for the locals – and that means a lack of real kick.

While some have done for a while; Cardomon, for example, is completely unlike any British curry-house, but weren’t afraid to use chillies – until their local customers complained about the food being too hot. And so it was a pleasure to find in the Maharaja somewhere that really does seem to cook Indian food the way in which us Brits like it.

First of all the décor is very nice, with a selection of Indian daggers and various other bits of paraphernalia that add to the ambience; secondly the service was friendly, without being fawning; and last, while I’ve grown proficient at cooking a pretty mean curry myself, the food was great.

Well, most of it was. Whenever I get puppadoms in Spain they are always grilled instead of fried, which gives them a completely different texture but I suppose that’s just being fussy. The main course was great, a selection of different meats served with rice, naan bread and all the accompaniments.

The restaurant has a tandoor oven on site, which I think is one essential piece of equipment for producing succulent tandoori dishes and nann bread and common dishes you can find here include Tikka Masala, Jalfrezi and – one of my favourites although I haven’t tried it here – Madras. Naturally they also do a variety of tandoori dishes as well as a selection of spiced vegetables.

To accompany the meal we had a good bottle of Ribera del Duero – many people don’t like to drink wine with Indian food, but I don’t mind – but they also have a selection of Indian beers. To finish they offered us a liqueur and Indian cigarettes – while Spain is turning anti-smoking, they still haven’t stamped it out, although I can’t imagine it will last much longer.

The price was good and the meal excellent – what more can you ask for?

Maharaja Restaurante

Restaurant Maharaja
Rambla de raval, 14
Tel: 93 422 57 77
www.maharajarestaurante.com