Aashiana, Denton, Manchester

Aashiana Indian Cuisine

Being the bank holiday weekend we decided to treat ourselves to a sit-down curry. After some live music at Stockport Market we came home to Aashiana, the closest restaurant to where we live. We hadn't been here for a while, mainly because it is practically next door to a very good Indian takeaway (Blue Crown).

The restaurant, and menu, had been done up since our last visit, but even then the Chef's Recommendations did not have familiar names, which is something we like.

Aashiana's new menu

We ordered one Papadom each, and it came with the usual try of sauces. Not much to report, but instead of four standard items there were five - which we did pay for. Onion chutney, Mango Chutney, Mint Sauce, Hot Sauce, Plain Yogurt.

Papadom and bits

We decided to go for curries and sides that we hadn't had before, or in a while so I ordered the Salmon Shosha which promised to be cubes of salmon in a mouth-watering sauce consisting of cucumber and tomatoes and Tim went for the Shatkora Lamb which was apparently cooked in exotic spices and shatkora, which the menu says is a bitter fruit grown only in Bangladesh. We ordered one Pilau Rice, one Cauliflower Bhaji and a Tarka Dhall.

The two main curries, with the rice and dhall.

My plate of yumminess

We had a lovely meal, and they served us quite quick. It was quite busy, but the service was very good. The new (although not sure how new it actually is) refurbishments and decor were very nice, with nice subdued lighting and hints of green. The house white wine, however, was not good. So a more careful choice next time I think. We generally recommend the Aashiana, and coming in at less that £30, including two glasses of wine, we can't argue with the value. It does have tough competition with us though, as the range of different flavours available from Blue Crown seems more varied. Although, don't think they actually do a salmon curry with cucumber or use the lime-like exotic fruit from Bangladesh. Maybe we should suggest this?
P.S. We did ask, but it does seem that most food here is gluten free. Bonus!