Great value lunch
I have walked, cycled or lurched past the Coriander every day for a year or so, eyeing it's sandwich board advertising a “business lunch” for, wait for it, £6.95.
So that's the reason I have never been in. I'm not easily conned, you see. £6.95 indeed! Surely, that's not possible.
However, having dined out* Vauxhall (*that's a busk on “mined out”, btw) we decided that (a) a curry was in order, and (b) we needed to verify the veracity of Coriander's claim. We're ignoring that (c) I ate at Cinnamon Club yesterday – because 2 consecutive days' subcontinental dining doesn't put me in a good light.
M'learned colleague booked online (it's all about the Rewards points with him), and we ambled up the road with our equally learned, but more attractive colleague to be warmly welcomed by the staff.
Menus arrived, but there was no mention of a £6.95 offering… until our waiter spotted our fretful page-turning and gave us the special menu. There it was – topping a reasonable list of choices – vegetable korma or vegetable dansak, with rice, naan & bhaji, £6.95.
Boy, was the dansak good. Well presented, beautifully flavoured, perfectly portioned – the antidote to a frantic morning at work. By the time we'd added a couple of popadoms and some drinks, we spent £11 each – a proper bargain for genuinely good food, IMHO.
I'm only scoring atmosphere as “average” because after a while, the piped sitar music became a _tad_ wearing. It won't prevent a return match, however.