‘Restaurants such as Shababs, Shahi Nan and Royal Watan rightly get the plaudits in the Balti Triangle but the lesser known Popular on the Ladypool Road deserves recognition as well.

The opening gambit of crispy poppadoms was accompanied by a dip tray (at no extra cost) of which the thick creamy yoghourt dip was the star of the show.

Starters were undoubtedly the freshest and tastiest chicken pakora that I’ve had in many a long year as was the duo of meat samosas.

My balti chicken and mushroom was excellently spiced and my wife’s balti butter chicken was not only top notch but  nicely spiced whilst retaining a buttery consistency without slipping into the sickly double cream soup-like consistency that can befall this type of dish.

A doughy garlic naan passed muster as did the Popular brand of after dinner mints given away old skool style.

We will return!

A recent tweet from the Mail covered a comparison of the merits of various balti sauces. The reporter was of an age where she probably didn’t even realise what a proper balti was(!) … maybe the Evening Mail editor needs to organise an evening out for his young reporters and we can set up a demo as well as a meal. That way, we can be certain that Birmingham’s very own newspaper can properly champion Birmingham’s very own signature dish.

There has only ever been one play featuring Brum’s favourite dish and one of the co-writers, Sudha Bhuchar, is doing a solo show at the MAC on 28th September … an event not to be missed!’

https://macbirmingham.co.uk/event/sudha-bhuchar-evening-conversations