The good points (decent prices, good starter) were far outweighed by the bad - the worst moment of all coming when a friend cut open some chicken to find it completely raw. I have to assume this was a genuine mistake, and it was only the 1 piece, but all the main courses were indicative of an overall fall in cooking standards. Anyway, I guess a formal write-up is still merited ...
Food
Poppadoms were served pretty quickly, with a good selection of accompaniments. This was just as well, because it took a further 45 minutes before anyone would take our food order, although drinks did arrive before that. The starters were as good as I remembered: a selection of pakora, kebabs, and my favourite murgh chandi tikka. So far so good (apart from elapse time ...). Now I am not a veteran curry eater, tending to be conservative in my choices, but one of my indian colleagues had recommended biriyani to me as a great dish to try. Sure enough my first taste of it at Kushis was fantastic, with a delicate mix of spice. The biriyani here, however, was awful: a huge mound of rice with little flavour and a bit more chicken (or prawn), served with a bland vegetable curry. The best any of us could say about it was that it was edible - not enjoyable though. At least it was edible, which is more than can be said for the chicken shashlik - the aforementioned raw chicken appearing early on in the dish. Other mains, including lamb jalfrezi, seemed to fall into the 'edible' category.
Overall Rating
Whether it was the huge delay at the start, the raw chicken, or the disappointing biriyanis, none of us enjoyed the meal on what was supposed to be a relaxing night out catching up with family. To be balanced, there was a large table next to us who were raving about their meal - perhaps we got unlucky. Whatever the reason, there are plenty other Indian restaurants in Edinburgh, and I won't be rushing back to Britannia Spice. If you've had a better experience, let me know!
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