Naando's Indian Restaurant on 3rd Road

[Edge]

Location is better than Soi 17 if the attraction is the Country Favs chef but still not good no foot traffic to speak of.

[Kreggerz]

They're open 7 days a week, from 1 to midnight, but tandoori oven not ready until 2. 

It is a sit down restaurant. 

[Marcus85]

11 hours ago, Kreggerz said:

They're open 7 days a week, from 1 to midnight, but tandoori oven not ready until 2. 

It is a sit down restaurant. 

Did you eat here yet? If so how was it?

[Kreggerz]

3 hours ago, Marcus85 said:

Did you eat here yet? If so how was it?

Not yet. Will do. 

[Gnorman]

Fantastic review as always Evil, thanks.

[GlennUK]

I was going to visit it but the Retox connection has put me off,

Had their Chicken Tikka Massala special from Game on a few days ago ended up bining it.

If its the same Chef no how no way. 

Used Carrots in the rice I mean WTF. That well known Indian vegetable the carrot.

Relied on bunging a couple of chilies in the CTM rather than proper spices such as coriander and cardamom, 

The Mint yogurt was fine and the poppadom OK the Nan was more toasty rather than bread like.

 

So if this is an example of what they produce they not getting a second chance from me.

[Kreggerz]

Why would you assume it's the same chef?

[tj916]

On 28 May 2017 at 0:47 AM, Kreggerz said:

So do they have table service or is it only a delivery place?

I noticed on their menu that they have a Chicken Balti which they acknowledge as a British dish but mention that it's served with boiled eggs.

Brits -- is that really the typical way that a Chicken Balti would be served, with boiled eggs?

Think they may have got balti and byriani (sp) mixed up.

You get a boiled egg with the latter.

[Kreggerz]

OK, got around to visiting Naandos.

I guess they're mostly about delivery and takeaway business as the interior space is kind of rough with limited tables.

No problem for me but a little surprising. 

I tried the chicken balti and aloo nan. 

The chicken balti was excellent and tasted like I think a balti is supposed to taste like. But I'm not a Brit so you Brits check it and see.

Yes it was topped with some sliced boiled egg. The sections were done in different colors. Fancy. 

Unfortunately it wasn't served in the expected metal balti pot. The chef said he doesn't have any yet. 

The portion was normal. I wouldn't say too small. 

The aloo nan was perfect. 

They are doing the daily special sets now. I guess about 350 baht. Offer changes daily. 

 

[striderman]

On 5/28/2017 at 11:28 AM, devee8 said:

I luv there Chicken Tikka

i'm told they have a chicken tarka. much the same but a bit otter

[Kreggerz]

12 hours ago, striderman said:

i'm told they have a chicken tarka. much the same but a bit otter

Looking at their menu right now, I don't see either chicken tarka or dal tarka. 

[Kreggerz]

Well, I've been here three times already,so I can say more now.

The table situation is sorted now. They have the tables from Bite Me in there. A smaller menu Bite Me style menu will be going next month alongside the Indian. 

Yeah, that's a big deal. The Bite is back (well, soon anyway). 

Overall, the chef seems very talented with the curry cooking.

First time, I had the chicken balti, then later the palak paneer special (cheese in spinach), and then the chicken tikka special. 

Loved both curries. As I said before I thought the potato stuffed nan was perfect. 

The palak paneer special came with two onion bhajis and two small veg. samosas. I thought the bhajis were good but didn't think much of the samosas.

The chicken tikka was dry. The pallau rice was pretty good, but the garlic naan wasn't up to the potato stuffed naan as before. Not sure why but I was especially unhappy with the dry chicken tikka. 

The pricing at this place seems a little off. 100 baht for plain rice. Over 100 for mixed raita. It does help promote the get a ton of food daily specials, but I see a problem with that too. 

That's because it seems about half the time they include bhajis and samosas in the deal. For regulars, I question how often they'd want to eat those fried items. It would get boring. 

I might be better if they offer more choices with the specials with different price points.

For example, 

curry plus rice and bread

curry plus rice, bread, raita

curry plus rice, bread, samosa

curry plus rice, bread, bhaji

or something like that. 

Also it would be better to offer at least a choice of two main dish choices on the specials daily. Sometimes they do but usually it's only one main dish choice. 

There's a lot of competition for Indian in town on price and quality. I think they'd do better with some tweaking on the prices and set offerings.

But the chef is really good with curries and that's worth a lot. 

[Edge]

1 hour ago, Kreggerz said:

Well, I've been here three times already,so I can say more now.

The table situation is sorted now. They have the tables from Bite Me in there. A smaller menu Bite Me style menu will be going next month alongside the Indian. 

Yeah, that's a big deal. The Bite is back (well, soon anyway). 

........

Same place right?

Plus the Country Faves cook?

[Kreggerz]

14 minutes ago, Edge said:

Same place right?

Plus the Country Faves cook?

Yes it will be in the same place as the old Bite Me location but the Indian chef will cook Indian and apparently an experienced chef will be cooking the European menu. It will be a smaller menu than before but there will be those very popular daily specials as before. 

Just a guess, but my guess is that once this gets going most of the sit down business will be for the Bite menu and most of the delivery business will be for Indian. 

[Petesie]

I visited Bite Me and it was awful, myself and my girl barely touched our meals. Looking forward to trying Naando's however there are some excellent Indians in Patts these days so the competition is out there. Curry Home on Buakhow next to the coins does a brilliant job for a lot less that what Naando's is offering.

 

[Kreggerz]

5 minutes ago, Petesie said:

I visited Bite Me and it was awful, myself and my girl barely touched our meals. Looking forward to trying Naando's however there are some excellent Indians in Patts these days so the competition is out there. Curry Home on Buakhow next to the coins does a brilliant job for a lot less that what Naando's is offering.

 

Well, there was some inconsistency at Bite Me especially when they had some chef staffing transition periods. But overall most people seemed to really like the food and it was popular. Yes, it closed, but sometimes even popular restaurants close for business reasons. 

I ate at Bite Me a lot. About 75 percent of time I liked the food, but about 25 percent not so much and occasionally even kind of bad.

I've been to Curry Home a number of times too. For me, the curries are better at Naandos. 

[davidge]

Well, if part of the Bite Me menu will be back then I'll watch with interest.

No interest, however, in Indian grub. Vile stuff. Only for people with no palate.

[Kreggerz]

3 minutes ago, davidge said:

Well, if part of the Bite Me menu will be back then I'll watch with interest.

No interest, however, in Indian grub. Vile stuff. Only for people with no palate.

If you say so. 

Seems normal enough for people to like both good Indian and European food. 

[davidge]

On 14/06/2017 at 8:52 PM, striderman said:

i'm told they have a chicken tarka. much the same but a bit otter

Went right over his head 

[Pheat]

4 minutes ago, davidge said:

Went right over his head 

Who Egon Miklos Ronay ?555

[Kreggerz]

10 minutes ago, davidge said:

Went right over his head 

Actually, I got the joke.

https://greenwichcurryclub.com/tag/curry-jokes/

Quote

Curry lover 1: I am going to try Chicken Tarka Masala tonight. It’s meant to be like Tikka but this is a little ‘otter
Curry lover 2: Some man in our local Indian Restaurant collapsed with a heart-attack the other night in the middle of eating. Rumour is he had a dodgy Tikka.
Curry lover 1: Did he fall into a Korma?
Curry lover 2: No, but he was on the Vinda loo a lot.
Curry lover 1: This is getting Phaal-sical.
Curry lover 1: Sorry, I was only Rogan Joshing.
Curry lover 2: At least his Nan was close by.
Curry lover 1: And she gave him a Pilau to rest his head on.
Curry lover 2: They had to revive him with a Chapati on the back.
Curry lover 1: Which was an Aloo-dicrous thing to do.
Curry lover 2: But it worked so nobody could Sag-ue with that approach.
Curry lover 1: And I’m pleased to report he was Raita as rain afterwards

.

[Edge]

On 6/14/2017 at 9:16 PM, Kreggerz said:

OK, got around to visiting Naandos.

I guess they're mostly about delivery and takeaway business as the interior space is kind of rough with limited tables.

No problem for me but a little surprising. 

........................................................

I'm surprised that you were surprised, considering that you ate there a lot?

32 minutes ago, Kreggerz said:

Well, there was some inconsistency at Bite Me especially when they had some chef staffing transition periods. But overall most people seemed to really like the food and it was popular. Yes, it closed, but sometimes even popular restaurants close for business reasons. 

I ate at Bite Me a lot. I...............................................................

Pretty sure Bite Me failed due to lack of business, so I don't get why you think the return of their menu will be such a success.
Basic problem for sit down is the location, which was why it didn't work as a Retox overflow either.

Do you have some interest in it?

[davidge]

I thought Bite Me was starting to impact on Retox business so they 'made them an offer they couldn't refuse' to get them out of the way.

[Kreggerz]

13 minutes ago, Edge said:

I'm surprised that you were surprised, considering that you ate there a lot?

Pretty sure Bite Me failed due to lack of business, so I don't get why you think the return of their menu will be such a success.
Basic problem for sit down is the location, which was why it didn't work as a Retox overflow either.

Do you have some interest in it?

It seems you have misunderstood me.

The original Naandos tables were very limited and there were also some bar stool type things that didn't look like great places to eat an Indian meal.

That setup was entirely different than the old Bite Me table setup.

Now those original Naandos tables and bar stools are gone and the old Bite Me tables are back. I think they have enough tables now for a real sit down restaurant, as before. 

I have no interest in it except that I really used to like the Bite Me food most of the time.  I think they served a niche. Moderately priced creative modern European food using lower cost local ingredients, so they could keep the price down. 

I'm not really interested in the business soap opera thing with Retox.

 

[Petesie]

We went to Bite Me on the recommendation of a friend who's a restauranteur; we were disappointed to the extent that neither of us could eat the meal.

I thought something was off when the chef (Ian?) did the rounds of the tables and didn't come near ours.

I will try Naando's though, hope I'm pleasantly surprised.