My Delhi, Newcastle

A little bit of Delhi via Clayton Street? 🍛

My Delhi (87A Clayton Street, NE1 5PY) offers ‘Indian street food, inspired by the streets and markets of India’. Which for the past decade, seems to have thankfully been the way forward for Indian restaurants in the UK.

It’s one of the (very loosely) newer breed of Indian restaurants that are the logical next step of the type of place that was on Ocean Rd in South Shields about 30 years ago. Curry Houses, I think the somewhat dismissive colloquial was. Newcastle has taken a long time to get past that phase. But since c.2010, there’s not been many places solely existing to fulfil that old cliché. You know the type: ‘the classics’ menu, charging +50p for ch. breast, tired interiors, even tireder wine lists. King Cobra. Lurid food dyeing.

Nowadays, you generally get that blend of British Indian Restaurant cooking, and something at least along the lines of Indian street food authenticity. I love both, but a trend towards the latter is progress.

For residents of Newcastle, read: very much Dabbawal-alike, which is no bad thing. Dabbawal was probably the first in town to offer something a little more up-to-date, and it has done very well since then.

My Delhi offers a similar kind of modern menu, and goes to lengths to emulate the feel of a bustling Delhi cityscape. So far as to have screens on the wall offering a faux-window out onto a crowded city street. It sings about its English Curry Awards, it does cook at home kits, it proudly offers soya-based plant alternatives. It shouts about an all-Delhi-ite kitchen! All good.

All this 2022-ness means there’s no chicken korma, lamb vindaloo or the like. BIR cooking certainly has a place (and always will) but My Delhi have decided that it is not it. So while there’s a few old friends like onion bhaji, it’s mostly those dishes which are finally creeping into the British vocabulary like gol gappa, railway curry, and butter chicken. The actual OGs.

The place was bouncing on the final night of the recent Restaurant Week, absolutely packed, and My Delhi is busy opening a second site in Sunderland so they must be doing alright. The core concept is focussed and many of the dishes are kinda introductory versions of the street food dishes they ape: gol gappa comes with plastic syringe to ‘inject’ tamarind water, Amritsari fish and a few other bits feature those little frying baskets, and you can see it’s perhaps a bit Insta-focussed. Maybe I’m mellowing, but I don’t mind that much, as long as the big flavour is there. Then again.

Bottom line is that the big flavour is there. In parts.

Butter chicken is a fine example of the rich and creamy modern day tikka masala that it inspired. Lamb nuggets in the railway curry are ridiculously tender, and backed with a sauce that has some depth of 3-dimensional flavour. It has never blown me away like HOLY SHIT THAT’S GOOD, but given that My Delhi is on all the delivery platforms, the tenner spend vs. the hours of slaving over a good slow-cooked sauce is, all things considered great value.

“Going for a curry” might be passé, but if that’s your end goal you’ll be alright here. Goa, Kerala, et al (and even some glances towards Chinese, and Indo cooking) are well represented with paneer, fish, and lamb shank on a largely ‘I’d eat any of it’ menu.

Less consistent are everything else. While some of the starters & bits have been excellent — battered chips are just filthy in all the best ways, chicken tikka is both juicy and a realistic shade of paprika, and bhattura is soft and devoid of any greasy aftertaste. But then some others let down. Poppadum chutneys are very ‘meh’. Fried cauliflower in Manchurian sauce is both mean in portion and garlic restraint. Some garnishes just shouldn’t be there, naans, a little dry. It’s all minor details but it all adds up to make me not love it. But that’s not to knock it.

Does it take me to the streets of Delhi? Not quite, but it’s a fair effort. Most people will go and have a great time.

My Delhi offers an enjoyable romp through an up-to-date take on how a casual Indian restaurant should be. If you’re looking for a more serious wow from the food, choose Khai Khai where the cooking is just that bit more serious. If it’s overall experience/vibes you’re after, I’d say Dabbawal pips it. But there’s plenty room for more like My Delhi and less bland-BIR style restaurants. So if you’re at all looking for a bustling meal out and curries you’ll enjoy, you’ll be alreet.