The kitchen
No tables and no waiters since 2004: the whole shop is the kitchen, the counter and the drivers. Each of the six has a page with the prices and how it works.
01
Korma to vindaloo, with chicken, lamb, king prawn, paneer or vegetables, each cooked to the heat you choose from one chilli to five. Build one on the curry builder with rice and a naan and see the price before you ring.
Chicken curries from £9.50, lamb £1.50 more, king prawn £3.50 more, vegetable £1.50 less.
02
Chicken and lamb tikka, tandoori chicken on the bone, seekh kebabs, king prawns and paneer shashlik from a clay tandoor at 400 degrees, served sizzling on onions with a salad and mint sauce. The mixed grill is the Saturday favourite.
Chicken tikka £11.50, half tandoori chicken £10.95, lamb tikka £12.95, the mixed grill £15.95, tandoori king prawn £15.50.
03
Basmati layered with spiced chicken, lamb, king prawn or vegetables, sealed and steamed so the rice takes the flavour, with fried onions and coriander on top and a vegetable curry sauce on the side.
Vegetable biryani £10.45, chicken £11.95, lamb £13.45, king prawn £15.45, the special mixed £15.95.
04
Paneer and vegetable curries to any heat, chana masala, tarka dal, saag aloo, Bombay potatoes, mushroom bhaji, samosas and bhajis, cooked in their own pans. Nine of the twelve can be made vegan with oil instead of ghee.
Vegetable curry from £8, paneer from £10.
05
A meal for two at £24.95 and the family feast for four at £44.95, with starters, curries, rice, naans and poppadoms; Tuesday curry night is two curries, a rice and a naan for £20. The deals page says which offer is on today.
Meal for two £24.95, family feast for four £44.95, Tuesday curry night £20.
06
Delivery by our own three drivers to Bargoed, Aberbargoed, Gilfach, Pengam, Fleur-de-Lys, Tir-y-berth, Brithdir and Deri, free over £20 within three miles, with the time from the clock: about forty minutes on a normal night, an hour on a Friday. Collection in twenty.
Free over £20 within three miles; £2 under that or further out.
An evening
Shahid lights the tandoor and starts the base sauces: onions cooked down for two hours, tomato, the spice mix ground on Tuesday. The dals go on.
The phones open. Nasreen takes the early orders and writes the first route sheet; allergies go on the ticket in red.
Every curry finished in a karahi to the heat on the ticket; three drivers out on routes so nobody in Deri waits behind Pengam.
The rush. The website adds twenty minutes to the times from the clock, and if we run later than that we ring you.
Nine curries, five proteins, one to five chillies, a rice and a naan: the builder gives the price before you pick up the phone. Free delivery over £20 within three miles; about forty minutes on a normal night.
