Spice JunctionIndian takeaway · BargoedIndian takeaway

The team

Two of us, three drivers and a tandoor.

Shahid opened Spice Junction in 2004 in what had been a video shop; Nasreen joined the counter in 2009 and now runs everything in front of the kitchen door.

A round steel spice tin with turmeric, chilli powder, cumin, mustard seed, cardamom, cloves and cinnamon, with dried red and fresh green chillies
Shahid Rahman, a stocky man of about forty-eight with short greying hair and a neat grey-flecked beard, in a white chef's jacket in a takeaway kitchen

Shahid Rahman

Chef and owner. The tandoor, the sauces, every curry on a Friday

Grew up above his father's restaurant in Merthyr and trained in its kitchen from fourteen. Opened Spice Junction in 2004 in what had been a video shop, because he wanted a kitchen of his own and no dining room to run. Lights the tandoor at four, makes the base sauces every afternoon, grinds the spice mix on Tuesdays, and cooks on the Friday and Saturday line himself. Weighs the chilli.

Nasreen Rahman, a slim woman of about thirty-eight with dark hair tied back, in a teal polo shirt and black apron, holding an order pad at a takeaway counter

Nasreen Rahman

The counter, the phones, the drivers and the allergy tickets

Shahid's wife, and the reason the orders arrive in the right order. Runs the counter and the phones, writes the drivers' route sheet as the orders come in, and writes every allergy on the ticket in red ink and reads it back. Built the busy-night times on this website from three years of her own order book. Ask her what to have; she will say the dhansak.

  • 2,004the year Shahid lit the tandoor on Hanbury Road
  • 5chillies on the heat scale, and every curry cooked to the one you pick
  • 40 minto the door on a normal night; the site says when it is busier
  • 4.7average from 896 reviews
A small takeaway shopfront at dusk in a stone terrace with a teal-painted frame and a brightly lit window

Hanbury Road

A video shop, then a kitchen.

Number 32 rented out videos until 2003. Shahid took the lease, knocked through to the back, put the tandoor where the horror section had been and kept the counter. There have never been tables, on purpose: a dining room needs waiters and a licence and a different kind of evening, and he wanted to cook.

The drivers are Aled, Kamal and Jason, who between them have delivered to every terrace from Aberbargoed to Deri. The spice mix is ground every Tuesday and nobody but Shahid knows exactly what is in it.

Finding the shop

Build it to your heat, see the price, then ring.

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.

Build a curryRing 01443 496 0135