Dastaan Leeds

This is a sister to Dastaan in Ewell, which has spun off a number of restaurants from the mothership, including The Kokum, Black Salt and Koyal.  It is in the Adel area of Leeds, near Headingly. The restaurant is set back from a busy road and is a large affair, seating 120 customers on the ground floor and a further 24 upstairs. The head chef here is Kailash Chander, who worked previously in New Delhi for Accor hotels. Here he is following the recipes of executive chef Nand Kishor at Dastaan. In addition to the a la carte menu there was a £50 tasting menu available. 

There was a short wine list, ranging from £26 to £90 and with no vintages listed. Example labels were Alte Vista Vive Torrontes at £36 for a wine that you can find in the high street for £19, Hancock & Hancock Shiraz/Grenache at £42 compared to its retail price of £12, and Bollinger Special Cuvee at £85 for a bottle that will set you back £58 in the high street. There was even a Dastaan Pilsner brand (£6.50 a pint), made in collaboration with a local brewery.

A generous basket of popadoms (£7) had a crisp texture and came with a trio of chutneys. Turmeric and yoghurt chutney was made from scratch in the kitchen, and was pleasant and quite mild. I particularly like the tomato chutney, also made here, which had a good complex flavour and a nice kick of spicy heat. Mango chutney was based on a bought-in mango paste and was fine.  

A single, large tandoori lamb chop (£12.50) was cooked pink and had nicely absorbed the spices of its marinade. The chop was tender and rested on a kind of mooli (radish) noodle flavoured with mustard. This was lovely, the texture providing a contrast, the mustard flavour present but not dominant, and complemented by a beetroot chutney. This was a high-class dish (16/20). The bhajias at Dastaan have always been a star dish. The version here with spring onion and spinach (£6.50) is of the same standard, crisp and without a hint of greasiness. The portion here was very generous, with no less than ten bhajias as well as tamarind and mint chutneys (16/20). 

Methi chicken (£14.50) had tender pieces of chicken breast flavoured with a sauce including fresh fenugreek leaves. As with all the dishes here, the spicing was vibrant, with the fresh fenugreek leaves imparting much better flavour than fenugreek powder. This is one of my favourite curries and the version here was an outstanding version of the genre (16/20). Garlic tiger prawns (£12.50) came with a tomato, chilli and garlic chutney. These were large prawns that had been beautifully cooked, the shellfish having nicely absorbed their marinade and being complemented well by the spicy chutney (easily 16/20). 

Makhani dhal was made overnight and was dark and smoky and rich as it should be, the lentils retaining a touch of texture. This was a very fine example of a classic dish (16/20). The only relative misstep was an aloo mattur dish that was not quite in the same league as the other dishes. The potatoes could have been a touch firmer for me, though the peas were good and the sauce had some quite distinct spices (14/20). Garlic naan (£3.50) has excellent soft texture and plenty of garlic flavour. It was so good that we ordered another one, which arrived piping hot and gloriously and generously flavoured with garlic (16/20).

Gulab jamun (£5.50) was made from scratch here, the spheres of milk solids in syrup managing to avoid the sickly sweetness that can sometimes affect this dish (15/20). Pistachio kulfi (£6.50) was made here from scratch and was very good, served at the right temperature and having plenty of pistachio flavour as well as good texture (15/20).

Service was excellent, our waiter being unusually well qualified in that he had a master’s degree in hospitality management. The bill came to £69 a person, but this was for lots of food, sufficient for an entire further meal for two that was packed up for us. If you ordered more parsimoniously then a typical cost per person might be more like £40. Dastaan Leeds is a terrific restaurant, serving outstanding Indian food. The residents of Leeds are a lucky bunch.