Verdict : 7/10 (Good and interesting food, polite service)
This may be a long time ago, but I thought it is worth making an entry, as I found photos in my archive.
D and I visited Blue Mango in Regent Wharf, Broad Street, on 26 April 2006. This photo only is taken recently and we went there actually for dinner.
We entred the restaurant around 7 o'clock. Although we did not have reservation, we did not have problem in finding a table, as it was less than half-full.
It got busier during the night, and at the time when we were leaving, it was completely full.
The décor is modern and inside is spacious.
We did not have starter, but did have papadoms.
Papadoms here were very different from the usual ones. Not only the seize was much smaller (but plentiful in quantity), the texture also was different. There were also two corn-shaped larger ones. They were, however, very salty, and I resisted from eating more than some.
These are the dips for papadoms. I don't remember exactly what were they, but the right one should be mango chutney, left below is chili and onion, and above were pickles. Now that I see this photo, I realise that there wasn't mint yogurt.
These left almost un-touched, as the papadoms were too salty.
The main dishes arrived in small ceramic bowls. They looked small, but as all these curry pots, they can contain more than they look.
Larger bowl to the left is coconuts rice; it contained lots of grated fresh coconuts and spices, and it tasted good as well as interesting. The pale colour one is D's curry that I don't remember what it was. I think it was a mind curry with lamb. The other reddish one is my chichen chettinad; tasty, spicy and pretty hot. We were both happy with our choice.
Blue Mango offers Indian regional bread. This is South Indian Bread Platter. We ordered it by curiousity without realising it was for two people. As we also had coconuts rice, we could not finish them all.
The white large one to the left is Dosa, made of fermented dough of rice power and bean powder. I am not a big fan of dosa, but it was very impressed by how beautifully it was cooked. The two smaller ones are Idli. I don't know what they were made from, but they were definitely steamed bread. I loved the texture, but D did not appreciate it. The brown one was some kind of fried bread. It was a bit too oily for me.
We also had one glass of lassi, one glass of wine, water, and two coffees (dire, to our surprise). I don't remember exactly how much we paid, but it was less than £40, and we thought it reasonable. We have never returned to this restaurant since, then but it just happened to be so; it is one of the places we do want to go back, if there is a chance.
For more recent visit (February 2008), click here.
Blue Mango
Unit 5, Regency Wharf, Broad St, Birmingham B1 2DS
Tel: 0121 633 4422
http://www.bluemangorestaurants.co.uk/
