Review of 'Monkey Temple'

We live just around the corner and ever since Chicken Cottage left and Monkey Temple took it's place we have been interested in giving it a visit given that it bills itself as “Nepalese Indian Cuisine” which is a bit of a change from the normal Indian. We have previously visited the nearby Kathmandu Inn and were not really impressed but enough that we were interested in trying more Nepalese food.

From the outside it looks like a typical take away but the simple interior is actually quite pleasant though it gets noisy when busy. The staff were friendly, relaxed and helpful throughout our visit, seating us near the window.

One of the things that has always struck us with Monkey Temple menu when we looked at it in the past (in the window) is how much the food looks typically Indian so we went out of our way to try some more unusual and, preferably, Nepalese dishes. The menu has only a few Nepalese dishes with most of the items familiar to anyone who visits Indian restaurants including curries and tandoori grills. I understand that there is a great deal of overlap between the two cuisines (given the countries are neighbours) but it would be nice to see more Nepalese dishes to make Monkey Temple stand out from the crowd.

We started with “Vegetables Momo” (£4.45 - also available with meat) which are steamed dumplings served with a tasty dipping sauce. These were a bit of a flash-back to Chinese dumplings but this incarnation had very little of the flavour and were slightly flabby. Quite unusual.

For our mains we had “Lamb Sag” (£7.96) which was deliciously tender lamb cooked with spinach, “Chicken Ko-Sa” (£7.45) - Tikka chicken cooked with ground coconut, mushroom and green peas then flavoured with lemon and almonds - Probably our favourite, and, finally, “Murgh Mustang” (£7.45) - chicken, again, cooked in a masala sauce - which was alright but not exactly brimming with flavour. On the side we had a simple order of plain basmati rice (£2.25) and a Peshwari Naan (£2.65) - The later being slightly underwhelming on flavour given that it is supposed to be sweet and spicy with almonds.

Due to guilt from a slight error on our bill (quickly rectified) we were treated by the management to an order of ice cream that was nicely presented on a plate with an artful splash of chocolate sauce.

Our waiter was very helpful and happy to chat making the entire experience very enjoyable. The prices were about average though the food was very well prepared and generally quite good. We will be back to work our way through other items on the menu very soon.

Rating: “It is OK but I have some issues”

Review Date: 2016-08-14

Cuisine: Indian

Address: 92 Askew Road, Shepherd's Bush, London W12 9BL ENGLAND

Public Transport: Goldhawk Road Stamford Brook

Location: London (England) - Shepherd's Bush

Map:

Telephone: +44 (0) 208 743 4597

URL: https://monkeytempleonline.co.uk/