Indian Nights - St Albans

Live and work in the village and always heard mixed reviews for our local curry house. Decided to try it as it was our turn to host a venue for our curry club. 5 of us had dinner there Thursday. I can honestly say it was terrific. Why this place is not rammed is beyond me. Great service and excellent quality food and really good size portions. Read the review on here about the onion Bhaji only having two. They are the size of a cricket ball each not the usual flat hockey puck size from elsewhere Do yourselves a favour and drop in you will be pleasantly surprised.

This really is an under appreciated establishment. The staff work so hard to provide genuinely freshly cooked, individual dishes at amazingly low prices. They have no licence so you need to go to the Coop nearby to get your tipple. The place is very clean. The naan bread is fluffy with a fresh bottom crust and the bindi Is not mushy but freshly chopped and delicately spiced. Even the poppadum accompaniments and mints are perfectly presented. How they make a profit I will never know.

My family and I have eaten curries from Indian Nights for the past 23 years. The food is superb, never a disappointment and always delicious. I have not once had a bad meal from here. The vegetarian curry is superb. Its a family staple. The proprietors are kind, generous and caring.

We have had take away from Indian nights and eaten in the restaurant several times. I personally prefer to eat in as I think the service is excellent and friendly and I think the food suffers slightly when ordering take-away. I feel this is true of most Indian restaurant take-aways. The quality of the food here has always been excellent and as a fun evening out with friends, I can't criticise. The portions are perfect and the quality of produce seems very good. Too often in Indian's the meat, if ordered, can be tough and not of the best quality. I have not found this to be the case when I have eaten in. I would love them to re-decorate as it is very basic inside, like a dated front room in someone's house, and although top priority should be food and service, the decor and lighting leave me underwhelmed. Where some restaurants go too far with Neon lights and water features, there is a happy medium out there and I wish they would invest just a little to modernise. That's the only thing stopping me rating them excellent. If you can overlook this, which is easy, the food and service are very good. You won't be disappointed there. Also, you can't buy alcohol, so bring your own.

The service is very friendly and attentive. It wasn't my most enjoyable meal experience however. The BYOB was also a positive given there is a well stocked newsagents next door.