Jump to content

Southern Indian food in Sheffield

Recommended Posts

Two states in one of my favourite places to eat. The food is so tasty and the waiter very attentive, recommending dishes you may like to try and adjusting spices to suite your taste. Highly recommend

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Oh I didn't see this topic page and I just posted about two states in the best Indian restaurant, I completely agree with you guys that two states is worth the money and my favourite restaurant as well

 

I had heard about it and saw that its the number one Indian restaurant now in Sheffield .The place was packed last night so we were lucky to get a table

 

The staff were so nice and helped us with the menu ,reccomended dishes and I just loved the ginger prawn , chicken chettinad a tasty spicy thick gravy curry and I had to order masala dosa twice since my friend finished mine

 

Highly reccomend this place and can't wait to be there for the get together

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Well visited again last night and it was once more superb, we had the Thalasseri chicken and ginger prawns starters, really tasty and quite filling to be fair.

Mains were Chattinad chicken and Varutharacha Prawn both excellent,pilau rice was recommended by the waiter with these dishes, so had that and 2 Pooris, freshly fried, heaven!!! Had a chat with the chef about the restaurant and its now I believe No 1 in Sheffield! It rightly deserves its place if it is.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I had a takeaway from Two States a month or two ago. I didn't rate it. Maybe if it's a good example of that type of food then that kind of stuff is not for me.

 

The place itself is still a bit shabby, like it was in the previous guise and the pseudo-Italians before that. So overall I won't bother with it again. I realise this goes against the 100% positive reviews on here so far.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Two states in one of my favourite places to eat. The food is so tasty and the waiter very attentive, recommending dishes you may like to try and adjusting spices to suite your taste. Highly recommend

 

You see... I wish they wouldn't do that. "Adjusting spices to suit your taste". That's what ruins Indian food for me.

 

When I've eaten at the home of Indian people (and I've done this a lot over the years as many of my clients were Indian and Pakistani) the food they eat at home is not much like what you get in Indian restaurants.

 

I think restaurants should try and create dishes that are authentic and stop farting about changing the spices and stuff just to suit Brits who often fall into 2 camps - of "I'm hard and so I like it extremely hot" and "A don't like foreign muck it's too spicy".

 

It's a bit like when I do Chilli Con Carne at home. I do it spicy hot using a combination of different fresh chillies. Oh yes, and I cook it with half a lime too - just as they do in Mexico. That's what Chilli Con Carne is. If you don't like it spicy hot then you don't like Chilli Con Carne really - it's as simple as that. Have a spag bog instead!

 

I like South Indian food generally. Masala Dosa is one of my favourites. I haven't tried this Two States place. I walked past it the other day and from the outside it doesn't look very inviting. Neither could I imagine myself going to Hillsborough for a night out! I think it's one hell of a depressing dump of a place. BUT - if this restaurant was truly turning out top quality South Indian food I'd be there.

 

More reports please from people who know a bit about Indian food?

 

---------- Post added 07-04-2017 at 08:36 ----------

 

Hi the mandarin

 

Masala Dosa and chicken Manchurian are the dishes we sell a lot everyday ,I must say that's our trade mark dishes.

 

 

Love Masala Dosa. Can't say I've ever had that chicken Mancunian.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

You see... I wish they wouldn't do that. "Adjusting spices to suit your taste". That's what ruins Indian food for me.

 

When I've eaten at the home of Indian people (and I've done this a lot over the years as many of my clients were Indian and Pakistani) the food they eat at home is not much like what you get in Indian restaurants.

 

Indian/Pakistani restaurants can rarely get it right for the UK. Too many Brits like the plentiful brown slop, so that has to be on the menu in one of its many guises (with a little food colouring and chilli powder to convert between korma and phal).

 

Those of us ('caucasians') who fancy ourselves a little more sophisticated like more spicing (not just chilli, but complex mixtures), sour or bitter flavours, meat cooked with minimal sauces etc. However, many (and this includes me) cannot cope for long with a truely authentic South Indian dose of chilli - we are just not brought up with it. The heat hides the other flavours and definitely detracts from the pleasure after a while.

 

One other factor is important: salt. At least in southern India/Sri Lanka, the levels of salt added to cooked food are far higher than we are used to and 'authentic' food is actually quite hard to eat, at least for me.

 

For Pakistani/Bangladeshi/North Indian food the situation may be a little different, and spicing is usually less extreme in my experience. On an outing to Aagrah in Leopold Square with a group of visitors from Pakistan, there were comments about the high chilli content...from our visitors. The locals all thought it was just a good hot curry!

 

Regarding Two States, they will spice up dishes on request but they told us on our first visit that they had encountered too many complaints from Brits while working in other restaurants and so the default is the toned-down food. Maveli on West Street also does the same, but I have had 'full thrash' food there on request and it is an interesting experience. The best curry I have had in Sheffield was at Arusuvai on Abbeydale Road, but again they had to be asked to provide proper food.

 

If you let them know that you like high salt and spicing levels, I am sure that you will get the 'real thing'. Even better, order a salt lassi with it - if it is authentic this will contain chilli and black pepper to add some extra fuel to the fire...

Edited by PeteM01

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

i think two states must be good, there are people joining Sheffield Forum just to say how good it is.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Hi Everyone

 

It's quite nice to see some good feedback on the food at Two states and I am happy that you guys have enjoyed the food

 

Regarding the "Adjusting the spices to suit the taste" comments above - I would say yes you are right we shouldn't adjust the spices and we should provide the food as it is ,the reason why we had to do that is because we do get customers who wants to try mild dish but once we explain what we have in our menu they want to try the spicy dish and they do request us to make it mild for them - which wont give them the exact taste to the food since the spiciiness is reduced but we do it just for the customer since we cook the food from the scratch

 

I am happy that people are talking about Two States and we will take your feedback into consideration and there is a plan to renovate few areas of the restaurant this year

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
You see... I wish they wouldn't do that. "Adjusting spices to suit your taste". That's what ruins Indian food for me.

 

When I've eaten at the home of Indian people (and I've done this a lot over the years as many of my clients were Indian and Pakistani) the food they eat at home is not much like what you get in Indian restaurants.

 

Indian/Pakistani restaurants can rarely get it right for the UK. Too many Brits like the plentiful brown slop, so that has to be on the menu in one of its many guises (with a little food colouring and chilli powder to convert between korma and phal).

 

Those of us ('caucasians') who fancy ourselves a little more sophisticated like more spicing (not just chilli, but complex mixtures), sour or bitter flavours, meat cooked with minimal sauces etc. However, many (and this includes me) cannot cope for long with a truely authentic South Indian dose of chilli - we are just not brought up with it. The heat hides the other flavours and definitely detracts from the pleasure after a while.

 

One other factor is important: salt. At least in southern India/Sri Lanka, the levels of salt added to cooked food are far higher than we are used to and 'authentic' food is actually quite hard to eat, at least for me.

 

For Pakistani/Bangladeshi/North Indian food the situation may be a little different, and spicing is usually less extreme in my experience. On an outing to Aagrah in Leopold Square with a group of visitors from Pakistan, there were comments about the high chilli content...from our visitors. The locals all thought it was just a good hot curry!

 

Regarding Two States, they will spice up dishes on request but they told us on our first visit that they had encountered too many complaints from Brits while working in other restaurants and so the default is the toned-down food. Maveli on West Street also does the same, but I have had 'full thrash' food there on request and it is an interesting experience. The best curry I have had in Sheffield was at Arusuvai on Abbeydale Road, but again they had to be asked to provide proper food.

 

If you let them know that you like high salt and spicing levels, I am sure that you will get the 'real thing'. Even better, order a salt lassi with it - if it is authentic this will contain chilli and black pepper to add some extra fuel to the fire...

 

Some good points there yes I agree with most of what you say. I must say, I was in Sri Lanka on holiday about 5 years ago now and I don't recall having anything that was salty or extremely hot. In fact, a lot of the curry type dishes were fruity with pineapple and coconut flavours in some cases - which was quite different to what I've had here in the UK.

 

I sometimes buy (in bulk - well...maybe 12 at a time) curry from a small Pakistani shop in Nottingham. This place is called Royal Sweet Centre - and it's really just a little cafe type place with a few tables - in a run down area of Nottingham. I first got to know about this place many years ago when I used to work all around the Nottingham area. It was some professional Asian clients that referred me to it as being a bit more like the kind of food they cook at home.

 

I've been going there maybe 30 years now - it's not been run by the same folks all that time of course - but it's consistently turning out curries that are really intended for the locals - in an area that is predominantly Asian/Pakistani in the main.

 

They usually have lamb curry on and off the bone, maybe something like lamb with spinach, chicken on and off the bone, minced lamb with peas, and veg curries, lentils, fabulous samosa's and seek kebabs too. It's all set out in dishes like the ones you'd see in an old school canteen. I think it's something like £3.50 for a curry to take away - and you get 2 free naans with that! So I usually end up buying a load of stuff and filling my freezer at home. But...sometimes the lamb curry in particular can be a bit salty - it doesn't spoil it for me - but it's noticeably different to what you'd get in most restaurants.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

So where have all Sheffield's Sri Lankan and South Indian restaurants gone? Sai Naivas closed a while back, Masala Dosa Cafe didn't last long, the Dosa place in the market even less. Ramas Bridge is now Domino's, Two States closed, and tonight I find Arusavai and even East and West seem to be no more.

Is there only Mavelli, or are there new openings?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.