A wonderful OCC meet in the jewel of Sheung Wan
The Oakham Curry Club (OCC) Hong Kong branch chose Namaste Kitchen for its monthly meet on Friday 29th January 2016. There was much expectation after Namaste Kitchen had been strongly recommended by a number of fellow curryites from across Hong Kong and beyond. I am delighted to confirm that expectations were not misaligned, and we had the most wonderful evening. We were a large group consisting of 8 existing members and 3 nominees which meant the staff needed to rise to the occasion, and boy did they. From the moment we arrived we were treated like curry royalty with the staff doing their upmost to ensure we had a successful meet. This included, but not limited to: - Beer continually being served to the table as soon as requested to the 11 thirsty patrons - Beautiful cone shaped poppadoms arriving at will - Providing a perfect staging area for our nominee speeches to take place - Allowing Billy The Kid to answer the phone taking customer orders - Giving us lots of chillies for the punisher to take action on those who dared break our sacred OCC rules - Gave us the opportunity to share a closing picture with the talented kitchen team During the meet the restaurant was bustling with a wide range of patrons from the mecca that is Sheung Wan however there was always a member of staff on hand to take our every request and they were more than happy for us to read the OCC prayer as we awaited our food. On the topic of the actual food..........we had some delicious chicken tikka and samosas for starters which we all shared. Then for mains there was a wide range of choices including tikka masala, madras, rogan josh and dopiaza. As per the OCC bible, nobody dared order the chicken milkshake (Korma). All these main courses received strong feedback and were excellent coming out in good time. The pilau rice and naan was also very good. Although this was a very enjoyable meet, some areas which Namaste Kitchen may like to consider for improvement would perhaps be atmosphere as some authentic indian music could really add to the mix. Secondly I would also question the draft beer selection of San Miguel and Kirin, both of which are excellent beers but what happened to the cobra or kingfisher guys?! Finally, the evening was extremely good value. Having outlined all of the above beer (4 pints per thirsty head) and food, the evening only came to a remarkable HK$350 per person. Overall, I thought it was only fair to give Namaste an Excellent by Trip Advisor ratings. This in turn was echoed by the OCC rating of 7.29 which is very impressive coming from a group of hard line curry enthusiasts. This score puts this restaurant in the leader pack for the OCC CHOTY (Curry House of The Year). The breakdown of the OCC rating can be found in the attached picture as well as the picture of the OCC with the chefs.
Customer Care - 7.43 Service – 8.00 Value – 7.57 Quality – 7.14 Atmosphere – 6.29 Total – 7.29
In closing to Namaste Kitchen......may your poppadoms be crispy, your sauces be spicy and your currys be tasty.
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g294217-d6941491-r344878175-Namaste_Kitchen-Hong_Kong.html#