There’s no place like home…

Will Sarpech in Oakham deliver on our first official trip to the motherland?

Being given the role of CHASS was something I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. With the responsibility of choosing a restaurant for our fabulous OCC brothers, there was only one place I had in mind… Oakham.

Believe it or not, despite being called The Oakham Curry Club, we were yet to visit / review anywhere in Oakham. That particular story is for another time but upon completing some research it seemed that there was one particular restaurant we would have to visit, Sarpech.

In the words of Sarpech themselves -“Fresh quality ingredients, elegant dining space and EXCEPTIONAL service”. We at the OCC were looking forward to being the ones to see if their actions spoke louder than words.

Upon arrival we were greeted by the staff, special mention to the manager who went out of his way to ensure we were seen to and seated. It was clear he did his research on our famous curry club and even used to work at a restaurant our Shanghai branch visited and reviewed a year or so back - talk about a small world!

The restaurant was busy and it had a great buzz about the place, it was great to see a mix of people of all demographics whether young, old, couples or families all enjoying themselves.

Upon initial glance at the menu it was noted that this wasn’t just your regular Indian restaurant menu, this was Indian food with a twist, whilst still having the classic options for the more traditional diners.

We left starters up to the manager who said to leave to him and he would bring us out a special mix of things. Very shortly afterwards arrived one of the most colourful arrangements of starters we’ve seen. A mix of Chilli Garlic Prawns, Chilli Paneer, Lamb Spare Ribs and what I would say was the star of the show, the Vegetable Assiette which could only be described as a bundle of Indian joy consisting of vegetable samosas, aloo tikka and dahl puri - a must try when you visit here!

All round the starters were EXCEPTIONAL and I would have recommended this place just on starters alone.

The mains were next, each member of The OCC likes to order their own dish here in the UK with special sharing dishes chosen. I personally went for the Garlic Chilli Chicken which had a nice amount of spice and was absolutely delicious, I also ordered a Peshwari Naan and some Pilau rice which again were all fantastic. Although all dishes were delicious, special mention to the Lamb Shank Nihari which looked and tasted unreal and I’ll definitely be ordering for myself on my next visit.

It’s worth mentioning the special sharing dish which the manager insisted we tried which was the Tamarind Aubergines and a couple of their special Naan Breads - Red Leicester and Chilli Naan and the Blue Stilton and Red Onion Naan which were unique but delicious.

Special mention to the staff here, they worked tirelessly to ensure we were never left waiting for too long, whether this was for a drink or any of our food. Also the restaurant in general as mentioned earlier had a fantastic atmosphere which created a real buzz about the place.

One of the most common OCC debates is how do you define value? With the bill coming to just short of £40 a person this is personally my definition of true value and I would have happily paid double for the all round experience of visiting here.

OCC etiquette means no swaying in regards to scoring but after a nervous wait, at 7.30pm Sunday Evening we delighted to reveal that this restaurant was voted our HIGHEST EVER SCORE in OCC International history (full scores below).

Customer Care: 9.48

Customer Service: 8.42

Value: 9

Quality: 9.16

Atmosphere: 8.92

Total Score: 8.99/10

This fantastic restaurant is OCC approved and we look forward to awarding them an OCC approved sticker on a return visit very soon.