I love this place!!!!. I am in love with their presentation....awesome food....awesome service....it has always been a elightful experience :)
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A return with much Aroma and Spice. I have been a local since Aroma Spice opened many years ago in 1999. It has always been by far the best indian restaurant in Hampstead if not North London.However after seeing the the exterior boarded up for a total of three months i was expecting the worse thinking that the owners may have gone under due to the financial fiasco we are all undertaking at the moment. I am happy to review that they are far from going under as they reopened last week with a bang.The restaurant has been redesigned and is now cool and modern, with a fabulous long bar in wood and granite, and yet it is relaxed, unlike many newly designed spaces that make you feel as though you have to be on your best behaviour and sit up straight! Soft jazz or blues on the speakers, candles, crisp white table linen and lilies - all creating a really calm and convivial atmosphere.
And the food! The menu has also undergone a revamp and whilst old favourites remain, there are some new dishes which are well worth trying. I had their Tandoori trout the other night and it was fantastic - the fish was delicately flavoured and cooked to perfection. One of my friends had a new signature dish, Kuko Koko Paka, which is a Nepalese chicken dish cooked with coconut and almonds in a mild creamy sauce. My daughter had Sag Gosht and said that the lamb was really tender and the dish was beautifully spiced. The last member of our party had that traditional British favourite, chicken tikka masala, and that too came in for high praise. At the end of our meal, we were presented with wooden skewers holding three strawberries dipped in dark chocolate - just hitting the right note after the spices. The quality of the ingredients is always excellent and the chefs Shiraz and Ashiq and all their team have made their cuisine an art form.
This is truly a family business now, as the owner's two sons have joined him in the business and they have had significant input in all the refurbishment works and the menu revamp. The service remains excellent, friendly and attentive without being pushy, and on top of all that, the prices are very reasonable and the restaurant offers marvellous value for money. Go visit - you'll love it!
![Zomato]( "Recensione")
Aroma Spice is a cosy, family-run curry house that prides itself on a red-hot, friendly service; the greeting that D and I received reminded me of a scene from Homeward Bound, when Shadow finally returns to his teary owner, Peter. Upon leaving the restaurant, we were showered with gifts, including a glass of wine, a shot of baileys, an espresso and a small cuboid of chocolate (each). This metaphorical sandwich clearly has good bread, so what about its filling?
Far from famished, D and I made a conservative Tuesday dinner-time order: 6 poppadoms to start (3 spicy, 3 plain), 1 x bhindi bhaji (okra), 1 x saag aloo (vegetables and potatoes), 2 x pilau rice, 1/2 x tandoori chicken and 1 x chicken bhuna to share. I have been to Aroma many times before, and my worthiest observation is that the food varies from 'fantastic' to 'pretty good', depending on factors that are unknown to me. In particular, Aroma has fed me some heavenly tandoori chickens in its time. On this occasion, the poppadoms were unremarkable and the tandoori chicken had perhaps been a little overcooked, as it didn't quite have the softness or spice of the aforementioned 'champion' chickens.
That said, the bhindi was and is consistently great, and if anything, the restaurant chef's had improved upon their original pilau rice recipe since the last time I had eaten there. The bhuna was delicious (but hellishly spicey- D had requested that it be cooked to a '10' on the scale, where 0 was mild and 10 was 'very hot').
25 word tagline: highly recommended if you're looking for a decent Indian meal for £20-25 per head in a bustly, noisy environment in the north west london area.
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