As you might be aware last week I took some time off work and headed up to my parents house in Aberdeenshire for some downtime. My main reason for my visit was to stop by Granite City Comic-Con but obviously I had to fit in some time to visit a North-East restaurant. And what cuisine did me and my parents choose? Indian. Yeah I know, me and my parents are creatures of habit...
This time we went for the award-winning Shri Bheema's in the Balgownie area of the Bridge of Don suburb (there's also a branch in the city centre). The website is currently down (so writing this review with be challenging and may require later editing) but they had a massive menu which made us choose them over the various other Indian restaurants in the same area.
For starters we have a mixture of onion bahjis and some Indian doughnuts (which probably have a proper name, will update once the website is up again). The onion bajis were some of the nicest I've ever tried. This was primarily due to the texture of the bajis rather than taste, but neverhteless I would highly recommend them. The waiter did warn us that the doughnuts aren't always to everyone's taste but I loved them regardless (but I really like breads, waffles, doughnuts etc).
For mains I picked a mild curry with okra in it (which was delicious). For anyone who has never tried okra it's a very subtle tasting vegetable which can used in a wide range of dishes. In this dish the okra ended up quite sweet and tangy. When you slice it also looks a bit like stars, and that's always something to love.
Since I blog about Indian restaurants a lot you may have picked up on my love for naans. However naans aren't always vegan and I'm now in the process of letting this once favourite food slip from my diet unless I can be certain it doesn't contain dairy. Due to the detailed menu (more on that soon!) I was able to ascertain that their naans were in fact non-vegan so I settled on a chapiti instead. My parents had a butter naan and assured me I was missing out!
But my favourite thing about Shri Bheema's was the detailed allergen information. This isn't included on the online menu so was a nice surprise when we turned up. They have a lot of all the common allergies and intolerance listed, which are assigned a number to be used as a code throughout the menu. This meant I could dodge the soya but also easily see what contained dairy and egg. As someone who has a restricted diet partially due to choice but also due to an intolerance this was exciting to see. And even people who don't have allergies or food intolerances still want to know what's in their food.
Have you ever been to Shri Bheema's, either the one the BOD or Belmont Street? Know any other Indian's me and my parents should visit?
