I was up in Leicester last week to see my brother graduate and as he’s now moving down to London, I knew that this would be my last visit up to Leicester for a while. My brother had arranged to take us to all his favourite spots before he left and when I was given a choice of popular Indian restaurant off Belgrave Road (he recommends Blue Peter) or a cheap, little, out-of-the-way place where mainly Indian factory workers have their lunch. Well obviously I’d choose the latter and it turned out to be Rahat.
Rahat is more like a takeaway shop with space for eating – don’t expect luxury here. The tables and chairs are simple, there are jugs of tap water available and there’s a Bollywood film blasting away behind the counter. My brother gave me the lowdown – the menu is just a guide of sorts and not everything will be available. We interrogated the smiling man behind the counter on what they had in their kitchen. Chicken karahi, lamb karahi, chicken with spinach, lamb with spinach.
“Do you have dry meat?”, I asked. He replied, “Yes!” “Do you have keema?”, asked my brother. He replied, “No!” Another man came from the back and muttered a few things to him. He suddenly brightened and went, “We also have fish masala and king prawns!”
We made our order and in addition to naans, we asked for some pilao rice. The kind man’s face dropped – there was no pilao rice that day. We shrugged and said ok but he called us back soon after, the smile having returned to his face. “We can give you the rice from the akhni pilao. Normally this has lamb on top but we’ll just give you the rice!”. Great!
We retired to the table by the window where my father had installed himself and waited to eat. It didn’t take long before the man came along with lots of dishes to pepper our table.
A complimentary salad plate was first placed before us and I started tasting the yogurt based dressing on the side (what is that sauce called?). Despite its innocent looks and to my surprise, it was very very hot and spicy!
Dry Meat was less dry than I was expecting but still very moreish with lots of tender lamb.
The Fish Masala was my favourite of the curries and I certainly ate more than my fair share of this. The light but highly spiced curry went well with the delicate white fish fillets.
Karahi Chicken was pretty fiery and delicious but was a little let down by the use of chunks of chicken breast. It would have been ace with dark meat. I really enjoyed the different spice combinations used in the curries – it was clear that each had been cooked from scratch and they all didn’t start from the same curry base.
The rice from the Akhni Pilao (we had two plates!) was still studded with lots of lamb and was richly flavoured and spiced. It was probably better eaten by itself than with the rest of the curries.
Naans were fresh and hot and soft and crispy and perfect for mopping up the curries.
But that wasn’t all! The smiling man came along to our table with a gift – a “Special Salad” that he’d sprinkled with a spice mix – I think it must’ve been a chaat masala or something similar.
He then returned with another gift from the kitchen – a dish of the King Prawn Masala he’d mentioned before. The prawns were fantastic and in another highly spiced but slightly gelatinous sauce.
It was a ridiculous amount of food and of course we didn’t finish it all. We were stuffed and it had all been excellent. I started guessing how much the total would be; my brother started with £18, I went with £22 and my father went in between with £20.
(Yes, that’s an Instagram photo – you can find me there as sulineats).
So, the grand total (with two cans of soda)? A mind blowing £16. It turned out that the kind man behind the counter had judged portion sizes for us and had given us small portions rather than the medium (~£4-5) and large (~£7-8) portion sizes listed on the menu. How kind – they’re all truly friendly there! Anything more would have been too much for the three of us.
My brother tells me the naan wraps there are great for a quick lunch or they’ll serve you rice or naan and a curry for a song. It’s quite the little gem.
Rahat
1 Suffolk Street/437 St Saviours Road (it’s on the corner)
Leicester LE5 4JA/4HH
Tamarind and Thyme 
Thu, 19 Jul, 2012 at 20:06
that looks soo yummy. I love Indian food and I guess I need to get some again soon.
Mon, 30 Jul, 2012 at 21:16
This place was fantastic….might be a little out of the way for you though!
Mon, 30 Jul, 2012 at 21:27
out of the way … yes, sort of 😉
Thu, 19 Jul, 2012 at 23:39
Everything looks so delicious!
Mon, 30 Jul, 2012 at 21:29
It was fantastic – highly recommended.
Tue, 24 Jul, 2012 at 20:04
That looks amazing. Wish we had more of that in London (though perhaps we do, and I just haven’t discovered it yet…)
Mon, 30 Jul, 2012 at 21:30
I haven’t discovered it either…. 😦
Tue, 24 Jul, 2012 at 23:07
Wow, takes me back I was a student too
In Leicester 25 years ago. Curries there were still great then and what you paid for your meal
was a weeks rent to me back then.
Mon, 30 Jul, 2012 at 21:35
That’s just brilliant! Leicester is fantastic for its Indian food and I’ll definitely miss that. Where are you now?
Wed, 1 Aug, 2012 at 15:34
Man, I need to find places like this down here. £16!
Thu, 2 Aug, 2012 at 17:18
I know!!!
Sun, 12 Aug, 2012 at 04:19
The green sauce is generally called mint sauce by Indians and Pakistanis (we save fuudinoh chutney — translates as mint sauce — for the really dark green mint based sauce). I haven’t been to rahat (family members usually put the kibosh on any plans to eat out) but from what I can see it’s very similar to what we make which is usually:
yoghurt, finely chopped mint (sometimes mint jelly, used to be because of the seasons here but it’s become a common occurrence now even with year round mint), finely chopped coriander (optional, most shops don’t use it), ground green chillies, lemon (optional, depends on the sourness of the yoghurt), salt, sugar (excluded if you use the jelly) and some red chilli powder (the one at rahat didn’t seem to have this from what I could see in the picture).