sims10000

I dont entirely agree with the review by James, and I like to see more detail in a review, although his brief summary has some valid points. We visited the Sonar Bangla just after Christmas and it was excellent. Although we visited a month weeks ago and it wasn't half as good. This restaurant closed for a while after being burnt down , and I know that the owner has put his life, heart and soul into the refurbishment of the restaurant.
We used to go often and it easily used to be the best curry restaurant in Denton before the fire. When we ate at the refurbed Sonar Bangla for the first time, the owner recognised us and the waiter gave us Popadums on the house, with very good selection of mango chutney, onions, mint sauce & lime pickle. However when we got the bill we had been charged for the popadums. The main course was mixed Balti for my wife which was plentiful and fairly spicy for a Balti, and my wife enjoyed this. I had a chicken samber which was very tasty, nice lemony, lentils, a slight nutty taste and lovely chilli kick. Pilau rice was as good as anywhere, and the nan bread was excellent - fresh and did not dry up as some do. We rarely have desserts when we go for a curry and this was no exception, the selection looked good, but very westernised and no authentic Indian desserts if you are looking for that sort of thing. We were given a liquer/brandy on the house. The wine is reasonably priced for a restaurant as was the Cobra draught lager. The decor does feel a little on the plain side, but perhaps this is the case if they were on a low budget to reopen. The background music was an enjoyable blend of authentic music, and some decent smooth western tunes, and the general ambience is friendly with families welcome, and serious chilli heads catered for on the menu. If I had reviewed then as I intended, the Sonar Bangla would have received 7/10.

The second time we ate was on Valentine's day, and was barely a patch on the first time. We didnt opt for the valentine's special menu, which did look like decent value for money, but likely to be too much unless you like to eat loads of food. Poppadums were fine again and served very quickly. My wife had the balti again, but didnt find it as enjoyable as the first time. I was hungry so went for the Special Biryani, but with a Samber sauce. The biryani was quite decent as expected with plenty of meat and rice, but the Samber sauce was not as tasty as on our first visit. Nan was good, but again not quite as good as the first time. We also had to wait ages for our food, although the restaurant was busy. The biggest disappointment by far was the Cobra lager which tasted like it still had chemical cleaner in it. They did exchange the lager without question but it didnt taste much better, I thik I had been put off by this time. Also we had to wait an eternity when we had ordered our 2nd round of drinks, in fact I had to go to the bar myself and remind them. All in all, a disappointing meal out. We want this restaurant to do well, but they are sending out mixed messages. If they stick to fresh tasty food and treat customers consistently, this has the potential to be a great restaurant as it used to be. The jury is still out on this one, but after the awful lager and the long waits on our last visit, it is unlikely that we will visit again in a hurry. This time would only score 3/10, overall I give it 4. C'mon Sonar Bangla I know you can do much better than this.