A couple of weeks ago, I went with a couple of friends to a fab little Indian called Urban Choola on London Road. I didn’t write about it at the time because they were about to close down and move to larger premises.
They have just opened the new restaurant this week on Ecclesall Road in what used to be House of Spice (near Greystones Road and the Co-op).
I don’t know if the menu is changing, but they would do well to keep the cafe vibe, which made it a fun place to go. We all had the Thali (mine was lamb palak – a mild curry with spinach), and my gluten free option came with a big bowl of rice instead of the naan bread. The sides were lovely and had varying levels of spice. One was a black lentil dahl with an earthy flavour, there was a chickpea dish and a potato dish – all delicious and very generous portions.
As with many Indian restaurants, it’s not difficult to get great gluten free food here, as long as you’re happy with a main course – lots of the starters, and of course the breads, are off limits.
We had a great time, and as Urban Choola is BYO, it was also super cheap. They do takeaway as well as eating in. You can book and order online at their website.
Urban Choola, 842 Ecclesall Road, Sheffield S11 8TD
Wednesday was the evening of our annual village “Play on the green”*, which we have established a nice tradition of taking a picnic to, and trying hard not to put off the actors with our munching and opening bottles of fizz.
One thing I’d not tried before was the rosemary and apricot toasts. These are thin slices of crispy toast, packed with seeds, rosemary and dried apricot pieces. They looked really fun and we all agreed they were tasty, but didn’t quite go with the rest of the food. They have a really interesting texture because they’re crispy and crunchy but you get a bit of a chew from the apricot.
