All Comments

Jeff - Very good location right in the heart of the City. My last visit was in 2015, and the place has not changed a bit since then - and I always find the ambience lacking here, the room is quite bare and bright. The manager / head waiter has been here donkey's years and this provides good continuity. As usual I enjoyed the food, which has been consistently better than average, and the service was very quick. Mongoose beer still on the menu, which I enjoy. And thankfully, the lamb korahi I had this time made up for the horrible one I had last month at the India Cannon Street - it was tasty, although with still slightly more sauce than I would like. A reliable restaurant that won't let you down.

Tim - Looking back at my comments from previous visits, it looks like I can reuse most of them. The place still has the rather plain and somewhat soulless monochrome decor. It was fairly quiet when we arrived, but perhaps not so surprising considering our fairly early 7pm start. Mongoose beer was still available, which makes a pleasant, if small, change. The menu is still somewhat uninspiring, with most of the specials being pretty commonplace. The prawn puri starter was nice with the puri having a good texture - crispy and a bit chewy, though overall it was not that exciting, but improved for me by the addition of a surplus-to-requirements salad I purloined. The main of lamb tikka chilli masala was good but I would have preferred cutting up the chillies rather than just throwing in whole ones; I'd asked for it to be hotter than normal but that feels low effort. Otherwise it had a good flavour and a good quantity of meat though some pieces were a little tough. The "banter" was a bit heavy. There were no additional liqueurs and an average VFM.

Mark - After last month's £50 curry I thought we could save some dosh by meeting in 'Spoons. It must have been cheap as Tim decided to buy us some extra beer to share around! Off to the cavern that is the Spice Trader and it performed as usual, solid but nothing that exciting. My samosa starters were fine but a bit small while my Chicken Curry main (nod to Griff) was tasty and plentiful but would go for a bit more sting next time. Reasonable service and cost around the new normal now. Only 6 of us so a good friendly number - or perhaps not!!!!

Neil - After the last few expensive nights out we had the pleasure of meeting in a 'spoons' and not being charged over the odds at the curry house. Just proves that we're being ripped off elsewhere (pubs and restaurants). As for the food itself, my vegetable samosa starter was very fresh and super tasty likewise my chicken biryani main. Had some of Jeff's plain nan and that was pretty good for something simple. Only downside was that the restaurant was a bit quiet so not great ambience but this probably helped the service score.

Graeme - We met in the Crosse Keys which is not my favourite pub. I made my feelings known to El Pres without (hopefully) being seen to be complaining! Actually, it wasn't too bad on the night as it wasn't overly busy and so not too noisy and it didn't take too long to get served. The Spice Trader was unusually quiet when we arrived, although it did get busier later. My starter (Prawn Puri) and main (Chicken Tikka Pathia - the Tikka bit being off-menu) were both excellent. The service was quick but I did knock off a point as they wouldn't give us a free liqueur at the end. A very enjoyable evening.

Brian - Another enjoyable evening: good pub, good food, good company. Prawn purée starter was a bit light on prawns. Fish masala main, rice, veg and chapati all very good, and draught cobra seemed good to me.