Review: Dastaan, Ewell

It’s great finding special restaurants in odd places. You wouldn’t expect a daring left-field kitchen like Where The Light Gets In tucked down an alley in Stockport town. And you wouldn’t expect a blazingly good modern Indian restaurant squashed in amongst betting shops and plumbing supplies in a tired little shopping parade in suburban Ewell. But that’s Dastaan.

I actually expected to walk in and find classic curry house white tablecloths and mirrors, but the decor has be sharpened up with bare wood and an open kitchen to match the menu of street food and wickedly good grills and curries.

Pani puri were the best I’ve had in ages. And I’ve had a lot of pani puri. The shells were perfect, thin and crispy, with just a little flavour-bomb of filling and a lovely sweet/sour tamarind juice to pour in. Samosa chaat was a lovely filthy plate of street food, the crisp and spicy shards of samosa covered in lashings of yogurt and fruity brown sauce. So pleased to find a valid excuse to use “lashings”.

They are justly proud of their lamb chops, still juicy and chewy from the tandoor and given a seriously fierce yogurt coating. I liked the mustard mooli salad that came with them. I liked the duck sheek kebab too, although the very good pineapple chutney was rather lost against the seriously big log of grilled duck. This was the only dish that didn’t knock my socks off.

The pig cheek vindaloo most certainly knocked my socks off! But slowly, like a good vindaloo should. I distinctly remember saying, after the first couple of mouthfuls, “this is delicious, beautiful flavours, and really not very hot.” By the end I could only make gutteral noises of happy appreciation while the roaring spices continued to roll around and around in my mouth like summer thunder. Good pulao rice too.

The cooking at Dastaan is spot-on. It’s even better value for the quality; perhaps £30 per person for a big meal. I would kill for a local Indian restaurant as good as this.