Really quick one. The Palm is an Indian restaurant, one of those odd ones that is planted in a totally random location along a quiet stretch of an A-road, in this case the A40 in Wiltshire.
The incongruity of the starkly modernist (circa 1990) building with bold colours, magnificent light fittings and abstract wall art… and a hand car-wash next door. It has to raise a smile.
The food is classic British curry house cooking. But it’s of the first order, with really distinctive and rich curry gravies, good quality meats and deeply aromatic spicing. Maureen’s lamb curry was the best of the picks. My “royal” dish of duck and lamb was perhaps a bit on the sweet-and-sticky side, you know, where the sour note meant to balance out the sweetness is instead just a bit cloying. That’s picky, as I certainly ate as much as I could. The aubergine side dish was superb, definitely in the same league as Dastaan’s.
To cut a long story short: if you ever find yourself in rural Wiltshire somewhere around Marlborough, The Palm is probably as good a choice as any.