Keralam South Indian restaurant review, Southend on Sea

This restaurant has been in Southend on Sea for years, yet I had never tried it before. On first impressions, the restaurant looked modern and comfortable, but it was not furnished, decorated or tidy to a high standard, but acceptable. The toilet was cold and left a bit to be desired.

The menu is very varied, and offers a huge range of Southern Indian dishes. Although we go to a lot of Indian restaurants, being fairly new to this Southern cuisine, we chose from seafood dishes, as this is what we know

Southern Indian cuisine are renowned for. The restaurant was full, which was a good sign, but unfortunately, this meant a very long wait for our food (about half an hour for our starters, and another half hour for our mains) so this let the service down.

We had the Kingfish curry, which was the best dish, and we ate all of that. The chilli prawns were unusually sweet with tamarind, and as this was not an ingredient shown in the description, it was disappointing so we left that. The Malabar potatoes were nice and oil free. We…

…had an unusual rice flour batter called Velaya Appam, which was recommended by the waiter to accompany our fish curry, but it turned out to be rather damp and tasteless, so we ordered a garlic naan. The naan was ok, but I have had many better and didn’t really enjoy it.

Overall, I would say that other diners appeared to be enjoying their food, and as there is such a big choice, I am sure that there would be some good dishes to try, but we didn’t really enjoy ours, and it was far too salty (had to drink 2 pints of water overnight) and didn’t really agree with my digestion, so I will not be back again.

Bhelpoori (Cold Starter) – A mixture of poori, putted rice crispies (Indian brand) potatoes, green chilly, sweet and sour sauces and special spices.- £2.95

Mini Masala Dosa – Rice Pancake filled with potatoes, onions, curry leaves and mustard leaves served with coconut chutney.- £2.75

Chilli Prawns – £7.95

King prawns cooked with chillies, onions, curry leaves, tomatoes, capsicum, ginger and garlic.

Malabar Meen Moli – £5.95

Malabar Potatoes (Spicy) – £2.95

Potatoes cooked with tomato sauce, curry leaves and mustard seeds

Vellaya appam (2) (Lace hopped made of rice flour batter, fermented overnight and cooked In special shallow pans with lid called Appa-Chatti. It has slight sweet And sour taste. Best with stews and spicy curries) – £2.40

Pilau rice – £1.75

Garlic Nan £1.60

Restaurant name

Keralam South Indian

Date of visit

13th March 2010

Website address

www.keralamessex.co.uk

Restaurant telephone

01702 345072 / 01702 347436

Restaurant address

28, Clifftown Rd, Southend-On-Sea, Essex SS1 1AJ

Restaurant E-mail address

info@keralamessex.co.uk

Service Charge included?

No

Average price per person for 3 course meal, excluding drinks

inexpensive (under £20)

How many dined?

2

Value for money rating?

5/10

Atmosphere Quality rating?

5/10

Service Quality rating?

4/10

Food Quality rating

5/10