Rasa Travencore - Stoke Newington

After living near Stoke Newington for over 4 years, I finally made my first trip to Rasa to celebrate the end of the dreaded first week back at work. Multi-award winning (albeit several years ago) and with half a dozen branches around London I had high hopes, but unfortunately the meal we had was verging on inedible.

Kathrikka

There are two branches on Church St, one specialising in vegetarian food and one for the meat-eaters, Rasa Travancore, which is where we ate. Rasa serve traditional Keralan food; I will happily admit that I've no idea what distinguishes the food of Kerala from the rest of India, however, I presumed it would be full of flavour and well spiced. I've often heard that the anglicised curries served in most Indian restaurants pale in comparison to authentic Indian food, unfortunately all four dishes we were served were under seasoned, under spiced and bland to the extreme.

Mysore Bonda

As it is famous for its vegetarian food we started with mysore bonda (or potato balls to you and me). The potato was supposed to be 'laced with fresh ginger, curry leaves, coriander and black mustard seeds and crisply fried' however what we were served was a bland and soggy ball of potato, which tasted more of cooking oil than anything else. We also ordered the kathrikka, slices of aubergine fried in a coriander and chilli batter, which were equally as unappetising. Both starters tasted as though they had been cooked earlier in the day and reheated in the microwave, although it must be said that both were served with a reasonably good salsa.

Nadan Kozhy & Konju Thenga

We ordered two curries, the nadan kozhy (a pepper massala chicken curry) and konju thenga (tiger prawns with coconut and green chilli), both of which were luke warm and insipid. It's not that I love spicy food and need a curry to be hot, I just want it to taste of something. I've never known Chris to leave food, but even he couldn't finish off either of the curries. The one saving grace of the meal was the crispy paratha, which really was delicious.

Paratha

The service was quick, although not particularly friendly and the decor was in need of some TLC. I don't like to bad mouth a local, independent restaurant, but it was a thoroughly disappointing meal. I'd be really interested to hear your thoughts on Rasa; is the vegetarian restaurant better? Did we simply choose the wrong curries? Is this what traditional Keralan cooking should taste like? Any feedback welcomed.