‘Dinner Time’ in South London – Indian & Nepalese Restaurant Review

Rating: Impossible to rate, as some of the negatives are reasons to love it.

Cost: Around £25 per person, including 2 glasses of horrible table wine. 

Go there if: You’re open-minded and enjoy backpacking in backwaters.

Conclusion: Clueless and bizarre service but really good food. An experience.

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Yes, Dinner Time is actually the name of this odd little Indian and Nepalese restaurant near New Cross Gate. It is a freshly chosen name as the business has just been bought, re-decorated and reopened by the previous owner’s friend.

Most customers’ orders are placed over the phone and delivered, so not many people experience the quirks of eating in.

Points of interest include the décor…

…the friendly and polite but excruciatingly bad service; the extremely talkative Chef/Owner, Phool Prasad Sharma; the strange drinks menu and the really very good food. Eating there made me feel like I was in a local restaurant in a remote backwater or desolate border town somewhere far-flung. I felt I should have had my backpack and a guidebook with me.

The two choices of wine on the list were not familiar to me but the waiter didn’t understand when I wanted to know more or to see the bottles. In the end I just asked for “white wine”. After about 15 minutes of doing nothing in particular, the waiter decided it was time to nip to the off-licence next door to buy my wine - which was not either of those listed on the menu. It was a very generic and cheap Aussie wine and certainly not worth the £7 a glass I paid for it - especially as it was room temperature. The waiter and I failed to find a clean glass on my table (set for four), so he got one from the bar.

Finally, Mr Sharma turned up to cook my dinner, and, after chatting to me for about 20 minutes, he took my order. Then leisurely began to prepare it. For my starter I chose Nepalese lamb dumplings (like dim sum but far tastier) with homemade lime chutney, and they were delicious.

Sharma insisted he would wait until I had finished my starter before beginning to cook my main course. After my starter, and while I was waiting (ages) for him to start work on my main, a telephone order was taken. According to the menu, the “approximate maximum wait time [for delivery is] 45 minutes, please bear with us in busy periods”. Upon concluding the call, the waiter told the customer that the order would take 45 minutes. I was literally the only other customer. It was not busy. Maybe they want to appear busier than they are, but I think they just like to take their time at Dinner Time.

Lots of chopping and sizzling noises ensued from the open kitchen. A long while later I was presented with an excellent hot and aromatic chicken curry (murgh ‘lasuni’), packed with fresh herbs and spices, and a tasty dish of spice-fried okra.

Sadly, the accompanying roti was thick, solid, stiff and raw in the middle – their tandoor can’t have been hot enough, which of course completely defeats the object.

After thoroughly enjoying my meal, and in the absence of any staff, I went up to the kitchen to ask for the bill. There was lovely-looking fresh produce everywhere; bunches of herbs, bags of vegetables et cetera.

While I was waiting for my bill, a couple arrived to eat in. They were visibly very cold and immediately requested cups of tea. 10 minutes later, as I left, the waiter finally asked them if they’d like some papadums. They hadn’t got their tea yet.

I left with my doggy bag, which included some complimentary papadums (particularly nutty and good) with homemade spicy chopped onion salad and chutneys.

If you have time, patience and are in a good mood – and want to be amused – you must try this place. It is an experience. The food is generally fab and I’m sure they won’t mind if you take your own wine.

Quick Week in Goa

A week is barely long enough to realise that you need at least a week just to work out what’s going on… It takes at least a week on the beach to acquire the knowledge about those famous beach raves (There aren’t any; go to a silent disco in Palolem – I didn’t have time, but they’re really good, apparently), where you can get good thali and ‘fish curry rice’ (A challenge, since beach shacks that used to serve them now concentrate on ‘international’ menus), and the best beaches (Colva, Palolem).

I now need to go back to Goa quite soon, so I can use the basic knowledge that I picked up on the last trip – before it’s out of date.

Anyhow, despite only having a few days, I did manage to enjoy the following:

6 beaches
Lots of lobster – barbecued several times; in massala sauce once
Crab xacuti - hot, rich, tangy coconut curry
Amazing breakfasts of idli rice cakes, vada savoury doughnuts, eggs and omelettes, chick-pea curries, delicious fermented coconut sauce
Boat trip to Morjim turtle beach and Ajuna market, via dolphin-watching
Disasterous attempt at partying in Baga - don’t go to Mambos club at the bottom; freezing cold air con, appalling charty music, undrinkable wine, empty club other than a couple of locals, a couple of hookers and some drunk seedy tourists. Oh and they think anyone black is from Nigeria and are therefore trouble-makers, and will be refused entry.
Great Goan restaurant in Panjim, called The Upper House
Cashew and coconut palm varieties of fenni – the local distillation
Fish ambot tik - sour curry with tamarind
Loads of wonderful roti bread, straight from the tandoor, usually brushed with melted butter
Fish-curry-rice - mackerel in a coconut curry sauce with rice
Vindalho, of course

That’s quite a lot I suppose, but I had a massive list of things I wanted to try that will have to wait until next time.

Cold, Curry & Caribbean - 4th September 2007 & Beyond

Crap airplane food throughout the night, and a 5a.m. landing were not ideal preparation for the sunny but absolutely bloody freezing weather at Gatwick.

Driving to my parents’ house in Sussex, everything was just so tidy and sterile. The culture shock was more so than it would have been in my adopted country of France, and, driving down the green lanes and smoothly tarmacked roads of Sussex, there were NO PEOPLE ANYWHERE. No-one walking, selling, carrying things on their heads, pushing cars, laughing, waving, shaking hands, cooking, or hanging out. Just shiny new cars driving to jobs, in order to support the huge, tidy, empty houses - no actual life. And no-one shaking my hand, asking my name, or enquiring “how di body?”

After a couple of days at my parents’ and the obligatory mouth-watering curry we have every time I visit (poppadums, peshwari naan, Bombay duck, and various wonderful freshly cooked curries, from the Magna Tandoori in Arundel), I began to adjust.

An evening out in London with a meal at a Caribbean restaurant helped, too. I drank Guinness punch (mega rich drink containing Guinness, spices, cocoa, condensed milk and sometimes egg), with roti (the fajita principle, with chicken curry inside a heavy pancake. The roti dough is usually made with flour, baking soda, oil, corn meal and seasoning). My companion had ox tail stew (rich, dark and flavoursome) with rice and red peas (kidney beans) - all delicious but very filling, and massive portions.

Then it was back to my life in France

Two days later, I got a text from a French friend who knows Freetown – he asked “miss gemma! how di body?” ☺



One last word; don't go to Sierra Leone without a guide, or at least experience of travelling in Africa. The country is officially 'encouraging' tourists (so why are visas so hard to obtain?), but there is nothing to help anyone find their way around or understand the place. Like no signs in the airport and no roadsigns in Freetown.