Dinner for 1 with several beers: £30.00

The most recent outing of the Curry Club occurred a few weeks ago on a Wednesday..always a good night to go out on a bender.  This time we headed out to Urban Kahari in glamorous Hanwell.

A kahari is a specific type of pot for cooking in which I had never heard of so I was excited to try something new.  I was also promised some serious hot and spicy.

The interior of the restaurant is perplexing.  Its looks like what people in the 80s imagined the future would look like.  Lots of shiny black surfaces, colored lights and water features all over the place.  Its tacky as hell, but in a fun rather than off putting way.  My favorite aspect of the decor was the ladies toilet which was right out of the movie Tron – awesome.

We started out by sharing an order of the Atomic Wings.

Stunt Wings

I am pretty cavalier about my chili consumption, believing that virtually no foods are too spicy for me to eat.  I didn’t give a second thought to taking a big bite out of one.

Have you ever seen that episode of the Simpsons where Homer eats the Guatemalan insanity pepper that is so hot that he winds up having hallucinations and goes on a spirit journey with a fox?  These wings were that freakin hot and I sat waiting for my own spirit guide for a few moments expecting to wake up in the hospital.  I am pretty sure I chugged an entire large beer in an attempt to extinguish the pain but my memory is a little fuzzy for the 10 minute period between when I first ate the wing and when I recovered the use of my facial muscles.

In the midst of the screaming and the downing of cold drinks I turned to my left to see my friend Tim finishing off all of the wings – even dipping them repeatedly in the sauce to get as much chili as possible.  Maniac.  The rest of us were sweating and crying and here he was popping them in his mouth like grapes.  He said he didn’t think they were that hot!  The man is a chili eating machine.

These wings are stunt food.  I wouldn’t recommend ordering them if you don’t really really love the hot stuff.

Starters

The other starters were all much more reasonable.  Mongolian paneer had a good dose of heat and the cheese was fresh.  My chili mogo (cassava) a dish of Kenyan/Indian origin was seasoned nicely but the cassava itself was really dry and required a bit too much chewing.

Prawn Karahi

For the main I ordered prawns prepared in the Karahi.  This dish was a winner with fresh ginger and chili all over the place.  It was hot – but flavorful hot.  On the side we had garlic mushrooms, okra and saag (spinach) – all of which were quite good.

I was far too stuffed to entertain dessert but when I saw Lee staring down at his ice cream with a confused and slightly embarrassed look I investigated.  You have to wonder if it was tongue in cheek or completely accidental – either way completely hilarious.

Tee hee!

The food was good, the service was excellent, the ice cream was silly.  A great time was had by all.  If I ever find myself in West Ealing looking for a meal I would go again on my own or with a group but I would not make a special trip out on my own from the center of London for it.

Urban Karahi
47 Greenford Road
Hanwell, W7 1LP