# General > Recommendations >  Taj Mahal Halkirk

## david

Don't bother with their donner kebabs. I have eaten hundreds of these "things" from all over the uk and have never had one as bad as the one purchased tonight from the above establishment. It may have been their first night open (busy etc), but it was diabolical. The salad was shredded cabbage and the chilli sauce was bright pink-obviously a large helping of food colouring. I put most of it in the bin. Absolutely terrible. These lads should stick to curry. I won't be back!

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## shazzap

> Don't bother with their donner kebabs. I have eaten hundreds of these "things" from all over the uk and have never had one as bad as the one purchased tonight from the above establishment. It may have been their first night open (busy etc), but it was diabolical. The salad was shredded cabbage and the chilli sauce was bright pink-obviously a large helping of food colouring. I put most of it in the bin. Absolutely terrible. These lads should stick to curry. I won't be back!


I hate it when you are looking forward to something nice and you end up with a load of tosh.

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## scrabster view

Totally disagree.  We had a donar kebab last night from Taj Mahal and it was lovely.  Meat was very fresh.  And you always get shredded cabbage with kebab, even from the Thurso Shelina Space.

Sauce was lovely too.

If you were not happy, why didnt you complain to Taj Mahal?

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## david

> Totally disagree. We had a donar kebab last night from Taj Mahal and it was lovely. Meat was very fresh. And you always get shredded cabbage with kebab, even from the Thurso Shelina Space.
> 
> Sauce was lovely too.
> 
> If you were not happy, why didnt you complain to Taj Mahal?


This is not a new business therefore you would have thought they would have ironed out any problems they had with their food over the years they were trading in Castletown. The Kebab in question is described "with salad". Would you then be quite happy to have shredded cabbage as a "salad". You should try the Elgin Kebab shop the next time you are down that way- a different beast altogether. As for the sauce, my hands are still stained from the food colouring. As for complaining, I have.. with my feet.

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## Rie

ive been around the world tasted many a kebab, each establishment has done them different, obviously and indian take out isnt going to do them as good as a greek take out  , just put it down to experiance and try a curry next time!!

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## twinkle

They have new chef's in this establishment not the same as the one's they had in C'town.
I was there on Monday night for their open night and have to say all the food they had laid out was lovely.

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## Tubthumper

> Don't bother with their donner kebabs. I have eaten hundreds of these "things" from all over the uk ...


You ever happy about anything?

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## GetWithTheTimes

i agree they are going well down hill

there was a thread deleted due to it getting bad comments before

i was saying the shelina spice was real bad and everyone took the huff 

i have had indians from alot of different places that is how i was complaining it was so bad, and they wont improve coz there is nowhere else to get it so we have to eat it anyway

the indian in wick are a dodgy bunch too

its about time a decent indian place opened up and showed these fakes what real indian food tastes like

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## Kodiak

> they wont improve coz there is nowhere else to get it so we have to eat it anyway


Errr Sorry you do Not have to eat it, if there is something I do not like or think is not good enough then I do not even Order it.

So I suggest that if you do not like the food from this establishment then just do not buy any.

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## baindm

I was also at their opening night on Monday and found their food to be very good, as did the people who I was with.

I certainly will be back to the Taj Mahal and wish them the very best in their new establishment!

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## John Baikie

I was there on Monday night as well, and the food was awesome  :Smile: 
Every bit as nice as the Castletown one!
Good luck to them  :Smile:

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## herenow

I was also their on Moday night for a meal and it was lovely.

It may be a differet chef from c'town but he is every bit as good the meal was lovely and the staff were great.

well done abs!! Wish him the best of luck! :Smile:

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## M R

> Don't bother with their donner kebabs. I have eaten hundreds of these "things" from all over the uk and have never had one as bad as the one purchased tonight from the above establishment. It may have been their first night open (busy etc), but it was diabolical. The salad was shredded cabbage and the chilli sauce was bright pink-obviously a large helping of food colouring. I put most of it in the bin. Absolutely terrible. These lads should stick to curry. I won't be back!



Kebabs can be a hit or a miss,   just wait until you have 5 pints,  then come back and tell us how much you enjoyed it......... :Smile:

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## david

> You ever happy about anything?


Yes, I am hapy to go somewhere else for a donner.

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## david

> I was also their on Moday night for a meal and it was lovely.
> 
> It may be a differet chef from c'town but he is every bit as good the meal was lovely and the staff were great.
> 
> well done abs!! Wish him the best of luck!


I am not at all suggesting that their main stay of Indian food is not great, just that their donner kebabs are pants.

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## Northern Sands

We were also in on the opening night food and service was excellent. Wish Abs, his family and staff all the best and we will certainly be regulars!!

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## GetWithTheTimes

> Kebabs can be a hit or a miss,   just wait until you have 5 pints,  then come back and tell us how much you enjoyed it.........


there you go

hit or a miss? kebabs shouldnt be a hit or a miss in fact its probably the easiest meal they can make so why is it ok for them to be a hit or a miss?

no meal should be a hit or a miss whether its indian or chinese or a chippy 

the fact that fast food places cant cook decent meals all the time here is unreal 

and the food should taste good before 5 pints not after it

and so you all dont think i am just picking on the indian food its not just there that lacks the ability to cook fast food i have had over cooked smoked sausages from all the chippys, must have been sitting in the warmer for the whole day by the toughness of the sausage its like trying to chew a tyre, also some of the chinese i have had is pure running with fat, the best chinese anywhere near here is the one in golspie unless its changed hands since i was last there

i was down in england last october and i took my mate to a kebab shop i used to go to and he was amazed how big it was and how fresh and moist the kebab meat was compared to up here, and its salad you get when you ask for salad not cabbage cucumber and mint, i just dont think the fast food places put in enough effort up here for the simple fact loads of you are going to go get pissed and eat it and think it was ace just because you were drunk

jeez at one point it was lidl chips in one of the indians, i know because i eat them all the time, was a while ago now but still lidl chips?!?!?!

i am not saying i havent had good meals out of any of these places but nowhere near the quality of food you get further down south nowhere near

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## braalterr903

my sons had food last nite and they said it was very good.

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## david

> Kebabs can be a hit or a miss, just wait until you have 5 pints, then come back and tell us how much you enjoyed it.........


Maybe 10 pints, a few drams, a guide dog and a white stick may help.

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## david

> I was also their on Moday night for a meal and it was lovely.
> 
> It may be a differet chef from c'town but he is every bit as good the meal was lovely and the staff were great.
> 
> well done abs!! Wish him the best of luck!


Mmm, hardly a chef needed to make a donner kebab. Slice the pyramid "meat thing" into thin slices whilst lightly toasting a pitta bread. Pour on some chilli sauce (freshly chopped chilli, some tomatoe, garlic and oil). Finish off with some lettuce, tomatoe and sliced onions. Throw in a free can of coke for all orders over £10

Easy init peeps!

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## wkgeorge

Why dont you just make your own then ?

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## Tubthumper

> Mmm, hardly a chef needed to make a donner kebab. Slice the pyramid "meat thing" into thin slices whilst lightly toasting a pitta bread. Pour on some chilli sauce (freshly chopped chilli, some tomatoe, garlic and oil). Finish off with some lettuce, tomatoe and sliced onions. Throw in a free can of coke for all orders over £10
> 
> Easy init peeps!


Sounds great! You should open your own Indian, you could get a grant from the Causewaymire windfarm fund to open up, use a windy-type device to work the pyramid 'meat thing', get some Wickers to provide heat for the pitta breaD and offer free 'whine' to all customers. 
I'm sure the good burghers of Halkirk would go for it in a big way!

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## david

> Sounds great! You should open your own Indian, you could get a grant from the Causewaymire windfarm fund to open up, use a windy-type device to work the pyramid 'meat thing', get some Wickers to provide heat for the pitta breaD and offer free 'whine' to all customers. 
> I'm sure the good burghers of Halkirk would go for it in a big way!


Another recipe since you liked my last. 

Slice "meaty thing" and stuff into a cold untoasted pitta bread. Cover with copious amounts of red food colouring. Garnish with shredded cabbage(should be salad but this is a lot easier) and serve ensuring that 10 minutes has pased to ensure sogginess and to allow the "salad" to soak up the red food colouring. Mmmm tasty!

 This is quite complicated so you may need a chef for this one.

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## david

> Why dont you just make your own then ?


 
Because you have to be a chef to put these little beauties together.....

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## Tubthumper

Is the word I'm thinking of spelt 'chube', 'tube' or 'tyoub'?

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## changilass

I'd say  all three tubs  ::

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## GetWithTheTimes

talking of tubes all the people that think that the pink attacked kebabs are good indian food i think they are the tubes

and yes its supposed to be cabbage in the original kebabs but they are advertised down south as with cabbage not salad

i have had good meals from several of the indians but its half and half and if the customer is paying for the food it should be done to the best possible standard not just thrown together

i would love to see someone served that pink kebabs in india lol or the tiny pita breads

you need 2 full hands to hold the kebabs down south and i can never finish a whole one from down the line and its only £3.50 and easily 3 times the size of the plain £4 one from here

all the people who think all the hotels and fast food places up here are brilliant need to go down south and eat out at alot of different places to get a grip of what good food is

i would only go to the weigh inn and forse house up here if i was going out for a meal, maybe one or two other places as long as i knew who was cooking and they were cooking my meal

and the price some people charge for the rubbish you get here

and the amount of places that use all brakes frozen stuff its stupid, especially frozen chips when its nothing but fields around here i used to get massive sacks of tatties for free, the beak does chips rumbled and cut that are better than frozen ones

i have nothing personal against the owners of these establishments im sure they real good people but they need to wake up and cook some real authentic indian meals and dont cheap out on the ingredients, i would rather pay double the price and get a real tasty meal than a half price meal with frozen ingredients and cheap sauces etc...

i have never ever anywhere ever had chilli sauce that looks like that NEVER and ive eaten alot of take out alot of different places 

it wasnt that long ago i was praising the castletown indian for doing their kebabs alot better than shelina spice so we went out and got one each and it was good and the next time they ordered they got a meal for two and it was rubbish the only thing they ate was the naan bread and it wasnt the best either

so i have no probs with the owners they just need to make sure the people in the kitchen are consistent and stop using weird chilli sauce i am pretty positive if i went to india for a meal my chilli sauce wouldnt look like that and sure as hell wouldnt be as sweet and thick

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## alanatkie

Don't think there is any reason that we have to go down south - most of us are happy with the food establishments in Caithness & have no reason to go anywhere else.

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## catran

> Why dont you just make your own then ?


Well, I would. Fussy about my food , where the ingredients come from an essential as far as I am concerned. Plenty of spices to choose from nowadays and you can actually grow loads of herbs in the garden, much better I would say than getting a mixture of whatever from wherever.  I cannot understand how all the restuarants and cafes make a living in Caithness in this day and age or does most people eat out all the time?

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## changilass

If everything is so much better 'down south' why don't you just head off down there, I am sure we would all be much happier that way.  ::

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## Rheghead

> If everything is so much better 'down south' why don't you just head off down there, I am sure we would all be much happier that way.


Surely we should want a better standard up here rather than putting up with rubbish?  Going south will just mean that the place is left to bad standards, what sort of message will that leave in the minds of visitors who come from areas of better quality?  Is that what you want? ::

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## golach

> Surely we should want a better standard up here rather than putting up with rubbish? Going south will just mean that the place is left to bad standards, what sort of message will that leave in the minds of visitors who come from areas of better quality? Is that what you want?


Who said it was Rubbish???? Only GetWithTheTimes, may be his standards are too high, when I personally want a Kebab, I go to a Kebab shop, not a curry take away, but then I live in a metropolis, Kebab shops on every corner, so i guess I am lucky. ::

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## changilass

Not at all Rheggers, just don't want places that are fine slated by someone who's got a grudge to bear.  

If I get bad food I complain to the establishment, if they give me a mouthful of crap then I may just report that on here. 

It would help if folks spoke to the vendors afore coming on here.  Its amazing the difference it can make.

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## Rheghead

Thanks both for the explanation and I agree, sometimes I'm to naive to the malicious complexity of the human mind. :Grin:

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## crayola

Since this is supposed to be a recommendations thread and Indian restaurants 'down the line' have been mentioned, I thought I would recommend a couple near me.

For anyone spending a night in Glasgow I can recommend Mother India and the Shish Mahal. The Shish is a Glasgow institution and has been on the go for many decades. Mother India is more recent and a worthy competitor, I heard they've opened up in Edinburgh recently but I haven't been there.

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## chamb

Although I havent tried the new halkirk Indian (YET) 

I can thouraghly reccommend Taj Mahal from when they were in castletown, if the halkirk one is as good and as busy they will do realy well.

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## dragonfly

tried it tonight but we were disappointed.  I had a Bhuna and absolutely no kick of it at all when it should be a medium heat, very bland infact. OH had Balti Tikka Chilli Masalla and again not spicy although it was strongly flavoured with lemon  :: 

We'll be sticking to Indian Palace as have always preferred them to Castletown Taj Mahal

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## Rheghead

> I had a Bhuna and absolutely no kick of it at all when it should be a medium heat, very bland infact.


I think I am right in saying that a Bhuna is the dish with the least kick of them all.  No wonder.

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## simpson

We had a set menu for 4 tonight from Halkirk we all really enjoyed, it takes just over 1/2 hour to drive to Halkirk from where we live and the meal was piping hot when we got home which I thought was really good :Grin:  :Grin:

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## dragonfly

I've had spicier ones out of Tesco but you're right there's not much kick to them but this had nothing it was plain bland, just wish I had gone for the dhansak as that was my original choice

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## Connor.

I had the Taj Mahal special kebab the other day and must admit it was delicious. It could of done with having a spicy sauce(a generous helping) to cover the naan a bit more - i hate dry naan bread  ::  - but it was good anyways.

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## mums angels

Have tried it out twice and don't know if they had different chefs working but the south indian garlic chilly chicken was heaps better on the second night than the first trip so hope its stays that way  :Grin: . chicken massala went down well with my friend too 

Tried a bit of peporonni pizza and have to say it was the worst pizza i had ever tried in my life so will be steering clear of that. 

garlic nan was great first trip but the plain my mate got was burnt and sadly on second trip we got a call to say they were running short on nans so only got one of the two we ordered - better planning needed there i think as for the chips we ordered both times and not great they were left barley touched 

overall though i will go back and hope the chef from last night is the one working  :Grin:

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## Aaldtimer

> I had the Taj Mahal special kebab the other day and must admit it was delicious. It could of done with having a spicy sauce(a generous helping) to cover the naan a bit more - i hate dry naan bread  - but it was good anyways.


Erm, isn't a kebab supposed to be Pitta bread rather than Naan bread? ::

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## Truewoman

Just wanted to add, we had a take out from Taj Mahal on Sunday night - was really tasty and delivered when promised - will definitely be going back

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## hotrod4

> Erm, isn't a kebab supposed to be Pitta bread rather than Naan bread?


Special kebabs are served on a Nan. If you seen the size of the kebab you would know why!!!! :: 
Monstrous amounts of cholestorol served on dubious amounts of doughy bread!!. I love kebabs I do. The best one I ever had was in Aberdeen, a proper greek place. It was out of this world.
The ones up here normally come from a guy in Glasgow called Mr Ali. He makes them on the premises and then ships them to Indian Takeaways over Scotland,whereas most greeks make their own on the premises.
I like the Indian ones,they arent a patch on the greek ones but they fill a gap in the market and a space in my bowg!! ::

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## joolswat5

Why don't you open up ur own Kebab shoppee in that half completed croft of yours as you sound such an expert on the subject?

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## david

> Why don't you open up ur own Kebab shoppee in that half completed croft of yours as you sound such an expert on the subject?


Okay, I take it all back-the Taj Mahal serve the best doner kebabs on the planet. Enjoy!

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## Tubthumper

> Why don't you open up ur own Kebab shoppee in that half completed croft of yours as you sound such an expert on the subject?


Those half-completed crofts are a real eyesore aren't they. Is a big rusty caravan involved?

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## chef4celebrations

just thought i would give it a try seeing as i know my indian food pretty well, and i must admit i enjoyed it somewhat, the peratha was a bit on the thick side but apart from that i was happy with what i paid for and with a free delivery service i was even happier, not sure about the rest of the menu that is not indian but they can recreate authentic dishes quite well. but remember that is my opinion as 1, a chef and 2, as someone who worked with over 1000 east asian people for over 2 years

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