Restaurant Review: Lasan

While February can seem a pretty blah month for most people, I was excited as the end of the month marked one year of Matt and I being together. Our relationship is a lot different now to a year ago - we first met at our Student Union (classy) when he was studying his Masters and I was in second year so we were able to see each other easily and very often. Now he is down in London, making life a bit more difficult for us, especially as I have so much work with essays and dissertation now third year is coming to an end. We had always planned to go to the same place we went on our first date for drinks but as an extra surprise Matt booked a restaurant called Lasan, which is based in the Jewelery quarter of Birmingham.

When he first told me it was Indian food I wasn't sure - I was picturing standard greasy curry which is all well and good but not what I was imaging for a romantic meal! He reassured me the food was amazing though and that the restaurant had actually won Gordon Ramsay's F word. I'm glad he was right; the food was amazing! Everything was cooked perfectly, and the flavours were more fusion cooking rather than a standard curry. Matt kept on laughing because I couldn't get over how they could make even rice and naan taste so incredible!

We started off in the bar and ordered a drink while having a look through the menus. They have a large selection of spirits and wines, but it might be worth noting they don't offer cocktails in case that is your thing. I think that set the precedent for the night though - everything was simple, from the decor to the food but it really worked as sometimes getting simple right is the toughest thing. One of the coolest things in Lasan was the F word trophy encased in glass in the bar which I obviously had to take a sly photo of! The atmosphere is also really nice and relaxed, and I really liked that the tables were all quite far apart so you could have a quiet and private dining experience.

Once we had ordered, a selection of free tasters were bought to our table. There were 3 dips; mango chutney, a yoghurt based one and the other I can't remember (woops) along with some popadoms and spicy chickpeas encased in thin puff pastry which were a yummy surprise.

For a starter we decided to get a sharing platter as it was our first experience and we wanted to try as much as possible. It was the best choice as we got a selection that included spiced chicken sheesh, lamb chops, tandoori salmon and spiced potato cakes served with tamarind and mint sauce. It was literally the best salmon and lamb chops we have ever tasted as everything was flavoured beautifully and so tender.

For mains we ordered two dishes but shared them, with rice and peshwari naan (like I said before they were incredible too haha). The first one we ordered was more lamb in the form of lamb lababdar - the winning dish from the semi-finals of the F word so naturally we had to get it. This was our favourite of the two and consisted of 'Wiltshire Downs free range lamb, marinated cutlet, 10 hour confit shoulder, braised shin pattie and tempered lentils, with smoked braising juis spiced with nutmeg and cinammon.' 

The second dish was Kodi chettinad a 'Tamil style rustic curry; spring chicken in a spicy masala of roasted coconut, star anise, sundried chilli and black peppercorn.' I found this a little bit too spicy but again it was cooked to perfection and all the flavours worked really well together. 

By this point we were absolutely stuffed and had no hope of ordering pudding even though there were a few that caught my eye! We also ordered an amazing bottle of red to go with our meal which went down a treat, although resulted in us being a bit tipsy by the end of the night - we got to and from the restaurant by taxi though so it was ok :) 

In regards to price it wasn't as expensive as we thought it would be for such amazing food, although I don't know the exact bill as Matt wouldn't let me know! Mains range from £15.95 being the lowest to around £25.95 each. The service was also excellent as they helped us with any queries, were attentive but not domineering and even ordered us a taxi home. I really wish I didn't have to use an iPhone for pictures as it didn't really do the food justice, but I guess that means you will just have to visit Lasan and see for yourself :) I don't think I can ever go back to a bog standard curry now and will definitely be visiting again xxx