Yatra Restaurant

Rating: 2

We ate dinner here in September 2022.

Reshmi paneer with rice and plain naan
Malai kofta with rice and cheese naan

Yatra was a funny mix of highs and lows. The instantly noticeable low on arrival was the ambiance, or lack thereof. 7.45 on a Friday night and we were the only people dining in, with individuals passing in and out sometimes for takeaways. Practically as silent as a grave. And where’s the Bollywood jams? It was so quiet that it was uncomfortable, and made you feel like you couldn’t talk. It also made the noise of the hardest working chef in the kitchen very clear. Chef Mic(rowave). He was constantly beeping away, door opening and closing. This seemed very unusual. We’ve watched enough Kitchen Nightmares to know Chef Mic doesn’t belong in a commercial kitchen, and this restaurant had two, front and centre right by the pass. And they were working simultaneously. What was going in there? We did see our rice pop out of Chef Mic - why was the rice being reheated? How old was it? The Fee-Rex used to work at an Indian Restaurant that re-heated its rice, and that place was absolutely disgusting. The other big fail was the malai kofta. The sauce was totally flavourless, and the koftas were unusual. They were big turds of stodgy potato with sultanas in the centre. The plain naan was peculiar too, it was somehow extra plain and pretty dry. Was it made with wholewheat flour?

We are pleased to report, however, that Yatra had the best cheese naan Business Andy has had in years. No mozzarella! Actual cheese with flavour! It wasn’t quite perfect, it could have used more cheese and better distributed too. But in a field of stringy flavourless naan, this one definitely stood above the rest. The reshmi paneer sauce was good too, earthy and rich. It was let down by the presence of wilted old capsicum (to give you an indicator of texture, on initial chewing we thought it was mushroom - perhaps Chef Mic had prepared it), and they had fried the paneer which was controversial.