Shakira Indian Restaurant — Restaurant in Orihuela

We decided to try a new Indian Restaurant called Shakira as it had been recommended by friends.

Several tables were already taken but we were offered a nice table in the middle of the dining area, which is quite large and spacious and quite modern.

The chairs were comfortable and it was warm, even though they kept the front door wide open.

Although it was cold outside some people were still sat drinking on the patio.

Strangely there were these two vending machines just inside the door, I assume they were meant to attract children as the Toys on offer were cheap plastic. Very out of keeping?

However, our drinks order was taken and the menu's delivered.

The dishes on offer would be familiar to most Brits though the spelling was slightly different. The Hot Dishes were displayed on the back page.

We don't usually bother with 'Popadoms and Pickles' but they were delivered anyway.

There was a portion each of chopped onion, some sweet mango chutney and some Raita, though the portions were very small.

I chose 'Chicken Tikka' starter which was slightly underwhelming.

It looked a bit pale and had a mild 'Tikka Flavour'. (The Nan breads too were very pale and didn't have the smokey 'Tandoori oven flavour' I was expecting).

Jaki had a soup which was rich and aromatic and probably the better choice.

The Hot dishes available were: Jalfrezi, Madras, Vindaloo, Saagwala (a dish I didn't recognise but made with spinach).

When you try an Indian restaurant for the first time you just don't know how 'hot' hot is.

So I decided to go for the Jalfrezi (€8) and taking a chance, I asked for it 'extra hot'.

My wife was concerned not to order anything too Spicy, so she went for the 'Chicken Pathia' (€8) a 'Hot, Sweet and Sour dish' which should have Chillies, Tamarind, Vinegar, Fresh Ginger and Jaggery to balance the heat.

What was served up as 'Pathia' looked and tasted like a 'Korma'.

It didn't have the depth of flavour, the layers of taste that we would expect to find in a Pathia (one of the best ever Indian dishes, in my opinion) and the consistency was wrong.

This was a mistake, or as she commented.

“A Malfunction in the ordering department.”

Admittedly it was a pleasant dish, and I'm sure many people would eat it and enjoy it, but it wasn't what we were expecting.

Mine on the other hand was fine, though what I thought were red chillies turned out to be slices of sweet red pepper. (It seems Red chillies are hard to come by in Spain).

It looked like a proper curry and tasted good, though I would have preferred it even hotter, but that's just a personal taste.

The portions were good so you wont starve.

We both chose 'Pilau Rice' as there was no 'Boiled Rice' on the menu and Jaki had a Peshwari Nan (Torta de Coco) €2.5 whilst I had a Plain Nan (Pan Hindu) €2.

We both left most of our bread, she didn't like the taste of the filling in her's (subjective, other people may love it) and I found mine slightly bland.

When the bill came it was €33.15 but I noticed they had forgotten to charge for the drinks so we had to point this out to our server who returned with a new bill including two glasses of house wine at €2.50 each.

Service was Ok but a little stunted, as if the server didn't really understand Indian food, or at best, wasn't a fan. But we had to tell them they'd forgotten to charge for the drinks, come on, thats just sloppy.

In summary we were disappointed with 'Shakira'.

I can see many people would like it, but it wasn't for us.

It's comfortable, the food is on the mild side, it isn't gonna shock you, and its reasonably priced, but it had no real excitement.

I was hoping to find a few fresh chillies in my dish or some fresh Coriander sprinkled on top?

For me the food at Shakira was ordinary.

I'm really sorry, I wanted to like this place, the area needs more good Indian eateries but for us, it just didn't...

I've had a few sit down meals in here recently and to be fair they have always been ok. Tonight though I was alone and decided to have a takeaway which was a huge mistake. I had onion bhajis as a starter with a couple of poppadoms. The poppadoms were the best part of the whole meal. The 2 bhajis were just about warm but they were both squashed flat and were tasteless. No spicy oniony flavour at all. No crispiness to them they were revolting. The main course was even worse. Chicken tikka masala with basmati rice. The rice was very plain, again flavourless. The chicken tikka comprised simply of a runny sauce,again tasteless, with about 6 or 7 small pieces of not very fresh chicken pieces. I wish I'd taken a photo of the food but most of it ended in the bin. I don't like leaving bad reviews but I just had to in this case as it was the worst Indian takeaway I've ever had. It wasn't cheap either in fact it was expensive for the mush that It was . 17.40 euros for 2 courses and a couple of poppadoms which they didn't charge me for. Never again neither sit down...

Delicious food, good portions and very kind service. Loved the cozy atmosphere and especially recommended the curry and mixed platters. The lassi - both salty and mango was super good. Only thing - maybe the waiters could be more active in recommending the dishes, we took the mixed non veg platter as a starter and then the shakira mixed dish, which were basically the same thing 😆 so I guess we would have loved a heads up...