Passage To India — Restaurant in Whitby

Never visit an Indian restaurant without checking reviews, well as they say, never say never. Stopping over in Whitby on our Campervan road trip we stumbled across this place whilst looking for a takeaway pizza to take back with us, swiftly changed our plans and walked in. From the off it was a warm welcome from the staff, explained the menu and promptly took drinks order, supplied us with Poppadoms and dips on request. The drinks were not bad, proper draft Cobra lager, the Poppadoms were fresh, dips were plentiful, unusual Mango Chutney, more like a smooth jam, but very nice and the mixed pickle had some serious kick. We chose the set meal for 2 option - 2 starters, 2 mains, 1 side-dish, naan & rice, reasonable at £45. For starters we had Mixed Kebab, which was OK, nicely cooked, lacking a little in presentation compromised of couple of bits of Chicken Tikka, Onion Bhaji and a Sheek Kebab. stuck a little in time with traditional salad, but not bad, pretty average and on par with what you would expect in most high street curry houses. The Lamb Chop starter, again, nicely cooked, but very oily (ghee), pretty tender, but not pink with nice lamb flavour, tasted fresh, not frozen, but lacked any depth of spice and certainly under seasoned. Would prefer to be marinated longer and cooked over coals or in tandoor for that intense charcoal flavour. Certainly had worse, but definitely had better. We kind of knew, looking at the outdoor signage, the decor and the menu what we were going to get and accepted it would be pretty average underwhelming experience. It was just that, until the mains arrived. The Murgi Masala ‘Signature Dish’ was a delight. Fresh, tender Chicken Tikka strips in a thick rich vibrant sauce, combined with spiced lamb mince packed full of differing layers of flavour, plenty of heat, but not overpowering with fresh herbs and spices tantalising the tastebuds with every mouthful. The Karahi Chicken ‘Speciality Dish’ was delicious, big chunks of tender chicken in a thick dark sauce with chunky charred onions and peppers giving it a mildly sweet tang, yet almost bitter aftertaste and not in a bad way. It was well balanced with fresh garlic, chillies and classic spices. Can honestly say, that these are two of the best main dishes experienced and have dined in a lot of Indian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani restaurants across Yorkshire and in particular South Yorkshire. Accompanying the mains, Bombay Allo was cooked to perfection, the potatoes were literally melt in the mouth and had soaked up all the flavour of the dish in the cooking process. The Garlic Naan was OK, nice and soft, but wasn’t really fluffy and crisp as you would expect if cooked in a tandoor. The Pilau Rice was subtly flavoured, but there was almost too much crammed in the serving dish, therefore it had become a little sticky as it had been compressed, sometimes less is more. Overall, would definitely visit again, would skip the starters and really enjoy a different main from the extensive menu. Thanked the owner on the way out, payed by card and left a £10 tip which the staff didn’t want to take. A very...

Truly terrible food. Do not wast your money or risk your health. The onion bhajee was not authentic, not deep fried, more like reheated shop bought. The dipping sauce was horrible. The tandoori butter chicken was bland strips of old meat in a Korma like off yellow sweet sauce. The chicken balti was in a shop bought sauce with no vegetables stated in the description. Most of the food went in the bin. Never again. I’m not feeling great. My lovely man’s review. I suspect this so called restaurant survives on the basis that there's one born every minute. Because anyone with a brain cell and taste buds would never return in a thousand years. The reason being the so called food. (I ordered a takeaway of a chicken balti, butter chicken, two plain naan and an onion bhajee) The balti had no spices or vegetables and was just an oily mess of tasteless goo. How the heck do you make a curry taste bland and horrible? However they managed to do it, l don't think they know what spices are. The butter chicken was equally bland and tried to pretend to be a korma, much to my partner's disappointment this also ended up in the bin. The naan bread was soggy and tasted like warmed up wall paper paste. The onion bhajee was loaded with enough oil and grease l used it on the squeaky rusty door hinges, so not a total loss. The rest went in the bin, l couldn't for shame give it to the dog or the many seagulls here in Whitby. I've had a few curries in my time and l can honestly say this is by far the worst I've ever had the displeasure to come across. I'm only comforted that I'll never have to go to the Passage of India again and that I've lived long enough to write this review. Date of...

Not the best place to eat in Whitby. It was chaotic when we arrived on Sunday for our reservation. First issue was that due to an issue with the service provider the cash machine wasn't working so cash only. That meant a trip to the cash machine for quite a few guests. Not sure how long this 'temporary' issue had been going on for but quite a while if the printed signs were anything to go by. There appeared to be one guy running around like a headless chicken and a bar lady who remained calm in the chaos and had the sense to ask everyone who was waiting in the reception what drinks they would like. That at least kept us all captive for a while longer. The mixed starter, when we finally got it had a burnt onion bahgi. Popadoms were not freshly cooked, they were out of the kitchen as soon as we ordered them. In fact we got the popadoms before we had ordered the rest of our meal. The food quality improved. The lamb tandoori was reminiscent of roast lamb dinner with mint sauce. Bit odd but tasted good. Korma was as expected. Prices were reasonable but staff seemed incapable of anything more than basic interaction, never smiled, and on occasion made eye contact when I was trying to attract there attention for some cutlery but still ran back into the kitchen. Men's toilet was grotty and didn't lock. The whole place was pretty dismal. Not...