Review of Kohinoor Indian Restaurant Tavira
Kohinoor, right by the Roman Bridge in Tavira, has become our curry house of choice recently. Our first experience of the place was shortly after we moved to the area, and although we were perfectly happy with the food, it was disappointingly mild.
As fans of properly hot Indian food, this led us to briefly favour their competitor, Punjab Palace. However, since the latter moved to newer premises, they have stepped up their touting campaign by the bridge to truly irritating proportions. Restaurant touts are one of my pet hates—right up there with cold callers and the direct-debit hunting charity chuggers who get in your way on the streets of London. This annoyance led us to revert back to Kohinoor – and we are really glad we did.
Kohinoor now offers all of their dishes as mild, medium or hot. This is a great idea. I love a hot curry, but also like something creamy to dip the naan bread into. The solution? HOT tikka masala. Perfect.
This photo of Kohinoor Indian Restaurant is courtesy of TripAdvisor
Kohinoor is friendly, with quite upscale décor. You won’t forget that you’re in Portugal though, as the restaurant comes complete with the par-for-the-course football-showing flatscreen and over-bright lighting. Takeaway is also on offer, which is our usual choice, and is fast and accurate when ordered by phone.
The food is great and doesn’t suffer from a common problem which afflicts a lot of curry houses, where you have to choose between spicy OR flavoursome. Kohinoor manages to combine both in one dish. We have worked our way through a number of their options from the standard kormas and jalfrezis to slightly more adventurous choices including a chicken saag. I usually steer well clear of this spinach-loaded favourite of my wife’s, but Kohinoor’s was seriously good and I was glad to assist her in polishing it off.
Portion sizes are generous, without being excessive. We generally manage to get through everything we order. The only slight problem is the price. Indian and Chinese food is strangely expensive in the Algarve. Living here, both are now a treat rather than a cheap and easy option, delivered in 30 mins on a moped.
Kohinoor’s prices are no more excessive than any other Indian restaurant in these parts, until you venture near seafood. King prawn curries can approach €20 each before adding any side dishes. I buy and consume more prawns living in Portugal than I ever have before and they are cheap and plentiful, so the only reason I can see for this pricing is to take advantage of tourists treating themselves. This means my choices from Kohinoor usually come with chicken and I cook prawn curries myself instead.
Don’t let this small criticism put you off. Kohinoor has pleased us immensely with taste and consistency, and is highly recommended to anyone fancying a curry in the Eastern Algarve.
