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Sher Khan's opening in November 2008 brought the number of Indian restaurants in the city centre to ten. In any other line of restauration this would seem to constitute a pretty fair degree of choice. In Indian restaurants it does not. Afraid to step out of line, they play it safe with the same old food, the same old formula. Apart from the disappearance of flock wallpaper in 1986, nothing has changed since the curry house first arrived on these shores.
And yet this is not entirely true. I think we can discern a trend, a change for the better, if only on a superficial level. They aren't as dingy as they used to be. Some of them are quite cheerful. Sher Khan is actually quite a sight for sore eyes. It has inherited the design paradigm which saw its predecessor, Brasserie 10/16, break the mould a decade ago. The clean cream walls, the big windows and the generous lighting seem to set Sher Khan apart from the pack. It would have been fun to see them go even further - unclothed tables, real flowers - but let's be happy that we've gone as far as we have.
The food, unfortunately, is nothing to write home about. What can I say - there are some specialities, but nothing wildly exciting. So we stayed with the mainstream, the better to benchmark the quality of the cooking. Some things were slightly below par - too dry lamb in the biriani, tomato sauce in the onion chutney (why do they do that?) - some slightly above - big buttery nan bread, big stodgeless onion bhajis. It was clean. Service was first-rate. Prices are as low as can be.
We visited early on a Thursday evening and it was especially noticeable that the place was almost full (though the upstairs had not been brought on stream). All the tables were occupied by same-sex pairs and groups, some male, some female.
The one thing we haven't mentioned yet - the elephant in the room - is the curious business of the restaurant's name and logo. With the Shere Khan chain a recent memory in Chester, it is either an extraordinary coincidence or an act of stunning plagiarism for the newcomer to have adopted the same branding, give or take a letter e and a slight tweaking of the graphics. It seems the current manifestation is related to other Sher Khan's in Wrexham and Birmingham, but not to the once booming (now bust?) Shere Khan's of Manchester. You either have to admire such breathtaking nerve or be scandalised by it and, for now, I'm on the po-faced side. Was Shere Khan so good that it merited copying? No, it was not.
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