REVIEW: The Capital, Claypath, Durham City

I’ve never dined at any restaurant in the city’s bustling Claypath area even though the place is packed with popular venues.

The six of us were given a warm welcome and quickly seated close to the front door.

The dining room isn’t the biggest, but you could hardly say it’s cramped either.

Service cannot be faulted either, with all the waiting staff pleasant and welcoming from the moment we first set foot inside.

The Capital has a quiet, relaxed atmosphere and we were given chance to have a look at the extensive menu, which features a varied vegetarian section.

We dived in straightaway with some bottles of Kingfisher and the usual poppadoms with pickles, yoghurt and onion.

If I’m having an Indian meal, I often go for a bhuna prawn on puri, as it’s a dish I struggle to resist.

But fancying a change after browsing the menu extensively, I went for the tandoori mach, a nicely spiced fish fillet. It’s not something I’ve had before but it proved to be a delight. Beautifully seasoned, the fish parcels fell apart on cutting into them.

The onion bhaji also went down well among our party, as did the bhuna prawn on puri.

For my main, I went for something I’ve not had at an Indian restaurant for a while, the classic tikka chicken jalfrezi.

It came served on a sizzling platter.

Sometimes this dish, or any curry meal for that matter, can come out watery and the chicken not cooked just right.

The chef at The Capital got this spot-on though, from the rich tikka sauce, crunchy peppers and onions to the perfectly flavoured cubes of chicken.

Although it is a spicy dish, the sauce in a jalfrezi can sometimes be too spicy, but this offering was the right side of mild to suit my taste. The platter was so stacked I struggled to finish the whole of it and I was more than full by the time I decided to wave the white flag of surrender.

My dad was particularly impressed with the chicken zahl roshun which he went for, which consists of spring chicken cubes which are cooked with garlic and chillies.

We were all too full to continue eating so we swerved any desserts, with only my mam and uncle having coffees before we got the bill.

From only having a couple of other tables busy when we first arrived at The Capital, it was almost full as we left around 9pm.

It’s clear that the restaurant is one that gets more diners in as the midnight hour approaches. For those looking to watch the pennies, a set meal for two is available at £49.95 and for four at

£95.

Drinks prices are also more than fair.

The cost for all six of us came in at about £150 which wasn’t bad at all considering the huge amount of food we’d all been presented with.

Not the cheapest Indian meal I’ve ever had by any means but when there was absolutely no short-changing on the quality of the food it is hard to complain.

Visiting this place turned out to be a Capital idea.