Kashmir

Practical

Kashmir, corner of Wilton Street and 27 Morley Street, Bradford, England

Telephone +44 1274 726513

It doesn't look to me like the sort of place that expects you to ring up and book a table, but they assured us once that they would take bookings. I've never turned up there and not found a table.

Style

Possibly the world's best Indian restaurant, certainly in its class.

You really want to eat downstairs, not in the posh bit at street level which only gets used when they get full: the tablecloths upstairs really are a bit out of character.

Cutlery is provided if you ask for it, but really you should just use the chappatis. Lassi is brought by the jug (there isn't a licence, but there's hardly a shortage of decent pubs in Bradford to visit before and/or after the Kash).

(Note for foreign readers: England has this bizarre system whereby restaurants can only sell alcohol if they are licensed to do so, and some choose not to apply for a licence. At most such establishments you can take drink in with you, but I don't recall whether the Kash allows this.)

How to get there

It's easy to find on foot: go up Morley Street leaving the Alhambra to your right. (That's the theatre, not the palace, which is somewhere else. Spain, I think.) By car it may take a bit of finding if you don't have a passenger with a map, but there is actually a car park on Wilton Street that you have to drive past the restaurant to get to.

Bradford has a good train service from more or less anywhere, and an airport (Leeds/Bradford) with Air UK services from Aberdeen, Amsterdam, Edinburgh and Paris. (This is not a joke: a party has been known to travel from Paris in order to eat here.)

If you want to stay in Bradford the Victoria hotel is recommended for its golden-age-of-Victorian-railway-hotels atmosphere. There have in the past been some cheap deals in combination with rail tickets, but I don't know if they still run these.

Things to do

Some time in the 1980s Bradford decided to promote itself as a tourist destination. This was generally considered to be something of a joke at the time, but actually there are all sorts of interesting things there and more than enough to keep you busy for a couple of weekend visits. Only a small selection is listed: for details collect leaflets from the tourist office.

Stock up on ingredients for your Indian cooking in sensible quantities at sensible prices at the Al Halal supermarket. I think this claims to be the largest Asian supermarket in Europe. (Not everything is labelled in English so you might have to ask for what you are looking for.)

The museum of photography must be visited, and you should see at least one film on the IMAX screen.

There's a technology museum in an old mill.

There are several dozen other Indian restaurants of varying style, price and quality. If you prefer cutlery, tablecloths, carpets and pretty uniforms, with bills to match, you will be able to find them.

There are many pubs of varying styles and a wide variety of real ales is available. Some people go to Bradford for the beer and treat the curry as incidental: I do it the other way round.

On your way back to the Victoria hotel at chucking out time on a Saturday night pause outside the newspaper building and watch the Sunday papers being printed through the glass wall. (Note for foreign readers: we have this strange system in England whereby all the pubs have to shut at a particular time prescribed by law.)

A few miles away you can go down a no longer working coal mine which is now run as a museum.

Cost

I think lunch for one in 1995 came to under GBP 4 - cheaper than the average pub lunch - but don't remember what I ate. On my first visit dinner for five came to GBP 11.20, but I'm afraid prices have gone up slightly in ten years! Extremely good value. Yes I did juggle the timing of my business trip (slightly) so as to be passing Bradford at lunchtime.