We have been trying to eat at every place in our town! Though I do not often pick Indian food, one of our friends suggested Belash, who recently celebrated their anniversary within our town. Belash has been in Harlow since 1977, building up their reputation for delicious curries and traditional Indian food. Though Dann has lived in Harlow his entire life, he’s actually not eaten here either, so we were both very excited to check it out!
Kofta Jalfrazi and Dansak Lamb
Now, as someone who has not had much Indian food, I wasn’t really sure what to order. The staff at Belash were extremely helpful and informed me that the Kofta Jalfrazi was spicy, but not super spicy! I went with it, as I do know I like Kofta. Kofta are these little meatballs, made of lamb, which is cooked in a Jalfrazi curry sauce. This sauce had big chinks of onions, peppers and tomatoes, and was a very nice spice level. None of the curries come with rices, so Dann and I both got mushroom rice on the side. There were good sized chunks of mushrooms in this rice and it was very flavorful. Dann got Dansak Lamb, which is lamb cooked in a sweet and sour sauce. His sauce didn’t have a ton of vegetables like mine, but it had a lot of flavor. I had a bit of it and it was delicious.
Bombay Aloo, Sag Aloo and Aloo Gobi
I absolutely love potatoes and in the few times we have had Indian food, I always order tons of the potato side dishes. My absolute favorite at Belash was the Bombay Aloo, which was so full of flavor! The potatoes just fell a part as you ate them. I barely shared this with Dann, if I am honest. He picked the Sag Aloo, which is potatoes and spinach in a different sort of curry, which is a close second as it was packed with flavor. The Aloo Gobi was good too, with chunks of cauliflower, and I enjoyed eating a bunch of those potatoes.
Papadam and Naan
When we arrived, our server asked if we wanted a few papadams. We said yes, obviously, and they came out with a bunch of sides. One was a sort of creamy, slightly mint-y sauce that Dann liked, another was an onions salad, a lime pickle and a mango jam type thing. These were all delicious – I loved the lime pickle and mango jam the best. We actually ended up ordered a few more to continue to dip in! When we were ordering our mains, the server suggested some Naan, so we grabbed some stuffed Naan. I am not quite sure what it was stuffed with, but it was full of flavor and perfect for moping up my curry sauce.
Belash has some fantastic cocktails as well, that come out very fancy, and they are super well paced. The entire place feels upscale, and it’s clear everyone is very knowledgeable about the menu and food there. We had a fantastic time eating and hanging out, as it’s a great place for a date night! At the end, the bartender even asked if he could buy our table shots? Absolutely fantastic.