We don’t wish to sound smug, but we nailed the university shopping painlessly in one brief visit to Touchwood. We were so proud of ourselves that we stopped off at Indico Street Kitchen to pat ourselves on the back.
If you’ve visited Indico at the original Mailbox site, you know the drill – a menu as long as your arm packed with street food style dishes, small plates and curries. There’s also a thali option which is brilliant if you want to try numerous dishes rather than committing to one main curry option.
We devoured many papadams with the customary pickle, raita, mango chutney and onion combination. What’s not to love? We then opted for a handful of small plates and a thali to share. First up, our favourite thing – pani puri, puffed up crisp hollow pastry cases with a hole in the top that you fill with a potato mix at the table then pour over a little mint water. They’re delicate and fresh and a lovely start to a meal. Word to the wise, pop the entire thing in your mouth in one go else you’ll be in a hell of a mess.
A crunchy samosa chaat with a soft moreish middle of chickpeas, herbs and spices served with an accompanying onion relish was delicious. Lollipop fried chicken had been marinated in a tangy chilli and soy sauce then deep fried on the bone to maximise the flavour and chicken tikka bites were deep fried then tossed in a warming, rich tikka masala sauce.
The Chef’s Special Thali which would be perfect for one person without all the small plates consisted of more papadams, an excellent daal makhani, makai palak – a flavour packed dish of sweetcorn and spinach, aloo pyaaz ke pakora – a crisp pakora with potatoes and onions, spices, herbs and chilli. Then there was rice, a really great naan, raita and a choice of two curries. We enjoyed lamb rogan josh and butter chicken – both were seriously tasty.
The thali sounds like an enormous amount of food when listed but there’s just a small bowl of each so it’s not overwhelming. If you’re out and about in Solihull, it’s definitely worth a look. We assumed wrongly the restaurant would be open during Touchwood shopping hours only, but it’s actually open from 12pm to 10pm, so something to bear in mind.