Cambridge Foodies

Located that the train station of Great Shelford, you’d never assume that a place so easily missed while getting off the train would actually end up being one of the top Indian restaurants around. Being slightly out of Cambridge, you might be slightly put off coming here if you live in the city, but being located right on top of the train station might make that a little easier for you. After recently moving to Ely myself, a roughly 35 minute drive, being on a train link is great for me if I ever get the curry itch for Zara!

Currently sitting in the Cambridge Curry Crew’s no1 spot (On its online poll) – Zara adds class, delicacy and value to its customers.

We were waiting outside the door before it opened like a couple of curry junkies needing their latest fix. The staff at Zara were kind enough to open its doors slightly early to us and they led us straight to our table. We wasted absolutely no time ordering our poppadoms…straight to business for us!

We were pleased to see that our poppadoms were out with the four main sauces. Mango chutney, chopped onion salad, lime pickle and yogurt. They were beautifully presented in china dishes and all of them tasted incredible. This being said, though it was beautiful, delicious and great selection, it did mean there portions were small, leaving us a little short on mango chutney.
But hey, i’m really struggling to find a fault here, as you can tell!

It was my friends birthday so we decided to dress up. Believe it or not I decided to go in a shirt and my friend in a white dress. Now normally in a lot of Indians in Cambridgeshire you’d feel a little over dressed, but not in Zara. The restaurants modern and minimalist design with modern art work on the walls really looked classy. If you read some of my other reviews you may recognise that I describe a lot of other Indians as minimalist and modern in a bad way, but Zara executes this style perfectly!

Our food took a standard amount of time to come out, which was fine, we weren’t disappointed with our meals and it was certainly worth the wait. My curry was delicious and we even decided to try some seekh kebab and saag aloo too, which was all delicious and great texture.  Even my friends vegetarian dish was consumed with little fuss (which is a real achievement! lol).

I really felt like my vindaloo could have been hotter (as I always do) but I certainly knew id had a hot curry. The meal was almost like a delicacy, there was little grease and the food was presented incredibly well.

The longer we were in there the more it filled up. This clearly is a place of quality for good value and everyone here knows it.

When we had finished we got the bill to be pleasantly surprised. It was a little over average for the two of us but we both knew it was worth it. Especially since we were given a shot of Baileys each, chocolates and a selection of three sweets. Yes THREE. So in total on top of our delicious meal we had been given 5 freebies. We were also incredibly happy to have been given a hot towel, which was the icing on the cake!

The staff were chatty and incredibly friendly. They had a good selection of beer and the menu had a great selection also.

Over all I would agree with the Cambridge Curry Crew poll and say this is one of the top Indians in Cambridgeshire. This place adds class and fine food at an affordable price. The place is out of town yet still easy to get to for anyone. There is no doubt that this place would be ideal for birthdays or special occasions.