My cousin was back from the Unite States and it was our first meeting since before the pandemic. It has been hard for her stuck in America as the Indian restaurants just don’t quite make the cut over there, so naturally the moment she arrived we decided to head straight into St Ives and grab a curry.
PR Massala for me is one of those restaurants which always does a good spread. It has always been consistent and good value. It’s a large restaurant too, meaning you rarely have to worry about large parties. I always manage to come here at least once a year.
Check out our previous review here.
Upon entering we were warmly greeted and led to our table. As you can see from this picture above there is plenty of space, so we had our choice of table.
The menu was a good size and will have everything you’d want from a local Indian. It was also great to see the two classic Indian beers on tap. Cobra and Kingfisher.
We ordered papadums while we studied the menu. The onion salad was pretty crude and chunky which consisted of pretty much just onion but the mango chutney, yogurt and mango chutney were all good quality. Maybe my family eats a disproportionate amount of lime pickle but the portions were pretty small and we ran out quickly. We tried to wave someone down to get more but the restaurant being so big, the only person we could see was behind the bar, which felt like half a mile away
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I was tempted to go for a mixed grill for a change but the moment we entered the restaurant the alluring smell the curry had gotten the best of me. So it had to be my usual favourite, the chicken tikka vindaloo, saag aloo, and mushroom rice. We ordered a keema and garlic naan for good measure.
My father had his usual biriyani which he always really rates from PR Masala. This is not an area I am too experience with but if it gets the thumbs up from him then it is going to be to a standard I am willing to endorse.
My chicken tikka vindaloo was delicious and a visual treat on the eyes. Look at that lovely colour! You could see by the large chunks of chicken with the holes in that it had been tikka’d properly too. One little annoyance was that I requested it “extra hot” but was serviced it quite mild. This might be a good restaurant for people looking to try the vindaloo for the first time but are worried it will be too hot.
The saag aloo was fantastic, as it always is here. It complimented the curry perfectly. The keema naan was not too exciting but was inoffensive.
The service here was prompt with the food but quite hard to get hold of anyone when you needed something extra. Personally, I think this was partly due to the size of the restaurant but the team should be catering for that. The food came out in good time none the less.
I can really see why PR Massala is popular. It always does a reliable decent curry with classic Indian beer on tap and with lots of open space. Everyone had a great meal and other than a few minor annoyances the meal out turned into a great night.
With so much competitive choice in the town, with Zzohanna being fantastic and the new Dhaba making good impressions on the foodie scene already (though I have only had a chance to have a quick takeaway), PR Massala is still holding its own and I have a feeling they will be here to stay.
If you are every in St Ives make sure to check them out!
Thanks for reading!
The Cambridge Foodies 