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I just want to say a great big thank you to you and the girls that came to cover our wedding on June 19th.  All the girls said how they loved their hair do’s and that the entire team was very professional and organised; they we all beautiful.

Thank you…you and your entire team are superb.

Sarah

This is a venue I shoot weddings at quite regularly and soon will be creating a venue review which will also appear on our website here.

So much to do and so little time so please be patient.

If I were to ask you what attracts you to a new restaurant for the first time and then keep returning, I suspect the answer would be a combination of but not limited to…

a friend recommended it

we saw it and decided to try it

the serving staff were friendly and knowledgeable

the restaurant and facilities are clean

the pricing was reasonable – quality versus cost

a good selection of dishes

and not forgetting of course that the food is delicious

Earlier this week I found my diamond and the following night we did indeed polish it a second time.  Now before I get lots of emails what I’m not saying is that other Indian restaurants in Huddersfield aren’t good.  What I am saying is that I have found a restaurant that ticks all my boxes and writing this review was both easy and difficult in equal measure.  Easy because my personal boxes were ticked, see above, and then hard as I almost selfishly don’t want it to become too successful, we might never be able to get a table again!

Entering the Chutney Mahal your Indian experience begins.  Greeted with the subtle smells of the East enveloping and caressing you, guiding you toward a culinary feast unlike anything you’ll have tried in a long time.  I make no apologies to other Indian restaurants in Huddersfield, this is how it made me feel, others may feel differently.

The restaurant opened in August 2009 and as of now, my third visit(love polishing diamonds!), the only negative I can prise out of my over critical nature is their location on Chapel Hill, a stones throw from Huddersfield town centre.  Being on one of the major arteries into/out of Huddersfield means fast moving traffic and an initial appearance of having no parking available may dissuade people to stop and explore.  Certainly the former is true but across the road there’s a huge free car park available after 6pm.  If you know where the Grosvenor casino is, park there and cross the road…not easy, but well worth the effort.

Seating for up to 60, The Chutney Mahal has an extensive menu and a well stock bar catering for all tastes.  It’s the small things we all take for granted that really count here though.  Bhagat and his son Pavinder, owner and manager respectively, have invested heavily in traditional Indian cooking methods which extend to a traditional Indian clay tandoor oven.  Remember those small things?  The tandoor here is powered by charcoal unlike most tandoor ovens in the area which are powered by gas or propane.  Think gas powered barbecue to charcoal powered barbecue – charcoal makes such a magnificent difference never really appreciated until you taste the food from both – I’m a convert, plain, simple and wonderful with a capital YUM!

The floor plan of the restaurant is over two floors.  The upper floor is and where you first experience the Chutney Mahal, is set aside for a congregational seating area and the bar.  The lower floor is the dining area.  To that end you will find a conveniently located wheelchair ramp inside the restaurant helping those with walking difficulties reach the dining area.  And even though neither Nikki nor I are disabled, we do like to see this level of detail in a restaurant, it shows a level of consideration rarely found in most restaurants.  The father and son team could have taken a far easier route and placed more tables where the ramp is, but client comfort and accessibility are important to Bhagat and Pavinder.  This extends to the inclusion of disabled toilets.

But what about the service?  We’ve all experienced the over friendly annoying waiter or where the waiters appear to look the other way when you’re trying to attract their attention.  Well, I’m pleased to report that the waiting staff are just the right amount of attentive never making you feel claustrophobic or ignored.

In summary then reviewing The Chutney Mahal has had a significant impact on our bank account!  The diamond polishing I mentioned earlier has been polished several times since our first visit.  And now with the added bonus that a take-away service is available delivered right to your door…I’ve added their phone number to our speed dial.  Further, Pavinder tells me that they also provide outside catering!  And with our wedding anniversary coming up, guess what’s going to be on the menu – that’s rhetorical!

The Chutney Mahal – if we awarded stars they would get a full house – superb, but don’t take our word for it.  Call Pavinder and book a table while you still can!

The Chutney Mahal, Folly Hall, Chapel Hill, Lockwood, Huddersfield HD1 3PA  01484 532244

The period commemorated is 1914 – 1919 and 1939 – 1945 and with the follow inscription carved

Sacred to the memory
of our noble dead
who gave their lives in the
cause of freedom
during the Great War

1914 – 1919
and
1939 – 1945

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Within the Nikon cameras lies the ability to fine tune your camera to how you like to shoot.  Within the options you can accept the pre-loaded image settings or if you post process with Nikon’s imaging software, NX2, you have the ability to create your own settings.  These new settings can be loaded into your camera which then utilises those adjustments each and every time you take a photograph; I’ve created several.

Most of the time I use a setting called UniWB and for now I’ll park that description for a more lengthy post another day.  For today I want to share one of my new settings that I have adopted for shooting most things with the exception of people.  Shooting people with this Picture Control will give Caucasian skin an overly red tone which is unflattering.  Show it landscapes, water almost everything else and it produces wonderfully rich colours, some may say over saturated, to me the tones and colours look terrific.  You decide from the images below.

If you’re interested and can work your way through to the Picture Control settings in your Nikon digital cameras try these settings…

1st – select your Vivid Picture Control then adjust

Sharpening to 4, the default is 2 I believe

Contrast – take that setting to the left until ‘A’ is highlighted and do the same with Saturation.

Leave Hue and Brightness at 0 (zero)

And now go and take some photographs.  The only way to process your photographs after the fact and have all those settings in play is to use ViewNX, a free piece of Nikon software that honours all your in-camera settings.  Use anything other than either ViewNX or NX2 and many of your Picture Control settings are discarded.

So here are the images…if you would like to comment or ask a question please do.

This describes my day today.

I never knew a bed had 5 sides until I got out of our this morning.  So with caffeine to hand and dogs leads in the other, the dogs and I hit the local woods for an hour and a half long walk.  No wind to blow cobwebs away but the sun was strong enough that they got frazzled anyway.  And life and my view of the World returned to normal – happy days (thanks for that phrase Mr Oliver).

Wherever I go though it’s usually with a camera slung around my neck and today was no exception.  The photos below show some of the photographs I took whilst out on the walk.  I hope you like them.