According to a straw poll of my wine rack, the average price of a bottle of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc is about £10 but this Indian one from Sula Vineyards, Nashik Estate was only £7.49.  Does this cost advantage represent a simple process done with cheaper labour, or a quality Hammer House of Horror?

I noticed a slight buttery aroma when I unscrewed the cap.  This persisted in the taste and mingled with more typical Sauvignon citrussy flavours, but much more blossom than fruit.  Subtler in other words.  There is a bit of a white pepper kick that made me think of Grüner Veltliner.

Very interesting and a little bit smarter than your average Sauvignon, Boo Boo!  Virgin Wines website plays this as “matching Indian food really well” but I am not so sure.  I think it stands up better on its own as a surprisingly decent wine, and definitely the best one I have tried from India.

Sula Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc is available from Drinkon.com at £8.99 and Virgin Wines at £7.49.

The Aakash, which claims to be, and almost certainly is, the largest Indian restaurant in the world, occupying, as it does, a large parcel of land in Cleckheaton, a small town in West Yorkshire.

Although it is rumoured that an “A la carte” menu exists, everyone I know goes for the buffet.  A rocking £12.95 (cheaper than the £15.95 it charged when it opened).  The resto closed for a few months – sadly went into bankruptcy – but the building was purchased and the resto reopened recently with better decor, better food and better prices.  I hope it succeeds this time – it deserves to.

I was delighted to see Indian wine on the menu and immediately requisitioned a bottle of 2006 Indage Tiger Hill Chardonnay-Semillon from the Sahyadri Valley.

Lemon and apple, banana and pineapple – exotic fruits that got lost amongst the spicy food but had a really pleasant cooling effect, much more fellatio than any low-fizz Indian lager.

The interior decor is absolutely amazing.  Aakash is apparently Urdu for cloud and there are tons of them painted on the ceiling with Sistine Chapel like detail.  It’s hard to believe that this place has over 800 covers!  Fortunately half of these are usually reserved for large private parties, Indian weddings for example.  Otherwise, it probably represents twice the aggregate restaurant seats within 10 miles and therefore, would be very difficult to fill.

The buffet is excellent, cutting the fine line between fresh food and naff Indian clichés.  I tried Chicken Shashlick, Aloo Tikka, spinach and lentils, and Ras Malai amongst other dishes.  Quite enough to send me straight to sleep as soon as I got home.

I cannot recommend Aakash enough.  If you visit West Yorkshire it is defo worth a visit, although it will require a drive or a long cab ride as it is a few miles from the conurbations of Leeds and Bradford.  Worth the effort in my opinion – the food, the atmosphere, the decor, the building, the car park - all amazing.

Aakash, Bradford Road, Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire, BD19 3PN.
W:  www.aakashrestaurant.co.uk: E: mail@aakashrestaurant.co.uk
T: +44 (0) 1274 878866  F:  +44 (0) 1274 877677

So it was natural to want to check out the second floor (which is the Thai menu) and presumably just as good as the Chinese on the floor below?  Er, no….

First of all, the interior designer had presumably been smoking Gauloises.  The last time I saw a Philippe Starck chair was in Simply Heathcotes (simply awful).  In what sense can this pompous French “designer” create an atmosphere conducive to eating Thai food?

Secondly, any resto that spends more time on origami than food preparation has got its priorities wrong.  The food was grim.  Hoy Tod (pan fried crispy mussels) turned out to be a huge soggy fried omelette with mussels and prawns, then battered in oil that had presumably been recently used to lubricate the cylinders of a London taxi.  As disgusting a dish as I can remember eating.  The main course was a case of mix ‘n match.  Stupidly, sticking with a seafood theme I mixed scallops and matched them with Pad-prik-sod (chilli and pepper).  The sauce was lovely but I thought I deserved fresh scallops, instead of the rubbery frozen ones, for the price (£13.50).

The one redeeming feature of the evening was the wine.  I ordered a Grover Sauvignon Blanc (£14.50) from India (Nasik, near Mumbai).  The “domaine” has apparently been helped by Michel Rolland of Veuve Clicquot (and I hope the influence he added here does not detract from his future champagnes).   This was the most flavoured white wine I had tasted from some time.  Was it my imagination or did it taste of Bombay mix?  It certainly tasted of tangy fruits and was quite tart.  When the fruit basket arrived after the meal I instantly recognised the flavour to be pineapple – lovely really.

So in the final analysis the score was India 2, China 1, Thailand 0.  If you want Chinese food in Manchester, definitely try Pacific, it’s one of the best, but if you want Thai, Chaophraya is 10 times better.

Pacific (Chinese and Thai), 58-60 George Street, Chinatown, Manchester M1 4HF.  Tel: +44 (0)161 228 6668.