Voujon – A Bengali Feast

Perhaps it’s in my blood, with my mother having been born in India but I love Asian food. In fact now that Spice Girl is back at Stockbridge Market, hopefully on a regular basis, my freezer is stockpiled with her curry kits, which guarantees you a quick lunch or supper dish that takes less than 20-30 minutes.

Umami Spice Girl's curry kits are the answer to my prayers - so simple

Umami Spice Girl’s curry kits are the answer to my prayers – so simple

I also love going out for a curry and I rarely need to venture far as I have some great restaurants close to home; my favourites being Mother India on Infirmary Street and Kushi’s on Antigua Street, which is equally good and it’s B.Y.O.

Therefore I was delighted to accept an invitation to dine at Voujon on the Southside of Edinburgh on the Newington Road, an area I don’t often visit.

A Bengali and Indian restaurant, Voujon serves Asian cuisine in a modern environment. With its oversized, stylish overhead lampshades, formal table settings and Villeroy & Boch cutlery, it’s a lot ‘posher’ than your average Indian and gives a surprisingly grand first impression, which sadly didn’t always live up to expectations.

The menu is a fusion of traditional Bengali recipes with influences from both East and West. The menu features a number of meat, fish and vegetarian dishes including classics such as Rhogan Josh, Madras and Pathia and special dishes like Katmandu Chicken Delicacy and Methi Gosht.

They also offer some excellent complete dinners such as a Royal Murgh or a non vegetarian dinner for two people, selected by their chef to suit the diners’ tastes from starters to desserts. Sadly these needed to be ordered in advance, which we hadn’t done, so we just chose from the menu.

My dining partner, ‘A’,  and I weren’t overly hungry so passed on starters and poppadoms.

For drinks, I opted for a glass of rose wine whilst ‘A’ chose a vodka and diet coke. The coke, although from a new large bottle, was flat and was sent back; as was the second attempt, which was also flat. Fortunately one of the waiters offered to go across the road to the convenience store to purchase a can, which did the trick.

Voujon's veritable feast - there's unfamiliar dishes on the menu - but be brave and try them

Voujon’s veritable feast – there’s unfamiliar dishes on the menu – but be brave and try them

We went straight into the mains of tandoori chicken tikka massalam, shatkora chicken, and sides of mushroom bhaji (mushrooms cooked with a touch of fresh herbs and spices), mater paneer (peas with homemade cottage cheese), pilau rice and a peshwari naan bread, which fresh from the clay oven, was cooked perfectly.

The tikka massalam was garishly coloured but was still deliciously creamy. I’m just glad I didn’t spill any of the sauce as I doubt it would have been easy to remove.

The garishly coloured chicken tikka massalam - I'm glad I didn't spill any of this sauce

The garishly coloured chicken tikka massalam – I’m glad I didn’t spill any of this sauce

The shatkora chicken, which is also available with lamb, comes from the Sylhet region of Bangladesh, and has a lime taste due to the skatkora fruit, indigenous to the locality. This was a new dish to me and had a good spice level, balanced with a lime kickback but wasn’t overly sour. I’d definitely try this again.

Private Dining

Voujon also has a private dining room which would be the perfect venue for birthday parties, anniversaries or even a Christmas event.

We didn’t have room for dessert and sadly there was confusion with the bill, which was somewhat embarrasing. Coupled with the vodka and coke incidents, it did put a rather awkward dampner on the evening.

Nonetheless if you’re in the southside of Edinburgh, perhaps staying at one of the many guest houses on the Newington Road, and you like a ‘ruby murray’  with a bit of class, it’d be a good place to seek out.

Voujon
107 Newington Road
Edinburgh  EH9 1QW
www.voujonedinburgh.co.uk
@VoujonEdinburgh

Kerry dined as a guest of Voujon

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About Kerry Teakle

Working in communications during the day, by night, Kerry is a self-confessed culture vulture and foodie, and can be found lapping up anything culinary or to do with the arts.

2 Comments

  1. Pingback: Voujon: An Indian Dining Stalwart | Edinburgh Foody

  2. Pingback: Voujon – A Bengali Feast – UK Food and Drink News – Nosh Online

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