Rocco G.
Yelp
Dakhin is a rather informal looking restaurant, almost with a "cafe" type feel. Its minimal, has bare wooden tables and simple furnishings. It should therefore, in my opinion be focusing on simple food at a relatively good price, given the vibe of the place, i.e. a no fuss kinda place. Also considering that the vast majority of dishes are vegetarian you would expect it to be good value (not to diss veggie food, as I am quite partial to a veggie or 5, a day).
Now, as mentioned, I'm not a huge carnivore and don't expect to eat meat for every meal, but I expected to see some difference in price between the meat dishes and veggie dishes. But, to be honest most of the veggie dishes in Dakhin were pretty much similarly priced.
On this particular evening I opted for the vegetable biriyani. Priced at £16 for a very simple plate of (fired?) rice and essentially what was some peas and onions thrown in. I cannot really fault the dish, it was really very tasty, however, at the end of the day, something which was 95% rice should not be charged at those prices. The dish was accompanied with a Pachadi, of coconut which was kinda like a riata. It was decent, but not exactly a standout.
It must be said the staff were incredibly helpful on the night and helped us make some good decisions when ordering. Less helpful however was to be told while ordering that we were in fact on the pre-theater menu while being given the normal menu. This caused all sorts of confusion when we were told some dishes would cost us extra (but what they meant was there was a supplementary charge to the discounted rates). Confused? We were.
Another disastrous moment occurred at the end of the meal, when we were effectively told they needed the table back in 5 minutes and promptly brought us the bill as we were "on the pre-theater". Again, mass confusion, as we thought we had dinned A La Carte. Nonetheless, we had to forgo the deserts and swiftly make our exit, much earlier than anticipated.
I'm not really sure what I expected from the Dakhin to be honest, as I've found their sister restaurant down the street to be an all too similar affair. With so many incredibly good Indian restaurants in our fair city, that offer excellent value, I honestly cannot see the appeal of visiting Dakhin, unless you have a particular penchant for South Indian food (although I could list some much better alternatives).
All in all, I cannot see myself heading back unfortunately.