Food review: Quality and value meet at Sheffield's Mangla

Internet descriptions vary – one describes it as ‘the traditional shopping hotspot of the area’ while the top three results on Google refer to violent scenes and a shooting last summer – and anecdotal evidence suggests a similar split in opinion on the area.

But although the industrial downturn of the 1980s and 1990s took its toll on the area, recent developments including new shops, Sorby House – a striking, glass-fronted building housing council services and office space – and Sheffield’s largest Tesco Extra on Saville Street suggest the perception is changing.

One constant throughout all the change, however, has been Mangla, a charming curry house a stone’s throw from the front door of Tesco that has become something of a Sheffield institution since opening its doors in the early 1990s.

The restaurant’s website boasts that its “centralised and advantageous location enables us to serve the entire city with minimal qualms” and claims that some patrons have dubbed it “the Mumtaz of Sheffield” – “the distinguished”, “the best” or “excellent” in Arabic.

Martin Dawes, the long-time legend of food, concurred on his two visits for the Telegraph’s sister paper, The Star, in 2008 and 2013 and a review in The Guardian also spoke highly, even if the critic did arrive in Sheffield looking for the closed-down Kashmir Curry Centre and ended up eating Mangla takeaway in his car, after initially worrying he would be stabbed.

There are no such concerns, of course and he missed out; in my experience, the eating-out experience is often about much more than just the food.

The restaurant itself is made up of two interconnecting rooms, with what feels like plenty of space. Walls are either plain white or decorated with deep red patterns, with modern, framed prints hanging above uncovered tables and plush leather seats.

We visit on a freezing-cold Wednesday evening, two days after Christmas, and business is brisk, although we’re fortunate that there’s room to move our party of six further inside the restaurant after the draft from the two sets of doors finally proves too much. Nothing is too much trouble for Asim Nasim, the acting manager who obliges with a new table without hesitation and restores our faith in the service here after another waiter unceremoniously plonks a bottle of water in front of us without a word.

Asim, who works full-time elsewhere but helps out at the family restaurant at evenings and weekends, has been part of the Mangla furniture since 2003.

“It’s been a while,” he smiles.

“We’ve been open since 1992 and in this building physically since 1996 – we used to be just down the road.

“We have a good reputation in the area... over 25 years is a long time for a restaurant to be open, esepcially as a lot have opened since. We’ve kept much of our clientele but are attracting new customers all the time.”

Most, interestingly, appear to be white; a suspicion Asim backs up with the revelation that, unlike some curry houses in Sheffield, they closed on Christmas Day because most of their regulars would be sampling more traditional fare at home.

The large, open kitchen to the left of the main door provides light entertainment while we wait for starters; an army of chefs interweaving each other expertly, catering for both those dining-in and taking-out (Mangla offers a takeaway service and also delivers).

The array of dishes on the menu is simply huge, with a good offering of starters, and the onion bhaji scored highly – my girlfriend did remark on their price (£1.10) which did make sense when only one bhaji arrived – as did the masala fish (£4.10), although that owed more to the fish itself than the deep-fried breadcrumbs.

Onto the mains, and a big thumbs-up for the succulent, £6.10 chicken tikka main, served with rice and salad, which oozed flavour and the chicken tikka masala (£6.30), which later turned out to be a family twist on the oldest of Indian classics, had a sweet tinge to it.

What struck most about the food at Mangla was the price, and the portions; every offering on the menu was below the £8.50 mark and food wasn’t as plentiful as in other establishments, although there was certainly enough of it. After poppadoms, a starter and a curry with rice and naan bread, the waste left on my plate is often embarrassing. Here, portions were perfect.

“We tend to keep our prices the same and not push them too high, because people come here for value as well as quality,” Asim adds.

“I think personally that it is quite cheap compared to others, but the price is fair and we also need to stay authentic to the area and to our clientele.

“We have upped our prices in the last few years, to keep up with the price of ingredients, but we’re still very competitive.”

The naan breads, often a big indicator for the rest of the meal, were doughy, perfectly moist and also a little sweet – at just £1.80 each.

I ordered two and just about finished one because of the thickness but with the total – food, naans, rice and soft drinks in cans and a well-deserved tip – coming to £90 between six, it was a gamble worth taking.

Minor gripes were the lamb, a little gristly in the rogan josh and a little too much charring on the chicken tikka, but that’s nit-picking. The quality at Mangla certainly doesn’t match the price and this Steel City institution is well worth a trip. Even if you do end up scoffing it in the car.

n Mangla, 149 Spital Hill, S4 7LF. Open 6pm-2am, seven days a week, unlicensed. 0114 2758374.