VALLEY CONNECTION

Churchgate Street

Bury St Edmunds

IP33 1RG

Telephone 01284 754149

Website: http://www.valley-connection.com

Type of Restaurant: Indian

It’s one of our favourite Indian restaurants in Bury St Edmunds and we weren’t disappointed on our latest visit.

You always get a warm and friendly welcome as soon as you step inside the premises in Churchgate Street where you can either sit down and have a pre dinner drink or go straight to your table.

That’s one of the nicest little touches that we really appreciate and sets things up for the meal ahead.

It has that contemporary feel which comes across as soon as you open the door.

So what to have from the huge array of dishes on the menu?

A curry? A biryani? A Bangladeshi? Chicken? Seafood? Lamb? Dansak? Pathia? Or how about a set dinner?

Then there’s the selection of appetisers from tikkas and Tandoris to kebabs and a good old prawn cocktail.

We skipped the starters and went for four papadams (two plain, two spicy) followed by a chicken tikka chilli masala for me and a Nawabi jalfrezi for Layla. We shared a nan bread and a cauliflower bhaji along with a pelaw rice and egg fried rice.

Now I love to wash it all down with a couple of pints of Kingfisher. That majestic brew which is cold and silky.

But I had drunk it early on so we decided to push the boat out and ordered a bottle of Rioja … Rioja Crianza, Vina Cerrada to be precise.

At £20.50 we thought that was reasonable for a wine described as “well structured with a good concentration of savoury, spicy fruit, well integrated oak, supple tannins and a balanced, lengthy finish.”

It went down a treat with my chicken dish which had just the right amount of spices and chillis.

I adore vindaloo dishes but this chilli masala was slightly tempered on the “heatometer” for me but was delicious nontheless.

And Layla’s dish was also spicy and fairly hot and consisted of very generous pieces of chicken, lamb and king prawns which she loved.

Now one word of warning to diners.

We’ve always found meals at VC to be a tad on the pricey side and our dining experience cost us £84.26.

But from past experience we knew of the pricing structure but we visit the restaurant about three to four times a year so we were not shocked.

And the food it absolutely great.

Chef Shahid is a multi-award winning cook.

He has been named as one of the best in the UK, in a prestigious industry awards, including “Chef of the year” by the Curry Life Magazine.

Last year he was selected as one of seven curry chefs to showcase their abilities during a 10 day residency, in Hyderabad, India.

And the restaurant has a host of accolades to its credit including winners of BCA Restaurant of the year 2017, South Asian Curry Awards 2015 (East of England), highly commended in the Tiffin Cup 2015, Business Achievement 2015 – Curry Life, Masterchef promotions awards 2015, Outstanding Achievement – Taste of Britain Curry Festival 2014 – Curry Life, Most loved indian Restaurant 2014 and 2015 – Best of Bury, Chef of the year 2013 – Curry Life and 2012 Curry Life Awards.