This isn’t a sponsored post.
BrumHour arranged to experience Indico with Mailbox Birmingham and we did not pay for food or drink. We did leave a tip for good service.
By Dave Massey twitter.com/BrumHour
Experience: Indico at
The Mailbox, Birmingham
A couple of months ago, Indian street food restaurant Indico opened its second branch. The first opened in Shirley several years ago and now this second branch in the Mailbox in central Birmingham.
Wednesday 5pm
Reene, my Brum Radio show producer and I arrive a few minutes early for our booking and, unsurprisingly (for 5pm), the place is pretty empty. We are shown to a table and handed the menus with their newspaper style heading. I suddenly realise there is quite a bit of choice here. The menu has semi-familiar broad headings with names like Tawa Rolls, Paaji Burgers, Street Food Chaats, Thali and Dhaba Curries.
We order drinks I have a Mango Punch which was fresh with a touch of spices and my plus one has a Sweet Lassi.
The venue is pretty sizeable with room for more than 100 people, the decor is a mixture of current furniture and 70s and 80s Bollywood. It’s bright and cheery.
Deciding on mains takes me a little more than usual with the sheer amount of choice but we settle on an Indico Mixed Thali which is £18.95 as a sharer, it comes with two of each of the following: Chicken Tikka, Seekh Kebab, Tandoori Chicken Leg, Lollipop Chicken, Kukkad Masala Wings, Fish (undisclosed variety) Pakora plus a curry dip, mint sauce and a naan. As the sharer doesn’t seem enough for a main each (but is probably too much for one person). We also order an extra Naan with garlic (and I have cheese on mine too) and some Masala Fries.
The food arrives very quickly and the other tables are already starting to fill up with groups and pairs, it being Birmingham, no two groups look the same.
We split the mixed platter into two, Reene my plus one, doesn’t especially like spicy food. But we’ve chosen something fairly tame with plenty of carbs! The smooth curry sauce isn’t that hot but I’m sure it can be hotter if required. The naans are thin with a light amount of garlic and the cheese is also thinly topped and I’m sure lots of people would enjoy it that way. I prefer more of a chunky naan.
We haven’t time on this visit to try pudding, but we do get Chai Tea’s each and they were lovely.
Service-wise, there were slight gaps, we were shown to the table by entrance staff but weren’t told about how we were to order and it was a bit difficult to guess what the size of the portions would be. This is still very early days for this venue and I can see them plugging this gap pretty easily.
Our server James was great and very professional. I’d go back in a second to try other items from this menu. Probably at lunchtime.
Indico at Mailbox Birmingham is open from daily from Noon to 10.30pm (11.30pm Fridays and Saturdays). Take a look at Indico here: indicostreetkitchen.com/locations
Indico is five minutes walk from Birmingham New Street Station and ten minutes walk from Birmingham Moor Street Station and Birmingham Snow Hill Station.
