The Yhaal House

Another Tuesday evening, another CURRYBOND scheduled at one of those venues that you tend to walk past on the high street and not really give much thought. Yhaal House was up for CURRYBOND #18 located close the The Gorringe Park pub on Mitcham Road. Having already scoped out the venue to some degree I make a decision which was inevitable at some point in the CURRYBOND marathon, I invoke the takeaway. With a severely limited CURRYBOND cast list and Yhaal House only really having those metal tables you get at the front of takeaways that are pretty much just full of people in their trackies and slippers waiting to pick up a nice warm brown bag of curry treats, it all makes sense.

Venue Score - 3/10.

The CURRYBONDers gather at CURRYBOND HQ and peruse the menu thanks to zomato.com (the best restaurant app I reckon). The curry fare on offer is Sri Lankan for the most part with a sprinkling of curry staples. Having not embraced the specials on offer at a previous Sri Lankan option (CURRYBOND #6 Apollo Banana Leaf) I make sure we delve in to the local delicacies.
I make a short list of interesting looking starters but things don't go well on the phone...no samosas, no bondas...just give us what you have...we get some veggie roll things. The mains are more straight forward and we line up Chicken Kothu, Seafood Kothu, Chicken Madras, Chicken Tikka Masala, a couple of Parothas and a Pilau Rice. Unfortunately, no bhajis but we've got a CTM to set our curry baseline.

Sadly Yhaal House doesn't deliver, but I jump on my bike and take mp place amongst my fellow hungry takeawayers killing time at our metal tables. I'm pleased to say from phone order to pick up it only took about 40mins with a pretty short wait to pick up my fragrant bag. I pedal against the laws of thermodynamics stealing the warmth away from our dinner, carefully navigating the speed bumps creating a small madras flavoured puddle in my bag, but thankfully the majority of the food makes it to the hungry CURRYBONDERs.

First impressions aren't great...the portions are certainly large but there's an overwhelming brownness to the emerging cartons. But, as we have learnt throughout the CURRYBOND saga, don't judge a book covered in curry sauce by it's curry smeared cover. The Kothus in particular look grim, more shallow fried brain but I'm happy to report it was in fact, delicious! Once your tastebuds take over the decision making from your eyes things rapidly improve. The sauced curries and hot, deeply spiced with succulent chunks of chicken. The Kothus have a slightly squishy texture but are heavily spiced and moorish. The Parothas also make an excellent accompaniment.

Food Score - 7.7/10.

The portions are, frankly, huge. We barely make a dent in the Kothus and only one of the curries makes a full escape from its carton. The price for all this is frankly ridiculous, £24 in total! That's a mere £8/CURRYBONDer. Sure I had to provide the transport, cutlery and wash up after, but still...

Value Score - 8.7/10.

For the first time therefore I get to make the most out of the leftovers, with Curry Leg part 2 and 3 the next day. The reheated version held up for the most part and the after effects were...tolerable.

Overall Score - 7.3/10.

Had chicken tikka biryani. It was great taste and good serve amount. Had Parota very nice, chicken tikka gravy . Overall the food is good.they can have take away also. Must have

Authentic basic cheap but very tasty Sri Lankan food. Don't expect a polished waiter service, this is not what this place is about. Would we go back. Absolutely.

Don't worry about the decor.. proper south Indian grub.

Very good food customer service very well.

Perfect place for Sri Lankan food. Very affordable price. I been going here for almost 10 years now. No complaints ✌️