Passage to India, 3rd March, 2007

The Passage to India

45 Magdalen Street

Norwich

NR3 1LQ

01603 762836

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I remember the endearing way that Tombland was described in my UEA prospectus' new students guide. The centre of culture in Norwich, cuisines from every continent in the world at your finger tips, the envy of all East Anglia. These attributes were not immediately visible. For one thing, there are no cashpoints anywhere. It doesn't sound like a particularly big deal, but considering as little as three minutes ago I'd paid a taxi driver to take me to where I wanted to be and avoid the bad weather, this venture in to the brisk cold night air seemed to be making my taxi fare rather a waste of time. Not that the lack of holes in the wall could really be blamed upon The Passage To India itself. First things first, there is no actual passage. No Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe styled cupboard to walk through, it was very much a metaphorical sort of passage. Does promising passages that don't physically exist warrant a deduction in marks? Well yes, yes it does.

Inside it couldn't be more typical if it tried, and in truth, that is exactly what you want. Slightly naff, out dated wallpaper, white tablecloths, crooked pictures of the Taj Mahal hanging sporadically throughout. Not forgetting of course, the standard cliche Indian sita soundtrack bubbling away in the background. It was missing one thing though, people. It didn't have any. There are a lot of restaurants down these streets, probably too many to supply demand, and this place was, if not completely dead, then certainly in some kind of deep slumber.

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As far as the food went, I thought it was pretty good. Nothing was really overly spicy, and it all came quickly enough and there was plenty of it. It was all really quite standard. Unfortunately, as a result business failing to boom as it should have, there were three waiters constantly surveying the table trying to find things to do which was a little intrusive. Standard Indian beers like Cobra, Kingfisher and Tiger are all on tap which is a nice, and in my view essential, addition and they all cost less than three pounds a pint which fairly reasonable.

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Verdict: Overall The Passage to India is an extremely standard Indian restaurant, that doesn't really do anything wrong, but doesn't do anything extrordinary either. The 10% student discount makes it decent value, and their lack of customers make it a good choice for large bookings of eight or more people. Whilst the atmosphere is decidedly lacking, and especially on week nights, this is less noticeable if your party is large enough to make some noise of its own.