Located on a side street off Cheetham Hill Road, Real Taste is another authentic Pakistani curry café which draws custom and some guarantee of quality from being in the vicinity of Manchester’s mosque. Décor is fairly basic, but pleasant and spacious enough, with around twenty covers. The usual curry café setup prevails with water jugs and glasses already laid out, plus fresh coriander and chilli garnishes. Real Taste’s location off the main road means this place is pleasantly quieter, but they seem to be doing enough business — a mix of Asians, Chinese, and local workers, with runners from local building sites arriving to collect some truly massive takeaways! Tandoor chapati is excellent — the tandoor specialist can be seen diligently working away at the back of the semi-open kitchen. One chapati, boiled basmati, channa and a mixed vegetable curry came to £5.50 for a substantial meal. The veg mix was a pleasantly-enough spiced of cauliflower, green beans, peas and sweetcorn but still the weakest part of the meal. The peas and sweetcorn made for an interesting change, but as most likely frozen I would still class them as cost-cutting ‘filler’ — a plate of all fresh veg would be my preference. I would eat here again, but I’m more looking forward to my next review spot which is the highly-rated Qila Khyber. And as a vegetarian, Anand’s in Rusholme and Dosa Xpress in Fallowfield are my current destinations for repeat visits in the curry café category. Bus tip: take an 89 or 135 from outside Urbis, get off when you reach the Spanish redbrick Jewish Museum(other side), and Broughton Street is down on the left. Note: I only review vegetarian menu items, and the additional non-vegetarian curries and kebabs also on offer here mean YMMV.
