Sanskruti

Despite being the worst type of vegetarian and essentially a bit of a fraud (one of those non-committal pescatarians), I love veggie food and am always excited to hear about any new veggie-friendly additions to our fine city's dining scene. I am also a huge fan of South Indian cuisine, with the likes of Chaat Cart, Dosa Xpress and Sindhoor having served me up some of my most favourite vegetarian meals in recent memory. You can imagine my intrigue therefore to hear murmurings amongst my Withington-dwelling friends about a new veggie/vegan restaurant on Mauldeth Road. This mystical place goes by the name of Sanskruti and specialises in the finest flavours of the "Indian sub-continent" with plenty of South Indian specialities available.

Even though it was a school night, it was a Thursday which is the new Friday so we met up with our friends Si and Claire for a spot of dinner. This lovely twosome live a stone's throw away from Sanskruti so have been working their way through the menu since it opened last year. We started off with tasty, hot and fresh poppadoms and a generous chutney selection. So good we ordered seconds.

For starters, our friends ordered Chilli Paneer which was absolutely huge and an Uttapam "lentil pizza-like pancake" (they had Si at 'pizza'). Both went down a treat

Bailey went for the Idli with Sambar which were a tad disappointing compared to the Sindhoor and Dosa Xpress versions which boast much more flavoursome and moist idli and much thicker, tastier sambar. The coconut chutney was nice though.

Strangely watery sambar

I had scored an absolute winner with my choice of a 10-item Thali (only served Monday-Thursday, another reason to go midweek), which came with starter, sides, chappatis, a selection of daily changing curries and even dessert! This absolute feast can only be described as 'splendid' and was definitely one of the best menu choices I've ever made! Everything was bob-on and I could pretty much eat this every day.

Bailey's main of Butter Cheese Masala was a good too, although surprisingly a little too spicy and buttery for his tastes (and he is not shy of a bit of heat or butter).

I was feeling pretty smug that I'd been able to finish my meal with a lovely 'Mithai' dessert (some kind of amazing, buttery pistachio number that tasted like Digestive biscuits but 100% better), but it turns out we were all in for a bit of a treat with the arrival of a beautiful box of Mukhwas Indian digestive aids.

There was allsorts here and we were encouraged to try all of them. Each one was interesting in some way but my favourite was definitely the sweet cherry and cashew nut one which is apparently a new addition.

Not only was the food great at Sanskruti but the restaurant manager is a brilliant character, and very keen to chat about the food and his business. He provided us with some fantastic customer service as well as plenty of laughs and even some slightly bizarre moments. As an indication of his dedication to customer service, he takes photos of all his new customers to go on the Facebook page - we await the moment our ugly mugs go up on there with bated breath. This guy helps make the place great and if more restaurateurs were like this the world would be a better place. While Bailey felt that Sanskruti's food didn't quite hit the highs of Sindhoor, this is definitely one of my new favourite vegetarian eateries in Manchester and I'm already plotting my return for another midweek thali! Thanks for a top evening Sanskruti!