Fabulous Flavours

Are you someone who can recite the Gavin and Stacy order by heart and of course have your own perfectly formed, “Forget it, I want no part of it, I’ll order mine, eat in the car.” order for yourself. If this sounds like you, Flavours in Douglas is hard to beat.

Situated on Broadway, opposite the Villa - so perfect for a pre- or post-cinema or theatre trip meal, super convenient for a meal after work with friends or colleagues and it’s close enough to town to use it as a starting point to a night out. In short, before we’ve even stepped in the door, Flavours has got it going on.

So, in order to confirm the food matched the levels of perfection of Flavours’ location, we went to test it out. We will preface this with a warning – MAKE A BOOKING. We went relatively early on a Tuesday evening and it was full. An excellent sign for our food testing mission, not so good for the fact we had not booked in advance. We did get in though, so this blog will not end here.

We got seated downstairs, on the floor you walk in on, but we have it on very good authority that upstairs there is a window seat with lovely views of Douglas, so if you’re going for a hot date, ask for that (in fact, ask for it even if you’re not on a hot date! Everyone deserves good views.) Nonetheless the table was good – we may not have been able to spy on other people’s dinners, but there was no need, as ours was good enough alone.

We got poppadoms (three each – which was more than enough, two would’ve been fine) and a plate of chutneys between two. Despite my typical dislike of raita (the mint yoghurt dip) but extremely committed to the cause of giving you a full and accurate review, I braved it and tested the minty creamy concoction and to my surprise, it was DELICIOUS. I have never liked it, never found it to be good anywhere and yet this one was the perfect blend of creamy and minty. Superb.

Next we got a mixed starter, a plate of two of all the starters to share and that was absolutely the best decision we made all evening. There was just enough that you got a nice taste of everything, without eating a mini meal before the mains. The mixed starter had a kofta, chicken tikka, samosas and onion bahjis. Simply delicious.

For the main we got a chicken biryani and chicken tikka and pilau rice. They both arrived at the table in metal dishes with handles, like vintage style sauce pans, to be spooned out across the table. The chicken biryani was perfectly spiced and the perfect portion size for one. The chicken was so tender and the rice was fluffy and warm. It came with a curry sauce if you prefer it that way, but we just had it dry.

The chicken tikka was cooked to perfection, evenly coated in tikka spices and on a bed of salad. The chicken tikka also came with a curry sauce which we put with the pilau rice so we could enjoy the chicken with the full tikka flavour. The pilau rice was fragrant and light – you just cannot go wrong with a pilau. This meal was our favourite, but the whole thing could’ve served two alone, we took some home in the end. Consequently we had no room to eat anything else.

All things considered, Flavours was absolutely without fault. The food and service was spot on, the location is ideal and for those of us suffering with food allergies, the menu was marked really well (everything we ate except the samosas was gluten free!).

Next time, we will book in advance to get the window seat and maybe we’ll even tie it in with cocktails and Kiki’s or a couple of pints at Quids afterwards before a night in the Sefton maybe? We are a fan of making a night of it at LoveIOM after all.

If you want to visit Flavours, make sure you pay with your LoveIOM Gift Card. This means the restaurant won’t pay transaction fees when taking payment for your meal, so you know every penny has gone to them.

If you’ve got a Flavours fan in the family or friend group, why not gift them a LoveIOM Gift Card to go visit?

During April you can get 25% credit back on your LoveIOM Gift Card spend Mondays-Thursdays, so make it a midweek meal and save!