Vera J's..sorry Ve Raj Ravenshead

So it came about last Friday that me and a small group of girls from work - Zosia..the birthday girl and gooseberry supplier (see "there's a gooseberry in my handbag" and "gooseberry crumble")...Helen...superwoman!...Amy...mum to be....Tammy...the Not So Hairy Biker and Debbie..creative queen, headed out to Ravenshead for dinner at Ve Raj.
The group had started off as just me and Helen, then we'd asked the whole team, suddenly everyone was coming and then as so often happens it settled down into a table sized group of girls out for some easy conversation and a few laughs.
Some time back, following one of the many bouts of confusion we suffer at work, Ve Raj became Vera J's amidst lots of laughter, another thing we are lucky enough to have lots of at work,,,,while we are working very, very hard of course!

Carrot and fennel and onion
and mint salads/pickles

Vera's is situated in the village of Ravenshead, between Nottingham and Mansfield, just off the A60 near Newstead Abbey. It's in one side of the Sherwood Ranger pub, it's nicely decorated, modern and homely. One little disadvantage we found was that it was very difficult to move our heavy wooden chairs on the deep carpet, which resulted in some of us being a little further away from our dinners than we wanted to be and a bit closer to the waiters elbows!
We had our table booked for 8pm and we all arrived at different times but were able to sit at the table and wait. You could get your drinks in the Sherwood Ranger and bring them through or order at the table and include them in the bill.
The menu is extensive Classic, Signature or Vegetarian starters, Signature dishes, Tandoori grills, Vegetarian, Massala, Specialities, Biriyani, Traditional, Balti as well as all the normal naans and other sundries. So, as you can imagine 6 chatty girls had big problems making a decision, we ordered the obligatory Poppodums or pappadums if you prefer with some home made chutneys, so that by the time they arrived we would be ready to order...and we were.

Poppadums, chutneys and Debbies
mystery dinner -  possibly a chicken
Rashani Dum (garlic sauce)

The Poppadums were large and fresh, not greasy and served with a spicy yoghurt and mint dip, mango chutney, sweet chilli chutney - deep red and hot (we once enquired about it and the waiter gave us little pots of it to take home - perfect!), an onion salad and a lovely almost creamy textured salad of grated carrot with fennel seeds. Amy had a puri, a little deep fried flat bread, served folded into quarters.

The starter came and went and we had plenty to talk about, Zosia was telling us all about her driving test when bizarrely her examiner appeared at the till to order a takeaway...there were a few puzzled expressions but no contact was made!

Large lamb shank

I've been to Ve Raj maybe 7 or 8 times before and it's always had a nice quiet atmosphere, perhaps half full at most, a nice and calm, attentive staff and excellent service.

Friday was a little different, there were 3 or 4 (including us) groups, one celebrating a birthday a bit too hard, at one point a lady knocked a vase of flowers off the window sill. A group of men who were complaining about waiting for a table, another group of men who'd had a little too much to drink, being quite rude to the staff as they'd had to wait too long for their order. A bit more lively than I expected for a tiny restaurant in Ravenshead.

Garlic and coriander naan - not on the menu
but made on request

And so it was that we found ourselves waiting a long time for our main courses to arrive. We were willingly them to hurry as we were starving and we'd seen plates coming out and they looked amazing. After what seemed like an age, the waiter came over and said "Are you ready for your mains now?", we nearly snapped his head off, all incredulously snapping "yes" at the same time.

Amy's steak and chips (and baby!),
not on the menu
ordered in advance

They arrived quickly after this and we weren't disappointed, the food was gorgeously presented, nobody had a bad word to say, in fact I think it was so nice, we carried on when we should have stopped. The portions were very generous. I had a King Prawn Saag with Garlic and Onion Fried Rice. The rice was packed with flavour, a little heavy on the oil and just the right size for the amount of sauce in the Saag. The Saag itself was packed with fresh spinach, tomatoes and juicy king prawns, it had a little kick but not too hot, more aromatic.

Paneer Tikka Special

Garlic and onion fried rice
that's garlic on top - not almonds!
Forgot to take picture of Saag -
like I say - we were starving!

In total on our bill we had 5 poppadums and 2 trays of chutney, a puri, a steak and chips for Amy who doesn't do spicy, 2 Paneer Tikka specials - cubes of Indian cheese served on a bed of peppers and onions in a tikka sauce, a lemon rice, a naan bread, a king prawn saag, an onion and garlic fried rice, a garlic fried rice, a Ghost Ran - lamb shank in a massala sauce, a pilau rice and another main possibly a Rashani Dum. Add to that a large glass of red wine, a pistachio ice cream and the whole bill came to £90 between the 6 of us, amazing and I've not even mentioned that they let us bring our own birthday cake, which they kept and then brought out for us, they gave Zosia a complimentary birthday Sambuca and we all got After Eights to go!
So would we go back?....yes, but probably not for a while and I prefer the calmer atmosphere of a Monday night.

Birthday girl with the Betty Crocker special
that Amy made, then confessed that
she had sampled a bit of the middle
to make sure it was cooked and it was
now actually a Betty Crocker Donut!!

If you squint you can see the flame
on this flaming complimentary
birthday Sambuca