Our chosen food location of the day was Rani’s Indian Dining at Yaxham, located near to Dereham. This was something of a perfect combination of a former pub that Roy wanted to visit, originally the Mill, alongside an Indian restaurant which is one of my most favourite things to visit. And it was also my first time in Yaxham for a few years, this is a village that I’ve led a few walks around.
What is now the restaurant was originally the miller’s house, with the current mill dating from the middle of the nineteenth century. Its being a licensed premises is more recent, becoming a restaurant in the 1990s and it became an Indian restaurant in around 2018.
We hadn’t booked, but fortunately there was enough space for us, although it was busy when we arrived. There were a few people waiting for takeaways and combined with the positive online reviews, they’re evidently pleasing lots of people.
The poppadoms and dips, the lime pickle was my highlight here and the poppadoms were suitably crispy.
I’m not entirely sure that this was the pint advertised….
The highlight here was the lemon rice, which was light with plenty of lemon in the taste. The peshwari naan was a little heavy in texture, but had a pleasant enough taste. Without trying to be overly negative, the chicken Dupiaza was lacking in sauce and it’s not meant to be a dry curry so that did impact the whole arrangement.
The chicken was generous in quantity and it was tender, but this meant to be a medium hot curry and there was an absence of any depth of taste to the sauce and certainly no heat so that felt sub-optimal. The onion element was a little heavy and needed cooking down more, but it was really the lack of flavour that was the major limitation alongside with the lack of sauce. As a meal it was perfectly enjoyable, but it shouldn’t really be the case that there’s more heat and depth of flavour from a JD Wetherspoon curry.
The service was just a little disjointed, but it was friendly and the environment was clean and comfortable. The surroundings were inviting and it felt a warm atmosphere, with the service always being attentive and I’m always pleased to get a chocolate with the bill as a positive final touch.
Although it’s often something of a shame that a pub is lost to be a restaurant, it’s marvellous that the venue has survived. And some history has remained, the mill is still located behind the restaurant and there’s some accommodation here as well. And there’s more about the history of the mill at https://www.norfolkmills.co.uk/Windmills/yaxham-towermill.html.