The curry club is not actively promoted in the restaurant, one has to ask.
So I ordered up the Prawn Pathia as a starter. This came with an onion chutney and raita sauce. Nice enough, but not very spicy, and the prawns were in a sauce that for some reason reminded me of the onion sauce one gets in a kabob halle. Would have beeen Le77 on the standard menu.
Then a chicken vindaloo, mushroom bajia, pillau rice and plain chapati. I am always wary of ordering vindaloo in a strange place as the heat is not always consistent. It should have been the spiciest item on the menu. Not to worry here - the chef had obviously mislaid his chilli, cayenne, paprika, curry powder, vinegar. They could have called it chicken halle. Yes, those onions were running through the sauce. The mushroom bajia had small amounts of mushroom, with the same gloopy onion halle sauce. Very disappointing, so I will not be leaving a review on Trip Advisor. I like to give a place one 2nd chance.
On the positive side, the chapati was excellent. Thin, well cooked, no sign of any oil or butter and it really stood out. Nothing wrong with the pillau rice either. Portion sizes looked large, but I polished everything off.
The ice cream is from Twenkies, a local maker who uses real fresh buffalo milk. It is recommended.
The Desperado beer was cold. I would have preferred it with Le10 off, but did not complain. In fact, I would have gone with red wine if I had known there would be no heat in the curry. Russell is the only properly licensed restaurant in Luxor with a good wine list - one that extends beyond Obelisk and Sheherazada to Oma Khayam. In fact he starts with the Oma Khayam (Le175 per bottle) and progresses upwards from there. 5 reds, 4 whites and 2 roses at least.
Warning: alcohol prices go up 25% tomorrow. It is a good thing that I don't drink!
Oh, and the music. It was discretely in the background, but seemed to be a very short loop of 1980's classics. He is threatening Christmas music for the festive season, so I will be avoiding this.
What else to do in Luxor? I decided to raid Aboudi's before the prices rise. I bought about 4 kg of books for Le640 (less than £30).
http://www.aboudi-bookstore.com/onlinestore/viewproduct.php?iid=4735
Also, last week I bought another Dodson classic for Le200, paperback.
No hotel Internet yesterday or today. But vodafone is offering me double data on my phone, so I may just take advantage of that.