Imli is a curry house on Seaside Road in Eastbourne. It’s a bit posher than some of the many places along the road, with attractive crockery and a nice layout.
The staff were very friendly, despite a bit of attempted upsell, and even offered us advice on driving in India. The food was broadly average to good without ever really excelling, but it did have a few interesting dishes.
Poppadums come with a mint yoghurt, sweet mango chutney and onions. Potato and cheese tikki were little mashed potato cakes with a hint of cheese and a nice tamarind chutney. Three way chicken tikka had one plain lump and two nicer spicy ones. Tandoori mixed platter was chicken tikka, lamb tikka and lamb kebab, the last of which was my friend’s favourite.
Plain and garlic naans were standard, but the cheese one was dripping with chewy cheese. My friends thought their chicken tikka biryani, lamb madras and prawn madras was ok. I went for three side dishes. Green beans with cashew poriyal was dry, sweet and coconutty, not quite to my taste but one of us really liked them. I preferred the lime potatoes which were quite sharp with a light cumin flavour. Oddest was the paneer makhani which was cheese cubes stewed in what appeared to be tomato soup. Not unpleasant, just odd.
Address: 42 Seaside Road, Eastbourne BN213PB
Website: http://www.imlirestaurant.co.uk
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