Family Festive Fun with Haveli, Ponteland

I am one of those lucky people who have a birthday in December. We usually go out for a curry to celebrate with the family. Normally, this is a grown up affair and we find babysitters for the children. However now that they are a little older we thought it would be nice for them to join in too. I have been raving about Haveli since our last visit and really wanted to return with my family so we booked a table for nine people on Tuesday evening at 5:30pm.

As it was my birthday, I was welcomed with a special Christmassy Champagne cocktail (complete with cinnamon stick) which was a wonderful treat - it tasted of Christmas in a glass! In fact the whole atmosphere of the evening was very festive - Christmas songs were playing in the background and there was the most beautiful Christmas tree taking pride of place by the window, it seemed only natural that we were going to dine from the Christmas Special menu.

The Christmas menu at Haveli

We chose to dine from the Classic Christmas menu which is priced at £23 for 4 courses. Considering the level of service and quality of the food I think this provides very good value.

I didn't take too many photographs of our food as I was having a little bit of a bloggers night off with it being my birthday  - the food was just as good as our first visit though.

First of all we were brought a generous supply of wonderful poppadoms and a selection of dips. Our children loved these and Haveli were happy to replenish our stock when we ran out!

Next up were our starters - I ordered Murgh Haryali - a portion of chicken marinated in green herbs with a fresh mint and mango chutney. Our starters were all beautifully presented and our only complaint was that we didn't know how we would fit another two courses in - maybe we shouldn't have eaten so many poppadoms!

Our children's meals were brought out before our main courses (LOVE it when restaurants do this). The children's menu is a work in progress and still in the process of being finalised - at the moment it is probably best to pre-book and enquire about children's meals beforehand. We were offered a mild curry, naan bread pizza's or pasta with garlic naan. Our children all chose pasta with garlic naan and there were clean plates all around. 

I loved the Goan lamb vindaloo I ordered last time so much that I ordered it again this time. It is genuinely one of my favourite curries. It isn't so excessively hot that you can't actually taste anything which is often the way with vindaloo's and you can really taste the sweetness and depth of spices. Our curries were served with naan breads and rice and Haveli are happy to replenish these when required.

I remembered to take photographs of our desserts! The children thoroughly enjoyed their ice cream and the Mango Creme Brulee and Christmas pudding cheesecake were real winners and finished the 

meal nicely.

Haveli is somewhere I would certainly recommend as a place to meet with family and friends this Christmas - the atmosphere and environment is stylish and relaxing, the food is delicious and plentiful and the service is attentive yet unobtrusive - pretty much everything you could ask for!

Our bill worked out at about £30 per adult - for a four course meal with side dishes including extra poppadoms, naans and rice plus a few alcoholic drinks each I think this is very good value for a Christmas meal out.