Al Bilal Restaurant

Al Bilal is located on Manchester's famous curry mile. Nestled amongst the multitude of flashing neon signs the place was only chosen by my girlfriend and I because it was the closest Indian restaurant to where we were parked! It was cold and we wanted curry!

Usually when you are on curry mile there are lots of men hassling you to come into their restaurant, offering all kinds of discounts. There was no-one outside Al Bilal, with it being quiet and cold outside. I still thought it was worth popping my head round the door and I quickly blagged a 15% discount and some free poppadoms which was a good start.

As we sat down we realised that we were literally the only people in the restaurant. I don't think I've ever been the only customer in a restaurant, but it meant that we got excellent and attentive service from the three waiters working.

The food was pretty standard curry fare. The poppadoms were quite cold and we only got three dips to choose from which was a bit disappointing as you often get four or five if you go elsewhere. Our main meal was much better. The hot chicken jalfrezi was a bit too hot for my liking, but the chicken balti was really tasty and I would definitely recommend it.

Despite a slight mix-up with the bill at the end where we were almost overcharged by £5, our curry at Al Bilal still did the job. Nothing spectacular, but nice, hot food and prompt service on a chilly winter night.

Well hello there. Welcome to the first in my Yelp Indian Special. I shall travel the lengths, breadths and depths of the Curry Mile and beyond so you don't have to. My first stop is Al Bilal, a restaurant recommended by a friend on the strength of its dhansak. I do like a good dhansak, so let's see if Al Bilal meets my curry hut demands.

For starters, this place is situated pretty much centrally on Wilmslow Road, which is a great little spot to be. From the outside it doesn't have that 'Indian Blackpool Illuminations' tacky thing going on - it simply looks like a modest curry restaurant offering the best of its wares. So far so good. Like the tardis, it's huge inside, and the staff are friendly and pleasant without being too overzealous. The pakoras were lush and I fell in love with the peshwari naan here, an acquired taste for sure but I like the sweeter breads and this one has the addition of cherries with the sultanas, coconut and almond, which really adds a nice little zing to it. The veggie dhansak is indeed bliss. I tried some of my companion's rogan josh also and was more than impressed.

Sometimes if you loiter around the menu for long enough, the staff will offer you a 10% discount or suchlike as an incentive so it's worth waiting around for. There's a heck of a lot of choice here, with many unusual starters like the mini dosa (a crisp pancake filled with a mixture of potato and onion with mustardseeds) or dahai vadai (a deep fried little bean package, kind of like a doughnut served with spiced yoghurt), and the quality is always top notch with the food fresh at all times. The only factor you might be surprised by is the pricelist. It's a little more expensive than the nearby curry huts, but as far as I'm concerned the variety and quality here more than pay for themselves.

Al Bilal is a great spot if you fancy something a little different, and are going for more of a treat than a quick fill before a night out.

Al Bilal is the epitome of the curry mile, by which I mean average.

The famous curry mile consists of one or two absolute gems, one or two very disappointing curry experiences, and a who load of places occupying the middle-ground of mediocrity. Al Bilal is one of these.

The curries are fine, but nothing to write home about. They give quite big portions here but in my experience the curries all have dominant tomato and chilli taste, which is pretty bland and unpleasant. Like a previous reviewer, my poppadoms were cold too. A lot of curry places just serve cold poppadoms and this probably doesn't bother most folk but for me it really does make a difference if they're hot.

The word Bilal means The Best in Arabic, so this is a bit of false advertising really. They should really call it The Average, but I guess that's unlikely.

Every year or so, there's a curry house on the Curry Mile that has the dubious honour of being found to have a cockroach infestation, and whose reputation rarely recovers. A year or so ago, that curry house was Al Bilal, and I was not surprised.

I went to Al Bilal a few times during Uni, and the food was always, as noted before, distinctly average. The sauces were consistently greasy, with scant supplies of meat and an over-reliance on using soggy over-cooked veg to bulk out the dishes. Our rice was always luke warm, and the poppadom plate was a poor show.

But the thing I really hated about Al Bilal was the cleanliness, or lack thereof. I always felt like this place was grubby. More than once I had to ask for a new plate or glass because mine was dirty. That's just a little tooo much for me, I'm afraid.

As well as skanky plates and rubbish food, Al Bilal has the distinction of having really rude staff. At least now even Norwegian Friend can't insist on going to Al Bilal any more, thanks to the cockroaches!

Not sure if we picked this at random but either way it was a good introduction to Manchester's "Curry Mile" (which I'd never previously heard of).


For the life of me I can't remember what I ordered but I cleared the plate. The service was really good (I expect they have to put up with a lot of drunken nonsense from time to time) and the prices were very reasonable.

What I can say about Al Bilal, is that it does the job. If you're after a standard curry, just to fill your belly in a change of environment, then this will tick your boxes. The food is reasonably priced, it's edible (more than you can say for some places) and the staff are very helpful. Plus they're great for bookings of large groups - you can get discounts on set meals if there are enough of you. They also let you bring your own booze - mighty nice of them that is.

Just be warned, this ain't no place special. As soon as you start to start to expect something more from Al Bilal, I fear you will be setting yourself up for disappointment. Whilst edible, and somewhat tasty, some of our curry dishes had a distinct burned taste, and some didn't really taste anything at all. Having said that though, we gobbled the whole lot up anyway - it'd take more than that to get in the way of a bunch of hungry water polo players.

The seating here wasn't very comfortable either. Firstly we were on a long table that was pushed up so close to the wall that if anybody needed to get out to use the toilet, the whole row of us had to stand up, else be crawled over. Secondly, I have a qualm with plastic leather seating, which seems to be so popular in curry houses for some reason? Anyway, plastic leather does not mix well with bare legs, and after feeling uncomfortable for a little while I stood up to behold a big sweaty patch from where I had perched. NOT nice, not nice at all I assure you. If I ever come back here I will be sure to wear trousers.

had yummy yummy dansak meatballs was delicious!!
service was higgelde piggeldy as several waiters came over and asked us if we wanted drinks. one waiter could not actually speak english, which was odd.
but nice food and farily nice restaurant.
didnt have people trying to get you inside and pestering you to eat there, which was great!