Hi there,

Is it me or is Christmas coming too early this year!

Last year’s Christmas parties that were held at Popadoms are still vivid and yes I remember them well, some were rowdy others were very laid back events. But we love em all!

We have our staff Christmas party in January because December is too crazy at times. Of course our Nepalese staff do not celebrate Christmas like us christians, as they are in fact Hindus, but they make a jolly good fist of it.

One thing I have noticed over the years of running a restaurant is the number of small parties that seem to come to us.

In these days of bosses not coughing up the funds, more and more groups of people who work within a department or company are taking things into their own hands and having a night out.

It doesn’t have to be an expensive one, although there are plenty of restaurants charging quite high prices and there is a company offering a night out in the farnborough area with entertainment at nearly £70, but you do get to be squashed up with 100’s of other people for 5 hours if you wish.

Having looked around, most seem priced up at £17.95-£22.95.

Our £12.95 early bird menu seems popular, but there have been quite a few enquiries for the £15.95, which I think offers really reat value.

Wont be long now…gonna have to get those Xmas decorations up and I wonder when and where we will hear our first christmas song…I wonder if they are already playing them in certain shops.

Sean

I’ve just put up our Christmas party menu on the website, you can view the page here.

In these credit crunch time, we have decided to have two menus. A cheaper two course one at £12.95 and a three course menu at £15.95, which is £2.00 less than last year.

I guess a lot of companies may not be holding a Christmas do this year, or maybe they might think twice about having to pay for it.

I know there are a lot of restaurants similar to us that are charging £20-25 per person, but in these current times, I think they are really “chancing their arm”.

Now what If some of your crowd don’t want Indian, well we’ve got some great English alternatives as well. Take a look athe the menu here.

If you are thinking of booking a restaurant for your Christmas “Do” then, I hope you will consider us as I guarantee you will be well taken care of.

Sean

But I do know a good curry when I try one. I kind of instinctively know if a curry dish has been made from a packaged sauce and believe me, many restaurant owners use these shortcuts to save money.

So when I checked out the competition last week I was pleasantly surprised.

Last week, Lisa and I took a break, we went to Westbay in Dorset, a lovely seaside village near Lyme Regis, (another beautiful town). We rented a chalet belonging to a friend, which was less than 50yds from the sea, truly brilliant and convenient, especially when walking our dog Shannon. It was a great week.

(Our chalet was just the other side of the sand dune on the left obviously)

Now I’ll be honest, I don’t eat at other local Indian restaurants in Farnborough, Camberley, Mychett. Well it wouldn’t look right if one of my customers come in and see me in a competitor’s restaurant would it?

But when I’m outside the area and I’m on holiday and I NEED a CURRY fix, well it’s just gotta be done….

So Lisa and I traipsed off to the local Indian in Bridport, which is the nearest local town and checked out the Taj Mahal,( where did they get that name).

The owners, were an Indian family from Kenya, very friendly, with the mother, probably aged around 55-60 taking orders and the husband working in the kitchen and two sons as waiters. Real old skool.

In fact it was a little old fashioned, which I rather liked, a little dark inside with seating booths containing four seats on either side of the restaurant between which you walked from the door to the serving counter/bar where your orders were taken.

Now I have to admit that, we had a takeaway, reason being our dog is a puppy and she was in a new environment, we didn’t want to leave her too long. We could have sat in, but for us it was more convenient.

So how was the food you ask!! Well it was rather good, I think that it certainly was different, the special fried rice for instance, they must have added a curry powder mix when they were boiling the rice and added little pieces of chicken, as I said it was different.

I thought that Indian restaurants stopped using those metal foil dishes a long time ago and there was no label on each dish box, so we didn’t know which dish was which. I kind of take it for granted that everybody uses printed labels like we do, but of course the Taj Mahal didn’t even have a computer and took the orders by hand. Real Old skool!

The food was good, full flavoured, if a little oily, but that happens from time to time as the oil rises to the top, (all you do is spoon it off) and we had a great meal, in fact we had two takeaways, which does say something! So if ever you want to visit a lovely Dorset fishing village and you like walking in particular, then Westbay is a good choice. And for a good Indian check out the Taj Mahal in Bridport

Sean

On the left as you look at the picture is Khim our second chef, he’s been with us 3 years. In the middle is our Head Chef Deep Singh who has worked with me for over 5 years. On the right is our Tandoori chef Devendra who has been working at Popadoms for over 3 years,all very good boys.

As I write this email to you its still overcast on this Thursday morning, after nearly three days of perpetual rain, you would not believe that it was British Summer time…

Now I must tell you that all this rain is good for our business in some ways, because it makes our delivery service busy, but the knock on effect is that some people will not venture out in the rain in the evening, so this makes the restaurant quiet. Ce La Vie.

When its sunny, its good to get out the BBQ , invite some friends grab some beer and have some fun in the garden.

Last weekend many if those BBQ’s turned into curry parties because it was raining so much prior to the weekend, people did not want to take the risk of getting out the gear just in case, so we were very busy with delivering curries.

In this month’s email I have a couple of things for you…….

First of all, A FREE CHICKEN Tikka recipe. Yes I am giving you a recipe for making your own chicken tikka when you next get out your BBQ.

Also I am giving you a link to a downloadable file for our main courses for just £1.00 offer which you can use any night until 30^th September. (see below)

I know that some people are concerned with the “credit crunch” and it may even be effecting you, in fact its effecting us all with increases in our weekly shopping bills, (although the big supermarkets do have some special deals at present) and fuel bills, but this is our way of helping, if only in a small way.

By the way when making the chicken tikka use quality chicken breasts for best results and If I may, I can recommend a great butcher in North Camp Called Woods Butchers, they have great meats for all your BBQs http://www.woodsbutchers.com/

Take care and hope to see you soon

Sean Usher Owner Popadoms

Free Chicken Tikka Recipe http://www.popadoms.com/Recipes.html 

Free Voucher Microsoft Word  PDF

Dear Customer,

Following up on my email that I sent yesterday, (I don’t normally email you more than once every three or four weeks). I would like to admit to a mistake that we made, well…….I did as the owner of Popadoms.

Until the 1^st May we gave free Popadoms, mint sauce and mango chutney with all orders over £15.00. We had been doing this for almost 3 years, but following increased costs, I took the decision not to give these items for free anymore.

I really did not think that most people would miss their free Popadoms. But having spoken to a number of customers over the last week, they really are missing their Popadoms, they appreciate that it’s not their main meal, but looked forward to receiving them.

So….I just wanted to let you know that we have re-introduced our policy of giving 2 Popadoms, mint sauce and mango chutney with every order over £15.00, this is on all internet or phone orders and is of immediate affect.

We have had to make some price increases to our menu, such as rice and some main courses but not all, but please note that we have not increased prices for almost 4 years.

We continue to use high quality ingredients and fresh vegetables for our dishes and would never compromise on this.

We want to be your number one choice for Indian food, whether it is as a takeaway/delivery or in the restaurant.

With kind regards

Sean Usher

Owner Popadoms

Oh well here’s to next year…

By the way the DD can’t be held later in the year, so we are told by Rushmoor Borough Council, because the field may not be repaired intime for the new soccer season.

Sean

Always a great day out especially for the kids, but adults do enjoy themselves too.

I belong to Farnborough Rotary Club and am involved with the running of the event, in fact I am one of the 3, yes 3 announcers on the day. I’d much rather look after the donkeys, but they wont let me.

Yes I’ll be cheering on those donkeys as best I can after all, its just for charity. If you do go down to the races, don’t get in the way of those donkeys, cause they stop for no-one and they are extremely strong and trying to stop them after each of the 5 races is a job in itself, especially when you get a stubborn one who wants to do his own thing and they all follow, yep been there, done that and chased the donkeys.

So if you get a chance to come on down, bring your wellies, brolly and some warm clothing. After all it is a Bank Holiday in the UK and you know that this means there could be bad weather.

Sean

These high temperatures that we’re having are fantastic and hopefully they will continue for a while.

Having installed Air Conditioning a couple of years ago was one of the best moves we ever made.

It seemed to cost so much at the time, but it really has its benefits, especially in this hot weather. 

When its this hot, there’s nothing better than walking into the restaurant to be met by the chilled air, although not too chilled to be uncomfortable. Many people I know feel the same as it’s mentioned so often that its nice to get out of the heat for a while.

So if you fancy a night out during this warm spell in air conditioned comfort, then visit us at Popadoms. we’re open 7 nights a week.

Or of course you could always order an Indian on-line, get 10% off AND enjoy a delicious meal at home.

Best wishes and enjoy the weather

The TEAM at Popadoms

www.popadoms.com

As always there is a great influx of people from all over the world. I have found that a lot people who visit the air show come in on the train in the morning and leave on the evening train, without putting a foot in Farnborough, which probably not a bad thing considering the amount of reconstructuring there is going on.

However, the guest houses are full at present with people who are here to set up the Farnborough Air Show and this means they are all looking for somewhere to eat in Farnborough.

Naturally as a local restaurant business we are keen to attract this local business. We had a couple of engineers in the other evening, a couple of French guys and I was blown away when the told me the number of people who are on site already and more are coming as the air show draws ever nearer.

If you haven’t visited the Farnborough Air Show website, then have a look , here’s the link  http://www.farnborough.com/intro.aspx, they have lots of information and a great video about the air shows’s history with statistics.

But when he got home two weeks later, it wasn’t there. It had been put in the case….

Of course, the suitcase was not damaged, so he couldn’t prove that the camera had been stolen. If when he arrived in Spain, saw that his suitcase had been tampered with, he could have checked his case and made a claim immediately.

Long story short…………Insurance company gave him the money after agreeing with him that the camera was “lost” in Spain.

Not seen the video yet. Click on the link below. You can also send the video on to your friends or family by clicking on the link on the player.

http://go.webvideoplayer.com/view/x0SchYyPrU12BXTFEfIv10013

I rarely pass on information or jokes to my list of customers, but I thought that I would share this with you.

I am grateful to Steve Bays of Farnborough, for sending me this video which will open your eyes and your suitcase.

Take a look.

Please comment if you wish below.

Sean

CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW

http://go.webvideoplayer.com/view/x0SchYyPrU12BXTFEfIv10013

A customer phoned the other evening because they couldn’t order a curry on-line for a delivery.

They phoned to ask if we had changed our front page, or had we stopped our ordering on-line facility. This was a regular customer who I knew well.

As we had already taken 5 on-line orders that night, I knew that it was working, but thought that the site must be down. So I quickly checked the site, but it was working.

Well, long story short…….The customer was not actually on our site but on another in Wales, with the same name but a UK web address, ( I really wish I bought that .co.uk address 10 years ago when I bought the .com one).

It took a bit of head scratching, but we got there and re-directed them to the right site.

I don’t know the answer to this problem, but I do know that if you put “Indian restaurant Farnborough” into Google we normally are on the front page.

Now talking of on-line ordering.. We have been offering 15% off all orders over £15.00 since we started taking orders via the internet last October, but I’m afraid that I have had to change that to 10%.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end.

 Take care and I hope to see you soon.

Sean

The resort I went to is Zermatt, its famous for its views of the matterhorn and that you can ski across to Italy and back in the same day, A great place and in fact I have been going there on and off for 20 years plus.
Going on holiday is a necessary and important part of life and I believe should not be overlooked, although I have done so many times especially during the setting up of the restaurant. Hey life’s too short. So if you have not had a break recently, then treat yourself. It doesn’t have to be far away or expensive.

One thing I really missed on me hols, was a good curry. Although there wasn’t an Indian restaurant in the town, many places offered a curry (powder) pasta or a curry chicken sandwich, which I tried, but it was a bit like coronation chicken. But I guess for many people here in the UK that’s how they started on their curry journey with a coronation chicken sandwich, through to the Vindaloo or tikka Massala that they have now… Who knows.. the next time I go there they will have their own curry house…whoa…

One restaurant offered something different, it was kind of “a taste of India” no nothing to do with a restaurant that’s close to us with that name, but more an selection of different Indian and Chinese meals from around the world. As you probably know there is an Indian culture in many parts of the world and this restaurant was influenced by the many variations of meats available like from South Africa that dried meat called “Biltong” and crocodile, there was also a dish from the Fijian Islands, which was chicken based and did sound rather good.

No we didn’t try it as were staying in a hotel, but who knows I may ask some of our South African friends who live locally, where I can get some biltong and see what it tastes like in a curry. If and when I do try it, I’ll let you know, especially if we put it on the menu.

We didn’t advertise it because I wanted to see how it went with a small group of people and I must say it was great fun.

Now I can’t sing, well I can, kind of, but not very well, but at least I had a go as did quite a few of the others too. Of course, there’s always the ones that say, ooh you would never get me up there, but when they see how awful some people are, they think.. I can do better than that and up they get. Well we are having another Karaoke night and we are going to hold it on Friday 7th March 2008. The music will start at 10.00pm

We’ll have the normal menu, so there is no extra charge, but remember we can only seat 40. So make a note in your diary and tell your friends.

It will be a great night and I am sure will be full of laughs.

So whether you can sing or not, or you just want a different kind of night at an Indian restaurant, come on down and enjoy.

Book your table as soon as you can.

Sean

However what about all the other people who want to go out on this night and it’s to celebrate another occasion like a birthday, or they just want to go out for a curry!!!

Well, this year at Popadoms we are doing away with the traditional “£17.95 per person Set Menu” in the restaurant and are serving our normal menu with normal prices.

What brought this home to me is that a family friend mentioned that her birthday was on February 14th and she felt it unfair that restaurants raised their prices and in a lot of cases ripped people off by giving poor service as well.

So, I have decided to drop the set menu and offer our normal menu.

Now we are still going to put the candles on the table and I hope that the restaurant will still be full of our most romantic customers and I hope that this includes you. And if you are on our mailing list you will be receiving a special letter or email from me.

Sean Usher
Owner Popadoms Indian restaurant Farnborough

The new year’s eve party we held at Popadoms was great and if you came I really hoped you enjoyed yourself, but wherever you were on NYE, I’m sure you had a great time, unless you were stuck indoors,(then again you might have really enjoyed yourself there too).

Its funny isn’t it how there’s this big build up for Christmas and the New Year and suddenly it all over.

Lisa my partner has gone back to work today, having been off for almost two weeks and now the house is really quiet, just me and our dog (a cocker spaniel) called Shannon. Now who’s going to make the tea and sing along with all those songs on the radio whilst going about the house doing those little jobs, not me and I guess it won’t be Shannon as I haven’t taught her how to use the vacumn cleaner yet. (Well she is only 6 months old).

No, it will take a little while for things to get back to normal, but we’ll try our best, “sit Shannon, good girl”.

I hope that you have a great start to 2008 and I hope that whatever you want for this year comes true, remember the wise words, “if you don’t plan for it, it won’t happen”, so get planning and make it happen.

I think I’ll make another cup of tea and take the dog for a walk.

Take care

Sean

Of course there are so many songs that irritate me no end and no doubt you feel the same. I tried not to play Christmas music in the restaurant until people started to ask “what no Christmas music?, then you know its time to get the old Xmas cds out, of course there is the odd idiot  person who last week asked Dil (our Manager) why weren’t playing any Indian music.

But then he was the guy who asked for a Chicken Tikka Massala with no cream, no coconut and make it vindaloo hot……You can’t please all the people all the time.

I can’t wait for New Year’s Eve, I mentioned on my mailouts, that were fully booked by 1st December and I must admit I still get calls asking if there are any seats left and I now have a waiting list…What can you do… We need a bigger place I hear you say… Well sometimes, but don’t get me started on that.

Well I hope that you have a great Christmas, I hope that you have picked up your VIP card and can use it frequently next year and I also hope that we have served you well in 2007 and if for any reason you feel we haven’t, then let me apologise unreservedly and I hope that you will let us make amends in 2008

After all its Christmas, a time to renew friendships, fill our cup with wine and our souls with love, understanding and peace. And not forgetting a time to give….

Take Care.

Sean

The guy who started Cobra, Karan Bilamori, really is a success story and is highly regarded as one of the top Asian businessmen in the UK. He’s now one of the richest Asians here as well.

He started selling Cobra from the back of his car to restaurants and now of course you can see Cobra in supermarkets and in many countries around the world, even in India. In fact India is one of its most emerging and highly profitable markets.

Anyway enough about Cobra, the food at the event, which was held in a hotel near Heathrow airport was supplied by a restaurant from Southall called…….. The owner was there and much like me when I’m in our restuarant was fussing over things making sure things are presented properly and well and I thought, do I look as stressed as him!!

People often say to me I looked stressed when we get busy and I guess I do, but that is only because I like things to go well and our customers to get good attention and service.

I must say that the food was good, we had sheekh kebabs, salmon tikka, spicy mashed potato in batter, (look out for those soon), followed by lamb curry, chicken curry, rice, dall, curried cheese (paneer) and naan bread. They did very well to serve 500 people in one hit. One of the guest on our table, the owner of a local restaurant in Fleet, (nameless) kept on ordering more lamb and chicken curry for us and I left the table feeling like I’d eaten for two that night.

The food, entertainment and the host were all excellent. Even the beer was good, although the new beer from them with apples is not such a good idea.

That will be one of the few parties that I will go to this Christmas, so I made the most of it and Lisa drove!!!!

It couldn’t be better.

Sean

We were giving away 4 cases of Cobra beer. Anyone who ordered  a delivery or takeaway in October would have their name (email address) entered into a draw and 4 names would be pulled.

It was a great success and the winners were

Mr B-T of Willow Crescent Farnborough
Mr Bazen of Sunnybank Road Farnborough
Mr Ferguson of Sunnybank Road Farnborough
Mrs Kelly of Pennine Way Farnborough.

Maybe you know one of them. Congratulations to all.

Will we do it again YESS

Here’s how the winners were announced.
Listen to this recording