Indian Hut Restaurant

Butter chicken is the plate Indian Hut leads with, and it sets the terms for everything that follows: tender chicken marinated in tandoori spice, then simmered in a tomato-and-butter sauce rich enough to carry a basket of naan on its own. It is the safe first order and the dish a Grimsby table keeps coming back to. The menu around it runs much larger — curries, tandoor specials, biryanis, chaat and a full slate of Indo-Chinese plates — but the butter chicken is the centre of gravity, the plate that explains this downtown Mountain Street kitchen before the rest of the menu fills in its range.

Most orders start with the appetizers, and the Hot Appetizer Platter is built for exactly that — vegetable samosa, aloo tikki, onion bhaji and pakora arriving together with curried chickpeas and tamarind chutney, a way to taste the fried end of the kitchen before committing to mains. From there the curry section does the heavy lifting. Chicken tikka masala comes in a creamy tomato gravy with peppers; coconut chicken curry swaps the cream for a sweeter, spiced coconut base; mango chicken leans frankly sweet; and the korma runs mild and rich with cashew. Lamb and beef get the same onion-ginger-tomato treatment, with vindaloo on hand for anyone who wants the heat turned up and a dash of vinegar behind it. The tandoor adds another register — chicken tikka, quarter-leg tandoori chicken, paneer tikka and a protein-rich soya chaap, marinated and fired in the oven rather than sauced — while the biryanis arrive layered with onion, tomato and a crown of crisp fried onion.