The Cardamom Pods Reviews 

My sister and I thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon with the sisters at The Cardamom Pods! The welcome was warm, the food was delicious and the session was incredibly informative. Watching our food being prepared infront of us elevated our meal to a truly memorable experience. We would highly recommend booking The Cardamom Pods’ table (and arriving with a large appetite and an empty stomach! ☺️)

If I could move in with the Cardamon Pod ladies I would!!
Chhaya and Varsha are beyond amazing, I discovered this amazing experience about 18 months ago through Instagram, now I have been three times, each experience has been unique and memorable! I have already planned my fourth visit!
Last night we went to celebrate my mums 60th birthday, Chhaya and Varsha made it so special for my mum with her very own personalised ballon! For the first time last night we went for more sea food based menu with delicious king prawns and fish curry! I’m not a massive shell fish lover but these prawns left me licking my fingers and reaching for more!
What I love most about coming to Cardamon Pods how much you just feel like you’re with friends having an amazing dinner cooked for you with family recipes the way that their home is opened up to you makes it such a relaxing, and intimate experience.
Indian hospitality is known for its generosity, Chhaya and Varsha exceed this! Everything is so well thought out, you have recipe cards to take home and the spices to re create the dishes you learn, I have done this numerous times since!
Visit four is already planned and I can not wait!

This experience was really unique! Chhaya and Varsha welcomed us into their home as if we were part of the family and showed us how to cook traditional Indian food. They made it look simple and quick and the food was absolutely delicious. The fact that they gave us the spices to take home was great! We replicated the dishes at home and everyone loved it. We really recommend this experience to anyone who enjoys Indian food and would like to get to know more about it and taste the real thing. We hope to be back soon to try the other menus. Thank you both for your incredible hospitality! =) Ivan and Elena

Amazing experience!!! Thank you Chhaya & Varsha for a most memorable night, we not only got to eat amazing food but learnt how to prepare the dishes, ask questions about the process and best of all had a great relaxed time where we had fun and laughed (a lot).

We also got given our own recipe goody bag with spices included!!

As it was valentines day, it was extra special in the words of Chhaya & Varsha (chocolate strawberries + prosecco win for us!!)

Highly recommended, we will come back again for the fish!!

As a group of 2, we were lucky to closely see, touch, smell and learn how to cook 3-4 different Indian dishes.
Lamb meatballs and chicken curry were absolutely delicious. Roti was the HIGHLIGHT.
We loved that we learned a recipe that we can easily bring home and repeat.
At the end of the 2.5 hour class, we were gifted 5 lovely Indian spices, including home-made garam masala so that we can practice right away for the weekends dinner.
Chhaya and Varsha sisters were welcoming and professional. The open plan kitchen was spacious enough to accommodate a bigger group, while the cooking table in the middle created a friendly atmosphere.
Highly, highly recommended experience for beginners and also advanced.

Wow what an experience! Cardamom Pods really took us back to the meals our families enjoyed when we were kids. We both like to think of ourselves as semi proficient in the kitchen, so we’ve actively put off attending courses and experiences like these thinking we don’t need them, when in actual fact we learnt a lot.

In our 2½ hour session we discovered all about the ‘best-case’ food prep, the cooking times and the tricks experienced cooks use to make that perfect home cooked meal.

The biggest take away we got was how to balance all the complex flavors that makes an authentic and tasty Indian meal. We learnt about the aromatic spices, that are being used, the flavors that have been added by each of the ingredients and what we should be tasting in each bite.

We are both quite thankful to Chhaya and Varsha for their willingness to share their family recipes and the passion that they have for wanting to pass these skills/tricks/recipes on to the next generation. It also helps that they are lovely warm and welcoming people.
We can’t wait for the master classes that they’re soon to launch.

Raakhee & Rakesh.
12/2/19

I booked this experience as a Christmas gift for my partner as we are both very passionate about food and love to cook; I'm delighted to say it did not disappoint.

The menu can be tailored to your preferences/dietary requirements, allowing you to select vegetarian, meat or fish so every need or taste is catered for. It also means that you'll learn how to cook something you will want to make again as it's something you have chosen yourself.

Upon arrival, you are offered a bottle of Processo (soft drinks are available) and water along with delicious snacks and homemade chutneys. The chutneys are fantastic by the way - so much so, we bought a couple of jars to enjoy at home after the experience.

Keen to pass on the traditional home-cooked food from Surat, their ancestral hometown, Chhaya and Varsha talk you through the preparation of each dish, offering tips and tricks along the way - we learned so much and have recreated the dishes on a number of occasions since. It was wonderful to hear anecdotes from Chhaya and Varsha about their memories of learning to cook and family life.

My boyfriend and I were made to feel extremely welcome during the session. Chhaya and Varsha were warm and inviting hosts, allowing plenty of room for questions and genuinely took the time to get to know us.

As part of the experience, you are given a pack of spices and instruction cards so that you can recreate the dishes at home with ease which we felt was a really nice touch. They also very kindly boxed up the leftovers which was very much welcomed by my boyfriend as we got to enjoy the food all over again the next day!

I'd highly recommend this experience especially if you are looking to try traditional Indian food that is truly authentic and as it would be eaten at home. It certainly beats your standard takeaway!

I booked in a class to go and learn how to cook some of my favourite Indian dishes with the Cardamom Pods and admittedly was a little hesitant but went with an open mind ready to learn and eat. In summary, I am so glad I went because the experience was fantastic and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

We were welcomed into the their and after some introductions were offered prosecco (soft drinks also available) and some snacks to get us started on our cooking adventure. Without giving too much away, we learnt how to make a paneer dish and also a daal dish along with rice and chapatis. Chhaya and Varsha shared with us little tips and tricks that they had learnt over the years which I imagine will come in handy when cooking at home.

What I loved was the fact that the whole experience was done at a leisurely pace without feeling rushed with plenty of time for questions and the whole atmosphere was so relaxed.

Once the dishes are cooked, we got to dig in and eat some truly tasty food. Being Indian myself, I am always so critical of cooking and compare to what I eat at home. The food here was spot on, no spices were overpowering and everything was perfectly balanced and my palette was treated to a wonderful array of flavours.

I really recommend this to anyone who is looking to learn a thing or two about Indian cooking. You'll be pleasantly surprised at what you learn even if you are a seasoned pro in the kitchen. The array of dishes on offer is vast and caters to both vegetarian and non-vegetarian alike.

I recently took at trip with my best friend for an evening at The Cardamom Pods and had the greatest time! We were one of the first to experience and I honestly couldn't recommend this place more. It was so good!

From the get go, you know you're in for a personalised experience as you get to choose your menu for the evening. Getting to select what I learnt to make was seriously incredible as I knew that I would actually want to go home and put what I had learnt into practice.

Starting with a glass of prosecco and some spiced nibbles and straight into the learning how to create the starter of fried fish. Chhaya explained everything so well (so well in fact I have made this dish on a number of occasions since - it was so delicious!) and I adored this dish. If you are a lover of fish, you must go for this one too!

We also opted for an Aubergine and Pea Curry - again super delicious, and unlike any Indian curry I had ever had before. It was so much more authentic than the curries you get from a takeaway.

With personalised anecdotes and so much space for asking questions, we had such a great evening and I have since recommended it to all of my friends and family. We also loved the little takeaway packs of spices to create your dishes at home after - such a lovely touch.

I want to go back and learn something else - I am eyeing up the Paneer!!

Thank you so much The Cardamom Pods - we had the best evening!