Nish Kumar and Josh Widdicombe try Bradford's hottest curry

When you think of Bradford you think of curries – and what could excite the curry connoisseur more than the challenge not just of the hottest curry not just on the menu, but one of the hottest curries in the city?

Akbar’s Cafe on Leeds Road is a legendary staple of the city’s curry scene and boasts a dish that is not for the faint-hearted, their trademark phaal. 

Nish Kumar washes the curry down with some Lassi (Image: Newsquest)

A phaal curry is considered one of the hottest curries in the world, and the hottest of Indian curries, even more fiery than a vindaloo. 

Manager Samad Iqbal said: “We have had customers faint and consequently when it is ordered we have a protocol to follow that involves me going out to double check they seriously want it.”

Coming with the biggest naan bread you have ever seen hung on a hook, the phaal took our intrepid sampler Nish Kumar by surprise.

After finishing the meal he joked: “I wish I was dead”. Yes, the curry really is to die for.

Josh Widdicombe (Image: Newsquest)

The taste is a slow burner with subtle and complex flavours, at first you think you have a handle on it but then as the minutes tick on you realise it has really taken fire in the mouth. 

Before you know it the only way to deal with things is to wash it down with a jug of lassi, and

our sampler didn’t bother pouring it into a glass first!
Such is the strength of the curry when it is prepared the kitchen is cleared of all other staff and the chef tasked with the deed has to don a gas mask to deal with the fumes. 

Although, after a quick check, it turned out that the steam customers seen coming from under the bowl as it was served is dry ice.

Everyone that completes the curry is given a certificate for bravery and our reporter even received a present of an ice-cold toilet roll from the restaurant, hinting at what is to come for him.

At the time of writing our sampler was still with us, but lying horizontal and groaning.