Peterborough has accidentally made one night out remarkably easy.

On one side of Broadway sits Bombay Brasserie.

Almost opposite is New Theatre Peterborough.

That's it.

That's the plan.

No driving across the city between dinner and the show.

No calculating whether dessert has just cost you the opening number.

No twenty-minute walk in shoes somebody regretted buying before they'd even left home.

Curry. Cross road. Curtain.

And frankly, more nights out should be this easy.

The table is the best bit

Bombay Brasserie has been serving Peterborough since 1981, so this isn't some newly invented pre-theatre concept looking for an audience. The Bombay Brasserie

And the way to enjoy somewhere like this isn't necessarily one carefully guarded plate per person.

It's when the table starts filling up.

Chicken tikka masala. Lamb karahi. Jalfrezi. Pulao rice. Sag aloo. Peshwari naan.

Put several dishes in the middle and dinner becomes negotiation.

The naan gets torn apart.

Someone discovers they like the curry they definitely weren't going to order.

The person who announced they didn't want much rice has somehow acquired quite a lot of yours.

And there's always one dish everybody keeps returning to until eventually the serving spoon is scraping hopefully around the bottom.

That's far more fun than everybody staring obediently at their own plate.

Bombay Brasserie's current menus lean into that style of eating.

Its set dinners combine several starters, mains and sides, while its banquet option lets groups choose different price levels. The Bombay Brasserie

Your biggest problem may be remembering you've got a theatre to get to.

Fortunately, they've thought of that

The restaurant currently has a dedicated pre-theatre menu from 5pm until 6.30pm, seven days a week, priced at £22.50 per person for two courses. The Bombay Brasserie

That's the useful bit.

You aren't trying to explain to a waiter at 7.12pm that Hamilton waits for no man.

The restaurant knows why some early diners keep looking at their watches.

And when you've finished?

New Theatre is at 46 Broadway.

Bombay Brasserie is 45–47 Broadway.

You could devise a complicated description of the journey between them.

Cross the road seems adequate.

Peterborough's theatre diary gives you plenty of excuses

And this isn't dependent on one particular show.

The current New Theatre programme moves between musicals, comedy, drama, music, family shows and talks.

October alone includes Heathers The Musical, Stewart Lee, The Silence of the Lambs, music shows and more, with another varied programme following in November.

 New Theatre, Peterborough

That's why I'd treat the restaurant-and-theatre pairing as the story rather than any individual production.

The show changes.

The ritual doesn't have to.

Find something you actually want to see.

Book the seats.

Book dinner early enough that nobody spends the main course checking the time.

Put some naan in the middle of the table.

Then, when somebody finally admits they really have eaten enough, you've got approximately one road to cross before Act One.

Peterborough nights out don't get much more convenient than that.

What’s Your Peterborough Dinner-And-A-Show Combination?

Tell us where you eat before a show or the Peterborough restaurant and night-out combination you think we should try next.

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