Veggie Bites » Indian

Blu Ginger

mel — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 00:27:44 +0000

Date: 31 December 2010

Well, we splurged for New Years Eve and got takeaway!! This is a new place in Civic and we have been wanting to try it for a while now and due to a misunderstanding, we didn’t get to try it the night before!

They have a pretty good selection of veggie food as you would expect from an Indian restaurant – although I find it is a bit concerning that the entree’s include veg spring rolls! We decided to try the Palak Patha Chaat – batter fried spinach with chickpeas and potatoes, topped with yoghurt and tamarind sauce. It was ok – I think the batter fried spinach was stale or something because it was kind of chewy. For mains we ordered the Baigan Patiala (eggplant and potatoes), Vegetable Kootu and Palak Paneer. We also had rice, garlic naans, and sides of cucumber yoghurt, tomato, onion and corriander salsa, and banana coconut. The veg Kootu was the highlight of the meal – it had a lovely coconuty flavour and also crunchy but not undercooked lentils. It was great and I could have happily eaten it all by myself! The Palak Paneer had good flavour, but not a lot of paneer in it. I am not a fan of eggplant, so didn’t particularly like the Baigan Patiala, but the potatoes were good, as was the sauce it came in. The sides and the breads were also good.

All in all, pretty good food. I’d definitely go back as I think it is better than some of the other Indian take away food we have had…

Kushi

mel — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:23:21 +0000

Date: 16 November 2009

I think this is a relatively new Indian restaurant in Manuka – certainly one that we haven’t discovered before! I was a bit nervous when we walked in as there was no-one else eating there – but it was lunchtime on a Monday… The menu is pretty varied and has a good vegetarian selection, as you would expect from an Indian restaurant. We decided to have the Kushi veg platter for two which had samosa, tandoori mushrooms and paneer tikka. It was all very yummy and came with a corriander chutney type sauce as well as a very nice spicy tomato-ey type chutney. Instead of getting the usual mains, we opted for dosai – rice and lentil crepes stuffed with different fillings. I had the masala dosai (spicy potato) and Martin had the onion masala dosai (spicy potato and onion). They were great – the dosai were light and crispy and the stuffing was spicy and delicious. They were just what we felt like! I think we might head back just for the dosai! The only thing that annoyed me a bit about this place was the overwhelming incense and the fact that the owner (?) spent a lot of time making phone calls using the speaker phone which echoed the dial tone and keypad noises around the restaurant! But the food was good!

Flavours of India – Civic

mel — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 01:07:17 +0000

Date: 9 October 2009

We have eaten at Flavours of India in Civic a lot and also have had take away from here quite a bit since the first time we ate here – four years ago! This is really good Indian food and they have a pretty good variety of vegetarian dishes… of course we now have our favourites…

Aloo papdi chaat is now my all time favourite Indian starter! It is described as “spiced potatoes & spinach fritters tossed together with sweetened yoghurt, tamarind chutney & spiked with chaat masala” – YUM!

For our mains we had kadhai paneer (cheese, capsicum and onion in a sort-of-creamy tomato sauce) and aloo palak (potato and spinach), along with rice, raita and naans. Yum, yum and yum! As I have said before, not the cheapest Indian food around, but definitely delicious!

Bollywood Dimensions

mel — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 14:00:00 +0000

If you are a regular reader, you’ll know that I find it hard to beat Bollywood Masala as my favourite Indian restaurant. Bollywood Dimensions has recently opened in Braddon and we wondered whether they were in any way related – and the answer is they don’t appear to be! Being lovers of Indian food, we thought we should try it and headed there for dinner with friends before seeing a concert. Their vegetarian menu is quite extensive (as it should be, considering it is Indian!) and there were a few things on there that a little different to the standard dishes on an Indian menu, so we thought we would try some of them. For our entree we had ‘Masala Vada’ and ‘Exotic Tandoori Paneer’ – both were excellent. The masala vada were nicely spiced and a little on the hot side which is fine with me! For our mains we had ‘Creamy Butternut Pumpkin’, ‘Majestic Shahi Paneer (Chef’s special)’ and a side of ‘Royal Panch Ratni Dal’ along with rice, raita, garlic naans and lassi. The food was good. The pumpkin dish was nice, but I am constantly disappointed by dishes containing pumpkin – I guess I expect more from them. The paneer dish had a comforting creamy sauce and large chunks of paneer. The dal was simple yet delicious. The naans were crispy and flaky as opposed to being soft and gooey as they so often are. I think we will go back and try some of the more standard dishes so that we can do more of a real comparison. Oh, and just so you know, all the dish names are in quotes as that is how they are listed on the menu. In fact the menu is a great read, however the overly descriptive names of the dishes do start to become a little over the top!

Amajit’s – Campbelltown, NSW

mel — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 14:00:00 +0000

Since we were in Campbelltown for Christmas, my mum suggested that we go here for dinner, and I was really keen because last time we went here, I was really impressed. Sadly though, this time I was incredibly disappointed. I know it was literally just before Christmas, but there was only us and two other tables of people (although they did a fair bit of takeaway while we were there) and the service was very, very poor. And the food was incredibly average. It took ages for the pappadums to arrive and ages to order. We ended up opening our own bottle of wine and had to ask for water twice before we got it. We ordered curry puffs and a weird potato dish (I can’t remember what it was called) for our entree. The curry puffs had peas which I picked out, and the potato dish was cold and had chucks of potato mixed in with a crunchy cereal thing with a sauce. The potato dish was interesting, but I am not sure I would order it again. For our mains we ordered malai kofta, mushrooms malai masala, veggie korma, a chicken dish and we asked if they could do a side dish of dahl – which they initially said they could do, but it turned out that they couldn’t, so we went with a full one. We also had a cucumber yoghurt and a variety of naans. They had run out of kofta and couldn’t do the malai kofta and asked if would we like malai veggies instead. Since we had ordered a korma, we thought that would be too similar, so we asked for palak paneer instead and, I have to say, the waiter looked a little put out by that so we guessed that they had already started to make it! The food was ok. It wasn’t spectacular and it was nowhere near as good as we remembered it. Also, annoyingly they put all of the naans in the same basket, including a meat one in with the other ones – which, considering all but one of our dishes were vegetarian, was, I thought, quite poor judgement! Maybe they were having a bad day. Maybe they were really looking forward to the Christmas break. I don’t know, but I do know that I was pretty disappointed and I wasn’t the only one.

Priya – Hokitika, New Zealand

mel — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 14:00:00 +0000

This was pretty much our only option for dinner in Hokitika, unless we wanted pizza – which we didn’t! We ordered tandoori mushrooms, Palak Paneer, Veggie Korma and asked for a half size of red lentil dhal, which they couldn’t do, so we went with the whole one. We also had raita and a garlic naan and a plain naan. This place did one of my pet hates and asked us what temperature we would like our dishes and we tried, yet again, to get them the way the chef recommends, but to most restaurant staff that just means medium! The food was pretty good. I wasn’t overly keen on the mushrooms – they were not cooked enough for my liking. But the rest of it was good, but not fantastic – it didn’t stand out as wonderful in any way. Certainly, if you want veggie food in Hokitika, then I would recommend this place!

Tandoori Palace – Queenstown, New Zealand

mel — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 14:00:00 +0000

We wandered around for ages trying to decide where to eat. I felt like pasta, but Martin felt like Indian. We eventually went back to this place because we figured we would probably end up eating Italian the next night! We ordered the mixed entrée which was huge – samosas, bahji, potato cakes and something else. It was all quite yummy, once I had de-pea-ed everything of course! For our mains we ordered the vegetable jaypuri, malai kofta and a side of dhal makhani, along with raita and two garlic naan. And a bottle of Villa Pinot Gris to wash it all down! The food was ok, the malai kofta was very different to any that I have had before, the jaypuri was pretty good and the dhal was a little average, but the garlic naans were great – hot and crispy and you could really taste the garlic! There was so much food, and there was no way we could finish it all – we didn’t even try! I think that this place might have been a chain – they seemed to have two or three restaurant addresses (in different towns) listed on their take away menu. This always disappoints me – not that I don’t like chains, it is just that I prefer to eat somewhere that does more authentic food rather than food that may be catered to the masses.

Rama’s

mel — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 14:00:00 +0000

I have heard lots and lots about Rama’s – pretty much all of it has been good, so when we had to be southside for a reason around dinner time, we decided that we should try it. Rama’s is billed as Fiji Indian, which makes it pretty much Indian with a dash of Fijian influence. When we arrived (on a non-pay-day Thursday night!!) the place was packed and we were not particularly hopeful of getting a table as even those outside were full. However, we were squeezed in on a table that had a 7:15 booking (we were there at 6:45) on the promise that if they could cook it fast, we could eat it fast – we had to be somewhere else at 7:30 anyway! So, we ordered at the counter as the table was reset for two and the food arrived really, really quickly! Which is a little worrying as that probably meant that a lot of it was pre-prepared, and that some of didn’t have enough time to absorb the lovely flavours. To start with we had the pumpkin and coconut roti parcels. This was amazing – a lovely mushed up pumpkin and coconut mixture wrapped in a roti bread. I think I am going to have to invent a few of these types of dishes because this is the second one that I have had that I really, really liked. They would make great little appetiser type things. For our mains we ordered Vegetable Bombay, Panir Masala and Dahl, along with steamed rice and a couple of garlic parathas. When we ordered, we were asked how we wanted the dished cooked – mild, medium or hot. Now this is one of my pet hates in restaurants. I want the chef to cook it as it should be and not fiddle with the heat of the dish. If something is meant to be cooked hot then cook it hot and put a warning on the menu. If it is meant to be mild, then cook it mild! So, my answer was however the chef thinks it should be and then we were asked if we liked it spicy and would we like the dishes medium, so I gave up and said yes. The dahl arrived first with a huge bowl of saffron rice (which surprised us since we thought we ordered steamed rice). It was a little while before the other dishes came out, which is a bit disappointing, but it could have been because they were trying to hurry our meal. Of the three dishes, I think the Panir Masala was my favourite (apart from the peas) – it had a beautiful flavour and the panir did not fall apart. The dahl was nicely spiced, but wasn’t particularly special – just good dahl. The vegetables Bombay was disappointing (for more reasons than just more peas!) – and this is possibly where a longer cooking time could have enhanced the flavours a little. The spices/flavours seemed a little harsh. Overall, it was pretty good food. I am amazed that we were in and out in approximately 30 minutes, and also amazed that the number of other people in the restaurant, and the owner said that it is like that every night! If I was down that way again, then I think I would eat there again, however, I don’t think I would be able to justify bypassing my favourite Indian restaurant, which is much closer to home, to go here.

Flavours of India

mel — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 14:00:00 +0000

This may well become one of my favourite Indian restaurants. We have eaten here once before and was impressed then, just as we were impressed again this time! Although, we ended up with so much food, that we could hardly move ourselves quickly enough to get across to the theatre to see ‘The Tempest’ (which was awesome!). We started with Aloo papdi chaat (spiced potato and spinach fritters tossed with yoghurt and tamarind chutney and spiked with chaat masala) and Paneer amritsari (cheese marinated in ginger and garlic paste and the chef’s secret herbs and spices). The potato dish was amazing – we have had it before and I will have it again! The paneer one was nice, but not quite what I expected. I think I would rather order a paneer main and have a different entree. That being said, we decided that since we had had a paneer entree that we would not have a paneer main, so we had Aloo kaali mirch (potatoes with curry leaves, spices and peppercorns), dal fry and Milaoni sabzi (veggies in a cashew gravy), along with a mixed raita and a couple of garlic naans. Apart from the dal, these are dishes that we have not had before and they were pretty good, although the flavourings were something that we were not quite used to – but it is good to taste new things. The dal and veggies were great, but personally the potatoes were almost a little too peppery for my tastes. We ate as much as we could, but we certainly did not finish everything! This is great food and they have a fantastic selection of veggie dishes, so I think we will head back here again soon!

Bollywood Masala

mel — Fri, 10 Feb 2006 14:00:00 +0000

This was take away with friends. We definitely over catered, but it is so yummy, we couldn’t resist getting all our favourites! We started with the pakoras – which are great – little spicy deep fried balls – you can’t really go wrong with that – although, we could have used a little more of the sauce. We ordered two serves of the pakora, but I think we only got one serve of the sauce. For our mains, we went with all the veggie favourites – palak paneer, aloo gobi (a relatively new favourite!), veggie korma (far too many peas!) and dahl bollywood. Our friends also got a tandoori chicken and we accompanied it all with saffron rice, mixed raita and a selection of naans – cheese, garlic and sun dried tomato. Everything was amazing (as usual), although I was a little disappointed with the cheese naan – I think I will stick to garlic in the future. And despite the fact that we over catered – there really wasn’t a whole lot of food left over!