Tag Archives: Indian restaurants

Mishra’s Kitchen – another look

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Mishra’s Kitchen, 18 Wembley Ave, Yarraville. Phone: 9314 3336

Our adventures have taken us elsewhere since our first visit to Mishra’s Kitchen, but we are delighted to grab a last-minute opportunity to step out for a quick midweek dinner.

The place still has something of the feel of a sandwich shop, but it’s more Indian restaurant these days.

In any case, we find the vibe charming.

As are the friendliness and service.

Moreover, we tell our waiter that we are here for a quickie bite, not for a night out – it’s already late-ish on a school night and we desire not to tarry.

Our meal comes quickly, efficiently and full of flavour.

Maybe it’s time for a new rule for us – stop ordering stuffed breads.

Our Kashmiri naan ($3.50) and mint paratha ($3.50) are good.

But really, the fillings – a fruity mince in the former, mashed spuds in the latter – seem to add nothing to our eating experience.

Could be plain old chapati, paratha, naan is the way to go for us henceforth – cheaper for sure, and quite possibly more in harmony with the curries we order.

Ordering chicken korma ($11) is an easy choice given Bennie’s enthusiasm based on a delicious experience shared with his mum on another visit.

It’s a good call – this is the sort of distinctive dish that make us love places such Mishra’s Kitchen or Yummy India in Deer Park and their super honey-infused lamb lajawab.

My photo is misleading.

For starters, there’s a lot more chicken in there than appears to be the case.

Nor does the pic convey, of course, the mild yet rich flavour of the gravy.

This korma sauce consists of almonds, cashews, yogurt, a little coconut, mace, white pepper, garlic, ginger and onions.

Also used are kewra water, a sort of Indian version of rose water made with pandanus flowers, and a sprinkling of raisins.

So different, so good!

Aloo gobi ($9) is more along the lines of routine curry house fare – a nice mushy blend of cauliflower, spuds and spices.

I like it fine, Bennie finds it just a tad too spicy.

It’s been lovely to revisit Mishra’s Kitchen and find it can easily fit into the quick meal context.

Chef Sanjeev suggests next time we try one of the fish dishes.

We’ll be taking him up on that – maybe it’ll be way of boosting the lad’s current and profound lack of enthusiasm for just about anything fishy.

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Yummy India

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Yummy India, 21 Westwood Drive, Deer Park. Phone: 8337 0760

Yummy India in Deer Park has long been on our radar and finally the day has arrived.

We just didn’t think that in a million years the day would arrive on a Good Friday.

We’d already made Good Friday plans that involved the eating of Lebanese food in Coburg, but then the Yummy India folk posted on their Facebook page the day before that, yes, they’d be open over Easter – including for Good Friday lunch.

Really?

A pre-drive phone call ascertains that all is good and as advertised, so off we go.

The allure of Yummy India has for us is certainly to do with the pursuit of a good feed.

But it must be confessed the appeal is also undoubtedly to do with the restaurant’s location – on a Deer Park industrial estate and surrounded by fencing and swimming pool companies.

Of course, on this Good Friday there’s not a lot of traffic or any other kind of business going.

Like us, our mate Tony is transfixed and delighted by the sheer perversity, magicality and uniqueness of such a setting for such a restaurant.

Unsurprisingly, we are the only Good Friday lunch customers, although the service we receive is of the highest order and very friendly.

Our genial waiter tells they expect some takeaway orders and more trade by dinner time.

He certainly does the right thing by us right from the start be preventing us from over-ordering in a spectacular fashion.

The sort of rich and hearty food available here is quite a ways removed from the dosas, snack food and cut-rate thalis that are our normal Indian fare.

Nevertheless we’re out with a good friend and prepared to spend some money in order to get a fulsome, well-rounded lunch.

Three entrees, three mains and all the bits and pieces?

No, no, we are told – that’s too much.

And so it proves to be.

When asked about spice levels, I say – over Bennie’s protests – that medium will be fine.

Our entrees – which are at the upper end of our spice capacities – prove Bennie correct, and luckily we are in time to have the rest of our meal adjusted towards the mild end of the spectrum.

We are still learning our way with Indo-Chinese food, but that learning is involving increasing levels of enjoyment.

Apart from spice levels a tad too high for us, chilli and garlic mushrooms ($11.95) and chicken 65 ($12.95) have the high levels of oil we are coming to expect from this kind of food.

Moreover, despite the different names the flavours of both seem very similar, and the chook and mushie protagonists chewy where elsewhere I’ve enjoyed a more explosive crispness.

Not to be too picky, though – we enjoy both.

These are, of course, rather pricey for what are listed as entrees, but the serves are very big.

That trend continues with our main course curries and even the super large serve of raita ($3.50).

Indeed, I’m pretty sure the metal pots in which our curries arrive are bigger than those used in many other Indian restaurants of this type.

Nawabi chicken ($13.95) is, I’m told, based on a cashew nut gravy with your standard Indian spices and some tomato paste.

There’s some whole cashews, too, and what seems to be largish chunks of chicken breast are tender.

It’s  good, rich chicken curry.

The lamb lajawab ($12.95) is our meal’s highlight.

It, too, is based on a cashew nut gravy.

But this one is heavily laced with honey, giving it an aromatic flavour that is unlike that of any curry any of us have previously tried.

It’s delicious!

The lamb pieces are on the small side, and there’s not that many of them, but the meat is tender and lovely.

Apart from the advertised nuts and spices, I suspect both our curries also likely have a cream quotient on board, but if we were going to get squeamish about such things we would never have come.

Our garlic naan ($3.50) is oddly unbuttered and even quite crispy but still fine.

The aloo paratha ($3.50) has an obvious and oily sheen, but is quite good, too.

Despite a few mis-steps, Yummy India has restored our faith in the value of more formal, “special occasion”, expensive and rich Indian food.

The prices seem very typical, but the serves are large. Our lunch fare ends up costing us about $22 each, which is very good value indeed.

Where else would you get such a fine Indian meal on a Good Friday lunch-time?

And certainly, parking is never going to be a problem here, no matter the time or day.

(For those seeking lighter food, Yummy India also does idli, vada and dosas.)

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Pandu’s – an update …

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UPDATE (July 29, 2012): Review of the new Pandu’s is HERE.

Dropping into the site of the new Pandu’s in Barkly St, I find the man himself in the house.

He’s a little reticent about having his photo taken, but couldn’t be more friendly and is happy to show me around.

And I gotta tell you – the place is looking a million bucks.

He tells me he actually had ritzy expansion plans for the former site in Buckley St well advanced before the rail link developments nixed them.

The new site entails a hefty increase in rent and a major investment – as these photos indicate.

Inevitably, this will involve higher prices for his take on Indo-Chinese tucker.

However, the prices at the old joint were rock-bottom cheap and he assures me his new price tags won’t be in the same ball park as those of a somewhat similar establishment up the road apiece.

Pandu is aiming for a late March opening date.

There’s going to be nooks, crannies and booths all over the place.

Incredibly, all the furniture is being crafted and constructed on-site.

The new restaurant will boast an Indian-style barbecue – not quite Tandoori cooking but with some of those elements. Sounds like a heap of juicy, marinated meats and vegetables to me!

This space (above) will be the site of the new kitchen.

In this area will be a waterfall and fish pond.

Atithi Indian Restaurant

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Atithi Indian Restaurant, 730 Mt Alexander Rd, Moonee Ponds. Phone: 9326 0482

Atithi is an Indian vegetarian restaurant that takes its name from the Sanskrit phrase “Atithi Devo Bhavah”, which means “Guest are God”.

We like that approach!

It resides in a stretch of Mt Alexander Rd near Puckle St in Moonee Ponds that often seems ripe for foodie adventures, but along which we find most places closed when we’re in the vicinity, Dr Strangeloves aside.

Earlier in the week, when passing by, we’d parked and gone for a look-see.

Our response to the restaurant’s motto, part of the outdoor signage, was damn near pavlovian.

“For Who Know Value of Taste.”

So eloquent, so adorable – this place went right to the top of our to-do list, and we’re back for real in just a few days.

On entering, we appreciate the whirring fans and AC on the job.

Both the walls and floor are tiled, while tables are dressed with cloth tablecloths and paper. It’s quite a nice , tranquil vibe.

Initially, we’re a little taken aback by the stern words placed at the bottom of each page of the menu warning us to be prepared for a half-hour 45-minute wait for a our meal.

We cover that base by ordering bhel puri from the Indian Street Food Menu – “Round puri, puffed rice and fine chickpeas noodles mix in onion, tomato, Fresh apple, beetroot, and potato served with chutney” for $7.

We know that in India such like as bhel puri are not ordered as part of a meal, but we often find ourselves ordering them as we are normally not in a position to adhere to afternoon snack tradition.

Bhel puri at Atithi.

This is less crunchy and crackly than I expect, but still a tangy way to get our dinner rolling. Bennie finds the raw white/brown onion quotient overpowering.

Mix veg sizzler at Atithi.

Mix veg sizzler – “mix vegies and pettish cooked in special tomato sauce serve in leafs bowl” ($15) – is a voyage into the unknown for us.

It’s super rich, gloopy and tasty.

Mixed under the cheese and tomato sauce is a jumble of a whole roasted green capsicum, corn kernels, peas, diced potato and carrot and more cheese.

It’s a huge serve – more appropriate for sharing among four people with a mix of other dishes.

This is much more than a tomato sauce, I subsequently discover when chatting to chef Mitesh Patel.

It’s actually a bechamel sauce made of, yes, tomato but also ghee, flour, milk, sugar, salt and pepper.

No wonder it seems so rich!

This sort of dish is not really Indian or Indo-Chinese – it’s more an Indian fusion sort of thing generated by Indian chefs working in Europe and returning home full of ideas and inspirations.

The mix veg sizzler comes from the continental section of menu, which also includes Pineapple/Veg Macaroni ($14) and Paneer Stick Sizzler ($17), which I presume must be even richer again.

From the Indo-Chinese dishes we’ve ordered hakka noodles – “Noodles cooked with special sauces and fresh vegetable” ($12).

Hakka noodles at Atithi.

This is OK, but seems a little on the pricey side. Bennie finds it too spicy, even though we’d said medium when asked.

The version enjoyed at the old Pandu’s benefitted from the having little bowls of vinegar and sauces soy and tomato on the side.

If there is an uneveness in our meal we’re happy to attribute it to a clumsy attempt to get to grips with a strange menu. More advanced navigation skills may have allowed us to choose more complementary dishes.

I’d originally envisioned basing our meal around one of the dosa selections, but the dosas are not yet available.

Perhaps we’d have been better off by gravitating towards the standard curry menu, which includes two kinds of dal, peneer and kofta dishes, and entrees such as pakoras. 

You can check out the Aitithi menu options at the restaurant’s website.

Nevertheless, we welcome the addition of a dedicated vegetarian eatery to our neighbourhood when often it seems Indian restaurants relegate vegetable dishes to after-thought status.

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Barkley St: KFC, Sweet Grass tea garden … and Indian restaurants

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Formerly Taj Banjara, soon to be Vanakkam

It’s the end of Bennie’s first day of school for the year, his first in grade 5, so we figure it’s time to celebrate by letting him have his way with the mocktail list at Sweet Grass Bonsai Nursery & Cafe in Footscray.

But as we approach we take in the building activity on both sides of the tea house – time for some questions and answers.

Inside the premises that in recent years housed the Indian restaurant Taj Banjara, we talk to Jagadish.

He gives us the good news – the refit going here will soon house a new-look Vanakkam, formerly of Nicholson St and formerly reviewed here at Consider The Sauce.

Jagadish tells us that the menu in the new restaurant will be basically the same as in the old, including dosas, but that there will expansion along the lines of tandoori breads.

Opening day? Friday, February 10.

On the other side of Sweet Grass – and Vincent Vegetarian Food Mart – will be the new Pandu’s, at 351 Barkly.

Pandu himself is not around when I stick my nose in, but judging by the extensive renovationary activity going on, the new restaurant bearing his name is going to be bigger, more comfortable and swisher than the one that preceded it.

Let’s hope the prices stay the same, though!

The new Pandu's takes shape.

What an all-round boon this is bound to be – not just for locals (Hi, Juz!), but also for those of us who live slightly further afield.

The adjacent side streets are likely to offer some parking capacity, while the clearway restrictions end at 6pm on week nights.

Amusing or ironic? Both these new restaurants will help bring this stretch of Barkly St alive after being given the heave-ho from their previous abodes because of railway developments.

And, yes, Bennie goes for the Black Widow of vanilla ice cream, lime juice and cola.

In a big way: “This drink is so good I can’t not drink it!”

Slurp!

Mishra’s Kitchen

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A more recent review can be found here.

Mishra’s Kitchen, 18 Wembley Ave, Yarraville. Phone: 9314 3336

As we approach the Wembley St shopping trip that has previously left us untroubled in an way, we have contingency plans.

After all, the basis for our dinner – to be shared by Kenny, Bennie and neighbour Rob – is based solely upon my spotting a week earlier what purports to be an Indian restaurant in what is a plain old sandwich shop by day.

Our hopes are not particularly high.

Our downbeat wariness is given a swift kick in the bottom as soon as we enter the door.

Transformation!

This is indeed an Indian restaurant – albeit a humble one that doesn’t try to hide its daytime non-Cinders gig.

More importantly, the welcome from the eager staff is wonderful.

So much so that as we are nutting out the menu and ordering, and it becomes clear that Rob has less experience with tandoori oven rituals than us, I ask if our mate can witness up close and personal the making of our naan order.

The chef – Mr Mishra himself – obliges by not only explaining the whole process to Rob and Bennie but also by giving Rob crack at making his own naan.

Marvellous!

To keep the costs down, we go without starters or snacks and soft drinks, staying with the water. In doing so, we have what I suspect is much more like your average Indian family meal than an outing replete with samosas and the like.

We do good, ordering bhoona chicken (“in medium spices and pot-roasted with ginger and tomatoes”, $11), jhinga Madras (“South Indian spicy prawns curry with mustard seeds and coconut milk”, $14) and mixed vegetables ($9), joined by plain rice ($3), plain naan ($2) and tandoori roti ($2).

Mixed vegetables and bhoona chicken.

Jhinga Madras.

What a wonderful feast we have, with a marvellous combo of varying colours, textures and spice levels.

The difference between our most recent and rather unhappy experience in taking our Indian food habit slightly upmarket and this lovely dinner in a restaurant a mere three weeks old is stark.

The vegetables come in a mild, creamy sauce (cashews, maybe?) and include mushrooms, peas, cauliflower, green beans, fried onion strands and potato.

For Rob and I, this is our pick of the night, with the individual vegetables cooked through but holding their shapes and flavours. Lots of mushies!

About four medium-size prawns for each of us come in a sharper sauce that has the advertised mustard seeds and a tantalising whiff of a spice more exotic than usual that defies my analysis – despite asking the chef the dish’s particulars. That’s how it goes in Indian eateries sometimes!

Bennie loves the chicken, but to me it is merely a good chicken curry.

Taken as whole, and with two fine breads as accessories, our meal is an outright winner.

So is the cost – a mere $41, which is both outstanding and ridiculous.

What a find this place is.

How happy the immediate neighbours – not blessed with an excess of eating out or even takeaweay options – must be.

And how emblematic of the west, in an excellent way, it is that Mishra’s Kitchen joins the likes of Cafe Centro and At 43 in making do and doing great with what is at hand, even if that means making a premises undertake different duties by day and by night.

AND we got a parking spot right outside.

I reckon that’s quite enough, thank you very much, of newspaper stories lauding the livability of Melbourne’s west and other such like preposterous notions.

Hrrrumpf!

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Kasim’s Indian Cafe, Sirens

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Kasim’s Indian Cafe, 44 Mason St, Newport. Phone, 9399 483

Sirens,  Beach Pavilion Esplanade, Williamstown. Phone: 9397 7811

It takes some cajoling to get Bennie off the sofa and away from the TV and PlayStation this Friday night.

In the end, we experience a role reversal – with Bennie energised by the magic combination of beach + boy and his dad wanting to head for home.

To get things rolling, though, I make a concession – instead of heading for the wilds of Deer Park or Taylors Lakes, we stick closer to home, intent on checking out a typical suburban Indian eatery, the windows of which we’ve peered through a number of times but never previously entered.

We’re interested in exploring the theory that by mostly limiting ourselves to the cheaper end of the Indian spectrum – at, say, Consider The Sauce favourites such as Classic Curry in Sunshine – we are depriving ourselves of an occasional repast that is richer, sexier and more celebratory.

So it is with metaphorically loosened wallets that we hit the Willy road.

Our straightahead Indian meal is indeed more expensive than our usual – but not by a lot.

We’re hungry and waste no time in ordering lamb bhuna gosht ($13), aloo gobi ($11.50), plain nan ($2.90) and rice ($4), and “kuchumber salad spicy” ($4).

We suspect Kasim’s, with its plain but nice enough dining room, does most of its trade in takeaway. We’re the only customers, but as we are paying and leaving a young couple saunters in followed by a Muslim family comprising mum, dad, two daughters with iPads and son with PSP/DS.

We hope they have a better time of it than we do.

Our meal is edible.

We eat it.

But – oh dear – it’s truly spectacular in its mediocrity.

The salad – a mix of finely diced tomato, lettuce, cucumber and carrot – is not in the least bit spicy.

The aloo gobi seems like leftovers.

The bhuna gosht meat is tender, has textural variety courtesy of green capsicum and onion, and is the best thing going in our meal.

The nan is very average for the price.

The final bill of just a touch over $40 is fine for two mains, three side dishes and two cans of soft drink, but our wallet-loosening experiment is a failure.

Did we order the wrong dishes? Any Kasim’s regulars out there?

It’s still early in the night and Bennie is happy enough to humour his father’s interest in sweeties and coffee/hot chocolate.

The esplanade/beach precinct of Williamstown used to play a major role in our outings, one that has faded.

Mind you, we’ve never taken the plunge by getting on the fang at Siren’s, daunted by the high prices and the fear its fare will tainted by the same fodder indifference that infects nearby Nelson Parade.

It’s all very well to say that as food bloggers we should keep open minds and chance our arms on occasion, but as full-fare payers we are tugged, too, in the other direction, towards caution and conservatism.

Tonight, the place is close to packed and very busy. But still, we fear that has more to do with the superb beachside location than anything coming out of the kitchen.

What we have done many, many pleasant times is hit Sirens for coffee and Greek-style biscotti – and that’s just what we do tonight.

It turns out to be a thrilling half-hour or so.

The proximity of beach and sand brings Bennie alive.

There’s a classic Willy sunset on hand, thunder clouds and lightning in the other direction, and a rainbow between them.

The floor manager is bemused by our insistence on doing coffee imbibing out on the deck because everything is sopping wet.

That’s cool, mate, we’ll stand.

The choc-dipped bikkie is less impressive than we recall from previous visits; the shortbread number much better; our hot drinks are very good.

As dad calls stumps on the outing, Bennie shouts from water’s edge: “I want to stay here!”

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Gol gappe at Classic Curry

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Shop 3, Clarke St, Sunshine. Phone: 9312 6766

Gol gappe is Indian street/snack food along the same lines as bhel puri.

Traditionally, it’s not meant to be part of a main meal, but that’s how I’m starting my lunch today.

The gols – seven for $5 – are egg-like spheres made from fried plain flour.

The top side is cracked open – just as with a boiled egg.

Into each one goes a heady mixture of boiled-but-still-crunchy channa dal, onion, diced potato and two tamarind-based sauces, one sour and one sweet.

Each gol is eaten whole, down the hatch, and I’m warned to get a move on as the clock is ticking. There’s no time to linger before the liquid innards render the bottoms soggy.

My last two gols do indeed collapse, but I love them just as much as their five predecessors.

Each one is a veritable mouthful of flavour explosion, all with a mild chilli hit.

They’re tangy magic of the highest order!

Also called pani puri, I can see these becoming a regular post-school snack for Bennie and I.

But a meal they do not make, so I resort to my trusty choice of chole bhatura ($7), which I was unaware Classic Curry produced a version of despite the frequency with which I’ve eaten here in recent years.

Oh God, this is outstanding – right up there with the recently sampled rendition at Sharma’s and the earlier experience at Bikanos in Werribee!

The breads are light, ungreasy and so fresh they emit steam when torn open.

The chick pea curry is mild with a more sophisticated gravy than is often the case.

The yogurt is creamy and a little salty in a delicious way.

On the side and joining sliced red onion is a dab of fresh chutney made with onions and boasting tremendous flavour from fresh mint.

As others have created blogs dedicated to, say, parmas and burgers, so does Consider The Sauce seem to be heading in a similar direction with chole bhatura.

But given its almost total invisibility on food blogs and in the broader foodie media – dosas, for instance, get much better coverage – it seems a job that requires doing!

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Sharma’s Indian Sweet & Curry House

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Sharma’s Indian Sweet & Curry House, 4/350 Taylors Rd, Taylors Lakes. Phone: 9356 4400

Sharma’s has been open for about a year and is situated in a small shopping centre a few blocks from Watergardens Town Centre.

Outside and in it superficially looks like a simple suburban Indian takeaway joint.

It doesn’t take too much of a closer look, though, to discover this is emphatically not the case.

Sharma’s is some serious Indian foodery, let me tell you.

They have so many bases covered, at prices significantly below those of more formal Indian places, that I am excited about the prospects of returning with my co-blogger and various friends in coming months.

I am saddened that Sharma’s is not just around the corner.

I am frustrated that today’s weekend solo outing so restricts my ability to graze the menu.

On the extensive menu they list dosas, Punjabi breakfast fare and chat snacks such as bhel puri.

And instead of a single goat dish as featured at so many Indian places, Sharma’s lists five.

There’s an Indo-Chinese section, meat curries are about the $13 mark, vegetable curries about $10 and the bread listing is long.

At the counter there are fine-looking displays of lusciously rich sweets ($18-24 a kilogram) and salty, crunchy spicy snacks know as namkeen ($16 a kilogram). I buy two $2 bags of the latter to take home – one heavy with puffed rice and peanuts, the other with crunchy noodles.

They even list six soups – and it’s with one of those that I start my lunch. I regret, though, ordering the lentil number ($4) when seeing and tasting how they do mushroom soup may’ve been far more interesting.

Consisting of dals mung, masur and channa, and turmeric, salt and mustard seeds, this is about as straitlaced as Indian food gets. It’s fine in its own plain way, but may be better appreciated as part of a thali or Indian vego feast.

Next up, I simply can’t resist Sharma’s version of the irresistible thali spread of puris, chick pea curry, yogurt and condiments that is here called chana bhatura – despite the nagging feeling that I should be pursuing more variety on behalf of Consider The Sauce and its readers.

Hey, it’s my lunch, OK, and I’ll try to do better next time …

Seriously, though, I don’t think the bar can go much higher on this dish than what I am served here – it’s magnificent in every way:

Puris hot, fresh and no more oily than is acceptable.

Yogurt creamy, lightly perfumed with cumin and a little on the sweet side.

Chick peas very good with a mild chilli kick.

Commercial piquant hot pickle, a little dab of spicy mint chutney and crunchy red onion bits.

And the price – $7.50!

It’s perfect!

Sharma's Indian Sweet & Curry House on Urbanspoon

Maurya Indian Restaurant & Cafe

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58 Station Place, Sunshine. Phone: 9364 9001

“Special discount/offer for students & taxi drivers.”

It’s difficult to imagine words more profound, eloquent or enticing for the bargain-inclined food hound.

They can be found inscribed on the business card of Maurya Indian Restaurant & Cafe, a humble but – on the basis of two visits – terrific eatery in Sunshine.

With windows that gaze out on the busy comings and goings of buses and, beyond them and their passengers, the Sunshine train station, Maurya equals Wang Wang Dumpling in terms of vehicular scenery.

Such matters not, of course.

I’d been at least subliminally aware of Maurya for years without ever setting foot inside, deterred perhaps by a perception that it is too much of a low-key hangout for, well, taxi drivers to function as public-serving eatery.

Wrong! Although the service is low-key, perseverance is certainly rewarded.

As well, I gained the impression that not all items listed on the menu – there’s only one, stuck to the wall next to the servery and cash register – are always available. So consultations with the staff are a requirement.

The interior is typical Indian el cheapo cafe, with a nice comfy feel that made me right at home. In fact, it reminded me of Indian eats places in India, even if my sole visit to that country was a mighty long time ago.

Prices here are notably on the low side.

A whole tandoori chook clocks in at $12, two kinds of dal are $6.50, their chick pea cousin $7 and meat curries $9.

For my Saturday lunch, I settle on dal tadka, plain rice ($2.50) and a plain roti ($1).

I start though, wanting to get things moving into my mouth as soon as possible, with a samosa ($1).

I have only the most modest of expectations, so am delighted with my house-made pastry parcel. In addition to the expected spuds, peas and spices (including whole cumin and coriander seeds), there are a scattering of sultanas included. I love it.

My dal appears to be based mostly on red and aduki beans, and thus, to me, appears more like makhani than the tadka variety.

But in truth, it’s like neither I’ve ever had in any restaurant, anywhere.

For this is real home-made Indian food – as opposed to Indian restaurant food, with its more refined approach and fewer rough edges.

Unlike other restaurant versions I know, the onion is obvious, the chopped/shredded ginger both a taste and a texture. I detect coriander and cinnamon. The dish has a beaut slow-burn chilli hit that nevertheless never rises much above a click or two over mild.

I love this, too!

For such homely fare, my plain wholemeal roti is the perfect complement.

Including a can of soft drink, my lunch costs me $13.50, which I consider a grand bargain.

A day earlier, on my initial visit, I’d played safe and gone for one of my perennial requests in such places – “cholley bhaturey”.

The Maurya version cost me a superbly low $6 and was very good indeed.

The puris were hot and fluffy, although by the time I got to the second it had gone cold and stiff. The chick peas were fab, as were the attendant condiments.

Blimey – $6!

For the locals, they even provide a tiffin service!

All India Curry Company

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9/73 Point Cook Rd, Point Cook. Phone: 8360 9229

Pulling into a parking spot of the small and rather nondescript shopping precinct, I take my bearings.

It’s a mixed bag.

Bottle shop, convenience store, Indian grocery and so on.

A fish and chip shop that sells kebabs.

A kebab shop that does pizzas.

I’m headed, though, for All India Curry Company, a sister place to the one in Maribyrnong Rd, Ascot Vale.

It’s a very sleepy Friday lunch hours and I’m the only customer.

The place comes across as your basic, tidy suburban eatery.

I resist the temptations offered by a sign in the window advertising chole bhature for $7, going instead for onion bhaji (spelt bhujia here) and a vego thali.

The onions are smaller, less crunchy and more chewy than I’ve been enjoying lately, but I really like them anyway. They go down beaut with the tangy tamarind water and creamy raita that accompany, and are a cool bargain at $3.50.

There’s more than enough raita left over to double as a support act for my thali ($11).


This appears, at first blush, to be a rather dull affair, but happily it tastes better than it looks.

The loser, for me, is the pumpkin masala. Formative years spent gagging on pumpkin various ways is a significant hurdle to enjoying any dish made with that vegetable, even if the sweetish mash served here is not unpleasant.

The aloo palak is a handy mix of spud in a creamy spinach gravy; it has a nice smoky flavour.

The dal is a little dry for my tastes, but goes down a treat anyway.

The single chapati is fresh and pliable and likewise disappears with relish.

The regular dish prices at All India appear to be very reasonable – vegetable mains at about $8, meat mains a tick under $10, half a tandoori chook for $8.50.

On Mondays and Wednesdays, from 5pm, the star is a $12.50 all-you-can-eat buffet, that comprises six mains, rice, naan or roti, pickle and raita.

Seems like a pretty good deal!

If this place was closer to home, we’d be regulars.

The All India Curry Company website is here.

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Hyderabad Inn

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551 Barkly St, West Footscray. Phone: 9689 0998

We’re surprised how many folks assume that because we’ve embarked on a food blog that we’re eating out more than ever.

That’s simply not the case – we’re just doing what we’ve always done, which means we dine out three, maybe four times a week.

I’ll concede that’s more than most people do – even in the cheap as chips west – but it hardly seems excessive to us.

The highlight, though, is always Saturday lunch – work/school done with, chores/shopping performed, it’s time to get on the fang with relish. So to speak …

This Saturday we are delighted to have our buddy Kurt along for the ride.

He broke his ankle a few weeks back, and has been experiencing varying degrees of pain, discomfort and inconvenience ever since, so we’re chuffed to get him out and about for a few hours.

Even better, this is his first dosa experience – and we’re thrilled it turns out be an excellent one.


We’d been keeping an eye on this place, half a video store refurbished, for a couple of weeks, waiting for it to open – ever since Bennie noticed the new signage.

In fact, we’d turned up a few days previously only to find it was their first day and they wouldn’t be opening until 5pm.

Happily, another new place – Wok Noodle – was a more than adequate stand-in on that day.

But it’s all on at Hyderabad Inn for Saturday lunch!

This is a nice, big room, tastefully kitted out in a somewhat spartan fashion – which suits us fine.

Unlike so many other places that serve doas, idlys, vadas and the like, this is a full-service Indian restaurant.

The menu boasts a full range of curries, tandoori dishes, Indo-Chinese tucker and so on. Most curries are priced around the $11 mark.


But we’re here for the south Indian goodies. They suit our budget better, we like the flavours and textures, and a fully satisfying meal doesn’t leave us feeling full … as in over-full.

There’s a wide range of dosas, uttapams and the like from which to choose – including a variety of combos.

Kurt goes for the Dosa Deal – dosa of choice (chicken in this case), one apiece of idly and vada, sambar, the usual coconutty sides and a can of soft drink.

This is an outstanding deal for $9.95.

The crumbly minced chicken is delicious, the vada doughnut is unique of flavour and surprisingly soft on the tooth, and the whole deal, including the sambar and coconut chutneys, is a delight. The idly, served on a separate plate, is less to Kurt’s fancy at first … but it, too, disappears in due course.

Bennie and I order the Chef’s Dosa ($10.50) and a lamb biryani ($10.50).

The Chef’s Dosa is stuffed with the same chicken and also separate portions of equally crumbly lamb, spiced paneer with coriander and the usual spuds. It’s all great, with the potatoes more gooey than found in your average masala dosa – almost like a stew.

I’ve never seen Bennie enjoy a dosa more.


The biryani is fine, if not quite meeting the same top-shelf standards as the rest of our order. Embedded in the spicy rice are fried onion strands and three tender portions of lamb on the bone, while the dish is rounded out by a lovely hard-boiled egg, runny raita and a gravy that also seems to have a high coconut quotient.

Cheap Indian food can sometimes mean cheap service.

Such is emphatically not the case at Hyderabad Inn – and that alone seems to make its chances of prospering, in what is becoming an ultra-competitive neighbourhood, very good.

We’ll be back for sure!

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Hyderabad Inn website here.


Dosa Hut

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604 Barkly St, West Footscray. Phone: 9687 0171

Dosa Hut, as far as I’m aware, was the first to bring dosas and the like to our part of the world – and for that I’ll be forever grateful.

For the past year or so, it fell out of favour with us, and by then there were other places to get our dosa fix – most notably,  Vanakkam India.

The reasons we moved on from Dosa Hut were simple – in its earlier days the place had a makeshift ambiance that made us feel a little ill at ease. It was a bit like we felt we were sitting amid hurried preparations for an eatery that was soon to open – rather than enjoying one that was already up and running.

As well, the service had a sort of distracted air about it.

Following a Thursday night foray, I’m very happy to report that Dosa Hut has changed – for the better.

The place has had a low-key fit-out that makes it seem much more welcoming. There’s an extended menu that takes in not just dosas, idlys, vadas and biryani of various stripes, but also noodles, uttapam, omelettes, a range of snacks and even a modest list of Indo-Chinese dishes.

There’s even a display cabinet to one side of the servery filled with fine-looking Indian sweets.

As well, the service could not be more efficient or smiling. I wasn’t counting, but I reckon I received my dosa about five minutes after ordering.

Here and elsewhere I have experimented with various dosa types – variations including onion, cheese, egg, chick, lamb and so on.

But for me, and countless others no doubt, masala dosa is the king.

My Dosa Hut masala dosa ($7.50) was beaut.

Every element of it was fine – crispy pancake, potato stuffing laced with mustard seeds and curry leaves, sambar and two chutneys, one that seemed to be tomato/chilli-based and the other of creamy coconut.

A warning though: All three accompaniments had a degree of chilli hit about them, even the usually cooling coconut number. Nothing to worry most anyone used to eating out in the west, but their combined heat might be a little too incendiary for kids.

It’s real nice knowing Dosa Hut has become a place we’ll be returning to again.

In the meantime, things are changing in Barkly Village.

Opposite Dosa Hut, what used to be an old-style pizza/pasta joint is now a swish new thin-crust genuine Italian pizza place called Gusto On Barkly that is Very High on our “to do” list.

And a bit further down the road towards Footscray proper, what was once half a video rental establishment is soon to become another dosa/biryani outfit!

Oh happy day!

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Tandoori Flames

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1/76 Yarra St, Geelong. Phone: 5298 2147

Not more than 24 hours after writing a snotty putdown of a yahoo email that imagined I’m the kind of food blog bloke who hustles free meals, there I was – accepting a free meal.

My Geelong lunches had long been reduced to routine and even tedium, the same takeaways eaten at my desk and, more and more often, packed lunches making the train trip with me.

So the previous week, I’d been delighted to find a new Indian joint just around the corner.

Tandoori Flames operates, particularly at night, as a more formal a la carte restaurant with all the usuals and mains ranging from $10 to $15.

But taking advantage of central location in Geelong’s CBD, they’re also wooing the lunchtime crowd with a shorter and cheaper menu, towards which I was drawn by my natural instincts .

On it are such items as pakoras, samosas, onion bhaji, tandoori chook, as well as a variety of salads and wraps.

The previous week I’d tried the chicken biryani, taken away and eaten at my desk. Not bad, either.

And the previous day, conscious of a tiny lunch-time window yet weary of the desk routine, I’d phoned ahead using one of the mobile numbers given me for just that purpose, wishing to ensure my meal as ready when I arrived.

About 20 minutes later I bowled up and … there was no one home. Literally.

Disappointed, I was forced to utilise the less attractive option of the Viet-Sino place next door.

Turns out that after taking my order, Jimmy had onpassed it – again by phone – to their chef, who in the meantime had had some sort of misadventure on the highway. No appearance, you worship!

Later in the afternoon, Jimmy phoned me in the office, gushing with apologies and promising me my next lunch “on the house”.


So there you go – a freebie meal, yes, but offered to and accepted by a regular customer, not a food blogger.

My “on the house” lunch order was the dish that had escaped me the previous day – chooley pathuray, Tandoori Flames’ version of the Kitchen Samrat dish earlier praised hereabouts.

And gosh it was good, the chick peas dancing with a deep red, tomatoey gravy of only mild spiciness, some raw chopped onion adding crunch.

The breads, two of them, were heavenly.

Deep fried and studded with black cardamom seeds that offer exquisite little grenades of flavour, they were so moreish as to put most routine flat breads, Indian or otherwise, in the shade.

The perfect lunch!

Another staff member, Jas, explained to me the difference between puris and pathuray – the former a lighter bread made with refined flour and commonly eaten as part of breakfast, the latter quite a bit heftier and made using plain flour.

Or as she put it: “With puris, I’ll eat four; with pathuray only two.”

It’s surprising it took me so long to work out that there’s a western suburbs angle to all this – the Geelong eatery is a branch of the familiar Tandoori Flames is South Kngsville and on the same street as Food By Motorino that made a good impression of Ms Baklover at Footcray Food Blog.

We’ve driven by heaps of times, but never stopped – maybe because they don’t do lunch.

Given the exceptional and caring service I’ve received at their new Geelong enterprise, the Kingsville Flames is on our hit list for a soon-come dinner.

The Melbourne branch of Tandoori Flames is at 15 Vernon St, South Kingsville (phone 9078 2726) and their website is here.

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Vanakkam India

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198 Nicholson St, Footscray. Phone: 9687 2233

We warmly recommend Vanakkam India.

However, we also recommend judicious parsing of the menu and consulting the staff.

Vanakkam India is a low-key Indian cafe, neat and tidy and smartly priced, along the same lines as Kitchen Samrat and Indi Hots.

The biryanis – including quite a often a goat number – are popular with the joint’s Indian customers.

But we find them a bit too spicy for us.

Likewise, some of the many curries we’ve tried – mostly just below or just over $10  – have been too highly spiced for us.

We’ve tried a couple of the Indo-Chinese dishes – chicken noodles and chicken fried rice – but found them dull. Maybe the Indo-Chinese appetisers – such as chilli gobi, ginger gobi or chilli baby corn – are where it’s at with that aspect of the menu.

What we do love is the onion baji ($4.95).

To describe this dish as deep-fried onion rings simply does it a grave disservice.

Onion rings are dipped in a besan flour batter, fried, lightly seasoned with finely ground pepper and served with a lemon wedge.

They are pure magic, light and surprisingly grease-free.

Next time, I suspect, when Bennie and I hit this place together, two serves of onion baji will avoid unseemly haste and arguments over the last fragments and crumbs.

This is food to inhale with gusto!

Having come a cropper on some other dishes at Vanakkam India, this place has become our preferred dosa destination.

Usually we opt for the masala dosa ($7.95), or sometimes the chicken tika masala dosa ($8.95), which is the same potato-stuffed pancake laced with chopped pieces of tandoori chook.

The dosas and the side dishes are as good as any in the area, and the service and ambience better than some who do the dosa boogie. So we love Vanakkam India for that alone.

For this Saturday lunch, though, and flying solo, I get a bit more adventurous.

I order the nimmak’aya pappu, which is described as “Spicy tangy lentil finished with lemon juice”.

Besides consisting of yellow split peas, it’s beaut and does have a lemony tang, but the serve seems a little on the modest side for the $8.95 price tag.

I also order the roti masala ($4.95) – “Roti stuffed with curry mashed potato”.

This is a disappointment – mainly because the bread itself is of the same variety as the ones we get from our local IGA, and is thus a bit lifeless and greasy. Maybe at these prices, it’s a bit, ahem, rich to expect everything to made in-house. And, indeed, I have no philosophical objection to the use of store-bought or pre-made products being served in the kinds of eateries we frequent.

But if I’d known, I’d have stuck with out dosa routine!

The potato stuffing is the same mix that does the honours in the dosas – turmeric, curry leaves, mustard seeds, perfect.

So, yes, Vanakkam India has been a bit hit-and-miss for us.

But the menu is long and there’s more to explore – such as the Indian pizzas, which include yara uthappam (“uthappam spread with cooked prawns and special spice mix”) and kaju uthappam (“uthappam topped with special spice mix an cashew nuts”), both $11.95. Or egg masala (“whole boiled eggs combined with rich onion”) for $7.95.

In the meantime the dosas – there are 28 varieties on the menu – are consistently the go.

And the onion baji is among our most very cherished western suburbs dishes.

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Kitchen Samrat

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36 Leeds St, Footscray. Phone: 9689 9776

If you live anywhere near Footscray, you’ll be at the least subliminally aware of Kitchen Samrat, so enthusiastic are they about letterboxing their takeaway and delivery menus.

Must work for them, I guess.

Like a number of Indian eateries in the neighbourhood, it provides cheap and cheerful food, catering to the student set through thalis and snacks while also offering a substantial a la carte menu in a casual cafe-style ambience.

Prices for full curries are a little cheaper than some of the fancier joints hereabouts – chicken tika masala or lamb rogan josh at $9, for instance.

But as ever, I go looking for the unusual and the harder to find.

In that regard, Kitchen Samrat has a couple of aces up its sleeves.

First up is the jal zeera, a little glass of which is presented to each customer as a complementary non-alcoholic aperitif. It translates as “cumin water”; looks likes dirty drain water; is also made with tamarind, sugar, salt, pepper, mint, coriander, puffed chick peas and just a trace of chilli; and tastes bloody great!

The other highlight on the regular Kitchen Samrat menu are a couple of light meal/snack-type dishes that are purebred Indian and somewhat analogous of dosas, yet very different.

I have seen cholle bhatrua at other Melbourne Indian places, but not with any consistency.

On a thali plate, you get a nice serve of chick pea curry, some pickle and raw onion slivers and a couple of deep-fried naans that are like a heavier version of puris ($9).

The Amritsari kulcha ($0) is the same deal, except the breads are baked and stuffed with potato.

I order the latter and chat to the manager while waiting for my Sunday lunch. He tells me students make up a big part of his clientele, that there are always tradeoffs between service levels and prices in such operations and that his Indian customers order quite differently from those of the paleface persuasion. The latter usually order from a small and predictable list of dishes such as butter chicken, while the former like the Punjabi chicken, in which the meat is served on the bone. One for next time!

It’s been a while since I’ve been here, and my Amritsari kulcha is even better than I recall from previous visits.

The hot breads come with a knob of butter atop and already melting; the potato/spice/coriander filling is wonderful without being too heavy.

The chick peas, too, are superior, resting in a rich brown gravy just right for mopping up with the bread.

Between the pulses and the carbs, there’s enough of spice kick for me to leave the mango pickle untouched, although I mix in a few of the onion slices to add crunch as I devour the lot using a mixture of Indian-style hands-only and cutlery methods.

It’s a great lunch and a fine bargain.

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Southern Spice

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4/203 Ballarat Rd (cnr Gordon St), Footscray. Phone: 9317 3811

It was something of a surprise to discover this establishment had been open since 2003, given the hundreds of time we must have driven past it none the wiser.

Doing a blog, it seems, is somewhat akin to getting a new pair of spectacles – you see things differently, better, in more detail.

Anyway, my food-attuned senses went on high alert with the emphasis on “southern” – I had visions dancing in my head of chowing down on exotic specialties from the likes of Madras and Kerala.

Alas, the reality was more prosaic – “southern”, in this case means mostly the familiar lineup of dosa, upma, wada (vada) and idly.

But let us not become too ho-hum.

After all, it was only a few years ago that dosas and the like were a no-show on the western suburbs cheap eats radar. That we have become somewhat spoilt for choice is a cause for celebration rather complacency.


Despite its given address, Southern Spice actually sits on Gordon St, in a strip of shops buffeted by buses and cars. It’s a crisp and clean, with the obligatory Bollywood dance routines bursting forth from a telly up in one corner. The staff and service are friendly.

In order to get across as much of their food as quickly as possible, I fronted for the South Indian buffet ($12) that is featured every Saturday and Sunday for lunch.

It was a thing of advanced yumminess.

Laid out buffet style are dal, cauliflower curry, potato curry, sambar, upma, vada, idly and two kinds of rice. On an adjacent tables sits a big bowl of peanut chutney studded with evil-looking dark red dried chillies.

Dosas and – much to my giddy joy – puris are cooked to order. Oh, bliss!

I managed to resist the buffet tradition of letting my eyes get ahead of my appetite, modestly loading up a stainless steel plate as I waited for my four puris.

Peanut chutney.

It was all bloody delicious. The potato and cauliflower curries looked very similar, but tasted quite different, with the cauliflower having an extra tang. The dal was beaut, too, while the peanut chutney belied its fiery appearance by being a smooth, mildy-spiced, coconutty concoction – sort of like a runny South Indian peanut butter. The upma,  white and cakey and studded with curry leaves and mustard seeds, was a little bland, but fine dipped in the sambar.

The made-for-me puris were superb – and about a grease-free as puris can be.

Southern Spice also has a feature called Biryani Fridays, for $13 and from 6pm, with a lineup that includes chicken, mutton and egg biryanis, chcken fry, raita and so on.

The day before I roadtested the wonderful South Indian buffet, I had a simple thali of goat madras (on the bone), “bhendi” fry (a very dry jumble of peanuts, crispy onion and chewy okra), raita, rice and a single papadam. It was OK, but the spice levels were in Johnny Cash territory – not my thing these days.

A can of that Coca Cola stuff costs a very excellent $1.

Southern Spice is nestled amid a rather drab cluster of shops and eats places, only about half of which are currently operating as businesses of varying kinds. But the area is changing – there’s a Korean BBQ joint across the road that looks just about ready to roll, while a few doors up what was once a fish and chip shop is being gutted. Stay tuned...

Southern Spice is also something of a rarity – a western suburbs cheap eat that has its very own website, a simple but detailed job that can be found here.

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Zam Zam Cafe Restaurant

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364 Lonsdale St, Melbourne. Phone: 9606 0109

Having been a city worker for a decade plus, I inevitably became familiar with  just about every nook, cranny, alleyway and greasy spoon in the CBD.

Those days are becoming a fading memory, so much so that a visit to the CBD has become a rarity, with the consequence that I am always surprised by the changes that have occurred since my previous train trip.

But this week, having an early morning business meeting in South Melbourne, I found myself standing on the corner Lonsdale and Elizabeth streets pondering lunch. One of the best things to ponder!

Stylish bento at while sitting at Kuni’s sushi bar? Nope, too far away and I was already a little foot sore. Coconut House up the road towards Victoria Market? Nope, not in the mood.

In the end, I settled on the closest option, an old friend from my city days, just up the hill towards Spencer St.

And it gave me a prime opportunity to test my theory that bain marie food – which goes with the territory of my price range – is best had just as it placed out. (Discussion of pros and cons of bain marie food can be found in the review and comments of Footscray’s Indi Hots at Footscray Food Blog) In this case, it was an early lunch at 11.30am.

Zam Zam is one of many dozens of cheap and cheerful Indian eateries that have proliferated in the CBD in the past decade or so, catering to lunch hour workers and students at any hour. I love them. When I first moved to Melbourne in the mid-’80s, Indian food almost always meant a la carte dining in a more formal setting, with the inevitable whack on the wallet. Places like Zam Zam trade on high turnover and low prices. If your timing is right, you can almost always find something good at just about all of them.

The downside is, of course, sometimes they can turn on some appalling slop! Buyer beware and all that …

My Zam Zam lunch was very good – and, yes, I reckon I did benefit from getting in so early.

The beef curry had a nice, dark and rich gravy, and its onion strands a really nice touch of crunch. The dal was beautifully yellow and studded with chopped coriander. A jumble of beans, carrot and – Oh, yes! – cauliflower provided more crunch, even if the only thing Indian about it was a smattering of turmeric. Colourful and OK rice, a plate of wonderously crunchy and grease-free papadams and a soft drink rounded out the package, which clocked in at $11.90 on the cash register.

Pretty good value and all very tasty, if mildly spiced.

Most meals are served on stainless steel thali plates. We’ve got a bunch of them at home, and we just love them for the Indian food that is one of our domestic mainstays. But they do have one drawback – they don’t hold the food’s heat at all, meaning bain marie tucker – often not particularly hot in the first place – is inevitably cold by the end of one’s repast.

But that, too, goes with the territory.

Read another view of Zam Zam and some amusing comments at We Do Chew Our Food.

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