Category Archives: Indian

Quick Noms~Soho Road Naan Kebab

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With my quest for different yet affordable quick eats one place that doesn’t disappoint is Soho Road on Smithe Street. They’re offering up one of the most unique street food offerings around on the street food scene that’s for sure-they make fresh naan bread for there wraps right in their food cart with a traditional tandoori oven and classics like butter chicken and chicken tikka are being served in this fabulous bread along with an ever expanding menu of chef created specials.

Your naan is cooked fresh with every order so you’re in for some hot, crispy goodness that hold in those Indian flavors. The fact that they have a real tandoori on board means your going to get authentically cooked naan with great char (leoparding). They are going to be expanding there cart so they’ll be able to have one tandoori oven for just meats and one for breads. They are also going to be adding another cart featuring take away meals in traditional Indian tiff-tins.

For my first visit I had their newest addition to the menu. It’s a cilantro and mint chicken or as I call it- “green chicken”, it’s something I had over St.Patrick’s Day weekend, it was a hit and stayed on the menu. I was pleasantly surprised with the flavor of the chicken, the mint and cilantro chicken’s flavor wasn’t too strong. The naan was nice and chewy, the color was perfect.  It was a bright, fresh flavored lunch that I’d definitely order again.

The other naan Kebab I had was there butter chicken wrap. This is what there known for here and I was really happy with what I got. The sauce is a bit thicker than a butter chicken you would get in a Indian restaurant so it doesn’t run out every where when your eating it. The sauce is beautifully seasoned and not greasy or oily. The chicken was tender and moist. The char from cooking it in the tandoori oven added a nice extra level of flavor. The tamarind chutney was a great touch as well.  Both naan kebab wraps were around $8 each.

I’d say that Soho Road is serving up some solid street eats that you can’t go wrong with.  You can find them at their standard location at Smithe and Howe Streets, I’ll have a post coming up after their new location opens.  To stay up to date will all the street food carts check out the Eat St app in the iTunes App store and Android Marketplace.

Soho Road Naan Kebab on Urbanspoon

Siddhartha’s Nirvana from VANEATS.ca

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The new VANEATS.ca package has got me heading back to my old neighborhood once again.  Kevin and Billy have teamed up with Siddhartha’s Indian Kitchen to bring us Siddhartha’s Nirvana.

It’s a 7 item dining package that goes for $16.  It brings you a taste of some of the restaurants best dishes and one unique item that is only available for VANEATS.ca diners.

The menu they have put together is as follows:

  1. Monsoon Scallops, seared with mango & coconut – an EXCLUSIVE VANEATS.ca appetizer
  2. Chicken Tikka Masala, tender chicken pieces marinated in yogurt and spices cooked in our tandoori oven
  3. Vegetable Pakora, batter fried marinated mixed veggies
  4. Butter Chicken, the classic favourite – boneless marinated chicken pieces cooked in a rich tomato cream sauce
  5. Baigan Bharta, smoked, roasted eggplant cooked with tomato, onion, cilantro, spices & a hint of lemon
  6. Onion and Cilantro Naan, fresh-baked, buttered naan with fresh onion & cilantro
  7. Ras Malai, a heavenly Indian delicacy in light milky syrup made from the purest form of cottage cheese

The restaurant is a small, cozy place and was totally packed when I made my visit at lunchtime.  They offer table seating along with seating at the bar.  A big flat screen is on the wall behind the bar and they play the Canucks games when there playing.

I love the appy trios that VANEATS.ca puts together.  This one has a couple of standard items along with the exclusive dish.  Starting on the left we have the classic Chicken Tikka Masala, Vegetable Pakora’s make up the middle of the plate and the Monsoon Scallops make up the end of the plate.  I really enjoyed the chicken tikka and the vegetable pakora’s but I didn’t dig the scallop dish-they were cooked too much and were tough but the seasoning and spices used were tasty.  The dish is also served with a cilantro dip and a tamarind dip, the cilantro dip was really good and had a bit of heat but the fresh cilantro used really stood out.

The package comes with a couple different curry’s, basmati rice and naan.  You get Butter Chicken and Baigan Bharta as the curry choices.  The butter chicken was really good, the dish was loaded with nice chunks of tender chicken, the sauce was more creamy here than the tomato based versions I’ve had lately.  The baigan bharta was my favorite item of the package.  It’s a smoked eggplant curry that has nice depth of savory flavor, the eggplant is shredded into pretty much a pulp and mixed with spices and stewed on the stove top.  The rice in the dish was nicely cooked, the chopped tomato’s and herbs were a nice touch.  The naan was good but they were handicapped by one factor on my visit-the tandoori oven stopped working and was just started back up right before I got there so my naan could have been cooked more.   Besides that one fact it was tasty and they gave me mine topped with paneer cheese which was a nice touch.

The dessert is something that I have never had before in my Indian cuisine eats, it’s called Ras Malai-a sweet dish found in the Indian subcontinent consisting of sugary cream-colored balls of dough and a creamy sweet liquid, the malai.  It’s made from the same cheese curds used to make paneer but it’s soaked in a sweet flavored milk and served with mango’s.  I really liked this, it was light and not overly sweet, there was a hint of rose and of cardamom as well in the dessert.

Mango lassi’s were also enjoyed at lunch but aren’t part of the package but I’d recommend trying one, there creamy and tangy-the perfect compliment to an Indian meal.

The VANEATS.ca Siddhartha’s Nirvana dining package goes on sale on April 25th, 2012 at 7AM till June 25th, 2012 if they don’t all sell out before that.  The package costs $16 and is a full meal for 1 or perfect to share between 2 people if you’re ordering something else off the menu.  You can Get your dining package by clicking here.

**Disclosure-as a featured reviewer I didn’t pay for my dining package but did pay for all drinks in the post.  All opinions are completely my own and not influenced by VANEATS.ca**

Siddhartha's Indian Kitchen on Urbanspoon

PALKI Passion

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Palki Passion is the newest dining pass put together by the VANEATS.ca crew.  This time they’ve teamed up with Palki Indian Restaurant, they’ve been open on the North Shore for 13 years now and gave built a loyal clientele and now with a location on Vancouver’s iconic Commercial Drive or better known as “The Drive” for the last 2 years and there list of happy diners has only been growing.

When VANEATS.ca let em know that I was selected by the owners to be lucky diner and reviewer I was more than happy to say yes and venture back to my old neighborhood that I grew up in and eat a killer Indian feast!

The space is nice and big, beautifully decorated and good for groups.  Myself and @MaryInVancity sat in an upper part of the restaurant that had a large communal dining table and spacious sofas for a relaxed dining experience that would be good for a group of 4-6.

This time around Bill and Kev have put together a 7 item dining package that in my eyes is perfect to experience some of Palki’s best dishes.  The $14 package contains tastes of some of their signature dishes on the menu and include the following:

  1. Vegetable Samosa, spiced vegetables stuffed in a savoury pastry
  2. Lamb Barrah Kebob, rack of lamb marinated with garlic, ginger and spices then roasted in the Tandoor
  3. Chicken Tikka, tender piece of boneless chicken marinated with our special ingredients and grilled in the Tandoor
  4. Tandoori Prawn, jumbo prawn marinated and cooked in the Tandoor
  5. Murg Malai Tikka, tender chicken marinated in sour cream and fresh spices from Tandoor
  6. Butter Chicken, boneless chicken first broiled in the Tandoor and then cooked in a butter and cream sauce
  7. Onion and Cilantro Naan, Indian style onion and cilantro

We stated out with a couple of their amazing mango Lassi’s, they make their own yoghurt here and use a thick mango puree to make a delicious drink that should not be missed-it’s one of the best I’ve ever had!

Something that is not in the package that was brought out to our table to snack on were the veggie pakora’s as well as chicken pakora- there the red ones, also there was a creamy cilantro sauce as well as a tamarind dipping sauce.

The sauces were quite nice, the cilantro one was quite mild and not spicy in any way, the tamarind sauce was a nice contrast to the seasonings of the 2 different pakora.

The Palki Passion dining pass comes with an order of the onion and cilantro naan but I also wanted to give this a try, it’s called Lacchedar, it’s India’s version of Caribbean Roti, made with butter it’s a flaky layered bread that is perfect to soak up the butter chicken sauce!

This is the Palki Passion dining package in all it’s glory!

This is the onion and cilantro naan, cooked to order in the tandoor, it’s sprinkled with roasted onions and cilantro then the chef brushes it with drawn butter.  This was totally delicious and ranked up there with some of the best flavored naan I’ve had, the bread was chewy enough yet it retained that tender quality after a couple of chews-perfect for dunking in curry that’s for sure.

Next up on the menu is the Indian classic Butter Chicken Curry.  As with any good Indian restaurant Palki’s butter chicken is their signature dish and it shows in the flavor, it’s more of a tangy tomato based curry and it’s spiced with cardamom and fenugreek which adds a unique flavor note that I haven’t had at other Indian places.  The curry was loaded with nice tender chunks of chicken and the candle underneath did a GREAT job keeping our food warm through out our whole meal.

This is how the other dishes in the package are presented, the platter comes to your table sizzling and steaming away-it’s a real feast for the senses that’s for sure.

The vegetable samosas are stuffed with seasoned potatoes and peas, the pastry here is handmade and it shows in the final product, while the filling is mildly spiced and went well with the dips from the pakoras the pastry was had a crispy and crunchy texture to it.

The Lamb Barrah Kebob is next up, while the meat was spiced right and had flavor it was a bit to gamey for my tastes, also I’d recommend getting them to serve this to you cut up into “lamb popsicle’s” to make them easier to eat.

Continuing with the chicken dishes in the package we have the Murg Malai Tikka.  It’s chicken marinated in sour cream and spices and was one of the highlights of the dining package for me, it was super tender and the spices complimented the chicken, I’ve never had this dish before but it’s now on my list of must have items when I’m dining out for Indian.

Something that is also a little different for me is seafood done in the Indian style, they’ve included a Tandoori Prawn in the package.  It’s marinated in spices and cooked in the tandoori oven, it made the prawn nicely charred and flavorful but I didn’t get to mine in time and it spent too much time on the hot plate so I’d eat yours right away to avoid it getting over cooked.

Lastly on this voyage through India we have a piece of Chicken Tikka, it’s marinated in spices and cooked in the tandoori oven.  I really liked this as well, the chicken was tender and juicy with just the right amount of smokey flavor from the oven, this and the Murg Malai Tikka were perfect wrapped in the awesome onion and cilantro naan.  Again I’d come back for this dish alone-it was just that good!

We finished our meals with some of the homemade mango ice cream, it was just as good as the mango lassi-tangy mango flavor with a beautiful creamy ice cream base.  The thing that put this over the top was the mango puree in the bottom of the dish-mango flavor x10!

If you would like to get your Palki Passion dining pass they are going on sale starting at 7am on April 11,2012 till June 11.2012 and the initial bundle of dining passes available in the 1st round of sales will be only 50 and the package sells for a mere $14.  The Palki Passion dining pass is only valid at the Commercial Drive location.  You can purchase your Palki Passion dining pass by clicking here.  Dining passes are ment for 1/person and cannot be shared.

Palki Indian Restaurant on Urbanspoon

**Disclosure~As a selected reviewer I didn’t pay for my Palki Passion dining pass but all the drinks,bread and dessert were paid for by us, all my opinions are my own.**

Rasoee Indian Kitchen on Robson

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One of the new franchises to open this year has been Rasoee, serving up Indian food in a modern environment with a few twists on some of the classic Indian dishes is what sets them apart from what else is on the market.

I was lucky enough to have won a free regular size curry bowl and a free “small bite” or in other words~appetizer from there weekly twitter contest so I headed off to the location I’m near the most~Robson Street and chow on some curry!

I went with a bowl of beef curry on basmati rice it usually goes for  $7.49 on the menu.

The curry bowl was a decent size and the chunks of beef were on the large size, the curry itself was OK, the flavor of it was kind of one note and the meat was lacking the flavor of being stewed and cooked in the curry like I’ve had at other Indian places and one thing that I didn’t like was the sounds of a microwave being set when my meal was being prepared evident by this

the meat was lukewarm in the middle and kind of tough~in a nuked kind of way.  I think next time I’ll stick to chicken or totally vegetarian.

This is the small bite I chose, they call these Potato Tikkis, again they go for $2.99 for 2 pieces and they comes with a side of Rasoee Indian ketchup.

They are vegetarian and filled with ground chickpeas, spices and potato and the outside is light and crispy.  I really enjoyed these on their own but I didn’t like the Indian ketchup~it had the taste of strawberry jam for some reason and it was too spicy for my tastes.

At the end of the day my meal was OK from Rasoee and I’ll still keep them on my list of quick eats when I’m in the area.

Rasoee Indian Kitchen on Urbanspoon

Taste Of Punjab

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After my last Indian dining experience Maryinvancity and her husband invited me to Surrey to one of her favorite Indian places for a great Indian dinner that wouldn’t break the bank so it was off on the skytrain to Surrey I go!

The place was quite busy when we arrived and I saw lots of local families picking up take out.  The interior is very typical 90′s, there is booth seating along the window area over looking the parking lot, the rest of the area is made up of tables and a small bar area.

We were seated quickly in a booth and served papadums and tamarind chutney and nuclear green hot sauce~it was really hot!

The papadums were really fresh and good and the 2 dips provided were actually quite tasty mixed together.

The Punjab Dinner Combination  $15.99, tandoori chicken, lamb curry, butter chicken, saag, dal, rice, raita, rice pudding for dessert and naan bread.  This was a great choice because you get a taste of everything and it was  a great way to get an introduction to the menu.

These were my favorite items on the plate, the butter chicken, saag and the lamb curry, the saag was beautiful spiced without being too hot and the butter chicken was just like Mary promised~out of this world and as for the lamb curry~it was rich in flavor without being gamey tasting for lamb, the meat was also really tender and melted in your mouth.  The tandoori chicken tasted good, spice and flavor wise, but was cold so I didn’t eat too much.

Spinach Naan $3.50, naan stuffed with home-made cheese,spices and spinach.  We ordered his as well because Mary said it was a must try and again she was correct! The naan here was really good and not overly charred like it can be at some other places that I’ve been to in the past, the spinach was spiced mildly with fragrant herbs and complimented the filling perfectly.

Mango Ice cream $2.49. This was rich and creamy without being too heavy tasting, they garnish it here with pistachios and it was a great touch and a great way to cap off a amazing dinner with good friends.

At the end of the day I had a great dinner and the price can’t be beat~for all my items in my main course (compared to another Indian place I went to that charged $16/curry and wasn’t close to this place in flavor or service) I think it’s a no brainier~get on the Skytrain and head to Surrey for good affordable Indian food.

Taste Of Punjab on Urbanspoon

Sitar Indian-A Night Of Great Company And So So Service

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A couple of months ago I won $100 in gift certificates to Sitar Indian restaurant in Gastown from Food.ee~a great new upcoming service to order food from the great people at Invoke Media but more to come about that in a couple of weeks.

I was eager to try out the restaurant because it has been in Gastown for as long as I can remember and the ratings seemed pretty good on Urbanspoon.com.  I got together with my good friend @maryinvancity and fellow Indian food lover and we hit up Sitar for some grub.

We went for some drinks before hand across the street at Chill Winston on the killer patio and headed over across the street to Sitar for dinner.

The interior is decorated with a mix of Indian paintings, instruments and plastic flowers~were not off to a good start lets just say.  We were seated quickly~we were the only people there but another couple came in shortly after us but that was it for the night while we were there.

On to the food now:

Complementary Poppadums, there was chutney for these but we weren’t given any, the other table behind us was but that was OK because these weren’t fresh and were really stale~made last week old

Paneer Naan $4.95, this was fresh but not that crisp like other naan I’ve had before and I think there was cheddar cheese in it as well, I asked one of the 2 guys working the front of the house and he got immediately defensive and replied that they don’t have any “white” stuff in there kitchen~not even ketchup, I was kind of shocked at the remark and just replied with “yeah buddy”.

Pilau Rice, I didn’t attach a price to this because it is supposed to come with each curry dish that you order, it’s basmati rice with pea’s and fried onions on top, the rice was cooked well but one thing I will say is that we only for one small plate each for all of our 3 curry’s we ordered, it would have been easier to have one big plate of it so we didn’t have to ration it out and also so we could take some for each different curry.

Here are our selection of curry’s that we got, the dishes looked small but actually there was a good amount in each bowl.

Lamb Korma $16.95, lamb cooked in a creamy cashew nut sauce, korma is a favorite of mine and I usually have it with chicken so the lamb was a nice change, the sauce was flavorful and wasn’t to spicy, it has a creamy texture to it because of ground up cashews but theirs no dairy  in it.  The meat was nice and tender and the sauce was cooked into it so the flavor was meaty without being too strong for lamb.  I’d order this again and Mary liked it as well.

Chicken Tikka Masala $14.95, the national curry of England and a personal favorite of mine, chicken cooked with bell peppers & onions in a rich & creamy tomato sauce, this was  a nice standard tikka masala, the pieces of chicken were nice and big and the sauce was well-balanced.

Butter Chicken $16.95, marinated chicken served in a seasoned tomato cream sauce, me and Mary were looking forward to this but were both left disappointed, the sauce was sweet and kinda flat, the chicken was alright and tender but we’ve both had much better other places.

At the end of the day the price charged for what we got was not worth it, the service was really so so and I felt like I was in a tourist trap and we both had stomach aches for the rest of the night.  The company was better than experience.

Sitar Indian on Urbanspoon

Panago Pizza~New Lite pizza and some Indian flavors!

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Going thru the mail today something caught my eye amongst the usual flyers, Panago pizzas new menu featuring a chicken korma pizza and a butter chicken pizza and there were discounted if you ordered any large pizza. Cruising the new menu I noticed something else new~a veggi lite pizza~their traditional vegetarian pizza but 40% less fat than the original so I figured I’d give it a try to see if it was missing 40% of the flavor and if the butter chicken pizza would be a pizza disaster!.

I went with a large veggi lite for $14

and a small butter chicken pizza for $5

Within 30 mins I had dinner at my door and let the tasting begin!

First up lets start with the Veggi Lite pizza

With 40% less fat I was expecting there to be a lack of taste but not the case here!, it tastes just like their regular vegetarian pizza~still the right amount of cheese and toppings to make it a satisfying meal without all the guilt, I was really pleased at the amount and quality if the toppings on my pizza

the roasted tomatoes and big slices of mushrooms were a great touch!

next up is the Butter Chicken pizza

this came with caramelized onions, red peppers, grilled chicken and mozzarella cheese on a bed of butter chicken sauce on a multi grain hand tossed crust in this case.  This was actually good and didn’t leave me disappointed.  The butter chicken sauce wasn’t too over powering so it will be great for the mass market but one thing I found with the pizza was it was a bit too sweet and I’m not sure if it was the red peppers are right~diced tomatoes would be a better more traditional choice and might cut the sweetness of the pizza.

There was  a great amount of sauce on my pizza so when I got to the crust it was a nice treat seeing I used up all my blue cheese dip~kind of like naan used to soak up sauce.

I’m really happy with the new additions to the menu and it will be curious to see if they keep these new creations on the menu.

Panago Pizza on Urbanspoon