Chicken, samosas curry favour on Corydon

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/07/2010 (5884 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two things surprised me about Tandoori Hut, before I even got there.

First — although I did see it on a hand-printed sign of specials tucked to a railing outside — the word “curry” doesn’t appear anywhere on the menu.

Not just curry, but no vindaloos, no kormas and no rogan josh either, those familiar terms that help guide many of us through Indian menus. The most frequent description on this menu is “gravy, “or, more specifically” Tandoori Hut gravy sauce,” which tells us pretty well nothing. The other thing that surprised me was the presence of pork on the menu, something I don’t recall ever seeing on other local Indian menus.

It’s a simple but pleasant place, with a series of brick arches set flat against the wall, and a few Indian paintings and artifacts. There’s a bar in one corner, and in another, a huge television set showing Bollywood videos, which one might be able to ignore if the sound weren’t turned up full blast (it was turned down, when requested, but kept creeping back up). There’s also a roof-top terrace which, given the weather these past few weeks, I can’t report on.

Not least among the restaurant’s attractions is the fact that this is the only Indian food for miles around, bringing to the neighbourhood another Asian option, one that isn’t sushi. Compared to other Indian menus, this one is relatively small, but it does list a number of dishes that are well worth exploring.

The superior samosas, for example, are crust thin, flaky and utterly greaseless, with a plump and savoury mostly potato filling ($2.50 each). I can’t say the same for the vegetable pakoras, which were limp and tasteless ($4.99), and definitely not for the “tandoori ground beef,” which turned out to be meat balls — hard, desiccated, with very little flavour and what there was was poor. “Ground pork,” I assume, is similarly prepared ($6.99 each).

Entree prices range from $7.99 to $15.99 for what are often very generous portions. The standout among them was the terrific tandoori chicken, the seasoning slightly tart from yogurt and a touch of lemon juice, with a crisp surface and dewy flesh. Chicken stars again in the butter chicken, boneless chunks of white meat in a sumptuous bright orange sauce that was rich and sweet but not in the least cloying — addictive, in fact. The seasoning on tandoori pork ribs was similar to that on the tandoori chicken and equally delicious. A pity though that it coated far more gristle and fat than meat, and that what little meat we got to was tough.

You can have your lamb stewed, with “Tandoori Hut gravy,” or you can have it sautéed in a dish that is dubbed “deep pan.” Both dishes were tasty, although in both cases some pieces of the lamb were chewy. That “gravy” turns out to be a brown sauce which most of us would identify as a kind of curry, and which tasted as though based on a master sauce, with only minor variations in the spicing for different dishes.

That said, it was a savoury sauce, redolent of onions, ginger and garlic, and not in the least oily. It tasted terrific with the fine fish masala, fragrant with onions and tomatoes as well. Not so terrific with the shrimp which, although big and plump, were overpowered by the dense, dark gravy (the tandoori shrimp might have been a better choice).

There are some good vegetarian entrees, the best among them, possibly, jeera alu potatoes, sauceless and lightly spiced with cumin. Kidney beans were also delicious in a slightly tangy, slightly soupy but ultra-flavourful sauce, and mildly spiced channa masala chickpeas were cooked to a rare perfect tenderness. Eggplant bhartha was acceptable but surprisingly bland, mashed with onions and tomatoes but not, I suspect, with enough of the tomatoes, or of seasoning, either for that matter .

Chicken biryani was pleasant, and delicately spiced, generously fleshed out with pieces of tender chicken, but although there were plenty of cashews, the caramelized onions were scarce, and I found what might have been a single very big raisin — just one, in a dish that could have used several more for contrast.

There are some good breads but naan isn’t one of them — flavourless, dry and decidedly unfluffy on two different tries, and the whole wheat chapati weren’t much better. However, the ghobi prantha — whole wheat crepe-thin bread stuffed with cauliflower (potatoes are an alternative) — was delicious ($1.35 to $3). Don’t miss the wonderful mint raita, and if you ask for refills of the great green mango-mint chutney that comes with the samosas, it will be brought, graciously and gratis.

The refreshing yogurt-based lassi drinks are particularly well balanced ($2.99). There are a few flavours of ice cream but only one Indian dessert, a great one, fortunately — kheer rice pudding, richly creamy and fragrant with cardamom, in a bowlful that’s big enough for two ($4.65).

If you’re here for the heat be sure to tell them so when you order. We weren’t asked and forgot to specify and what we got was mild. The most incendiary items during the course of two meals were the crunchy papadums (50 cents each).

Communication isn’t easy but the staff are attentive, helpful and friendly. Delivery within five kilometres, farther if orders are over $30.

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Since writing last week’s column I have learned that minors aren’t admitted to Original Joe’s, even if accompanied by an adult. A local first, in my experience, and (one hopes), an only.

marion.warhaft@freepress.mb.ca

Tandoori Hut

645 Corydon Avenue, 415-4021

Licensed

No wheelchair access

Three and a half stars