Spice but nice

On Friday evening, we visited the north Indian restaurant and we were welcomed with smiles from the owner and staff.

Kaleem Rajput escorted us to our table and took our drinks order.

My sister had an Appletiser and I had a Coke, which were served within seconds of us ordering it.

Upon bringing our beverages, he served complementary crispy papadums with a trio of sauces; mint chutney, masala sauce and cucumber sour milk.

Considering I was extremely hungry after a busy day, this snack was ideal.

The menu consisted of starters, food from the oven, chicken, lamb, seafood, breyani (Indian rice) and vegetable dishes, bunnies (bread with curry inside), roti rolls and side dishes.

Because of the variety of choices under each category, the menu was helpful because it explained what each dish contained.

For starters, we ordered a platter for two, which consisted of six pieces of vegetables and six pieces of non-vegetable.

Basically, in this platter we had chicken and meat cubes, potato samoosas, fried eggplant and onion.

Our starter was served within minutes of us ordering it.

The owner, Sajid Latif, personally introduced himself to each table of customers and asked if they were happy with their food and service.

After starters (that took less than 10 minutes to arrive), we ordered our main meals, which were served with Basmati rice and a cucumber salad.

I ordered a chicken tikka masala curry which was served as mild, medium or hot flavour (I chose mild).

The meal had boneless pieces of chicken cooked in a tomato and onion gravy (because I do not enjoy the bones of any meat or poultry).

Although my food was served with rice, I wanted an Indian bread (called butter naan) which was bigger than the basket in which it was served.

My sister, on the other hand, decided to be simple and ordered a lamb curry, which was tender pieces of lamb, cooked in various Indian spices.

Our food, which was served this time by another staff member, Vicky Khan, also arrived within less than 10 minutes of us ordering it.

The starters and main meals did not disappoint us.

The food was served with a mild flavour (so the taste was evident, but it had a spicy after effect) and it contained all of the ingredients that was entailed on the menu.

The presentation of each meal was appealing, including the starter which was served on a bed of lettuce, tomato, pepper and onion slices.

Because my sister and I had not spent time together for a while, the quiet atmosphere with Indian Hindi music playing in the background was a relaxing vibe for us to catch up on each others lives.

The restaurant is situated in the Farrarmere Shopping Centre, on the corner of Bayley and Sheridan streets.

Operating hours are from 10am to 10pm, from Sunday to Monday.

SR.