Taj Bhavan - Hardcore Indian cuisine down under!

Wigram street in Harris Park is inundated with everything Indian from restaurant's to groceries to accommodation avenues. It's the restaurant's dazzling with lot of color and glitter of the Indian kind that attracts the attention. There are plenty of eateries here with traditional Indian names catering to cuisine from up north. One such fine dining place is Taj Bhavan. Quite akin to most of the other hotels lined up on this stretch,this one resembles a house converted into a restaurant.

The ambiance is pretty plain jane with nothing really eye popping. The color palette largely adopts the Indian tri color whether it be the wall paintings, portraits or even the light bulbs which are ignited with saffron, white and green. The decor is simple with just plastic chairs of green and orange colors and the tables are all white again giving an imprint of freedom and India.

It was however the food which walked the talk. Considering from the outset there wasn't anything really appealing, the food was quite a delight and ended up being way beyond expectations. We started our foray with soup and a bunch of entrees. The tomato soup was absolutely lip smacking and the smell of cream was apparent in every mouth. It's been a long time since I tasted such fine quality tomato soup. The sweet corn soup too was good however well short of the brilliance of the former. We had two varieties of chats viz Dahi puri and Bhel puri. The Dahi puri was lovely. Though it wasn't decorated with curd and masala on the plate, the inside of the puri had the ammunition to set the tongue rolling with excitement. The bhel puri was passable. It was crunchy but somehow lacked the muster. We also had a ball galloping the Achari panneer tikka, corn cheese balls and Gobi 65. The panneer made in sizzler style was especially top notch.

On to the main course, we told for an assortment of Indian breads with the Dal Bhukara and Kali Mirch Panneer for company. Be it the Naan or Tandoori Roti or the Aloo/Gobi Parathas, they passed the test with flying colors. What really elevated it were the side dishes. The Kali Mirch panneer with a twang of sweetness and hint of pepper with succulent pieces of cottage cheese floating gracefully on the gravy was brilliant. The Dal Bhukara was a show stealer. Just didn't expect the black dal to be so good in a little known place. I found it to be better than most high end fine dining restaurant's back home.

We rounded our evening with Salt Lassi and Mango Lassi. The salt lassi was flavored with tinge of masala bits and seemed a good digester however found it to be a tad watery. The mango based one was a bit too sweet for the liking though it was pretty thick.

Overall the food turned out to be quite exceptional especially pinning down some of the stuff. I thoroughly enjoyed the tomato soup, Achari Panner Tikka, Dal Bhukara and the Panneer Kali Mirch. Nothing was bad and everything was bordering from the good to excellent. The service was a mixed bag. Items came to our table in a jiffy which is a good sign but it seemed time consuming in clearing the consumed food particles thus occupying too much space on the table. The rates seem fairly reasonable for the quality of food on offer.

This was our last tryst with restaurant hunting during our short stint in Sydney and we were glad to have chosen this place which really proved to be quite a fitting farewell to our foodie escapades over the last couple of weeks. Would definitely recommend Taj Bhavan for high quality North Indian cuisine.

Indo Lankan Food Bar - Heartfelt Sri Lankan cuisine in Sydney!

Every nook and corner in Sydney seems to be deluded with restaurant's and cafe's and the Seven Hills area seems to be no different. There seems to be a number of outlets serving varied cuisines at the Boomerang place.

We went over to this Indo Lankan bar to gorge ourselves with predominantly Sri Lankan food. This restaurant seems to be around for 2 decades now having begun it's operation way back in 1996. From a small family business looks like they have spread their wings wide and are now a full fledged restaurant catering to the locals as well as the large coterie of Indian and Sri Lankan population living in the city.

We ordered a host of stuff ranging from the veg patties and Aloo Bonda as part of Entree. Also had a shot of the Mix veg Kothu Parotha and also a Masala Dosa. For main course, I thoroughly enjoyed my course of string hoppers coming along with sodhi, dal and pol sambol. Sri Lankan food is infused heavily with pepper and coconut forms the layer of most of the dishes. If you're acquired to this kind of taste, you would love whatever is being served at the Indo Lankan bar. I found the idiappams made of red flour to be especially lovely being super soft and fluffy. And it was a delight to have Lankan style Sodhi, Dal and reddish coconut pol sambol. The dosa too was pretty good with especially the pudina chutney being top notch. The veg pattties and Aloo bonda had an overload of potatoes and wasn't bad. The Kothu Paratha was ingrained with spices and masala and as authentic as they come.

Overall the food promised a lot and it was nice to have a good ol Sri Lankan meal. Service was decent but could have been a touch quicker. The rates seem fairly reasonable. There is nothing at all worth mentioning about the ambiance. It's just a fairly clean place and more like an extended mess, just that it's a lot neater. The decor is really simple and the interiors have a few pictures as part of the walls and nothing more.

If you are fond of Sri Lankan cuisine and not too bothered about high quality ambiance, this is a pretty good place to check out.

Gozleme Turkish House - A specialty of Turkey in Sydney!

A 'Gozleme' is a traditional Turkish flat bread and can be somewhat equated to the Indian version of 'Chapathi' as it looks and is also made up in a similar fashion. This turkish bread is stuffed with ingredients in the center to meat it up and this fluffy bread ends up being pretty tasty holding the fillings inside.

Gozleme Turkish house is a part of the La Petite food court in the Birkenhead shopping center at Drummoyne, Sydney. It's quite a sight witnessing the making of the Gozleme live from the inception of squeezing the flour, dashing it in the pan, ornating the bread with veggies and cutting it across piece by piece and serving on the plates.

We were pretty hungry and when we barged in for a late lunch, we ordered all there was for vegetarian in the savoury section by saying one each of the cheese&tomato, veggie and potato gozleme. The combination of cheese and tomato was nailed perfectly and it was a delight crunching this one with the cheese oozing over. The latter two were pretty similar but for the strong essence of potato in the third one. Both had a doze of spinach and cheese and we relished eating them.

Each of the Gozleme's cost us 8$ and I would say it was worth it as the size was magnanimous and taste scrumptious. We also told for each of the sweets - baklava, semolina cake and the turkish delight and all of them were nice too giving a sweet touch to complement the savoury side of things. The sweets costed 2$ each but we got a deal of 5$ for the 3 of em.

Overall, a very pleasing meal. It was lovely having Turkish cuisine in the heart of Sydney. Personally, it was nice experiencing something new such as Gozleme and more so enjoying the same. Do give this place a shot when you get the chance.

Aki's - Eating by the Wharf!

The Wooloomooloo wharf is engulfed with restaurant's aplenty catering to various kinds of cuisines. It's quite a buzzing sight to see a line of restaurant's one after the other in a huge stretched surrounding. All of these eateries have seatings both at the outside as well as the inside but seating amidst the breeze on the outset overseeing some really tall buildings is what seems to appease the attention especially during the night time. All of them are dim and ideal with fire lit and lamp lit lamps.

Aki's Indian is the first restaurant in this scenic wharf area. The menu is predominantly to do with a host of tandoori dishes from the North, a skosh of traditional South Indian and bits of sea food and coastal cuisine too added to the fray.

The menu is fairly simple and divided into the following forms: Entree, Main, Sides, Accompaniments and Tandoori Breads. They also have sub sections in the entree and main category with the tag lines contemporary, classics, Tandoori, platters etc. They also have a couple of elaborate thali's within their ambit.

Under the entrée section, we ordered for a crispy dosa which was done up pretty well with onions and potato masala in abundance. The onion chutney to go along tasted nice and so was the lentil based sambar. On the Tandoori side told for a cottage cheese panneer cube starter. This was more of the traditional Panneer tikka which was nicely marinated and the tinge of chilli, cumin and fenugreek leaves added a rather nice touch. They were 4 cubes cut into 8 pieces and went along well with the green chutney. For mains had a plain naan and a garlic naan with black dal for company. The breads were done up well and the lentils were simmering in an aromatic gravy and was esculent. It went along really well with the Indian breads.

Overall, the food passed the test and we were happy with the outcome. However felt the service to be a wee bit slow as it took a lot of time for our food to arrive on the table. On the price side also felt it to be a tad on the expensive side. But blips aside, Aki's can be said to be a good Indian restaurant in an ideal setting and if you're looking to gorge on sone delicious food over a laid back environment, this restaurant and the scenic wharf ambiance works very well.

Chiangmai Thai - A Thai based restaurant at Surfers Paradise

Chiangmai Thai is an upmarket Thai based restaurant in the vicinity of Surfer's Paradise at Gold Coast. It signifies a lot of 'Thai' by the way the interiors are designed. There are a lot of Buddha statues, gold griffins, antiques hanging across, monastery miniatures, lion and elephant statues and other interesting patterns. The color pallette also tries to be in sync with the whole south east asian surrounding. The decor is royal and the place is massive in size and there is an inherent buzz about the place. They've spaced out the place really well to have maximum tables and chairs within the available space.

The restaurant is for the out and out meat lover and vegetarian food is sparse. There is hardly anything available and you would have no option but to settle for a red or green curry to go along with your rice/noodles of which variety is again exigous. Of course you wouldn't have any sort of worry if you love your meat as there are plenty of choices available.

Obviously I went with a veg fried rice and chose the vegetable green curry. There were not even soups available for veg but we requested for a tom yum vegetarian but they said they cannot make it without adding a fish sauce which forced me to politely refuse the offering. Highlighted below is an account of the vegetarian side of things.

The Veg fried Rice was more of a colored rice with plenty of fresh veggies accompanying it and was pretty nicely flavored. The green curry was almost a replica of a veg stew. Covered with a bundle of veggies over a layer of coconut cream, it was pretty nice although i did expect it to be a tad spicier. It felt a little mild for the liking.

The service was quick with the food coming to the table in quick time. Pricing seems to be moderate. I guess I am not the right person reviewing this place considering anything even remotely to do with veg is not their forte. Just from the 2 items I had and considering the ambiance scape, would term it as a reasonable fare. I suggest you avoid this place if you're a vegetarian or even an egg eater. If you like your sea food it looks like a pretty good bet as seen from the heavy crowds thronging this place.

La Porschetta - A little road side Italian delicacy at Surfers Paradise

La Porschetta is a very nice little Italian restaurant by the road side serving some great Pizza's and Pasta's. It is very simple in its appearance with nothing much on the interiors and there is just a few plastic chairs and tables underneath a roof. The place also has a small seating space inside.

It feels like a perfect getaway spot to gorge on some tantalising Italian food while shopping by the wayside. We ordered for a pumpkin based salad, veg pizza and a gnocci with pesto sauce and all of them turned out to be pretty sumptuous.

The salad was well tossed up with leafy veggies to go along with pieces of pumpkin and balls of cheese. The veg pizza was a lovely thin crust one with veggies nicely spread across. The Gnocci was another good dish to round off proceedings with the chewy potatoes floating around a lovely aromatic pesto sauce with herbs added on.

The service was fairly quick and the rates seemed reasonably nominal. A pretty nice place to have an easy laidback Italian meal.

Stitch - Good ol downtown yore!

The Stitch has an olden day flavor of yore associated with it. It seems to be more in the lines of how resto pubs used to be perhaps in the hey days.

There's lots of antique stuff in and around with specific focus on the vintage singer stitching machine. The model has it's presence throughout and no wonder the name also seems to be derived from the same in being called "The Stitch".

The place is all vintage and plays some dashing old school numbers and it has quite a kick ass retro based atmosphere to it. The staircase seems pretty daunting and you get to witness the action as you take your steps downward. It is engulfed with rustic woodwork based interiors and the inherent gloomy dark feel about it gives it quite the shiz.

On our way to the Winyard station, we wanted to finish our day with a final flourish and hence dropped in at 'The Stitch'. Just ordered for a couple of stuff viz:
- Cricketers Arms: This was a larger local Australian beer and turned out to be quite a good drink. It was a little thicker than normal with a tinge of sweetness touched upon.
- Mac n Cheese Balls: This usually comes with a bacon dip but we asked for a veg substitute and they gave us a ravioli dip. The balls as such were big in size, nicely breaded along and stuffed with cheese and you could literally feel the presence of thin macaroni pieces interspersed inside. The whole thing went along pretty well with the dip.

Overall, quite a reasonable fare. The service was well attended and we got the stuff fairly soon. The pricing seemed kinda par at $21 for both the items together.

The Stitch has a lovely buzz going for it and seems a pretty happening spot in this neck of the woods. If you're anywhere nearby, contemplate giving this place a shot.

Tandoori Place - Ah, melting North Indian culinary delight at Gold Coast!

We were on a stroll down the amazing stretch of 'Surfers Paradise' at Gold Coast looking for an Indian restaurant to feast ourselves to after our tryst with Western food in the few days gone by.

We bounced into 'The Tandoori Place', a pure Indian restaurant serving predominantly North Indian cuisine. We didn't have second thoughts barging into the restaurant.

There is a lovely charm about the place and it and has a royal feel to it with dim yellow lights, chandeliers and portraits depicting ancient India. There is also some lovely olden day hindi music playing on the television screen. The decor seems rich and the surrounding area gives it a vintage flavour.

We ordered the following:
Soup:
We went for the tried and tested good ol tomato soup and it turned out to be really good and far better than some of the tomato soups I've tried back home. Made on a thick tomato puree, it had all the amunition going for it to make it a winner.

Starters:
Here we had the Panneer Kabab and the Masala Papad. The kabab's were really well made with a pasty mix of panneer and aloo inside those soft rolls and went along jocularly well with the green chutney. The papads usually can't go too wrong and it didn't. The unique feature about it was on the presentation where they shaped it in the form of a cone with veggies stuffed to the brim.

Main Course: On the Indian bread side, wanted to try something different apart from the usual Naan's and went for the Panneeri Naan which were made with home made cottage cheese and spices. And I must say it was a delectable fest. The naans were fluffed up with abundant smudged pieces of panneer and turned out to be resounding. We also had the usual Plain Naan and Tandoori Roti and they went along expected lines. For sides we chose the Palak Panneer which again was a star dish being done up really well with a seasoned aroma of palak with whitened pieces of panneer inset. We also tried the Dal Makhanwala. It wasn't the authentic black dal types but nevertheless wonderful to taste.

Dessert: We finished our course with a salt Lassi which was a perfect foil to finish a very satisfactory meal. It had a perfect mix of requisite spices and was a great tongue twirler.

Overall the food was remarkable and a mile beyond expectation. Never expected to eat such good close to perfect North Indian food in a restaurant far away from home. The service was top notch and our food arrived on the table without any really waiting time. Cost seems to be a little on the higher side but can be excused considering the great food on offer.

Conclusion: There aren't too many Indian options in the extremely buzzing Surfer's Paradise. This one though is a little gem. If you're in and around this area and craving for good Indian food, this is indeed the right place for you.