Friday, March 14, 2014

Indian Star Restaurant & Sweets


LOL wow. This is my second time going to the wrong restaurant. According to some reviews, the restaurant's "medium spicy" is quite spicy and overly. However, after visiting the restaurant, I wondered why nothing had a hint of spiciness. After going on Urbanspoon to confirm what some reviewers had said, it turns out I went to Indian Star? Whoops, I meant to visit Royal Tandoori! Despite taking a photo of the restaurant's exterior and uploading it, it was not until I noticed on Urbanspoon that I visited Indian Star! Quite sad actually, considering that both restaurants are located on the same street and I constantly kept saying "hmmm Royal Tandoori, where's that?". Obviously I assumed the first Indian restaurant that I saw was the right one LOL… the careless things that happen when one is too hungry. Indian Star has comfortable seating arrangements and the restaurant is pretty well ventilated! I am not sure if it was because the restaurant was empty or not, but I am leaning towards it really is well ventilated. 


BASMATI RICE, PRAWN VINDALOO, EGGPLANT BHARTA, LAMB CURRY, NAAN BREAD AND BUTTER CHICKEN.



EGGPLANT BHARTA, WHOLE EGGPLANTS BAKED OVER CHARCOAL IN A TANDOOR, COOKED WITH PEAS AND SPICES FROM INDIA ($10.95). 
The eggplant cooked down to a nice creamy consistency and is not too mushy. Also, although there are not much peas in the bharta which is fine, there is a hint of sweetness along with the flavourful spices. The only complaint, the bharta would have tasted 10x better if it was medium spicy as requested.


LAMB CURRY, BONELESS LAMB COOKED IN ONIONS, GINGER, GARLIC AND FRESH TOMATOES ($13.95).
The lamb curry tastes flavourful as well as rich, with plenty of spices and is not heavy on the salt. Although the curry does not have a hint of spiciness, there is a good amount of chunks of meat which tastes tender as well as moist and not very gamy.


PRAWN VINDALOO, PRAWNS COOKED WITH POTATOES IN A HOT TANGY SHARP SAUCE WITH VINEGAR AND SPICES FROM INDIA ($13.95).
The butterflied prawns are slightly overcooked, taste tough as well as rubbery and quite bland. It seems like the vindaloo is first cooked, then the prawns are poached and added to the curry, rather than being cooked together for a fused taste. It was such a waste for the restaurant to short cut this because the vindaloo tastes pretty good and has the usual tartness from the vinegar as well as plenty of spices. And again, although flavourful, would have tasted a lot better if it was spicy.


BUTTER CHICKEN, BONELESS CHICKEN MARINATED IN A SPECIAL SAUEC, COOKED IN GARLIC GINGER, CREAM AND FRESH TOMATOES, CASHEW & NUTS ($12.95).
The butter chicken has a rich buttery creamy tomato taste with a hint of tanginess, and a nice vibrant orange color. The consistency is thick, not watered down, tastes more creamy than tomatoey which I prefer, and has a good meat to sauce ratio. For the chicken, the medium sized chunks of white meat taste tender and not moist or dry. The butter chicken was our favourite and quite delicious, however, would taste better if it was spicy.

NAAN BREAD ($1.95).
The naan tastes chewy as well as soft, but some more browning and blistering would have been nice.


BASMATI RICE.
The first order of basmati rice tasted very hard and we did not want to mention it to the restaurant, however, we did feel like it would be such a waste considering the flavourful dishes. This is the second order of rice with some added cilantro which was not there on the first plate. Although the rice still tastes slightly too hard, it was much better than the first order.

TOTAL: $60.53 + TIP $9.07 = $69.60.
Overall we tipped 15% because the owners were friendly and followed up a few times regarding the food. And although the food was flavourful with plenty of spices, some more heat would have been nice. The dishes do have a fairly good amount of meat too. As for the total amount, it looks odd because we used a card. 

POSITIVES
- Flavourful dishes
- Friendly owners
- Well ventilated restaurant

NEGATIVES
- Dishes would have tasted so much better if they were spicy

LITTLE THINGS
- The food tastes flavourful enough (pretty sure everyone knows that I am picky too!) and if I cannot find a place better than Indian Star in New West, I will definitely come back to try everything again. Extra spicy. To see how everything really tastes
- Regarding the negative comments on Urbanspoon, I am not sure what people are talking about and some of the comments are unnecessary as well as rude

Food: 2.5/5
Service: 3/5

Indian Star Restaurant & Sweets on Urbanspoon

No comments:

Post a Comment

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...