Indian Tandoori Restaurant

54 Ryley St, Wangaratta 3677
Date visited: 14th June 2013

Mariska Hargitay!

The Love Guru

I mean... Namaste.

Another fortnight, another Wangaratta Adventure for us.  After picking MerlinFan up from Wodonga on Friday night, we decided to grab dinner in Wang.  A friend had been to Indian Tandoori Restaurant and told me how good the food was, so it had to be our dinner stop for the night.  Getting into the carpark around the back via the super narrow gate and one way road along the side of the restaurant itself was really testing my already crappy driving skills.

The interior of the venue was pretty big and inviting, complete with an actual fireplace where most of the patrons were seated.  Nothing says beginning of winter more than sitting in front of an actual wood fire.

Fireplace

We were given menus and our complimentary papadam and raita.

Papadam

We chose a few dishes to share.  Our dishes came within minutes of us putting in our order, which is always a good thing.  

We chose one of the mains, Kalmi Kebabs which were five pieces of baby lamb cutlets marinated in specially made yoghurt paste and cooked in Tandoori.  We hadn't realised but it also came with baby Nan (bread).

Kalmi Kebabs $17.90

The lamb was delicious.  Tender, juicy and full of fragrant lamb flavour.  We loved the crispy, slightly fatty bits around the corner.  It was complemented by a marinate that was a complex combination of sweet and saltiness with occasional hints of tanginess from the yoghurt.  MerlinFan said she wished there was some sauce to go with it.  We didn't think much of the cabbage salad.

Baby Nan

The nan was nice and buttery, but I thought it tasted a tad doughy.  The Garlic Nan that we ordered separately I liked better.  It too was buttery, covered with a scattering of crisped garlic and a (thankfully) tiny amount of coriander.

Garlic Nan $3.90

Lastly, we also had the Butter Chicken.  The chicken chunks were really tender and moist.  The creamy sauce had a base of raw cashew nuts, butter and tomato - it tasted a lot like the peanut dipping sauce I associate with Malaysian satay.  Pretty damned delicious, too.  

Butter Chicken $17.90

Strangely enough, our drinks came last, a little while after the food arrived.  I had the Original Lassi, which was a yoghurt drink.  You could choose to have it salty or sweet - I opted for sweet.  Salty yoghurt just didn't quite appeal to me.  The lassi was basically like unflavoured yoghurt in a drink.  MerlinFan had the Strawberry Lassi.  We both felt the drinks were a bit on the thick side - with the creaminess and richness from the dishes we had, we both started wishing after a while that we ordered something lighter.

Original sweet lassi (left), Strawberry Lassi (right)
$4.90 each

Overall, MerlinFan and I enjoyed our dinner, especially the beautiful lamb cutlets and the butter chicken.  The dishes were pretty small in size for their prices, but I have mentioned before in an older post on Tandoori Den that for Indian food, I believe the small portion sizes are warranted because of how rich and creamy the food cooked in this cuisine is.

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