Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Bollywood Spices, North Perth

I downloaded the Urbanspoon app yesterday, and it has a "shake" feature, where you shake your phone and it comes up with a suburb (thats close to your location), a cuisine and a price range. I showed my bf and the first thing that came up was an indian joint in north perth, which had a rating of 91%. Once he saw that, he decided we were going there for dinner! Never mind about an hour beforehand we had eated 2 hotdogs from Bunnings! He saw curry and was blinded from there on in!

We rang up and booked, and set off to be there for 7pm. There was one other table, and they were all Indian. Good sign? The place is really small but really neat and tidy. It seats maybe 25 people in the little front of house, however its not particularly cramped which is a bonus!

We were seated quickly, and straight away had some pappadums bought out free! S was really pleased with this, a touch that reminds him of his beloved Akbars. He even commented that it smelled like Akbars, and he struggled to contain his excitement!

Our waiter was the owner of the restaurant, a smiling softly spoken Indian gentleman, who was lovely. We still werent sure what to order, so he asked us what we like. S gave a rubbish descripton of what he liked, but he gave some good advice. When I told him S liked the dryer curries, he said that they could make a curry drier if we liked which was pretty cool! S ended up ordering the Bhuna Gosht, a semi dry style lamb curry with rare spices, and I ordered the chicken saag (spinach), which was one of the dishes that came recommended. We also got a basmati rice, garlic naan and chicken tikka cooked in the tandoor to start.

While we were waiting the small restaurant filled up, with only one table free. People streamed in and out picking up takeaway orders, they were pretty busy! We looked around, and we were the only table that werent Indian... This seems like the place the Indians go to get a curry!

Our starter came out within about 10minutes, which was great because we were smelling everyone elses food and getting jealous! There were four pieces of chicken thigh, coated in spices and sat on a cast iron plate, sizzling like nothing else! It came with green capsicum and onion and smelled amazing! We both took a piece of everything and tucked in - this is a common apology from me, I forgot to take a photo of the dish when it came out! But I remembered after we dished it up!

It was really nice! The raita was delicious, and the chicken was juicy, with a bit of char grilling... the freshness of the capsicum and delicious onion all worked together to make a mouthful you didnt want to end! It was really good... Im quite partial to grilled/barbequed/tandoored food though!

Our mains came out shortly after, and they smelled and looked great! The curry S ordered wasnt as dry as he was expecting, but he was still happy tucking in. Mine was significantly more green than I had expected - even tho I knew it had spinach in it!


S dug in and was quiet for a while as he often is when hes presented with a curry. I asked him how it rated on a scale of 1 to Akbars and he wasnt sure yet - but it was good! It certainly had a bite to it but it wasnt overwhelming, it had something about it that I couldnt put my finger on, a spice or something. It was really nice, and after a while S decided it was, so far, the best curry he'd had in Perth! At first he had his sights set on a new Akbars curry, because the place smelled the same lol but then he tasted it, it wasnt how he thought it might be and he got a bit bummed about it. But after he'd eaten some of it, he decided that it was actually really good and he mopped up all the sauce from the bowl, got the naan and polished off the rest!

Mine was equally as tasty. There seems to be more to these curries than just throwing some spices in a pan with some meat and making it a curry. Theres something else they do to them which makes them delicious but I  have no idea exactly what it is that they do... It seems like an authentic place because it was full of Indians, Id assume they wouldnt be eating a crappy curry? My Chicken saag was smooth, tasty and extra saucy!


The naan we got was pretty impressive too - 4 pieces of buttery garlicky deliciousness! Every time another table had theirs bought out we could smell it and we drooling! You could see pieces of garlic all over it but it wasnt too much.. perfect for tearing apart and mopping up the delicious sauces!


We managed to finish it all, S just about licked his plate clean and I ate all the meat and used the rest of the naan to sop up the sauce I had left. It was really delicious, and both of us agreed that it was now at the top of our list for curry in Perth so far! The waiter who Im assuming was the owner was so friendly, he enjoyed having a chat with us, tell us their plans to expand and how he thought that alot of curry houses in Perth just dont know how to use spices - they all use the same things, but they just dont do it properly. Id have to say, I dont know really how to use them properly either but seeing as this was our favourite curry house to date, hes right. They just do something right.

It totalled about $50 between us, for an entree, 2 curries, naan and rice, which I thought was decent! Its BYO which is great, and there is plenty of parking out front. They get really busy and he said that sometimes theres a 40 minute wait on food, which I guess means you better call early if you want take aways!


At the till they have a bowl of spices which are intended as a breath freshener - I didnt go for this, I dont really like whole spices, but its a nice touch!

Overall, we are definately coming back! Its well priced, BYO, close to our house and most importantly - delicious with friendly service!

Bollywood Spices Indian Cuisine on Urbanspoon

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