Category: Indian

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Indian

Thar Indian – Neutral Bay NSW Restaurant Review

One of the problems with being a Western Sydney Person at heart is that it’s extremely difficult to find good Indian food outside of the 2145-2150 postcode at a price that you’re willing to pay.

We visited Thar Indian in Neutral Bay on our way back from a failed mission to buy a rich divorcée timber bedroom set in Manly. Though we didn’t manage to fit any of her high quality, low priced furniture into our car, we did get a glimpse of how the other 1% lives, and an important lesson how to actually buy things from Facebook Marketplace. (Protip: with a rented van).

My partner was hungry on the drive back, and so we spent almost as much as we would’ve on a timber queen bed, two bedside tables, and a tallboy dresser on Indian food.

It’s hard to consider either the Bombay Beef (a curry cooked in potatoes) ($21.90) or the Butter Chicken (a similar price) particularly memorable. They were good, yes, but not extraordinary, and not so much better than what I’ve been making recently at home with my own two hands and a poor understanding of how to follow instructions from Youtube.

Bread, contrastingly, is a thing I’ve yet to attempt, and the garlic naan ($5.90), cheese & garlic naan ($7.50), and keema naan ($7.90) were all fresh, oily, and delicious. Let me know in the comments if you have a source in the Inner West or Western Sydney for something from the freezer aisle.

Does Udaya carry something good?

Thar Indian
75 Military Rd, Neutral Bay NSW 2089
0408 756 424

Categories
Indian

Shahi Dastarkhwan – Lakemba NSW Restaurant Review

We had a lot of Indian food in October.

This chicken half tandoori ($12) was good, and well priced.

This shahi rice platter ($23) was huge. No one warned us about the sheer amount of food we were ordering. We didn’t even spend that much. It was unreal. The chicken 65 and tata hua gosht was good. The rice was rice, and the dal tadka, something I’ve never ordered by itself, was also nice to add into the mix for a slurry like texture and moistness. This rice platter probably could have fed the two of us just on its own. Great value.

I’ve spent years trying to replicate the first amritsari fried fish dish I ever had, and sadly this ajwain fish ($18) was not it. The crumbs were too crummy for me.

$5 for a mango lassi. Not bad, but not the best.

Overall thoughts: Great value, huge portions. Can recommend, but wouldn’t travel for. Order less, my friend.

Shahi Dastarkhwan
64 Haldon St, Lakemba NSW 2195

Categories
Indian

Not Just Curries – Harris Park NSW Restaurant Review

We needed to find somewhere local to eat one night when I was on call for strokes. The idea was to have a quick in and out meal, at a place where I could still be back at work within the requisite period to do a quick NIHSS. The quick in and out bit didn’t go quite to plan, but the food was great.

The pappadums were free because they forgot to make our order for 45 minutes. My partner generally likes pappadums, I have no strong interest in them, but I’m happy we didn’t have to pay $1 each for them.

This half tandoori chicken ($18) was great. Such good flavours, whilst remaining not too salty, and so juicy on the inside as well. Served on a sizzling hot plate.

We had some keema naan ($8), garlic naan ($5), and cheese garlic naan ($7). No complaints about the quality here, though I guess it is a bit expensive at $5-8 per bread.

I was a bit embarassed about ordering the Dehli style butter chicken ($25), but this was actually a bit spicy, as well as yummy. It was, as the kids would say, ‘bomb’.

This kulfi, Indian style ice cream with pistachio, was also comped as an apology for the lateness of the meal. It tasted good, and at $7 is a nice novel thing to try. Though we were a bit miffed at waiting quite a while for our food, the subsequent service and free stuff more than made up for it. They were very apologetic.

Can recommend.

NB: This post was originally titled “I Love Curries”. Though I do, this is not the name of the restaurant. (Corrected March 2025)

Not Just Curries
66 Wigram St, Harris Park NSW 2150
(02) 9893 8202

Categories
Indian

Mehfil – Auburn NSW Restaurant Review

I don’t remember much about this Western Sydney Hyderabadi restaurant, even though it hasn’t been so long since I ate at it. I will instead attempt to entertain you with a few pictures, some scattered thoughts, and a fun fact that I learned from my Western Sydney North Indian friend (ES).

I enjoyed the chicken 65 ($15 – actually listed as $14.99, but they don’t carry 1 cent coins), though it was a bit wetter and saltier than others that I’ve had. I was surprised to find that my friend had never had this before. Maybe I’ve just had it a lot because there have been a lot of Indo-Chinese restaurants in the places I’ve lived.

My interesting fact of the day, relating to this mutton biryani ($16 – $15.99, who are they trying to fool?), is that mutton biryani can refer to biryani with meat from either goat or sheep, and it’s not possible to know which one it is unless you ask. Where in Australian English we always mean old sheep, mutton almost always refers to goat in the Subcontinent, and therefore in a Indian restaurant in Sydney it could literally be a flip of the coin. This mutton, whatever animal it may have been, was not too gamey (which is my usual concern with old sheep).

My not so interesting fact about this arachi chicken (let’s just call it $16) is that I’m not the only one who couldn’t recognise this based on the photo. See below a screenshot from a Google Review by ali rizvi838.

I don’t know what this is. I’m waiting on my friend to text me back at time of writing. (EDIT: it is ladoo) It was soft, sweet, and drowned in syrup. It was pretty good.

General comments
It’s weird that I don’t remember much about this place, but the general vibe was that it was good and affordable. Much more memorable was the weird fact that I learned about mutton.

Mehfil
52 Auburn Rd, Auburn NSW 2144
(02) 8123 8052

Categories
Indian

Chill N Grill – Harris Park NSW Restaurant Review

How can I call this a review? I have no recollection of eating here, but the photos are present on my computer to prove that I did. I don’t even know what we ate. Evidently some kind of garlic naan (a staple), some kind of curry, and some kind of chicken on a sizzling plate.

It looks like this meal was eaten with my partner after a particularly long day at work, the same day during which I got into a fight about putting enteral magnesium down a nasogastric tube, and also the same day when we got bubble tea towards the end of the day with the other registrars and interns and sent a group selfie to my then consultant, who was appalled at us all still being there at that time.

Looking back at this selfie, I think adapalene has made my skin demonstrably worse over the last 9 months.

PEGFEEDS, a food blog, but the food and the blog components are separate.

Don’t worry, I think there’s some regular content scheduled to be posted tomorrow.

Chill N Grill
67 Wigram St, Harris Park NSW 2150