Palki Indian Restaurant    皇轎印度餐廳    

Walked past several times on the way to other places in the neighborhood and always meant to give it a try. When we made it at last the food didn't disappoint. There must have been prodigious amounts of salt, though, as there was much chugging of water early the next morning.

Fish tikka was our chosen starter and the judges were split. The fish was flavorful (I'm guessing mackerel) and not too heavily seasoned. I thought it was more juicy than the typical offering which gets left too long in the oven and tends to be dry and a bit chewy. My partner in crime was less convinced.

Main courses were the lamb shank masala, paneer butter masala (hey, we like the sauce), and garlic chicken korma to add a bit of variety. The meats were both tender which was a bit of surprise for the lamb. The paneer was unremarkable but tasty nonetheless.

The gravies were delicious. This is one of the better korma sauces I've had...truly mild. The masala sauce wasn't too heavy on the ghee or cream and the acidity of the tomatoes really shone through. Kind of like home-style cooking in that sense with less emphasis on artery-clogging goodness.

A modest demerit for having given in to the local beer rep and replaced Kingfisher with Godfather. India has many find lagers to accompany dinner and I humbly submit that Godfather is not one of them. It isn't a horrible beer but just a bit more hoppy and yeasty than I want in a dinner beer. Why fix what ain't broke, it can't be worth that much extra margin if your custies aren't buying.

If you live within striking distance of Upper Central (generously including precincts on either side of Hollywood Rd) or TST there are equivalent or better options than Palki. But for a change of pace, particularly if you want to slide out of dinner and into a mango shaved ice, there's a lot to be said for it. Value for money (which tends to evaporate if you cab it there and back) is definitely a big plus.

之前幾次去過依間食印度菜，印象很好所以這次來慶祝生日

食物大部分都滿意，Order了 Butter chicken, Fish Massala and Chicken Chat Salad. 食物很新鮮和味道有回了倫敦的感覺。環境很Homey和cozy。但是這次經驗有點令我不開心就是個waitress的態度很奇怪。 When we first got there, all the tables were free and we chose to sit at the window seat, but then after we sat down and put our bags down, the waitress said it was "reserved"

Fine, we moved to another table. But when 2 western customers came in, she sat them down at the windows (they did not seem like they booked!). Then when we started to order, she was quite impatient and did not smile once! Throughout the night, she was not very attentive and it's only when my beer glass is empty when she comes ask if I needed another drink. Oh also, the food all came at once, the salad came along with the curry and bread and stuff.

Overall, if they can provide better training for that waitress (maybe she was having period or something, but anyway in the service industry, she needs to learn to be professional!), this restaurant is highly recommended. I am not usually hard to please and to be honest I did have very good service and experience the 3 times I came before. This time is just bad luck I guess.

Having always been a fan of Indian food, I was very excited when I moved from the US to Hong Kong as I knew that I would be close to some very high quality Indian chefs. Unfortunately, to my disappointment, my husband and I have tried several of Hong Kong's Indian restaurants and always found something lacking; no flavor in the food, terrible service, etc. After reading several reviews here on open rice about Palki, my husband and I decided to give it a try.

We didn't wait at all for a table, as we dined right as they opened on a slow Wednesday evening. The staff, (who I am assuming was a manager or owner?) seated us and offered beverages. He was very insightful on the house specialties and suggested that my husband try the King Prawn Tikka Masala. I ordered the Paneer Butter Masala and we both ordered the Peas Pulao. We didn't have to wait long for our food, but when it arrived it was hot and fresh and obviously not a leftover from lunch service. The spices and butter and cottage cheese blended perfectly together in the Butter Masala and the King Prawns were cooked to perfection and drenched in delicious Tikka sauce.

I suppose that all the negative reviews for this restaurant are probably from very needy and pretentious customers. Palki is not formal dining, but rather a very comfortable outlet where one can enjoy a San Miguel and some very delicious curries. If you have expectations for something more you're kidding yourself, but if you want wonderful food for a very affordable price, Palki is the Indian restaurant to visit. Tin Hau is a very nice and quiet part of town, so it affords a more private and intimate dining destination.

I was pretty disappointed with Palki. I've always walked past the restaurant and finally decided to try it out last night.
The food was alright, although HK$75 for a small bowl of butter chicken seemed overpriced to me.

What made me infuriated was the service. First, our food took at least 1/2 hour to come. I could understand the wait, as after we were seated, the resturant became fully packed with people who went to watch tennis nearby. We asked them to check our order a few times, and finally, the waiter, with a very rushed and annoyed expression, served us with a basket of nann and a plate of steam rice. Yes, that was what we ordered, but should it come with the curry first?

Even if I could forgive the long wait for food, I couldn't forgive the abysmal attitude at the end. When the bill arrived, we noticed that a mango lassi was accidentally added to our bil. However, we had already signed the bill. So we told the waitor. Instead of cancelling the credit card receipt, he just dumped HK$30 with the bill. Yes, the mango lassi cost HK$30, but how about 10% service charge?

Althought it might only mean a few dollars, but it was an issue of proper service. How could you just expect a customer to just accept money in exchange for a bill that was wrong? There was no sorry, no explaination. Nothing. Just a bill with HK$30 extra. I told the waitor of the 10% service charge issue, and the waitor outrageous awarded me with a large 'Gosh!' and turned away without saying anything more. Excuse me? Manners?

I couldn't resist but stand up and say that it wasn't my fault for the mix up and left the restaurant immediately.

The food was just ok, the price was not worth the environment and food quality, and worse of all the service was just plain unexcusable. It wasn't even a case of a customer being overdemanding.

Never going back again.

The first time I came to this restaurant, I thought I was back in my time in London when there were many small Indian restaurants like Palki. They were a bit no frill but the food standard was really high. So when we came for the first time, we thought it was such a find.

One way or another, more than a year has passed since our first visit. Many times I suggested coming back with our elder daughter as she didn't come the last time, someone would have a sore throat, or didn't feel like eating spicy food or not in the area and many other excuses.

Last Sunday, even though my husband complained about his hundred day cough, we decided to come back. My elder daughter immediately thought it was like an Indian restaurant in London as soon as we sat down. The chefs and servers all looked Indian which gave us even more confidence.

We ordered Lamb Masala, butter chicken, curry crab and a dahl (curry lentil and red bean), 3 naans and one paratha. One dish came with a soup.

The soup was strange as it was a bit like a cream of vegetable soup but a bit spicy. Can't say I liked it, so lucky it was only one bowl.

The curries and breads took a while to arrive as they were being cooked fresh. That was why they were all delicious and yet all tasted very different. if you know Indian cuisine, you will know that there isn't just one sauce that is called curry. The dishes are all different combinations of spices, herbs and other ingredients. Although the crab wasn't big, it had a nice firm texture, sweet flesh and is what we call a flower crab. It was only $145, so very reasonable for any crab dish.

Apologies for the photos as we all forgot about taking photos and started eating. The breads were spectacular. I like paratha more but the rest of my family like naan more. Paratha is made with butter in the dough before being pan fried. Nan is baked in a Tandoori oven. I had a good friend at school who was Indian and once stayed with her sister's family in Ipswich, England for a few days and even ate with my hands very clumsily, that's how I began to love Indian food

My husband ordered a popular Indian desert, dough balls in syrup which he said was one of the best he has had, it came piping hot. We will definitely come back and I have told many friends about this little gem of a restaurant. It beats having to go all the way to India or London for good Indian food

My boyfriend and I went to this Indian restaurant to celebrate Chinese New Year and the Valentine's day.

First waiting time was very long. The guests at the next table and we had to check on our orders several times. Then the staff gave our dish to the guests at the next table by mistake, and when he found out he simply took it away from the guests without explanation and apology. After a couple of minutes, the staff brought back the same dish(already touched by other guests) to my boyfriend and me, and only took it away after we challenged him and insisted him to change. He was very rude while he took away the dish. We ordered two serves of nann. When the second serve came, we've not finished the first one. A female staff took away our unfinished nann without asking for our permission. I challenged her, and when she realized it she took back the nann and threw it back to us with her hands. She was even more rude than the previous male staff, and stared at us till we left.

We've never seen such service and behavior before. Additionally, the food was plain. There was actually not much meat and veggie in each dish, pretty much only sauce.

This is my 2nd time to have dinner there~

As my bf had a heavy tea, we only ordered 4 dishes~
1) potato salad - very yummy but quite spicy. I must try it again next time.
2) Garlic Naan - Hot, crispy at its bottom
3) Lamp Naan - Ok, but I expect it has more lamp
4) 奶汁咖喱雞 - couldn't remember its exact name. For me it's so-so because its sause doesn't taste strong.

Overall it's still good~

1. Visited the Palki Indian Restaurant on 11 Sep 2009 (Fri) evening. Seated at 7:00 p.m. To my surprise, without asking for the bill, the waiter delivered the bill to my friend and I at 8:10 p.m. and asked us to check out repeatedly (at least for three times).

2. We informed the waiter that we wish to order some desserts. The waiter was angry and passed us the menu. We looked at the menu for a few minutes and the waiter came and asked us to check out again. We informed him that we are going to order some desserts but the waiter said that no desserts are available.

3. The waiter ordered us to check out again because people are waiting outside the restaurant. We said that we will order some food but the waiter was do angry that he sounded a “jeep” to us to show that he was really annoyed.

4. We were never informed that we are only allowed to stay in the restaurant for only one hour or so. The waiter’s explanation is that it was Friday and if it was other weekdays, we could stay longer.

5. I cannot imagine that such standard of service could still be found in Hong Kong. Andy Lau’s promotion about Hong Kong’s quality of service probably does not work too well.

6. Sorry, we will never go to this restaurant nor recommend it to our friends.

I ordered Chicke Korma, basmati rice, mango lassi, and a coffee on a weekday evening.

Friendly staff, quick service (the only reason I stayed to try the coffee)
Price inexpensive but surely can't stand up to competition in the neighbourhood
Nice ambiance (Quiet, indian music in background), not very crowded at all
Average food
Mango lassi (not too sweet with some syrup-looking garnish)
Chicken Korma was tasteless, chunky chicken but no nutts, no vegetables (contrary to one of the reviews) just some curry with minimal spice
Rice ok
coffee was HK-style, most likely some instant stuff with condensed milk

This Wed is my fd birthday.
She and I both love indian food, so I took her to this restaurant. I love indain food as I love the taste of herbs and spicy. Today I read the AM 730 and note that curry help ppls to keep good memory.....

I come restaurant many time, I order the below dishes as below:

1) Chicken Tikks: It is served in a very hot place....very hoe with smoke....smell very good.
It is in red color (it is herb anmd spices), the taste really go in the chicken and the testure is really good. I give it 95 marks.

2) Masala Lamp curry: It ios my another favourite dish. I love lump...I like the strong taste of it. Some ppls think it was smelly....but I think it was tasty...
The masala curry here is not too spicy , the spicy is in moderate, very suitable for HK ppl.
Curry is perfect with naan.

3) Garlic Naan: It was hot and taste good, a little bit oily....but I love it

4) Aloo Gubi: It is a vegetable dish. Potato withG flower. The curry taste is very good with the vegetable and potato. The testure of potato is good.

5) Mushroon rice: Nice, the muchroom is quite big....good...

6) Strawbeery Lassi: After wat the spicy and herb...it is very nice to drink sweet and sour cold berverage!!

We will come here next time again....
We support here.

For consecutive years, boxing day has always been "Christmas Party Leftovers days" for our family. This year fortunately no more. The three of us decided that a fresh start was needed, and we were delighted to try Palki at Tin Hau. Previously tried the same joint's Chicken Tikka Masala in Shau Kei Wan -- that was another story. This time I was determined to ditch that bad experience. Arriving past noon there were nobody there. The Bollywood music was flowing but not a soul could be seen. I walked straight into the kitchen as the manager popped his head with joy and greeted us. We found a table near the corner. The manager was sunny of a man shuffling the loose menus. He arranged them neatly as he settled by our table, he nodded and introduced the specials.

I had my "uh-oh" moment to see "Masala Lobster' and "Masala Crab" on the chalk board as daily specials. The concept never crossed my mind, I couldn't stop wondering whether the lobster will still taste remotely a member of the crustacean family, or will it be over-smeared with spices and turned into something that tasted like chicken? I swallowed my own questions, and ordered. Quickly enough we ordered Pappas, then a plain naan to go with Chicken Korma (Chicken cooked in a mild cashew based sauce), Palak Paneer (Cheese cubes in Spinach sauce), samosas (half vegetarian, half lamb), and above all, a Lamb Vindaloo (Lamb with fiery hot curry sauce). The manager nodded with certain respect that we're fearless to try the three-chili rated vindaloo. He disappeared into the kitchen while we looked around.

The decor was typical -- ethnic beading and embroided cloth piled neatly and hung up from the ceiling. The Bollywood music consisted of some catchy tunes I heard from some famous Indian movies in recent years. In a flash our food arrived. The Pappas were roasted crispy like chips. Served with two sauces -- a tangy plum sauce with subtle heat, and a mint-coriander yogurt sauce that's thinner than most but tasty throughout. The combination of hot plum sauce, quenched by the minty yogurt is refreshingly enough. The samosas were the chef's easy way out. Instead of the thicker stretched dough we usually have, these were made with "spring roll wrappers". Before we had time for disappointment, we bit into one samosa. The vegetarian one was filled with fluffy mashed potato with pigeon peas throughout. It tasted like potato, not a mush of leftover vegetables from the night before. The peas crunched like petite pois from Spring. Lamb samosas are surprisingly dry and crumbly on the lamb's part, but not crumbly enough to get all over onto the plate and bounce off onto your shirt. Not like that at all. The lamb was a flavorful mince with plenty of cumin added to it.

The Curries arrived next. Chicken Korma was the colour of custard yellow, unlike most Kormas that come out golden like mango lassi. In this Korma, cashews were toasted, ground and cooked over heat with various spices before adding pieces of chicken tenders. Cooking with cream thickened the sauce quite a bit, making it the perfect dish to mop up with the naan bread. The chicken pieces were moist and juicy throughout. The naan came out fresh from the kitchen, smelling like freshly baked bread. The bread was soft and pillowy and there was not an ounce of staleness you can detect from naans alike elsewhere. Lamb Vindaloo arrived next -- the sauce is a crimson shade with a fiery quality that smelled of stimulating heat. One taste, the tongue felt a ticklish sensation and in no time the entire mouth was filled with a tomato-base spicy curry, with an eruption of lingering heat throughout. The lamb was in bigger chunks that may need an extra pair of teeth to chew them into pieces, but the sauce was so rich and delicious and hot that we didn't care much for the meat. The sauce was Great!

Palak Paneer (Palak = Spinach while Paneer = cheese) looked disappointing before we dipped our spoons into it. We've been used to the ones when the spinach was cooked through into a mush while cheese cubes were lightly fried and blended throughout. This one was surely different, as the cheese were fried crusty while the spinach wasn't quite cooked down to a puree or in fact, tasted of spinach at all. It tasted very much like baby food warmed up with fennel and fenugreek seeds. The yellow and green bits blended throughout a thick sauce did not make this very appetizing to look at either. Finishing the meal was easy, we ordered one more naan to mop up the last bit of everything.

We purposely didn't order a lassi, as we have set our next stop around the corner for an old-style HK milk tea. We held our breath slowly as we paid our check. Pondering the possibilities of those spices and candies served in joints like Branto and Viceroy. There weren't any, but the manager smiled at us sincerely, asking for our comments before we leave we certain degree of satisfaction. The meal has been good throughout, even for post-Christmas fare it's wonderful. There's no doubt about it. Now that the review's coming to an end, I would strongly suggest my dear readers to avoid any froufrou foodstuff -- anything that's too complicated or you've never heard before, or too outrageously strange may turn out to be "too complicated" and "outrageously strange" to be considered Indian Food. And for desserts, there are plenty of desserteries in Tin Hau. I'm not sure a lot of people here love Gulab Jamun, especially when served hot! You can always go across the streets for conventional choices of Chinese/ Western desserts alike.

the food of this restaurant is quiet nice,i m a regular customer of this restaurant,i saw there r alot of bad comments about this restaurant here,i think these bad comment is made by thier competiter to attack them and most of it is made by non registered members

The food here is very oily and thick. Furthermore not tasty when compare to many other curry houses. You dont have to eat a lot in order to feel very full and have lots of dreams at night casused by "Mai Ching". This restaurant is overpriced and the service was horrible. I ordered the naan with the curry while the naan arrived within 5 mins and the curry arrived in 15 mins. The indian manager from the other comment sounded scary, too. I think I will never visit this restaurant again. This restaurant is just Not my cup of tea. 2 persons with 1 naan, 2 rice, 2 curry and one sour soup (tasted very Bad) cost $250 HKD which I think is totally wrong for this sort of quality