Indian Village (Closed)

I've had my eye on Indian Village for a while. As of this writing it has 24 smilies and 0 frowny faces, which is to me very impressive. You can't even cheat to get such a rating. If you pay a bunch of people to say it's good, you can't stop the people you didn't pay from saying it's bad. Well, I can say I won't be the first to give it a frowny face.We started with the samosas. For six people, we got two orders of 4 pcs. One of the orders was vegetable samosa, and then we decided to change it up and get lamb as well. I was not a fan of the lamb samosas. I had imagined that it would be lamb chunks in addition to potatoes and peas, but instead it was just ground lamb, and it was just OK. The pastry it comes in is excellently flaky, but not as crisp as I like. The vegetable samosas were better, but their interior was on the mushy side. I would rate the lamb ones C+ and the veggie ones B+ (great). The mint chutney was standard and slightly disappointing.Here follows three pictures. The dishes are: Lamb Roganjosh; Chicken Kadai; and Fish Masala. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to puzzle out from the pictures which is which! Descriptions and ratings after the photos...The general thing I'll say about this restaurant is that they have all the northern classics on the menu, and they're all good-to-great. Not fantastic, but solid. Better than Chungking Mansions, better than Gaylord and Jashan in my opinion, but not quite as good as Bombay Dreams/ Tandoorie Nights-- though I haven't been to those restaurants in ages, so maybe things have changed.The Lamb Roganjosh was good. The curry sauce was flavorful and the lamb was tender. Not mystifyingly tender, where you wonder how meat can't melt, but y'know, tender. B or B+. The Kadai Chicken, a favorite of mine, was also good. It was a little bit spicy. It's tough for me to really say what I thought about it. I fell in love with this dish at this Punjabi restaurant I used to frequent and so I order it a lot. It's wok-style stir fried onions and peppers in a tomato-y gravy. But I'm rarely wowed by it. I think it's the spice and the fat. The stuff at my Punjabi place was greasy as all get out and firey hot. I can't really blame a restaurant for not taking that direction, ah, but I do miss it. B or B+.The Fish Masala: originally someone wanted the Goan Fish Curry-- and I do like Goan food, though we were already getting Vindaloo-- but somehow the picture on the menu of the Fish Masala just convinced me to convince everyone else to get it. And I wasn't disappointed. There's this psychological phenomenon where you like the things you choose better than those same things if you didn't choose them, but I think there was something beyond that effect here. Again, I ate a lot of things with a lot of complex flavors while conversing with 5 other people, so the details are hazy, but I was impressed and do recommend this dish. Excellent, A-The Dahl Makhni was just as you'd expect. Creamy and delicious in the way you'd never make yourself at home because you don't have the guts to put in all that cream. It takes a lot to stand out, however, so I'm giving this a B+The Prawn Vindaloo: I don't know, I feel as though somebody sapped all the character out of Vindaloo (probably the British). I cook it relatively regularly from a handful of recipes I've acquired over the years and it's always a bevy of textures and aromas and spices and chili heat with tart undertones. But somehow at every restaurant here it's just some featureless puree, maybe hot, maybe not, but just kind of boring. This was medium-ish spicy. Alright. CHere is an image of my plate with all the goodies.Oddly enough, the Aloo Gobi arrived long after we'd finished everything else. This was a saucier version than my favorite dry-fried kind, and it was a little on the mushy side. C as well.After dinner at the bar, one of my friends correctly pointed out that I don't give out many "A's" in my reviews, and this is true. "A" I have reserved for "excellent" and by that I mean that it really hits the spot, it deserves to be in the city guide book, it's like-- if I want that, this is where I'll get it. And it's tought to rise to that level. So B and B+ are "good" and "great" for me. That means, since I'm giving this place a B-to-B+, it is good-to-great to me. You won't go wrong going here. I'll probably even come back. It's not one for the ages. It's not the alpha and the omega. But it is good-to-great. continue reading

今次由狼仔執筆寫食評, 又我帶大家去中環試D新菜式， 豬女突然想試D重口味的野， 於是乎選了食印度夜。不過，行到結志街附近，忽然彈出一隻老鼠， 嚇到豬女花容失色，所以大家夜晚到中環食飯都系小心D啦！Ok都系講番D夜食先，呢間印度菜既賣點系其食物較為傳統， 總括來說味道較為辣，更用了不少既香草來調味， 如果平時肚子食慣清D既食物既話，呢間餐廳就不太合適啦!我地總共叫了四道菜： Chicken Tikka (6pcs), Chicken Saagwala, Garlic Naan， Chick Biryani。先來了個Chicken Tikka， 用鐵板既方式來載， 食落去既質感少少香脆，略帶點辣。 建議鐵板其實可以不用燒得咁熱， 因為如果D雞塊不是即時攞起， 就會燒焦!Chicken Saagwala其實不可以話系咖哩，因為個presentation系將D波菜煮到糜爛， 再伴上雞塊而已！不過其實味道算系清新特別，連狼仔去過印度， 食盡地道野都未試過!個Garlic Naan其實幾普通， 但是價錢就$28， 仲要得四塊添！建議咖哩可以再rich同juicy D。最後是個Chick Biryani， 系一道好典型既印度菜， 材料都好多， 加上花生，雞塊， 不同的香草去豐富口感。不過略嫌辣左少少，D辣感在我的舌上維持左好一陣子！想起在印度backpack時食過$10炒飯，望見呢個價錢($85) 實在太傷心了！ continue reading

在中上環閒逛，想找一間寧靜的餐廳食飯，在open rice search後，找到它。食物的味道不錯，整體的味道都中上水平，上菜速度亦很快,做到served hot雖然在皇后大道往卑利街要行上一段上斜路，但環璄很舒服，不太吵，不太靜。侍應的服務不俗，會因應需要加水。 continue reading

卑利街食店多的是，論特色/味道/環境/價錢，Indian Village 性價比一定高。餐廳天花掛了一系列印度色彩的吊燈，光線柔和又有氣氛。盡頭位置有間以帳簾間隔的房間，透出藍色的光，感覺神秘。剛到步時，人不多，7時才只有一枱客。我選了舒適的沙發位置坐下，先 order 杯人人都讚不絕口的 Mango Lassi。聽說是傳統印度特飲，芒果蓉和原味乳酪的混合，果味豐富，不太甜，很 rich 很 refreshing。待應隨後奉上 crispy 胡椒薄餅，伴3種醬汁，分別是帶酸的香草乳酪，醬油 feel 的帶甜醬汁，有醃菜的辣茄蓉東西。由於前來時做過資料搜集，想吃的都 plan 好了。先來是芝士烤雞腿，整體其實不錯，鉄板上，火候夠，仲好香好惹味，只是奇怪完全吃不出芝士的味道，好遺憾。。。瑪沙拉大蝦，我覺得這個瑪沙拉汁用來點薄餅食最好，印度風味十足，好像是用薑和一堆香料，再混和蕃茄一起煮成蓉。唯一敗筆是用雪藏蝦，蝦味口感皆欠奉。埋單時，待應奉上七彩香草糖果粒粒，色彩繽紛，見到就開心。以前也吃過印度菜，今次卻是第一次嚐到這可愛的東西，咬落陣陣香草味在口腔中，甜甜地，很有趣呢！ continue reading

Zoe其實挺愛吃印度菜的，可是有水準又正宗的印度菜在香港買少見少。復活節假期中，Zoe就跟好友覓食到中環，終於找到一家正宗又有水準的印度餐館了！說的就是這家位於中環卑利街的Indian Village。雖然位於中環，但位置有點隱蔽。可是這也有點好處，就是旺中帶靜，可以靜靜享用一頓美味的晚餐。Indian Village的面積不算大，大約只容納到25-30人左右。餐廳的盡頭有一間用布廉遮掩的小房間，適合三五知已共聚談心用。全家餐廳的佈置充滿印度色彩，亦很雅緻。坐下來後，便有這個薄餅跟醬汁奉上。Zoe一直都很喜歡香脆的食物，這個薄餅尤其喜歡，但就不知道它正確的名字。一般的正宗印度餐廳都會以這個作為餐前小食。薄餅香脆，本身有點咸味及胡椒味。奉上的醬汁分別有帶咸的香草味、酸甜味與辣味。Zoe個人比較喜歡香草味，能令薄餅更醒胃呢！香燒春雞 $90/半隻 $156/全隻朋友聽說這兒的香燒春雞好吃，所以第一道她便點半隻。老實說，Zoe對雞一向没有偏好，但這燒雞調味很入味，灑上檸檬汁，令燒雞更醒胃。雞肉燒得外脆內軟，火喉適中。說是半隻，竟是兩隻雞腿，這點很讚！瑪沙拉大蝦　$101這是店主的推介！瑪沙拉是用酸奶、番茄醬和香料作的醬汁，還加入了一些番茄。味道酸酸辣辣的，單吃的話，對怕辣的Zoe來說有點吃不消，但伴飯或烤餅的話，反而非常醒胃。別小看這盤子小小的，原來入面也有很多隻蝦。雖然吃得出是雪藏蝦，但因為瑪沙拉的味道濃郁，可以蓋過蝦大部份的雪藏味，所以味道也不錯，蝦肉也不覺得靭。菠菜芝士　$78這個又是店主推介的菜色！是款很有特色的蔬菜菜色。賣相實是不太討好，令人想起給嬰兒吃的菜茸。裏面有一粒一粒的芝士，但芝士味道不算濃。Zoe本身對菠菜有點抗拒，但這道菜茸加了芝士後，倒易入口了，味道層次豐富，只是多吃會有點膩。特色蝦炒飯　$105總要點些麵飯來飽肚。這個炒飯用上的當然是米身尖幼細長的印度米，米飯的口感較乾爽，炒飯上面舖滿小蝦乾，十分惹味。炒飯跟上酸乳酪奉上，加入酸乳酪後，炒飯帶酸味，更是醒胃，可是Zoe還是比較喜歡以瑪沙拉來伴炒飯，味道更濃郁，帶辣的味道，更能刺激味蕾！蒜茸烤餅 Garlic Naan $28別小看以上的各款菜色size小小的，其實已經足以令我們2個女生吃得飽飽的，只是到了印度餐館，不點一個印度烤餅，總覺得有點美中不足，於是我們又點了這個印度烤餅。鬆軟的烤餅加上清淡的蒜茸味，沾上瑪沙拉來吃，又是一大讚的美食！Mango Lassi 及凍檸茶本想點印度甜品，可是真的太飽了，所以便點飲品算吧！凍檸茶没甚麼特別，反是Mango Lassi 很有印度特色！濃濃的芒果配微酸乳酪，容易入口之餘，也有消滯及幫助消化的作用。 continue reading