Khyber Pass     咖喱王  

Visited the restaurant after the peak dinner time, I was immediately shown to a table upon entering the place.

Ordered a Lamb Masala, Garlic Naan and a beer.

The Lamb Masala tasted great, had about 6 small pieces of meat. The Garlic naan was okay.

Overall had a very nice meal and the staff were great!

Called the same morning to reserve a table for three at 6PM.

It was our first encounter with the notorious Chungking Mansions and since we had the address we thought it would be easy to find the restaurant on the 7th floor. But it turned out to be quite a maze (mess) inside the Chungking Mansions, after a several attempts by standing at the wrong elevator we asked a security guard and he arranged for us the flyerboy from Khyber Pass to guide us to the correct elevator. Inside the elevator there was another guy who led us to the entrance of Khyber Pass. From the flyerbor we got a "Member VIP Gold Card" which will provide us a 20% discount from the bill, talking of a nice surprise to start the evening with.

The restaurant was small and looked like a miniature school canteen with a couple rows of tables and chairs. Since it was quite early, we got to choose where to sit. We chose a table at the second last row where it looked more spacious and where the waiters would (hopefully) not constantly bump into you while eating.

Once seated the waiter offered us complimentary Papadums with Mint sauce. The Papadums were a bit salty and the Mint sauce a bit watery. The menu was simple and offered: chicken, mutton, fish, veggies and Biryani dises. A chubby lady waitress asked us if we were ready to order and her service level was really below average, she was in one word ill-tempered. She told us to order by the name of the dishes instead of giving her the numbers of the dishes, she was not attentive or simply not listening because she only jotted down half of the dishes we wanted to order and told us that it is not enough if we are going to share with three. We kindly asked her to repeat everything we ordered and mentioned to her that she missed out a couple of things, she turned red, we placed the whole order again and she did not return to our table anymore for the rest of the evening.

We decided to share one order of vegetarian Samosas as a starter which came in a portion of 4 pieces, no sauce was offered with the Samosa. It was crispy on the outside, but we thought the dough was on the thick side and the Samosa filling was not spiced enough.For main we ordered:
- Beef Kebab (yes: beef)
- Fiery hot Mutton Vindaloo
- Baingan Bharta
- Curry Mint Mutton
- Mixed salad
- 2x Garlic Naan and Aloo Naan

The Beef Kebab came first on a sizzling hot plate and the waiter adviced us to eat it as quick as possible, since it will not taste good once chilled down. No regrets on ordering the Beef Kebab, the meat was tender and bursting of flavours.The other dishes followed quite quickly. The mixed salad was nothing other than sliced cucumbers, tomato, a bunch of lettuce, topped of with Indian spices and a lemon part. True it was nothing special, but along with the spicy dishes it was nice to have a cool and refreshing 'salad' to chill down the taste buds. The Mutton Vindaloo, Curry Mint Mutton and Baingan Bharta were almost served simultaneously.

The Vindaloo was disappointing, it was not fiery hot and there were only 5 pieces mutton, whereas half were bones and 2 big chunks of potatoes. The Curry Mint Mutton was bland in taste as well and resembled also more bones than actual meat. The Baingan Bharta was mashed well, but no roasted egg plant taste or spices to be found. Garlic Naan and Aloo Naan both looked good in presentation, but once again very bland in taste. Khyber Pass = Bland = Boring

On that day when i pass through the Chung King Mansion, I really want to try the indian curry, but so many people give me their name card, and i finally choose the 7E Khyber pass.

When i arrive one and the only one waitress serve me to sit down and she is very kindly and funny to introduce the menu to me, and late on i order muttom curry, tandorie Chicken, fry pigeon and panner paratha firstly.

very very tasty and wonderful, especially the pigeon and mutton curry, very delicious that i never had, whatever the enviroment a bit urgly, but the food is really really tasty.

It's a really hot day and I and my friend really need something that can get our stomach moving. We settled at ChungKing Mansion and picked this restaurant for our dinner tonight.

We ordered:

Samosa: Hot and Crispy, too bad that they didn't provide any sause for dipping as in many other indian restaurants. The lack of dipping made the samosa tastes a bit dull

Chicken tikka masala: The masala tastes good and a bit spicy, while the chicken tikka is tender but the flavor is a bit lacking. However the dish is good enough and it's a nice dish to be eaten with the naan.

Aloo paratha: The "potato naan" is nice and crispy, but too bad that the restaurant didn't put much mashed potato as filling of the parantha. It's a good dish though.

Garlic naan: The naan is hot, with good texture and a strong garlic flavor. Taste very nice when accompanied by the masala.

Lamb grill: The lamb is tender with a rich herb flavor. However some of the lamb is slightly overcooked and the outside of the grill is quite charcoaled, I guess I was because of the hot plate they used to serve the lamb grill.

Mango lassi: Quite nice but they used concentrated mango juice instead of fresh mango. Nevertheless a good drink while enjoying Indian food

A nice experience overall, but I guess the another restaurant in the other side of the mansion is slightly better then this one.

Went to this place a while ago with a bunch of friends. The first few times were very good. But this time food quality dropped dramatically for some reason. Not sure if it's a one time thing or not. Used to be my favorite Indian restaurant but there are just too many curry places in the same building that I haven't tried, no reason for me to re-visit this place again.

Came here with some friends to show them what Chungking is like.

As I've been to the Delhi Club several times and Taj Mahal (which i didn't like) i chose this place as I've never visited. We ordered the following drinks:

Mango Lassi
Mangoes used in this drink weren't Phillipine mangoes, I suspect they were the green round indian mangoes or australian (huge) mangoes, as they were sweet in a different way. It was a unique lassi and pretty good.

Rose tea (iced)
There was a clear rose flavour but was way too sweet. I left this drink aside.

iced lime soda
LIke a regular lime soda, but it would've tasted much better if it were colder.

And for food...

Chicken Makhni
Makhni or Makhani is also known as 'butter chicken' which is meant to be the least spicy of indian curries... The version here was slightly spicier than I expected, but really quite mild and very tasty indeed. I think this was the favourite between us!

Chicken Masala
The chicken masala was chicken thigh, which meant very, very tender meat! The sauce itself was also spicy and excellent.

Fish Tikka
This took the longest to arrive, and probably should have not because it was greatly overdone. The fish flesh was tough and slightly chewy... incomparable to the black cod tikka from Spice Restaurant or Seabass Tikka from HKJC's Food Plaza.

naan bread
Not as fluffy as I expected, but arrived right after being made so it was hot and crisp. We were convinced to order two, as the waiter said each order was for one....he made it seem smaller than the actual size, but upon arrival it was pretty massive! Mental note to order one between two in the future.

Roti bread
The roti was flat and round with lots of brown spots from the tandoor oven. When it arrived it was hot and really very tasty but I find that once it cooled it was no longer good - hard and chewy =(.

Getting good Indian food in Hong Kong is not easy. If you go to most of the places on the island you’re likely to be dissapointed by half hearted, almost bland, attempts at different curries and preheated onion bhajis. A much better bet is to head over to Chungking Mansions which clusters a lot of the local India community and promises a much more authentic experience.

Khyber Pass has for a long time been my pick of the different offerings in the mansion. When I visited several years ago, Khyber Pass offered curries cooked so that their different flavours were more intense, a wider range of different types of dishes and breads, and a generally more pleasant atmosphere.

The balance of spices in the sauces at Khyber is its main strength, although the tandori dishes are also supposed to be good. The saag curries have spinach potent in flavour with a nice course texture that goes best with tender white chunks of chicken. We had the mutton saag however, and the sauce was let down by large chunks of lamb that were tastless and far too tough.

Mutton jalfrezi suffered from the same poor quality meat. Really the lamb should break apart into soft chunks. The jal frezi also lacked that slight piquancy which can make jal frezi so interesting. It had nicely balanced spices, but didn’t really leave you with a striking impression. The chicken mahkani was good however, with the really rich, subtly spice creaminess which makes this dish so satifying.

Several other smaller complaints might further push me to look elsewhere. The popadoms came with tomato sauce. The waitress who took our order didn’t really listen properly and kept suggesting different things in an attempt to push the price up. The restaurant now serves alcohol and although the didn’t make a fuss about us drinking our own bottles, indicated that this was unwelcome in future. Other restaurants in Chungking allow you to bring your own.

It's the end of the sem break, my first sem break.
We decided to have a Indian dinner to end this.

I know this restaurant is recommended by Ar So n little fat girl had tried be4, so we
wanted to try it once again!

Samosa : I think the cover is too thick, used too much powder to make the cover. N inside is not that bad. it had potatos n little bit of meat there. I think it's okay.
Cheese pizza : It's great. if u love cheese, u must like it. It's full of cheese n wont feel very oily.

Spicy Chicken : The waiter told me that it's juz a BIT spicy but it's not true! It's quite spicy to me. The sauce is gd but the chicken is not really gd coz I dont feel like eating a chicken. n it's rough.

Curry lamb : it's better than the chicken. the flavor of lamb really go into the curry.
n the taste of the lamb is gd.

This sem break is all about eating n sleeping but it's fruitful! =D
Try this restaurant. It's good.

Good that we know our way otherwise it would be a while before we can find Block E. It was my first time here and the place seems cozy enough and of a typical Indian restaurant at Chung King Mansions.

It is a bit ghetto but it is as expected so can't really compliant. The first thing I ordered was a glass of Mango Lassi to cure my thirst. We were Nan bread fans so we called both Cheese Nan and also plain Nan. The Cheese Nan was nice but more cheese would be even better. It can be served without anything but itself as a starter if you want. In order to accompany the plain Nan, we ordered the Lamb Masala (med spiciness) and a Fish Madras (little spiciness). The lamb was surprisingly tender while the fish was surprisingly hard. The two dishes were of two different types of curry. The Masala is more like spicy gravy paste while the Madras is the typical yellow curry. I personally prefer the Madras curry because it is less spicy but I found the Masala's aftertaste richer, a good match with the Nan.

In addition to Nan, I am also a big fan of Indian Style Basmati Rice (3 colours rice) because I think it goes really well with curry. The Basmati Rice here were cooked with chicken oil which certainly enhanced its flavor. For some reason the grain they used was the shorter kind. Overall it was alright. It was a very fulfilling day indeed. The only negative thing I can think of is that even after exercising / sweating for the whole day, not only did I not lose any weight, I might have gained some from the dinner !!! .....

Date & Time: Weekday, Night time
Selected Dishes: 2 Curry Chicken Dishes, 1 Steam Rice, 1 drink- Mango Lassi
Mood: Disappointed

My bf and me are used to go to 7/F so often. But recently the food quality is dropped a lot maybe due to the economic crisis and have to cut cost !!?
Not my favourite restaurant anymore.....

1) Cold Steam Rice
They served us a plate of COLD STEAM RICE, when I was eating it ; the rice seems smell liked was cooked a long time ago and put into the fridge last night.

2) Water-added Mango Lassi
Compare with the past, the favor of Mango Lassi was dropped and it's clearly to taste that some water was added into Mango Lassi and not fresh and tasty anymore.

3) Recommend to Try Mango Lassi in G/F Shama Restaurant
Recently I just went to G/F Shama restaurant that nearby the lift goes up to 7/F in C.K Bldg. and the Mango Lassi is much better but the food variety is not as many as in 7/F.

Fat Bug suggested to try Indian food in Chung Hing Building tonight as many people says Indian food here is good.
I heard the one in 7th fl is worth to try. So we walk in the building, smelly smelly! Peoples there look little bit strange and horrible. Finally we get to the restaurant. Once we walk in, the food smell so good. The tables are 90% full, and without waiting for a second, we've get a table.
We ordered one chicken curry, one prawn curry, and one potato Indian biscuit..with small to medium spicy. The food arrive quite fast and the taste is not bad.
The price is cheap too, since we are 'VIP member' (everyone there is VIP), we have 10% off.
We will definitely go there again.

the quality of food is good, however,the hygiene of this shop is real terrible.i saw a waiter use his own hand to pick up a pineapple which is drop on the table from the dish that he hold.last week i order the take away from the shop.few hours later, me and my freinds have diarrhoea and vomit seriously. of course, we take the few days medicien afterword.

Taste is okay. Food is too oily. Advice you give your order to the waiter in less oil. Price is cheap and also no service charge. Waiter frienly gesture. Overall, RECOMMEND.

This Tuesday, I go there again,
it changes a lot, my frine and I haven't been here for 1 year, we order 3 meals, the taste are bad, especially the curry chicken,
it is very very bad, just like curry water with no curry.
and the amount is too few, how can a curry chicken cost over $40, but it just have 3 PIECES OF CHICKEN AND 1 PIECE POTATO??
SO BAD

Dining at 重慶大廈is not an easy decision to make: shabby entrance, seedy atmosphere as if a Third World bazaar come alive. And then there are so many South Asian resturants competing with each other that you'll have to endure the 'hard sells' by their 鄉里before you set foot to the building. Since my favorite Indian resturant is 'Afgan Canteen' just a few blocks away, I seldom bother to go through all the trauma to have Indian food at 重慶大廈.
However, Khyber Pass (咖喱王) is popular with many OpenRice members and receives many favorable reviews. So naturally I was curious enough to try out 咖喱王last week with a group of friends to see if it's as good as Afgan Canteen.
(1) Dining Room -
咖喱王is located at a small suite, about 600-700 sq.ft. The space is so clamped that it can barely fits just under 40 customers, and that's includes a sealed balcony (!) which fits a table of 4. Customers can actually see the tiny kitchen and restroom located next to each other.
During rush hours (weekday evenings and weekends), late customers will have to queue outside the resturant for tables, and more often than not, they'll have to share tables with other customers, which I don't like .
(2) Staffs -
It's surprising to see one of the senior staffs there is a Cantonese so he can communicate easily with local customers. The other staffs and waiters (from South Asia) speaks English but friendly. However, during peak hours, their orders seems a little disorganzied and they look a bit dazed and confused to get the orders right. ^^;; As some customers kept asking about their beverges and food got delayed, but the staffs remains friendly and polite throughout. A plus!
(3) Menu -
The one-piece, bilingual menus (English and Chinese) makes ordering easy for local and foreign customers. The staffs and waiters will explain in case you stumbled on dishes you know nothing about. Having a Cantonese staff sure help things a lot.
(4) Food quality -
咖喱王offers North Indian / Pakistani cuisine. For dishes we ordered Tandoori Platter, Chicken Masala, Lamb Curry, Chicken Vindaloo, Bingan Bharta, Naan and Palao Rice.
With 'Tandoori Platter' you can sample many of the 'Tandor' food like chicken, keema kebab roll and other clay oven-BBQed food, the samples (esp. the Tandoori chicken) were a bit dry and smaller than those served at 'Afgan'. It's still quite tasty, though.
My friends tended to like 'Chicken Masala', probably because it was laced with the familiar coconut milk. The 'Lamb Curry' is decent, not spicy at all. Both dishes taste fine with me but not as special as...
'Chicken Vindaloo': I was the only one on the table who finished this fiery dish. Like Afgan's, 咖喱王's vindaloo did not compromise with Hong Kong customers, as it lighted up my tastebud, my nose and my senses very quickly! Its taste was pungent enough I could taste trace of vingear used in the dish. A good sign of a well-made vindaloo, but I thought it had less chicken and more potatoes than that of Afgan's. A small let down.
'Bingan Bharta' (marshed eggplant cooked with tomatos and onions): 咖喱王's 'Bingan Bharta' was red whereas Afgan's version (and other Ind rest.) was deep yellow. It looks a bit unusual but nevertheless it tasted good, albeit less hearty than that of Afgan's.
The 'Pulao Rice' is a bit cold, harder and lesser in serving quantity than those of Afgan's. On the other hand, its 'Naan' bread was warm, and quite big and tasty.
(5) Beverage quality -
My friends ordered 'Lime Soda' - very similar to those you can have at typical Vietnamese resturants. I ordered 'Sweet Lassi' - a typical Indian beverage make with plain yoghurt and sugar. Both were nice but were over-filled with ice.
Not worth the money
(6) Value for Money -
Both '咖喱王' and 'Afgan Canteen' have almost the same price range and good quality for their dishes, but quantity-wise, '咖喱王' dishes were only about 70% - 80% of what 'Afgan' has to offer. In this regard, 'Afgan' makes the most bang for your money.
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CONCLUSION -
It's not hard to understand why many local customers went to '咖喱王' - good food, cheap price, and friendly service. For the same price range and budget, however, 'Afgan Canteen' offers bigger dishes, more table and room, excellent service, and much relaxed and spacey atmosphere for your dining pleasure. If you want to enjoy quality Indian food without being clamped like a sardine, 'Afgan Canteen' is a much better alternative.