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2003-10-14
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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 memb
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.
张贴