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 Nick Dent finds creamy goodness and hot, hot heat at Tandoori Palace.
The problem with having white skin is that people in Indian restaurants assume I’m a candy-ass when it comes to curry. I was sitting in Tandoori Palace with Dr Love (Sri Lankan-English) and a ladyfriend of his (Indian-Australian) when the latter turned to me and asked, “So, how do you cope with the hot curries?”
Look, I admit my alabaster complexion turns a livid scarlet in the presence of heat, but that doesn’t mean I’m not coping. The fact is, the doctor and I are both curry-mad, and systematically working our way through the subcontinental diners of Darlinghurst. If we have any advice for all you restaurateurs out there, it’s this: could you please make your curries a bit hotter? This may be the gay mile, but that doesn’t mean your cooking should be limp-wristed.
Tandoori Palace, we’re pleased to report, is surprisingly butch on the heat front. Perhaps they got the hint when Dr Love ordered a chicken karahi ($15.90) – which isn’t on the menu, by the way, he just wanted it. The waiter smiled and nodded knowingly and brought out a pleasingly peppery, tomato-flavoured curry that raised the temperature a notch. The lamb rogan josh ($15.90) was also a great effort, tender chunks of meat in a sauce with depth and warmth.
Bhindi masala ($12.90) was a hot vegetarian curry of okra – that green ladyfinger thing that’s like an eggplant on a diet – and potato, and the chef proved he didn’t need to use something’s flesh to keep us interested. To balance out all this heat we selected everyone’s all-time favourite, butter chicken ($15.90). Rarely is the dish so worthy of the name – so buttery, thick and creamy, you felt like applying to your face after a good hard exfoliation. We did apply it to our faces, of course, but not in that way.
Complimentary pappadums were great, but it would have been nice to have some sauces to dip them in. The pastry on our two samosas ($6.90) was crisp and flaky and the vegetarian contents soft and delicious. The rice ($2.50 a head) was flecked with multicoloured grains – red, blue, yellow – which was cheery without being over the top. I hate it when Indian restaurants disguise kitchen mediocrity with Bollywood flim-flammery, but with its cool modern fit-out Tandoori Palace doesn’t hit you over the head with saris and patchouli – and nor does it need to.
Perhaps if I’d been dining with other Anglos they would have soft-pedalled the spice for the poor whiteys. I don’t know. All I know is that for once I was glad to have ordered a cooling lassi ($4.50). Keep bringing on the heat, my friends – I can take it.
Tandoori Palace
86 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst
Tel: 9331 7072
Bookings: 0412 794 152
tandooripalace.com.au
Open:
Sun-Thu 5:30pm-10:30pm
Fri-Sat 5:30pm-11:30pm
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