Rapsy Restaurant, Munnar, India (Alissa and Don Eat Asia Day 16, Part 1)

I could have sworn the main restaurants in Munnar town were easier to find. We walked around the main city loop twice and just could not find either of the two restaurants in town that I wanted to eat at. By this stage of the trip, we'd entered the more relaxed portion of our holiday and my book of notes had become less necessary than it had been in Hong Kong and Mumbai. However, we needed the book now to help locate the elusive restaurants and I'd foolishly left them at the hotel. I was not going back down that pothole-ridden road just for the book so we had to just keep an eye out and hope for the best.

Little did we know that Silver Spoon (one of the restaurants recommended by Trip Advisor and Lonely Planet) was closed for renovations so we had no hope of finding it even though it is right in the middle of the main loop of town. We decided to try walking towards where the Tea Museum is, and as we walked up the road we found the other recommended restaurant in town – Rapsy Restaurant. From the outside, there is little to recommended it as it looks like any other restaurant in Munnar. The décor inside was very spartan, however it did at least look to be clean. As we sat down at a table a waiter handed us a notepad to write down our order:

If you're in the south and in particular Kerala, you have to have some fish curry. The curry itself was very good – having that sourness I associate with southern fish curry, but not overpoweringly so. Being a whole fish, I found the bones cumbersome, though I know this is the usual fare for this style. At the end of the day I'm hard to please when it comes to fish curries of the south as I much prefer the richer, creamier chicken and lamb curries of the north but I ended up eating this dish the most. Very enjoyable.

The other dish we ordered was the Chilli Chicken. This was done in a similar Chinese-inspired style to the squid at Trishna and was very tasty. Alissa liked this dish in particular and as I was happy with the fish curry I left this mostly for her to eat.

Alissa ordered chappathi at first, but when she saw the parotta I had ordered was basically roti paratha we ordered additional parotta to eat with our meal. The parotta was nice and layered in a way that is perfectly suited to the runnier consistency of southern curry, although a little crispier would have been nice.

The Verdict: Very Good

In a town like Munnar you're not not likely to find a high end restaurant like Indigo or Dum Pukht, or something a bit more casual but mindblowing like a Trishna. However, if you're looking for authentic South Indian food Rapsy is a very strong recommendation. I should also say that at roughly $5AUD for the two of us Rapsy is easily the cheapest meal complete meal we had in India, and that was with pretty free-flowing parotta as well. Considering we paid three times the price for the terrible service and stingy portions at Copper Castle, we would have rather eaten at Rapsy for a second time. Excellent value.  

Hornbill Restaurant, Munnar, India (Alissa and Don Eat Asia Day 15, Day 16, Part 2 & Day 17, Part 2)

I've really struggled with writing this post. Compared to a single dish or a meal served in courses, I find buffets to be less focused gastronomic experiences. Where you can focus on a plate of cogent and complimentary components, a buffet plate is a bit of everything piled together. Even when entertaining at home, I prefer to serve things in courses for this very reason. Still, having eaten there for breakfast and dinner for several days in a row, here is a brief overview of the Hornbill Restaurant experience.

Two years ago when I was last in Munnar I sent Alissa a text message that I was looking over fields of tea, and that I wish she could see it, and I sent the message to her at Hornbill. So coming here held special significance for us. As it turned out, we decided to stay at Blackberry Resort - the hotel that Hornbill is located within. 

Its a lovely location - situated on a slope and covered in creeper, the restaurant has views of the tea plantations below.

The service for breakfast and dinner is buffet style, with the menu changing slightly day to day. On our first night it was mostly Southern Indian, but on the night I took pictures of the spread on offer it had a lot more Northern Indian items. Additionally Chinese food is popular in India, and they do a fairly decent Stir Fried Noodles. 

Food is successfully kept warm in bains-marie that are kept closed to retain the heat. I thought they did a very good job of keeping the quality level up in a buffet situation. 

Here was my plate of food (clockwise from top right) - Chicken Do Pyaza, Butter Paneer, crispy Chilli Potatoes and the Stir Fried Noodles with some Saffron Rice underneath.

Alissa had a similar plate, but had a Mattar Paneer instead of the Stir Fried Noodles.

Everything was tasty, but the meat lacked that northern tandoor flavour and instead had a more southern twist. The curry gravies themselves were very good, and the harder halloumi-like paneer in the south has a nice squeaky chewiness to them that we both really liked. 

One issue we had with Hornbill was that while the buffet obviously had a lot of choices, there was no roti available. It was only after we'd already mostly eaten a whole plate of food that the staff came out and asked if we'd wanted a parotta. So parottas are available but they don't mention it straight away, and there is no sign or explanation that it will be cooked up when ordered. Make sure you ask for the bread if that is how you prefer to eat your curry. 

For dessert they have Ras Malai and Ice Cream. The Ras Malai was good, but we really liked the Ice Cream. They were all store bought ice cream and nothing compared to good gelato, but the flavours were always interesting day to day - and I just love ice cream anyway.

Verdict: Very Good
Though not mindblowing, the food at Hornbill is good enough that I would dine there even if I was not staying at Blackberry, as I have done in the past. They do Southern Indian very well here and their 'Southernised' Northern food is very tasty if lacking in that delicious tandoor flavour. 

Millets of Mewar, Udaipur, India (Alissa and Don Eat Asia Day 14, Part 1)

By the time I'm a week into India, the constant diet of curry starts to take its toll. Sure, there are a plethora of vegetarian options in India, but these are only marginally healthier with their liberal use of dairy products and ghee. The lack of fresh vegetables due to fear of food poisoning makes you seriously start to miss the simple pleasure of a crunchy raw vegetable or a healthy salad, and when you can find a place with reputable cleanliness its almost a godsend.

Located on the same west side of the lake as Ambrai but preceding the annoying alley of touting, Millets of Mewar proclaims itself as a 'Healthy Indian Fusion Restaurant' and is one of the few places outside of Jain restaurants that serve vegan food (most vegetarian restaurants in India are usually lacto-vegetarian). Serving a clientele of often dreadlocked, largely American hippie stereotypes, I was initially disappointed to see the first floor lacking in tables with only lizard lounge mattresses on the floor. While I don't mind sitting like this for a cup of coffee, I don't particularly like eating without a table. Thankfully, an upper floor with table and chair dining was offered to us.

The menu was filled with interesting and delicious sounding vegetarian dishes, including pizzas with the option of vegan cheese. Not being vegans this didn't particularly matter either way for us, however for those who don't touch dairy its worth noting. Alissa decided to go with the Mushroom Mixed Vegetarian Pizza, I went with the Indian Taco and excited by the idea of greens we decided to share a Spinach and Beetroot Salad, along with a Banana Date Shake with coconut milk and vegan raw date coconut ladoo balls.

The service here was terribly slow. It took them quite a while before they even came to take our order, and then once taken it seemed like an inordinately long wait before our dishes were brought out. At that point they also stated that the Spinach and Beetroot Salad was not available, so we went with Sprouted Bean Salad with Peanut and Tamarind instead as it also sounded very nice. 

My Indian Taco was pretty cool – two shells placed together filled with a moong bean paste, a coleslaw-like salad with mayo and a very nice salsa that tasted like it had hints of Indianised spice additions to the usual Mexican original. This was tasty and fresh. It was lovely chewing crunchy raw vegetables after so long!

Alissa Vegetarian Pizza was good too, seeming to use the same salsa sauce from my taco as a base. Though of course cooked, it was again still nice to have a vegetarian meal – especially combined with the comforting nature of decent pizza. I've definitely had better pizza back home in Perth, but it hit the spot on that day.

I should mention too that the Banana Date Shake was very tasty. Not exactly super healthy, but coconut milk worked very well with the banana and date flavours – better than milk would have.

After finishing our meals, we wait for a while of our salad. It never came. It seems like there must have been some mix up and our order for the Sprouted Salad never reached the kitchen. We were having a fairly chill day, but after all this wait we decided we didn't want the salad that much, and collected our ladoo balls, paid the bill and left. 

The ladoo balls were nice sweet desserts  – very much like raw vegan desserts I've had back home, but so much better because of the signature Indian dessert spice – cardamon. Cardamon is one of my favourite spices, and it definitely elevated the dish in my esteem. As far as being called a ladoo ball though – it tasted nothing like a 'real ladoo'. I quite dislike when a dish is 'veganised' but bears little resemblance in taste to the real thing. Nothing to do with it being vegan per se, but I feel this does the vegan version a disservice insofar as in my mind I'm expecting one flavour and getting something that does not at all match with the image in my head. So as a new, different dessert these ladoo balls were very good in their own right, however if you're expecting a raw vegan version that actually is close in taste to a traditional ladoo this is not the ladoo you're looking for.

The Verdict: Good

When you've been on a non-stop curry eating binge its nice to have a change. Millets of Mewar definitely was what we were looking for at the time, though in the great scheme of things its not necessarily the best vegetarian restaurant I've eaten at. But a far as a safe place to eat raw veges in Udaipur goes Millets of Mewar is a good option.

Ambrai, Udaipur, India (Alissa and Don Eat Asia Day 12, Part 2, Day 13 & Day 14, Part 2)

When it comes to restaurant location, Ambrai has few competitors in Udaipur. Located right on the lake on the quieter west bank of Lake Pichola, Ambrai is perfectly located for a stunning view of the lake, the City Palace and its surrounding area, and the Taj Lake Palace built on its own private island. For the best view, the table located at the very corner of the restaurant is the most prized, and given that this was our honeymoon I made reservations for the table for three nights in a row. Since we ate at Ambrai repeatedly we were able to try most of their signature dishes by our final night. As such rather than dealing with this meal by meal, we'll give an overview of all the dishes we tried.

The journey to Ambrai was a pleasant walk from our hotel Jaiwana Haveli, as you walk the streets near the city palace, down the laneways to the bridge across the river. Udaipur is really a magical city. Once you're on the western side however, its a walk through a gauntlet of sellers who taut constantly and try to find sneaky ways to get you into their store with such veracity its quite off-putting and (in one case) a little unnerving. Throughout Udaipur you'll get the constant 'yes please' and 'look at my shop' and the classic Udaipur trap of getting you into their store with 'Excuse me sir, where are you from?' but with less foot traffic in this part of town there is a desperation and forcefulness that wore out its welcome. One guy seemed particularly angry that his guilt trip comment of 'Now... finally I have my chance to show you my shop!' was greeted with 'No, please, we're not interested' everyday, and we even took an auto-rickshaw on one of the days just to avoid having to interact with him.

Once you've actually made it to Amet Haveli – the hotel Ambrai is located within – you'll see that the walk was entirely worth it. Amet Haveli's grounds are perfectly tended, with the odd chicken casually strolling through the gardens as you approach the restaurant. Its truly idyllic. As you enter Ambrai, the fairy lights and candlelit tables are as welcoming as the staff. And with the view of the city all lit up accompanied by sarangi and tabla music by live musicians, this is Udaipur at its most romantic.

Ambrai have quite an extensive menu. Not quite as comprehensive as Persian Darbar but nonetheless considerable. Having eaten here before, I knew to focus on the 'Ambrai Specialties' section as their signature dishes are excellent.

Of their curries, I feel that the Chicken Jhangiri is their most significant. A tomato-based creamy gravy, the curry is filled with nuts and is served with cherries and egg. I've not found this dish anywhere else, and its really very delicious – like a much more deluxe butter chicken made all the better due to the additional flavours. We heard a table near us order the Butter Chicken, and I couldn't help but feel that they were missing out.

Their other most significant dish is the beautifully presented Ambrai Special Biryani – or as I like to call it 'Three Colours Biryani'. The rice is layered in the orange, green and white of the Indian flag, each having its own flavour that when mixed together makes for a delicious biryani. I particularly like the paneer and spinach that is in the green layer, and the cashew nuts that give it a nice crunch and nuttiness. Its not quite as amazing as the biryani at Dum Pukht, but this is definitely a must order at Ambrai.

As much as we really like the Jhangiri, we wanted to sample a few different dishes from their menu. Almost as good is their Chicken Angoori. Instead of the tomato base of the Jhangiri, this one is a lot creamier and even more nutty and uses chicken meatballs instead of the boneless chicken. This is extraordinarily rich and opulent – definitely one of the dishes we can point at as contributing to our massive weight gain during the trip.

Since we were saving our fish curry eating for the south, we decided to skip trying Ambrai's fish curry and instead give their Mutton Rana a go. This mutton curry gravy is sort of halfway between the Angoori and Jhangiri curry, insofar as creaminess and overall flavour is concerned. The mutton was cooked perfectly, with a great melt in your mouth quality that complemented the richness of the curry. Its not as refined as the lamb curry at Dum Pukht and I personally rate the Jhangiri higher, but if making multiple visits is good to break up the endless chicken eating.

When I was last at Ambrai two years ago, I remember their being an excellent eggplant dish, and on one of our nights we ordered the eggplant curry even though it was not on their Ambrai Specialties list. Either their standard had dropped or I had ordered the wrong dish, but it did not taste as I recalled. The eggplant was very vinegary and almost tasted like bottled eggplant, lacking the nice soft texture I was expecting. Definitely not an item I would order again.

To accompany the curries we ordered the garlic naan. The garlic naan was good, though its not on the level of Trishna.

For dessert, we repeatedly ordered the Gulab Jamun with Ice Cream. This was about what I would expect for the dish, being neither bad or exceptional examples.

The Verdict: Excellent

As you'd except from the north, Ambrai's food is decadently rich. But it so delicious you've just gotta try it if you're in town, plus their cocktails are very good too. And while I would probably would eat at a few different restaurants next time I'm in Udaipur, I would certainly go back again. To sit there at the corner table, with the music wafting through the cool evening air as we overlooked the city... for me, it wouldn't be a complete Udaipur experience without it.

Govinda's, Udaipur, India (Alissa and Don Eat Asia Day 12, Part 1)

One of the challenges in smaller cities and towns in India is finding decent espresso coffee, so knowing that Govinda's is so centrally located in Udaipur is comforting. When we came to Udaipur two years ago, Govinda's was a daily haunt for my parents and I as we drank our daily cappuccinos and watched the myriad tourists and locals as they went about their day on the way to City Palace Rd. This time was no different, and as we received our caffeine fix we were able to listen into to conversations by elderly British people who seemed to have seen The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and decided to become characters from the film, younger hippie Americans living up to their own cliches, dogs fighting on the street and adorable puppies being played with by local shop owners.

Govinda's does some interesting food too, and on my previous trip here I particularly enjoyed the Chocolate Chilli Cheese Pizza. We decided to have lunch there on our second day, ordering one of the pizzas and a bowl of the Pesto and Olive Pasta to share between us.

The Pesto and Olive Pasta was good by Indian standards, but of course did not compare to what we get back in Australia. Italian products can be very expensive in many parts of Asia, and as such the fresh qualitry standards of Australian Italian food cannot be matched; to try would make it outrageously expensive as I have found out cooking pesto in Singapore. The pasta spirals in this dish were slightly softer than al dente, but at least it was tasty with a nice cheesiness and basil flavour to the pesto sauce.

The Chocolate Chilli Cheese Pizza was better. What may seem like a strange combination actually works really well, and its odd to find such an adventurous cafe in what is a fairly small city by Indian standards. The saltiness and umami of the cheese works well with the fudgy sweetness of the chocolate, creating the kind of salty-sweet combination that Alissa loves. And just when the flavours dissipate on your palate, the chilli gives a nice kick in the end and goes wonderfully with a cup of coffee.

The Verdict: Good
If in town, I always stop by Govinda's for coffee as the quality here is reliable. The food here may not be amazing but if you're looking for something a little different in Udaipur Govinda's Chocolate Chilli Cheese Pizza is worth a try.

  

Indigo, Mumbai, India (Alissa and Don Eat Asia Day 9, Part 2)

Located behind the luxurious Taj Hotel and famous for being a favourite haunt of everyone from Bill Clinton to the Bollywood elite, Indigo has become a famous institution of Mumbai's fine dining scene. The restaurant has a beautiful website, and upon reading their impressive sounding fusion menu I knew we had to make a reservation for a meal at no. 28 on S. Pellegrino's Best Restaurants in Asia list.

Our taxi pulled in behind the Taj, and it was not 100% clear which restaurant was Indigo. Perhaps to maintain their exclusivity (or perhaps because we we're blind), we did not see any signage pointing out that this was indeed Indigo. However, upon seeing the rooftop lined with fairy light-filled palm trees and the swanky interior of the ground floor, I knew we had to be at the right place.

'Indigo?' I asked the well dressed doorman.

'Yes sir,' he said as he ushered us in.

When I made the reservation the restaurant couldn't confirm us a table on the rooftop balcony as they had had a penciled in reservation for the top floor, presumably a private party or a famous celebrity not wanting to be bothered by starstruck diners. As luck would have it, the rooftop was relatively empty, and we were given a seat with a good view of the restaurant as well as overlooking the street below. I'm glad we go a seat here – this is likely one of the prettiest restaurants in Mumbai, looking like it borrowed some design tips from restaurants in Udaipur.

It pays to make a reservation as along with their usual seasonal menu a special additional menu was made available for us to choose from, including a few I'd shortlisted as 'must tries' when I saw their menu online.

We ordered two cocktails as aperitifs – Alissa ordered a Zombie (Bacardi white and dark, Amaretto, crème de banana, orange juice, lime juice and grenadine), and I had the Long Beach Ice Tea (which has all the spirits, plus cranberry juice). I always feel a good cocktail should always be greater than the sum of its parts and these were excellent cocktails – balanced in not being overly or weakly alcoholic; these were juicy with fruit and refreshing.

Dinner is served in three courses, all a la carte. Rahul Akerkar, the chef at Indigo, has such a great sensibility for combining flavour that it took us a while to decide what we wanted to eat as everything sounded so good. To give you an idea of some of the dishes we did not order – Potato and morel gnocchi with truffle veloute; Jerk spiced tandoori roasted chicken with jus; scallion polenta and sauteed broccoli; ravioli of mud crab, broiled lobster tail with Indigo's lobster risotto; and crispy duck breast with pulled duck pastilla.

As we were deciding, the obligatory bread basket was placed on our table. The bread was, unfortunately, a little disappointing compared to the amazingly crispy on the outside, soft in the middle creations of both Otto e Mezzo Bombana and Caprice. This might be a matter of local taste, but as a result Alissa and I did not really partake much in the bread. Oh well, all the more space for the dishes we finally decided on and ordered.

As we waited for our first course, an amuse bouche of what I think was apricot chicken mousse was served to us. This was good but not amazing, as the sweetness was the thing that Alissa and I were left with, and not much else. A decent try, but we've definitely had better.

Our first course items arrived in reasonable time. I've been dying to try some heart of palm and desiring something a bit lighter after the perpetual curry diet, my first course was Prawns and Hearts of Palm Salad, with arugula, raspberry coulis and ranch dressing. This was just what I wanted – the prawns were cooked perfectly with the ranch dressing not overpowering. The palm hearts had been seared nicely and after the anticipation of finally getting to eat palm hearts, this was not a let down. On the fork, all the elements combined beautifully. I was very happy with my selection.

Alissa wasn't after something light and instead went for decadently heavy – French Farm Foie Gras Terrine served with pickled rhubarb, rhubarb soup and fruit nut brioche. Alissa commented that the Foie Gras was so deliciously creamy it had something of the quality of blue cheese. The rhubarb soup was served as a foam and the pickled rhubarb tasted almost like a compote. Both were a nice sweet and light contrast to the creaminess of the Foie Gras. Alissa felt that the bread for the fruit and nut brioche was markedly better than the bread served in the bread basket and that the fruit and nut salsa was delicious, again pairing nicely with the richness of the Foie Gras. As with mine, this was an impressive first course.

After a well paced break our second course arrived. I'd ordered the Rack of New Zealand Lamb, with green tea risotto, miso eggplant and wakame emulsion. Given the experimental fusion of the dish, this was either going to be good or a complete disaster. Thankfully, this was excellent. The lamb was perfectly cooked and was very juicy, with the wakame emulsion being a surprisingly good pairing with the strong flavours of lamb. The miso egglant just tasted like very good eggplant, so I wasn't sure where the miso part was, but then miso can sometimes be subtle that way. The real star of the dish though was the incredible green tea risotto. Who would have thought to add macha powder to risotto, and that the chalky, slightly bittersweet flavour of green tea would combine so well with the cheese flavour of risotto? This part of the dish was outstanding.

Alissa's main was on my shortlist of second course choices, but the dish sounded so perfectly attuned to Alissa's taste buds I had to let her be the one to order the Sous Vide Pork Belly with maple glazed apple, choucroute and corn sauce. As you'd expect with as precise a cooking method as sous vide, the pork belly was perfectly cooked - unctuous and juicy - not at all dry and overcooked as disappointing pork dishes can be. As sous vide's non-direct cooking method often means that while cooked perfectly it lacks maillard reaction flavours, however Indigo astutely gave the pork a delicious maple glaze. While it wasn't crispy as you expect pork belly to be, Alissa felt that the maple glaze was the best thing about the pork. Being a massive fan of apple with pork, the glazed apple was also a hit with Alissa, and mixing a piece of pork and piece of apple with some of the corn sauce was a delicious mouthful.

I knew what I wanted as my dessert before we even arrived at Indigo, and I'm very glad we booked ahead as it was not on the main menu – odd considering its something of a signature dessert. On the plate, the Chocolate Jalapeno Fondant with Vanilla Ice Cream and Lemon Sauce looks very ordinary, though as soon as you drive a spoon into the fondant a lovely river of thick, warm chocolate oozes out onto the plate.

If you've read other posts on the blog, you'll know I'm a bit harsh when it comes to chocolate dessert. Not the case this time. Tasting a spoon of the fondant alone, it at first just tastes like a very good chocolate fondant, but nothing special or overly memorable. And just when I was about to pass judgment I was hit bit the delayed zing of the jalapeno, and had to admit this was an excellent dessert or as the waiter put it, 'this one is truly awesome'. The vanilla ice cream and lemon sauce may seem to be a bit simplistic (I probably would have wanted something like white chocolate ice cream for example), but I think it showed great restraint on the part of the chef as it allowed the fondant to be the true focal point and 'hero' of the dish.

When Alissa chose the Pineapple Upside Down Cake, I wasn't sure how they were going to elevate this dish from the image I have of cooking it in high school cooking classes as a fairly rustic and old fashioned dessert. When the dish arrived, you could tell right away that they had succeeded. The cake was plated beautifully between two sheets of sheets of caramel, seared caramelized pineapple and rosemary ice cream(!) on the side. I'm not much of a cake person, but this was excellent; reminiscent of but far better than the upside down cakes I've eaten in the past. The highlight of the dish was the rosemary ice cream; combined with the soft sponge of the cake, its burnt caramelized pineapple glaze and the glazed pineapple pieces the rosemary flavour sat wonderfully in the picture that the dessert painted – to my mind, something like an old school British colonial meal, the kind of conjuring up of nostalgia and memory that someone like Heston Blumenthal would champion.

Petit Fours served were simple chocolates. These were unfortunately very ordinary in comparison to the desserts we had just eaten, and couldn't compare to the chocolate petit fours at both Otto e Mezzo or Caprice.

The Verdict: Excellent

With such an extensive menu filled with many dishes that sound amazing, Indigo's menu will have you spoiled for choice. Yet considering two of my three dishes as well as our wine came off the additional menu prepared for us, I thoroughly recommend making a reservation to get more choice for your Indigo experience. Service was exceptional – waiters were polite, attentive but never overstayed their welcome by the table side. And most importantly, all the dishes we chose were excellent and very satisfying, with the only real let downs being the less than stellar bread selection, the good but not great amuse bouche and the ordinary petit fours. I'll forgive these small missteps as the good points greatly outweighed the negatives. While I don't think I'd travel to Mumbai just to eat at Indigo as there are places in Australia that do this kind of food as well or better, its definitely a must eat destination for surprisingly modernist cooking in an otherwise largely traditional dining scene.

Delhi Darbar, Mumbai, India (Alissa and Don Eat Asia Day 9, Part 1)

After a late morning walking Colaba's gauntlet of money changers, peacock and folk instrument pushers, pashmina stores, perfume sellers and the constant, sometimes annoying 'yes please' of overly desperate salesmen, its nice to have Delhi Darbar located so conveniently close on the other side of the street. Waiting as we were for a pair of jeans to be hemmed, we arrived at Delhi Darbar for a late (by western standards, right on time by Indian standards) lunch.

I've been to Delhi Darbar many times before with my parents as we've always found them to be decently priced and of reliable quality. When I'm in India I tend to go for some of the more unusual curries I'll never find in Australia, but Alissa just had to try what good Indian Tikka tastes like so she could see how far most Australian places fall short.

We decided on an order of the familiar Chicken Tikka Masala and the slightly more unusual Mutton Kadai, served with our usual order of garlic naan. The Chicken Tikka Masala was very good, with the chicken having that lovely, smokey flavour and texture of meat that can only come from having been cooked in a tandoor. Paired with the creamy, buttery, tomato-rich curry, its what I wish all tikka masalas back home tasted like. I mean, I know that they say there is no standard recipe for Chicken Tikka Masala but at the very least the chicken in tikka masala should taste like its been cooked in a Tandoor – many of the so-called tikka masalas in Perth fail to pass the test.

The Lamb Kadai had a cashewy sauce that I've had more often with chicken than lamb, though seeing it with the lamb made me realise its similarity to a middle eastern dish in Ottolenghi's Jerusalem cookbook. The lamb itself was melt-in-your-mouth soft, and the sauce was deliciously smooth, creamy and decadent as northern style curries tend to be – just the way I like it. Definitely something I need to order with lamb more often.

Alissa and I mopped up most of the two curries dutifully with our garlic naan. The naan was good, but not as good as the crazily garlic-encrusted and drenched in butter naan you can get at Trishna. We ordered two serves each, and even then we had to leave some of the curry behind on the plate as the serves of curry were very generous.

We decided to share two desserts. My dessert order was one of my favourite desserts in India – mango kulfi. Kulfi is a fairly common dessert, but we found on our trip that its much harder to get the mango variety. Delhi Darbar's mango kulfi is amongst my favourites, having the delicious cardamon flavour of kulfi with the extra sweet fruitiness of mango added. Alissa agreed that the mango variety was very nice, though she still preferred the falooda-style kulfi we've had with the noodles and rose water.

As our other dessert we had gulab jamun. The gulab jamuns we had in India were all roughly of the save level of excellence and this was no different – nice and warm, with that delicious taste of fried dough soaked in cardamon sugar syrup. 

The Verdict: Very Good

Compared to Indian restaurants back home in Australia, Delhi Darbar produces better food than what I would expect from the better curry houses around town and at a fraction of the price curries of this quality go for back in Perth. As a cheap and casual family restaurant located in the happening markets of Colaba, its hard to pass up – especially for that mango kulfi.  

Persian Darbar, Mumbai, India (Alissa and Don Eat Asia Day 8)

Alissa was not in a good mood. She found Bandra's high density array of clothing stores a little overwhelming, and combined with the heat and humidity we needed to take a moment to settle before continuing with our shopping expedition. Thankfully, the air conditioned comfort of Persian Darbar was not far so we headed in for lunch a bit earlier than usual.

I first went to Persian Darbar 4 years ago. I find their menu bewilderingly long and comprehensive, and you would have to be a die hard connoisseur to describe what every curry is,so if you're looking to try something beyond the stock standard its best to ask. I can say however from what I've tried that I am particularly fond of their tandoori and tikka-based dishes, and as such we ordered the Tandoori Chicken and the Chicken Jalandhari Masala along with two serves of garlic naan. 

The barbecued bird was a good as I remember it – well seasoned and spicy, and having that delicious smokiness of being cooked in a tandoor while maintaining that wonderfully soft and juicy texture of the meat. This was a very good tandoori bird, far better than what we can get in Australia.

The curry we ordered was a recommendation of the waiter's, and he was on the money. I've not had a Jalandhari before, but it reminded me somewhat of Jhangiri, a specialty of Ambrai in Udaipur. After a bit of research, it would appear Jalandhari is named after the city of Jalandhar in the the Punjab and as such is presumably a specialty of the region. This was a rich and delicious dish – similar to a chicken tikka masala insofar as that the meat is cooked in a tandoor and the dish is tomato based, but all the better due to the addition of cashews and a more complex spice flavour. Eaten with garlic naan, this was an indulgent calorific lunch.

For dessert we ordered some kulfi. The was about what I would expect – nice cardamon spice combined with sweetness. I have a feeling that they brought this in from a seller outside, as the server seemed to disappear out the door of the venue and back in, so given that it was not particularly special I would suggest this is something that is worth skipping in the future.

The Verdict: Very Good
Given that it takes 45-60 minutes to get from Fort to Bandra, I only make the journey once per visit to Mumbai. When there, its good to know that old faithful Persian Darbar is there for a delicious tandoor meal.

Trishna, Mumbai, India (Alissa and Don Eat Asia Days 7 & 19)

If you like seafood and copious quantities of garlic and butter, there is a place for you and it is called Trishna.

I hadn't intended that our first lunch in Mumbai would be at Trishna but I'm glad that it ended up that way, especially since it also served as our last meal in Mumbai. I will write about both meals together due to their similarities. Having eaten there for the first time 4 years ago, its a restaurant I've often thought of with fondness due to their signature butter pepper garlic dishes and the greatest chilli squid I've ever eaten in my life. Its been 2 years since I was last at Trishna, and having hyped it up to Alissa as my favourite seafood restaurant in Mumbai I was a bit worried that it couldn't possibly live up to the esteem I hold it in.

I didn't need to consult a map or need to stop and think about where we were going; I knew exactly how to get to Trishna from our hotel. As we passed the landmark of Fab India and turned left into the back alley, it was interesting to see hip stores and cafes had opened in what used to be a dingy, dirty alleyway in Mumbai just four years ago. Alissa commented one of the stores looked like a boutique out of Melbourne. Hip indeed. As we arrived at the entrance we were greeted by the familiar sight of the bespoke doorman, who ushered us in.

Trisha is divided into two nautically themed rooms – a left room that has an under the sea feel with fish tanks lining the walls, and a right room with a boating theme. As luck would have it, our first meal was in the right room and our last was in the left. 

On both occasions, we ordered a variation of the famous butter pepper garlic seafood on which Trishna has built its well-deserved reputation. For our first meal we had the butter pepper garlic prawns. The prawns were juicy and perfectly cooked, having none of the cottony quality of overcooked prawns. And the sauce – my god, the sauce. Its fairly simple but utterly decadent; copious quantities of butter given shape and form by insane quantities of garlic and spiced up with some black garlic. As someone who loves butter, Alissa was immediately sold. 

For our last meal in Mumbai, we thought we should splash out and order my favourite of the crustaceans – the lobster. 

The lobster arrived at the table having been removed from its carapace, but the shell was presented to us for our inspection. The lobster meat was nice and meaty, and of course lobster and butter have a long history of being good friends so this worked well. And all the better for the use of ghee as the butter instead of the non-clarified western variety.

The other dish we ordered on both occasions was the chilli squid. I'm a sucker for really good squid and though I've ordered a lot of squid dishes in my time, this dish trumps them all. Chinese food is quite popular in India, though in having been altered for an Indian palate they have become different dishes in their own right. Trishna's chilli squid is tomatoey, capsicum and chilli goodness on a plate, having a nice sweetness and heat to it as well as Trishna's trademark generosity in the garlic department. I've tried to order this dish in other restaurants in Mumbai as well as Bangalore and Goa but no one does this the way Trisha do.

Now we have to talk about the garlic naan. As with everything else at Trishna, 'subtle' is not how I would describe the 'garlic' part of their equation. Their version of garlic naan is encrusted in garlic, and where most places give you the option of garlic or butter naan, Trishna do theirs as garlic butter naan. This is probably our favourite naan of the whole trip, and paired with the butter pepper garlic sauce is both a heart attack waiting to happen and one of the most decadently delicious things you can imagine.

As an extra on our first visit, we ordered palak paneer, as this is one of Alissa's favourite dishes whenever we've ordered Indian in Perth. Though they are definitely seafood specialists at hear, this was excellent palak paneer – bright green and flavoursome, with a very soft creamy paneer. The ordering of three dishes was something we would learn was too much for two people as we were exceedingly full afterwards. Oh well, live and learn.

The Verdict: Exceptional

Trishna won me over when I had my first meal there, and I'm nothing if not a devotee. Prices here are reasonable if a little bit more expensive than somewhere like Persian Darbar or Delhi Darbar – but then we're talking about generous portions of seafood which always comes with a premium anyway. If you're sitting on the fence about making a trip to India, consider travelling to Mumbai and make sure Trishna is on your list of things to eat. This is 'must travel to eat' food.