Eating Victoria- Food Blog and Eating Guide

Real Taste of India
768 Fort St.
250-477-8883

I asked a friend what he thought of Real Taste of India, and he said it was pretty good. Months later, I wanted to see for myself.

A few co-workers and I made the trek downtown to Fort St. There were a couple of tables eating the buffet, but I expected it to be busier considering it’s right downtown and lunch-time.  The smell was luring us in, and I went back to the buffet multiple times. The samosas were good, although a bit salty. The butter chicken and chickpeas were good. The goat and the naan were outstanding. The goat was not all bones like you find in a lot of goat curries. It was full of flavour and a real treat considering you don’t find it on a lot of menus in Victoria. The naan was thin and crispy and wow. The fish pakoras were bland but not fishy. I liked that you could have some desserts and the chutney selection was good. The most disappointing part of the meal was the rice. I was shocked. It was watery and not cooked properly. The rest of the food was good, but rice, I wasn’t expecting that to be donked.

For under 20 dollars you can eat more than your fill, and get a lot of authentic flavours and variety. I’ll definitely go back, and perhaps try something off the menu and not just the buffet.

Amrikko’s Indian Cuisine
298 Old Island Highway
250-744-3330

Amrikko’s isn’t in an ideal location, but after two times of going there (and more planned for the near future), it is definitely worth the trip out there.

The restaurant itself is nothing special, standard interior, relatively uncomfortable seating. Amrikko’s really delivers on the food, which to me is the most important part of eating out. I can forgive a restaurant for mediocre service if the food is outstanding. The service at Amrikko’s is fine, but nothing above and beyond. Amrikko’s is a family chain of Indian restaurants, originating from the Nanaimo location.

So far, I have tried the veggie biryani and the veggie korma. The biryani had a good amount of heat, but heat with complex flavour not just burning hot. I was impressed with the portion size and the amount of vegetables. For a lunch crowd though, I would appreciate the option of having a sample of a couple different entrees instead of choosing one ( from $8-$15 approx.). The korma was delightfully nutty and creamy, not your standard sauce that’s for sure. The rice is cooked well, and the naan, wow. The onion naan is a treat, it’s huge and really crisp on one side and almost chewy on the top. I loved the different textures.

Overall I would give the food a 8.5 out of 10, the service a 7 out of 10, and the ambiance a 6-7 out of ten.

I don’t know what it’s like for dinner, but lunch was great.

I posted a review from my dinner at Spice Jammer a while back, but I went for the lunch buffet a few weeks ago. The servers were very helpful, they poured tea for us, and helped dish out some of the buffet items. The spread is pretty standard, but I feel the quality is good for the price. The buffet price( I think around 12 dollars) includes chai tea, the condiment bar and roti bread. There were a few vegetable curries for me to choose from, potatoes and peas, and one had beans in it. The rice was well cooked, and you had your choice of corn roti or whole wheat. The pakoras with tamarind sauce stole the show for sure, they kept bringing out fresh pakoras and I probably ate like 4 or 5 of them, so good. It wasn’t very busy inside which I found surprising. It’s a great place for a filling and flavourful lunch.

Cheers

-Eating Victoria

Sizzling Tandoor Restaurant
637 Johnson St.
250-388-5450

It’s rare for a new restaurant in Victoria to have no negative reviews on Urbanspoon, so I had to check Sizzling Tandoor out to see if the legends were true. Turns out they were.

It always makes me nervous when I walk into a restaurant and there is no one inside. SP, TM, and I went to Sizzling Tandoor tonight(Sunday),around 6 o’clock and no one was inside the restaurant, but eventually a few more tables joined us. The young lady serving tonight was very friendly, and she had a good sense of humour. She was the only one in the front of the house, but she seemed comfortable as there were only a few tables. I started with some chai, and we ordered our food after much debate about the menu. Comparatively, Sizzling Tandoor has better prices than most Indian restaurants I’ve been to in Victoria, I liked a lot of their options, and their prices ranged from $3-$20.

I ordered the pomegranate curry with lamb, which came with basmati rice, and I topped that off with mint parantha bread. SP got the cashew curry with chicken, and TM got the tikka masala with lamb. I tried all three, and I was impressed. The portions were large and good value for the price, and the flavours were nice, not your run of the mill curry joint, they were all very different in taste. For dessert I had the gulab jamun, and it was one of the best I’ve tried.

Pomegranate lamb curry with mint parantha

Gulab Jamun

Overall, the experience was very positive. I liked the service, the water and chai was always kept full, the flavours were sound, and the interior and menus are crisp and new! Check this restaurant out, I prefer it over a lot of the other Indian restaurants in Victoria.

Cheers

-Eating Victoria

Cafe Ceylon
1175 Cook St.
250-388-4949

To celebrate the end of my cleanse, I decided that Cafe Ceylon would be a great destination to kick off eating normally again. J and I had a busy day shopping around town, so we were starving by the time we got to Ceylon. J ordered some chai, and I got some ceylon black tea. The chai was subtle, it said it came with a hot milk option but it was served with cold milk. My tea was nice, it wasn’t bitter at all so I didn’t even need sugar. We started with some coconut roti($7.95) which came with yellow dahl and some raita. We also had some of the mung dahl soup($8.95) as a starter. The flavours were expertly balanced, sweet and savoury, aromatic and pungent.  The roti reminded me almost of a type of chapati, and dipping it in lentils was a great idea. The soup was a nice surprise, it was layered with many flavours that were hard to describe, but we kept going back for more. For the main courses we had a wadiyan( sweet and sour soya meatballs, $16.95) and a curried chicken,a  Traditional Sri Lankan preparation($24.95). There were many components, and condiments, rice, coconut sambal and a type of hot sauce, similar to a salsa. The portions were generous, I couldn’t even finish mine, had to get it packed up. They both had nice heat/spice levels, overall very pleasing to eat. For dessert we had the shrikand($7.95), a yoghurt dessert with rose syrup and pistachios. It was a refreshing way to end an excellent meal.

The interior is very warm and has a good flow of energy. The food, without a doubt, is top-notch. I really appreciated that all the food was served at the perfect temperatures, piping hot for the appies and mains, and chilled for the dessert. My only concerns are with the service and the prices. Our server, a young lady, was very nice, but a few times she seemed unsure about the menu, perhaps she is new there. When you are spending a lot of money on food, menu knowledge is very important, it gives the customer confidence in the experience. She was very quick, delivered the food at a good pace, but I didn’t feel she was comfortable enough to add more to our dining experience. The prices are high considering Cafe Ceylon wouldn’t be deemed a fine dining establishment. The quality of the ingredients is evidently high, but almost 9 dollars for a bowl of soup, and 8 dollars for some yoghurt seems a tad exorbitant.

Coconut roti with dahl and raita

Wadiyan

pappadums, rice, sambal and vegetable temperadu on banana leaf

Curried chicken

But the most important thing is that I would go back. The food was refreshing and exciting. I’m glad I went.

Kuku’s
24 Burnside W. Rd.
778-430-5858

I went to Kuku’s a few weeks ago for lunch! A couple people at work had eaten there, with good things to say about it. The smell inside was very good, a legitimate test of a good Indian eatery, aromatic spices greeting you at the door. There are many options, you can have combos or order small bites like pakoras or samosas. My colleague ordered some veggie samosas which came with a tamarind sauce. I had a combo with rice, lamb, and vegetable curry. It was affordable for the volume of food I received( all for under $10). I also liked seeing the lady in the back cooking, a Mama that knows what she is doing. They also have a selection of sweets for sale in the front display. Kuku’s is a take-out joint, so it is convenient if you live in the area and just want to pick up some grub after work or at lunch.

The samosas were very hot( in temperature, not spicy), but quite oily. The pastry was also different than others I have tasted. They were very filling and fresh. In the combo I got, I preferred the vegetable curry over the lamb. I could have sworn the lamb was actually goat, because there were a lot of bones. The meat itself was tender, but you had to work it off all the bones. It’s a good thing I like using my hands to eat, fingerlicking good. The curry was robust and deep, I enjoyed the sauce over the rice very much.

At the end of the day I would go back to Kuku’s. H claims their fish pakoras are melt in your mouth, so I’m going to hit those up one of these days.

Happy Eating.

Eating Victoria

Sabri’s Indian Cuisine
3480 Tillicum Rd.
250-388-4655

I found myself at Sabri’s Indian Cuisine last week, at yet another lunchtime adventure. A few co-workers and I had originally planned on going to the Naanwich(same location), but we decided to hit up the buffet instead because there was a queue inside Naanwich.

I’m going to keep this review short and sweet.

It smelled good when we walked in. There was a petite woman working wearing a sari, and she said we can grab a plate and help ourselves. The decor is no-frills, simple tables and chairs, and every table had a jug of water with glasses. One small detail that I found peculiar was the bombardment of health-related signage. I’m paraphrasing here, but my favourite one went like this, ” There are two types of food, healthy and unhealthy, you make the choice”. Ironically, underneath the sign are fried foods( kebabs and pakoras). Good for a laugh, don’t know where they’re going with that, perhaps deterring health-conscious clients away from the buffet.

To their credit, I was pleasantly surprised with the variety of vegetarian options available. We loaded up with rice, naan, pakoras, pumpkin curry, lentils, chickpeas, tandoor chicken, saag( spinach), and a delectable selection of chutnies and pickles. I can pack away a lot of food, especially at a buffet, and this experience was no different. BUT usually I feel ill after a buffet binge, and this time I felt fine for the rest of the day, a testament to a good lunch. For $9.95 ,the amount of food and the choices are outrageous. Pay a couple more dollars and do the buffet, choose what you want, and you don’t have to wait in a queue for service. Who gives better service than yourself? O.K., that doesn’t sound good, but you get my drift.

The food was better than I was expecting, and you get more than what you pay for( a tenner!). This is by no means fine-dining Indian cuisine, but for lunch on a time constraint, it’s a no-brainer! Do it up.

Cheers

-EV

The Bengal Lounge
721 Government St.(inside the Empress hotel)
250-389-2727
www.fairmont.com/empress

Traditionally I have gone to the Bengal Lounge to do exactly that, lounge, in their luxurious leather seats. It’s a great spot to take visitors for a beautiful cocktail and some nibbles. It’s more on the expensive side, but it’s always nice to indulge. The Bengal Lounge has a menu that you can order from, or you can do the Indian curry buffet, at either lunch or dinner. A friend of mine was visiting from Vancouver, and he was craving Indian cuisine, and the Bengal popped into my head straight away. We can both pack a lot of food in, so for the dinner curry buffet ( $29), we knew we would get our money’s worth. The atmosphere is beautiful, huge vaulted ceilings, rich woods, a taxidermied tiger on the wall, everything in the style of a Colonial hang-out. Even if you choose to do the buffet, you receive great drink service from the very professional staff working inside the Bengal. Our server impressed me very much, which is hard to do. He was friendly, quick, charming, and made us smile.

The buffet is extensive, with an aromatic lentil soup to start,  naan and poppadum(papadum), salad, chutnies, marsala vegetables, lamb curry, butter chicken, tandoor chicken and all the other favourites. The night we went, cardamom creme brulee was being served with dried cranberries. The only thing missing was a nice hot cup of chai. After two plates of all this goodness, we needed a wheelbarrow to get out of the restaurant.

Overall I rate this restaurant quite high, for food or for a relaxing evening of quality cocktails.