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Surahi Restaurant – Calgary

I really enjoy the flavours of Indian Cuisine, and a friend/coworker actually recommended me to Surahi Restaurant which I’m so glad I took her advise! The location of this restaurant is behind the Co-op off Maclead Trail, it can be a little tricky to get into – but worth the effort!

Once we sat down, we were greeted by the waitress. She was quite friendly, but the service is a tad slow. It was fine though, as we were looking for a slow, quiet, and relaxing dinner – with excellent food! And, that’s what we got! We ordered a cup of Chai Tea which came out in a little tea pot, and was poured table side from a high height to get the froth. The flavours was there and subtle.

We started our evening with an appetizer, where we ordered a plate of Beef Samosas, and it comes with 2 samosa an order. The samosas were quite greasy, but the skin was thin and crispy. The beef filling was stuffed and packed with flavours. It was a great appetizer despite of the grease! It’s worth it!

For the dinner entrees, we wanted something different from butter chicken and the usual food. With that said, I ordered the Fish Masala, which was huge dish of fish that was coated and fried. Then, it was cooked in delicious Indian tomato and onion sauce. It was delicious, the sauce was creamy and the fish was fresh!

The other entree we ordered was Lamb Kashmiri which the menu described the dish as lamb cooked in cream, apple and mild spices. I fell in love with this dish as it had sweetness, creaminess and spiciness all together and it was very balance and delicious. This is definitely my new favourite curry dish.

With the curries, we ordered some Butter Naan which was extremely fresh and delicious. It had just the perfect amount of butter and flavour on it. It’s a great vehicle for the curry sauces.

And, of course we have some rice as well, so we ordered the Coconut Pilau to go with the delicious curries. What a great meal! We loved the curry sauces and we loved every bit of it. We gave this place a chance and ate everything ordered! It was so good we couldn’t even order a dessert.

Overall, the prices are comparable with other places I’ve been to, and the dishes are a little bigger as well – making it a very decent deal. The restaurant is very clean and the food is excellent. We will definitely be back without hesitation!

Surahi Restaurant on Urbanspoon

Surahi Restaurant

8906 Macleod Trail SE
Calgary, AB
(403) 212-1324

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Namskar Cuisine of India

I love Indian cuisine, and when I heard I was going to go to Namskar – Cuisine of India, I was really happy! Apparently I’ve been there once, but it must’ve been so long ago, I don’t remember it at all! Nothing in there rings a bell, so I will consider it my first time there! This little Indian restaurant is located right on 16th avenue, and it’s a corner location. It offers a few spots in the back which I found it was easiest to park on the streets. Once you walk up to the restaurant, you can smell the Indian spices and curries – you know you’re in for a real treat!

We got in, and instead of ordering my usual mango lassi, I decided to have a nice cup of Chai Tea which has always been one of my favourites. Unfortunately here, their chai wasn’t as strong as I would have hoped for. I like it when it’s creamy and full of spices – but that’s a personal preference. Luckily, their food is really good here!

My pictures didn’t really turn out, but we ordered a bunch of curries, rice and naan. We started with Butter Chicken which was a delicious dish with chunks of chicken pieces in a tomato and cashew sauce. The sauce was really thick, creamy and a hint of sweetness to the spice! For the first time, we also went ahead a tried some Fish Curry which was chunks of Basa fish cooked with fresh vegetables. It was a medium heat dish but came out to be one of my favourites of the evening.

For the spice dishes, we ordered Lamb Vindaloo which of course was lamb. Vindaloo has always been the killer dish for me but they made this sauce really nice – infused with so much flavour and fragrant, the spice was really nice with the lamb. We also had a order of Goat, which I don’t really remember what kind of curry it was in. It didn’t have as much sauce to it, and it was cooked with a lot of vegetables. Regardless, it was a great dish, and I ate a lot of it!

To end the night, we actually took a different spin… we ended with a plate of appeitzers instead of dessert. We had the Namskar Mix Platter which was a great idea to start with. For us, it was too much food as it came with pieces of Veggie Pakoras, paneer pakoras, Fish pakoras, onion bhajia, Veggie samosa, and a piece of lamb samosa. It came on 2 plates, which was great as we had a relatively large group and it made it easy to share.

This was a wonderful place to go for dinner. The service was really good, and they kept filling up our glasses with water – as we needed it. This would be a location I would return to for Indian food because I really enjoyed my experience here! This time, I will remember I’ve been here!

Namskar Cuisine of India on Urbanspoon

Namskar Cuisine of India

202 16 Ave NE
Calgary, AB
(403) 230-4447

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Clay Oven – Calgary, Alberta

Recently, as the weather has been starting to warm up (well, it’s been a nice and milk winter), I’ve been wanting spicy food – as we normally eat spicy on the coldest days – which we didn’t have too many of. So, we went to and ventured to the northeast, and found ourselves at Clay Oven located in a small strip plaza.

Once we got to the table, some Papadum was given to us (and every table), but it also appeared on the menu for $2.00 which made it confusing… is it a gift or if we eat it, would we have to pay? I must admit, I never did pay attention to the bill when it came, so I still can’t answer my own question. The papadum that was on the table is two thinly sliced wafers toasted on an open flame. This one didn’t taste burnt either, but had a subtle smoke background to it! The sauce that came with the papadum was really tangy with a nice kick to it! It was good!

I’ve really started loving Mango Lassi drinks, and now every time I go to an East Indian restaurant, I would order one. This one is one of the best, as it didn’t separate through the night, and it wasn’t so fibrous making it hard to drink. The mango lassi was full of mango flavour and this location has just made me one of my favourites in the city!

Of course, when you eat curries, you eat it with some sort of Roti! We ordered the Garlic Nan which is leavened bread of fine light flour baked to perfection. The Naan here is huge, and it was baked to perfection. But, the simple fact that their garlic nan was made with a huge taste of “garlic powder” kind of disappointed me a little. The garlic flavour was definitely there, but I was hoping for some fresh garlic infused in oil or something like that. I think next time I’ll just get a plain nan!

We also ordered some Plain Rice which their plain is great, it’s basmati rice richly flavored with spices and saffron. I like using rice for my vehicle to eat curries.

For the curries, we ordered a medium heat level of Butter Chicken which is made of chicken fillets blended in a creamy butter and tomato sauce.

The other curry that we ordered was a Beef Curry, also in medium heat level. This curry is made of fillets of beef cooked in curry sauce and spices

The food and flavours from Clay Oven are phenomenal! The heat level is actually quite spicy, and I believe there were 4 levels of heat, and we’re only at the 2nd heat level! The flavours are bold and strong, and to be honest, the heat actually numbed me by the end – I just continued eating and I didn’t think it was spicy at all! I really enjoyed the food from here, and I am glad I was introduced to it from my friends wedding – as she used Clay Oven as their caterer!

Clay Oven

3132 26 St NE
Calgary, AB
(403) 250-2161

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Karma Fine Indian Cuisine – Calgary, Alberta

When the weather is cold outside, and after being what seems to be stuck at home, spice is always something I crave. Whether it’s Thai curry, Indian Curry, Szechuan spices or whatever, I need the heat of the spice! This time, I went for Indian Curry not too far from home off 130th Ave Southeast to Karma Fine Indian Cuisine. The location of Karma is just off Deerfoot Trail and 130th Eastbound – and you turn in towards Canadian Tire and Superstore.

I was going to enjoy a nice hot cup of Chai Tea, but opted out for something a tad different. I had a glass of Mango Lassi which is a very common Indian and Pakistani drink which is yoghurt based (lassi). Basically it’s made of pureed mango, yoghurt and water – and depending on how much water/ice they put it would depend on how thick it is. Sometimes, some places have it so thick that you suck so hard to only get a little drop. The consistency here was really good, as it was thinner than a milkshake, but definitely thicker of a drink. One thing I like about this drink from Karma is the fact they don’t use ice! It never separated which is something I like about my drinks!

This visit to Indian food, I really wanted to try different things, and so, instead of the usual suspect of coconut rice, this time, we got Saffron Rice which looked like a bowl of Christmas rice! It was beautiful! It didn’t have as much flavour on it’s own like coconut rice, but it was very fragrant!

Staying on the different track, I wanted to have lamb with my curry, so we ordered a Lamb Boona which they described as a Karma special made with traditional curry cooked with herbs and spices. This sounded like a wonderful choice as it’s like their “house special” and to me, those are always good! The lamb was really tender, and there were quite a few pieces of lamb in the curry too! We got the curry in mild and you definitely get the kick, but it’s a tender kick.

Now, for the twist on my naan, we normally get the garlic naan (which is fantastic from Karma), we got Keema Nan which is made with white flour bread stuffed with mildly spiced round beef. We normally don’t get the stuffed ones, but since I went to England and tried Indian Edge with their stuffed naan, I had to get it again (at least some version of it!). This was delicious and I would definitely get keema nan again, or other meat stuffed into my nan! Keema naan is just stuffed with some sort of “seasoned ground/minced meat” and varies from location to location, as Keema just means “minced meat”

Then, for my favourite dish of curry for the evening, we ordered a plate of Prawn Korma which obviously had prawns in it, but cooked in a mild curry enriched with cream, nuts and spices.

My overall experience here at Karma was a VERY positive experience, and I have no problems returning or bringing friends & family here who like eating Indian curries! I’m sure when my sister and brother-in-law come and visit me, I’ll take them here for dinner! I’m sure they’ll love it – but it’s definitely not as good as the curry where they are…

Karma Fine Indian Cuisine

4600 130 Ave SE
Calgary, AB
(403) 257-4977

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Indian Edge – Kenilworth, England

Indian food in England is actually quite different than Indian food in Calgary. My brother-in-Law really wanted to take us for curry, and brought us to Indian Edge and I’m really glad he did. The food is so delicious, and it’s not all about spice, it’s about the flavours – which I appreciate! Here in Calgary, it’s almost a contest of how much spice you can eat, but not here – everything was really good, and the best part is, we didn’t have any stomach aches afterwards.

I ordered a Mango Lassi drink, which was done really nice here at Indian Edge. I’ve had a few experiences where it’s just pureed mangoes, and it’s really hard to slurp up a straw. The consistency is still thick enough that there is substance, and it’s not watered down. It’s by far my favourite one so far.

We started the evening with some Papadum, and when I tried it from Indian Edge, I actually said “it doesn’t taste burnt!”. I’m not sure why, but from all my previous experiences, I remembered a distinct burnt taste associated with it. So, I am glad we got some papadum, and that I tried them regardless of previous experiences. There were plenty of sauce options that came with the papadum, five of them, and I’m not sure what all of them where. I know that the one I enjoyed the most is the one most like fresh salsa!

Our main curry dishes, we ordered Mattar Paneer which was a dish of green peas and Indian cheese. It’s my least favourite from the dishes we ordered, but it was a good dish.

Not as tasty as the Lamb Jalfrezi which was the spiciest dish we ordered for the evening. The lamb was cooked until tender in a sauce with a combination of peppers, onions cooked medium with a Bangladeshi sauce.

We also ordered 2 chicken dishes, we got to try chicken tikka massala which was a creamy and tender chicken dish, with delicious sauce that was made of a tomato sauce with mild creamy coconut and almond sauce. The Chicken Tikka Massala was my favourite!

The other chicken dish that we tried was the chicken shashlik which wasn’t like the usual curries we eat, as this dish was not covered in sauce, but had fresh succulent dry roasted chicken pieces cooked in clay oven with sweet peppers,onions, tomatoes and spices – and was skewered like a kebab.

Last but not least, we ordered the Salmon tikka which pieces of salmon fillets, barbecued in tandoor in light tandoori fragrant spices. This was also a relatively dry dish, and very tasty. Large chucks of salmon and the spices was a wonderful combination.

To eat with the curry dishes, we ordered a variety of options – just to try different things! We ordered Basmati Pilau Rice, and the Mushroom Pilau Rice which was used as a vehicle to eat the curry! Both rices was really good, and it added another dimension to the curries. I think I enjoyed the normal Basmati Pilau rice more, but the mushroom pilau rice was a really close second!

We also ordered 2 types of naan, which I’ve never tried until now!! We tried the Keema Naan which was your typical naan filled with flavourful and delicious minced lamb. This was by far my favourite naan and I can eat it on it’s own! The other naan we had was Peshwari Naan which was a naan filled with coconut and fruits! I really enjoyed this as well, especially when I was indulging in a super spicy curry, it helps cut down the heat and adds sweetness! It is one of the most delicious naans, and I thought “garlic naan” was the best thing ever…

Overall, Indian Edge now sits on the top of my favourite list for Indian cuisine, which really isn’t too good. I can’t just go to Indian Edge next time I have a craving for curry. But, I still have my favourite locations in Calgary I can go to in the mean time!

Indian Edge

50 Warwick Road,
Kenilworth
(01926) 850100