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Masala – Banff, Alberta

We were in Banff for a cold early spring evening and figured curry would be the perfect cuisine to eat on a day like that! We went into the Wolf and Bear Mall to Masala which is an Indian restaurant.

Once we were seated, I knew I wanted their Chai Tea as it was so cold outside! I was unsure how large the serving would be, or anything, but it was so nice, it came in a tea pot with sugar on the side! It was perfect! The chai tasted wonderful, and it was a good start!

My husband is more into Mango Lassi and so he ordered a glass. The glass was a good size and the texture of the lassi was really good! It’s not so thick you can’t enjoy it and at the same time, it was creamy and fully of mango flavours! This was another great drink – and it’s starting to set the bar really high for our dinner!

We wanted to try new items on the menu as there were a few things we’ve never heard of. So we went ahead and ordered their Bison Korma. Although we’ve had korma, we’ve never had it with bision! This delicious korma was perfect with a good amount of both sauce and bison. This korma is a thick and creamy tomato sauce topped with pistachios!

The other dish we had was a chicken one, but one we’ve never tried. It was their Chicken Himachali which was chicken cooked with garam masala cuisine of the state of Himachai. The flavours were a little spicier than other garam masalas, but it was really fragrant and quite enjoyable!

With our curries, we ordered an order of Garlic Naan and Coconut Rice and everything got placed on the table at the same time for us to dig in family style! The portions were really generous as we were able to bring some home an enjoy the following day!

Overall, Masala has made it onto our top 5 list of Indian restaurants for sure! The staff was really friendly, the food was amazing and the prices actually was really fair! For the amount of food for 2, and some to take home, a bill over $50 seems very reasonable!

Masala

Wolf and Bear Mall
229 Bear St
Banff, AB
(403) 760-6612

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Mango Shiva – Calgary, Alberta

I’ve been meaning to try Mango Shiva for a few years now… but usually when I’m downtown on Stephens Avenue, it’s normally during a Saturday afternoon, when they’re not opened. This one weekday, we were downtown and decided to finally make our stop in!

This visit was during a cold spell, so we quickly went in and ordered some Chai Tea and it came out on a tray with lovely presentation! The tea was quite alright, even though I preferred it a little more flavourful with spices! But, I guess there are different types of chai!

We knew we were going to order some curries and split them over rice and naan, and this naan selection is fantastic, I’ve never tried Honey Coconut Naan which I knew I was going to get immediately! I didn’t care what curries we get, it was the naan I wanted to try! I’m so glad I did, it was a subtle sweet with shredded coconut inside. The best part was, I watched the cook make the naan which must’ve made it a few notches better!

Like everyone else in the world, I do like Butter Chicken so I got an order of that! It was creamy and smooth and just as a butter chicken sauce should be. There wasn’t a ton of pieces of chicken, but what we had was extremely delicious and flavourful. Their tomato sauce was the perfect sauce to go with my rice!

My husband appreciates spicier food, and he loves vindaloo, so we also ordered the Vindaloo Pork which does sound a little funny, but it was a wonderful balance of sweet and spice! They described it as braised pork shoulder and belly in spicy potato vegetable curry with pineapple salsa! I don’t usually eat that spicy, but it was manageable and quite fragrant and flavourful – especially with the sweet naan!

I love this place, even though it’s out of my way and a bit pricy for what we got, I still really enjoyed it. I like that it’s not the typical East Indian restaurant and that the menu items aren’t the same stuff! So, overall I was really happy and we left with a warm and full belly! The service was top notch and it was just a warm and inviting environment!

Mango Shiva on Urbanspoon

Mango Shiva

218 8 Ave SW
Calgary, AB
(403) 532-8980

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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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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