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| Make a reservation for Sunday nights! |
Date night with Rich involved one of our favourites; Indian cuisine! We both love it and since I had a group-deal voucher ($15 for $30 worth of food) that was about to expire in a few days, we hopped on over to Tandoori House at Yonge and Sheppard. As with most restaurants on Yonge Street, there is no free parking but $4 in the meter will give you more than enough time to dine.
Edited to add: Groupon has this deal on right now! $15 for $30 worth of food for two or more, go, go, go! Thank me by using my referral :)
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| Butter chicken, naan, samosa and pakoras |
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| Goat curry, naan and a spinach dish cooked with Indian spices |
Upon entering the restaurant, we noticed how full it was. We were greeted on our way in and promptly shown our table, which had yet been cleared. We stood beside it for a couple of minutes while our waiter and waitress cleaned off the dishes and laid out fresh linen. With dinner vouchers, I usually show whoever's waiting on us that I plan on using it to avoid confusion when it came to adding up the bill. I did that and although the voucher excluded Sunday dinner buffet ($15.99), the owner was happy to let us use it anyways which I thought was nice.
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| One of Rich's plates with channa masala, a lentil (dahl) stew, pakoras and samosa |
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| He wanted me to show you how ginormous the chickpeas were! |
As you know, Rich is vegan so we wanted to know what options there were for him. His usual dish is the channa masala, eaten with an order of naan or roti and rice. When asked about it, the staff personally showed us which dishes out of about twenty were dairy, ghee, meat and animal derivative free. Bonus points for them to do it with a smile too, as it was super busy! Turns out there were a total of four options available to him plus the mini salad bar.
Totally with the $15.99, which is pretty much the equivalent to ordering off the menu.
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| Chicken korma, lentil stew, a small piece of tandoori chicken and naan |
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| Galab jamun and Indian rice pudding |
Over all, We're really glad to have been able to try an Indian buffet! There were a lot of dishes both Rich and I were able to try that we hadn't eaten before and probably wouldn't have ordered regularly. We loved the variety and the freshness of the food. Naan and roti were continuously being replenished, still hot from the oven! Every so often staff would clean off the buffet table, refill items that were getting low and coming out with delicious pakoras and samosas. The chicken was super moist and not dry, +1.
As for the quality of the food, I'd rate it somewhere in the upper-middle. Everybody makes their gravies and sauces differently, so it's not to say that the flavours were unappetizing, they were delicious, but my taste buds have agreed better with butter chicken and chicken korma from other restaurants. To me, the butter chicken was a little too tomato-y, not enough cream, chicken korma wasn't thick enough and was missing a certain sweetness and the samosas were incomparable to A1 Sweets and Samosa King (read about my visit: Samosa Overload). My favourite was the goat curry, which was divine. Super rich and flavourful!
The other dishes however were so, so, SO good! All the vegetarian food was bang on awesome as were the pakoras and naan. Oh man, the naan was to die for! I could have eaten 10 pieces. I probably did! They were perfectly chewy with little parts of crunchy.
I tried the dessert, but it just wasn't for me. It's not the restaurant, I'm just not a fan of rice pudding and gulab jamun, a deep fried cheese donut soaked in rose water syrup, served warm. But I tried it and if given the chance might try it again!
The final verdict? As full was I was leaving Tandoori House, I was left craving it a couple hours later. I couldn't stop thinking about dipping fresh naan into flavourful gravies! Yes, we would totally return- especially if we had another group buy voucher. I actually can't wait to return or to try another Indian buffet.
There were so many dishes I didn't get to try due to being waaaaay to full. So sad!
