REVIEW: At Tandoor restaurant

Food at Tandoor Restaurant.

ORIGINATING in India over 5000 years ago, the tandoor is a cylindrical clay oven. Small fuel consumption and high heat produces delicious breads especially buttery, yeasted naans, and moist meats, most well known being tandoori chicken.  Finally made it over to namesake Tandoor restaurant on Friday night.

Have been meaning to for some time, but it’s quite a trek from the Eastern suburbs especially having to negotiate city centre chaos on a month end Friday night. Samora Machel is a nightmare after dusk with huge crowds of commuters jamming the streets waiting for transport home, corner filling stations contributing to grid lock with cars driving down the wrong side of the dual carriageway to get across the traffic flow – and pick up trucks stopping to offload without bothering to pull off the road.As long as their hazard lights are on they assume impunity!

Nevertheless we made it into Ridgeview where, like many other suburbs, only a couple of roads are passable in a normal sedan. Leaving the restaurant, we took a wrong turning and soon found ourselves in a street where there were more potholes than tar!  Tandoor occupies the upstairs space at Sunrise Sports Club and on arrival you are greeted by the delicious scent of spicy barbecuing meat.

Club was busy but not that many people in the restaurant. We were enjoying a US$25 special menu with a group. Choice of starters included dahi puri — a delicious puff pastry ball stuffed with potato and spiced yoghurt served with crispy noodles and fresh coriander. Six pieces made a substantial and filling portion. Alternative starter was an equally substantial chicken platter offering chicken cooked different ways — a spicy moist drumstick bright red from its marinade in yoghurt and spices and a mini kebab — both cooked in the tandoor oven.

For mains we shared a selection of lamb curry, chicken curry and palak paneer (spinach with cheese) all accompanied by delicious, hot naan bread, rice and dhal.  Food was very good and pronounced authentic by the Indian born amongst us. As in India, items are described as veg or non veg. Veg main courses included a number of paneer dishes — all around US$8 for standard and US$11 for large. This soft Indian cheese lends itself very well to spices and flavouring and choices included – palak (spinach), mutter (peas) and various spicy gravies. Other veg main dishes were cashew nut curry, dhals and veg curry.

On the meat side, lamb curry is very good value at US$9 standard and US$13 large. Tender chunks in a rich gravy went down very well. Various chicken dishes – butter chicken, green chicken, masala chicken range from US$9 to US$12.  Our dessert was kheer – a soft and spicy rice pudding, quite light, not too sweet and filled with nuts and fruit.

I found the pricing a bit strange – as we could easily have chosen the same combinations from the menu for less than US$25. One expects a special to be a bit of a bargain! And wine was expensive at US$5 a glass or US$20 a bottle. I stuck to local beer at US$2 which went well with the food.  Food was very good and many items on the menu call for a return visit — including whole tandoori chicken and dhosas — the wonderful crispy wraps made of fermented grains – and difficult to find a good one outside India.

Good news is that mid-August will see Tandoor opening a takeaway in Newlands shopping centre making it easier for the eastern and northern suburbs.Look forward to more lovely Indian food closer to home.

g.jeke@yahoo.com