Paddington Curry House - Indian Napolese fusion in the heart of Brisbane
When you think of Indian food what’s the first things that come to mind?
Most would say the ever popular Butter Chicken, Chicken Tikka, Naan… just to name a few dishes.
But these local favourites, barely scratch the surface of this culturally diverse, with thousands of years (of history) and food. Let’s try and take a deep dive into this tradition flavoured sensation and assist each other, inspire each other to learning more about this culturally diverse cuisine.
Lets go! ❤️
When you first arrive, you will see this simple, yet beautiful setting.
Dark, ruby reds and candles on the table to really set the mood.
Menu:
We sat down and immediately we were presented with menus and a basket of Papadams (do love their efficiency!). The Papadams was crispy, perfectly salted that it was so hard to not wait for our food before we finished the entire basket as we could smell the delicious curry flavours wafting through the restaurant.
Looking through their menu - the menu was quite extremely extensive as Indian cuisine is so diverse as there are so many different cultures, ethnics groups, history, tradition to just name a few. Not being Indian, the depth of our understanding of the culture probably barely touches the surface of how deep their culture runs. So, to feed our hungry bellies, we conceded defeat and asked for help from the staff 😂 who graciously did not laugh at us.
The staff asked us a few basic questions; spice levels we could tolerate, meats, flavours we may be intrigued to try - staff were quite happy to offer suggestions
Entrees:
We were told of a delicious Nepalese & Indochinese dumpling - Momos.
Vegetable or chicken fillings which were available steamed, fried, or chilli and served with a tomato & sesame seed dip.
We had to try the chilli just to see the amount of heat packed into them plus Miss Y and I both like our spicy foods and we really wanted to compare the difference of Chinese spice (which has been a bit of a favourite of ours lately) and Indian spice
Needless to say it didn’t disappoint. We’d ordered medium spice, and it wasn’t as spicy as we thought it would be, still definitely delicious, but next time we’d be quite keen to try a higher spice level.
The other entree we had was the Chicken 65.
Now this dish of boneless chicken pieces marinated in southern Indian spices, coconut and their chef’s special masala was a tasty treat.
Strong spices but well balanced with the coconut and masala.
Of course my curiosity got the best of me and I had to ask “Why is it called 65?”
The short answer - traditionally chickens are most delicious on day 65 - but staff wasn’t sure if the chicken they’d used was day 65. Still, the dish had a very interesting story of how it came to be named.
Were these chickens 65 days old… I can’t confirm, but I can confirm that they were delicious 😍.
Ok so one of my weaknesses to Indian food, is of course Naan.
I always need to order naan bread whenever we get Indian food (my all time favourite ❤️)
Thin but fluffy - and this one was filled with tasty cheese and garlic ❤️ (you can never go wrong 🤤). I could’ve easily gone through another basket if not for the curry’s and rice that we had ordered!
Mains:
Now the part that we all know was coming, the curries!
Chicken Tikka Masala - Diced chicken breast cooked in a creamy tomato and ginger sauce with diced onion, capsicum and herbs… My go to and my favourite.
The chicken was so tender, flavour was richer than what I’d previously had. I usually don’t like ginger, but the ginger flavouring was quite subtle and blended well with all the other spice in the curry.
Barramundi Goan - seafood curry with a spicy coconut sauce w. tomato, tamarin and red chillies - I usually don’t prefer seafood (thats Miss Y’s favourite go to) but we both wanted to try something different. And I honestly hadn’t had Indian fish curry before, so we were quite interested.
And we definitely was not disappointed.
I could tell that it was Miss Y’s favourite, she tried all 3 curry’s - mainly to taste them all at least once. But this Barramundi Goan she had at least 2 - 3 servings. Even I admit, I had more than I had originally planned, but the flavouring was spot on.
You could tell that they’d used fresh ingredients, as the flavour was pure and not simply overpowered by spices.
Chicken Kebab Kofta Curry - chicken kofta balls in a cashew and saffron Kashmiri sauce.
This curry was a favourite of the locals we were told.
Miss Y and I, no matter the cuisine, have always had a preference for the authentic flavourings. While this dish was definitely amazing, it unfortunately was not our favourite curry to be had.
What made these curries different in my opinion is that each of the curry bases had a unique taste and matched perfectly with the protein offered. Some other curries I’ve had in the past, you could tell that the curry base was the same, the only difference was in the protein that was used.
I have always known that Indian cuisine were extremely rich in flavour and culture, but since dining in this restaurant, it has most definitely made me realise how much I am missing out on (not fully of course, but its a start!).
So many more dishes and flavours to explore - something I hope to rectify soon.
Dessert:
And of course, my favourite! Come now… did you think we’d skip on dessert? Not a chance! 🤣
Ok, so dessert was a pretty easy choice - mainly because there was only 2 to choose from. Anyone who knows me, knows about my sweet tooth 😍.
We got Gulab Jamun and Mango Kulfi ❤️.
FIrst up the Gulab Jamun - house-made, deep fried, fluffy balls in sugar syrup with almonds.
Simple but this one is unlike ones you’ve tried before, this is like a soft delicate cake… so light and you could easily eat 2 or more 🤤. (Also, while Miss Y has a sweet tooth, but she can’t eat foods too sweet. So it was a bit of a surprise when, my Gulab Jamun arrived, and more than half went into her stomach and not mine! 🤣)
Mango Kulfi - House-made mango ice cream, with a mango sauce, and almonds.
Light, refreshing, a slightly healthy (kinda-ish).
Unfortunately, if we hadn’t ordered the Gulab Jamun, we probably would’ve enjoyed the Mango Kulfi more. Because of the deliciousness of the Gulab Jamun it make the Mango Kulfi pale in comparison.
Both delicious, however…..its like when you’re dying for coffee, but you’re giving tea instead. Both tasty, but you craved and wanted coffee!!! 😂
After this I think we reached our limits, King Stomach was calling it quits so took our leftovers and left.
Summary
Ambience ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Service ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Food ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
If you love Indian food, try it
If you don’t love Indian food, still try it!
The hospitality offered here is on a level of it’s own that matches the incredible food that comes out of the kitchen.
I love the direction this husband a wife team are taking this venue, and I know more will too.
Paddington Curry House
Website / Book a Table / Facebook / Instagram
Address: 3/147 Latrobe Terrace, Paddington QLD 4064
Phone: (07) 3369 9399
Hours:
Monday : CLOSED
Tuesday - Sunday : 5:00pm - 8:30pm
Disclaimer:
This was a invited meal for 2, however the words are my own and are never influenced to give a bias review.
