Monday, May 7, 2012

Kuala Lumpur 4 - Spice of India

Spice of India
http://www.spiceofindia.com.my/


Indian cuisine features heavily throughout Singapore and Malaysia. We didn't get a chance to try some Indian food in Singapore but I ADORE the stuff so by the time we got to Kuala Lumpur, it featured heavily on my to-do list.


We went to Spice of India, located at the top level of Suria. It's a chain restaurant though, so there are several others scattered around the city.




It wasn't too busy the day we got there. The restaurant had that typical restaurant-within-shopping-centre vibe: nice contemporary decor, flashy menus and very clean.

We ordered an entree and a couple of curries and bread to share.

The entree was my pick: the pakoras. I always get this because a) they taste great and b) my name's sort of in it (I'm REALLY lame).

Subzi pakora - assorted vegetable fritters dipped in lentil batter and fried

Pakoras are deep-fried, battered balls of shredded veggies. The batter on these ones was soggy and quite heavy. The seasoning was nice but what it really needed was more crunch. They didn't come with a dip and they really needed to.

Raita - whipped homemade yogurt with chopped cucumber, carrots and tomatoes, lightly spiced

I was forced to order some raita to help them down but the raita didn't arrive for ages, by which time the pakoras were cold. IT NEEDS DIP, GUYS!! INCLUDE IT.

The menu didn't contain a lot of our usual Westernized favorites (butter chicken for e.g.) so we picked a couple that sounded good.

Murgh pasanda - chicken cooked in rich, creamy almond and cashew nut gravy

The murgh pasanda chicken was really creamy and nice. I think it could've basically been classed as a butter chicken (perhaps less tomatoey?)

Lamb bhuna gohst - boneless lamb cubes cooked with ginger, onions, tomatoes and selected spices

The other curry we ordered was the lamb bhuna gohst. This was sharper and more flavorsome than the chicken dish, which was quite mild.

Butter naan

For our breads, we had some butter naan. It wasn't the best naan I've ever had but it wasn't terrible either.

Kulcha do pyaza - extra fine flavored Indian bread, with onions, chilies and garlic

There were so many bread options on the menu that we wanted to try something different too. We went for the kulcha do pyaza. It sounded good in theory but in actuality, didn't taste too different from the plain butter naan.

My colourful plate

We were really full from all the curry but I couldn't resist ordering the pistachio kulfi, one of my favorite desserts. I was a bit taken aback by the colour: a striking, fluorescent green. I thought "here we go... hello, artificial!"

Pista kulfi - homemade Indian ice-cream flavored with saffron and pistachios

It actually tasted pretty good! I'm not sure how genuine the pistachio flavoring was but it tasted decent and the texture of the kulfi was spot on.


I enjoyed this meal at Spice of India. Although none of the dishes were AMAZING (the pakoras were actually disappointing), the overall feast was what I expect to have from an Indian restaurant: good flavors, lots of variety and everything in abundance.

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