I had heard about there being a great hole-in-the-wall place downtown for reasonably priced and delicious butter chicken. For whatever reason, I never had a chance to check this place out even though I’ve been working downtown in some capacity for the past few years. One day, both Jenkins and I found ourselves without lunch plans so we decided to meet up and he offered to take me to this famous butter chicken place that I had been hearing about for so long.

Tucked away in a non-descript cafe on the ground floor of the Law Society of BC, Grounds for Appeal looks like, upon first glance, your typical office building coffee shop. However, once lunch time hits, a long line starts to form as many people who are in on this “secret” location line up for some pretty tasty Indian food for lunch. They have some rotating specials but I was told by the regulars that I should try the butter chicken first.

For $7.95, the portions are pretty large, especially considering that you are downtown. The butter chicken is flavourful and rich without being overly rich…if that’s even possible! Tastewise, I would say that this is one of the better butter chicken dishes that I’ve had although I’ve had better homemade versions. I also had quite a bit of chicken in mine but quality control seems to be a bit of an issue as Jenkins did not have as much chicken in his order.

The butter chicken also comes with rice and naan. Please ignore the dollop of butter chicken in the photo below as I was too eager to start eating and almost forgot to take pictures. The rice was quite well done and flavourful but the naan left quite a bit to be desired. It was on the doughy side and almost tasted like regular flat bread or pita.

To complement my meal, I decided to also have a mango lassi for $2.50. The mango lassi was quite tasty although not the best I’ve ever had. It was thick not overly so and had a really nice mango flavour to it. I liked how there was enough yogurt to give the drink its tanginess but it did not dilute the mango flavour.

Although somewhat hyped up, I still felt that the butter chicken at Grounds for Appeal was quite good and definitely ranked amongst the better Indian places I’ve been to (not counting homemade, of course). In addition, I find that eating out at Indian restaurants can be pretty expensive at times so the prices here are more than reasonable, especially when you take into account the downtown factor. I’m not sure if it’s open on the weekends but if you do come for lunch, I recommend that you arrive a bit before 12pm as the line forms quite quickly and I’ve also been told that they sometimes sell out of their more popular dishes.

Details:
845 Cambie Street, Vancouver
Tel: 604-681-8558

Summary:
Food: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Service: n/a
Price: $

Way back in April, I went for dinner during Dine Out with my and Nav’s families. It was a couple of months before Nav and Grick’s wedding at that time so there were a few wedding day logistics we had to discuss. My mom suggested going to Atithi Indian Cuisine on Burrard. She had gone there a few times before and really enjoyed it, noting that it was actually run by one of the original owners of Maurya.

When my mom first told me we were going to Atithi, I didn’t know it was on the Dine Out circuit. However, when we arrived, we found out it actually fell under the $18 for three courses category. Since the Dine Out menu turned out to be what I wanted to order, I decided order just that.

First, several of us ordered some mango lassis. It was quite thick and full of mango flavour. I wish my glass was a bit bigger but other than that, I have no complaints.

For those of us who ordered off the Dine Out menu, we were served some appetizers for our first course. They were all served together so we all ended up nibbling on them. The mini veggie samosas were pretty standard tasting but they were served fresh and had a nice crispy exterior.

The pakoras were also served fresh and hot. The batter was quite light and the veggies were seasoned well. There was quite a bit even though only three of us had ordered the Dine Out menu so there was more than enough for us all to share.

We also ordered some additional appetizers to share. The Chili Gobi was deep-fried cauliflower in a sweet and slightly spicy, soya garlic sauce. The cauliflower seemed to be lightly battered so it had a crispy exterior that went really well with the sweet, spicy, and salty sauce. The addition of the soy sauce gave it the slightest hint of a Chinese-flavour.

We were all quite intrigued by the Frankie Roll, which was advertised by the menu as being a egg roll stuffed with your choice of chicken or lamb. We ordered one of each so we could try both but I think I liked the chicken more. For some reason, I couldn’t taste very much of the lamb flavour. The Frankie Rolls tasted almost like mini pitas to me and were stuffed with meat and veggies. I found them to be a bit dry but this was solved by dipping it in some of the tamarind sauce that accompanied them.

For my main course, I chose the curried mussels, which also happened to be one of the daily specials. The broth was very flavorful and had a strong curry taste but was still light enough so that it did not overpower the mussels. I had a great time dipping naan in my broth after I was finished with my mussels.

Jenkins did not have the Dine Out menu and ordered the Butter Chicken. Although it was breast meat, the chicken was very tender and absorbed all the great butter chicken sauce and flavour. I’m not sure if this was actually the case, but it also did not seem to have too much cream, which I appreciated. The only odd thing Jenkins and I noted was the strawberry garnish, which didn’t seem to go, yet at the same time, the sweetness of the strawberries kind of worked with the savoury butter chicken.

For dessert, we had a pudding-like dish that Nav told me was made with ricotta cheese or something similar. She told me what it was called as well but I can’t remember now. It was slightly creamy but not too sweet and was flavoured with rose water. At first, I was a bit disappointed that the dessert wasn’t rice pudding but I ended up enjoying this one as well.

I thought the dishes at Atithi were a great value and very tasty at the same time. I also noted that Atithi has a lunch buffet for $8.95, which sounds like a really good deal. I wouldn’t mind going back to try their other dishes since all the ones we tried were so tasty. Service was also very prompt and friendly.

Details:
2445 Burrard Street, Vancouver
Tel: 604-731-0221

Summary:
Food: 4 out of 5 stars
Service: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Price: $$

I drive past the House of Dosas at the corner of Kingsway and Boundary a lot on my way to work and it always looked pretty busy inside, regardless of the time of day. After hearing from Chris that the dosas were pretty tasty, Keith and I found some time to drive over to the House of Dosas with Chris for a weekday lunch. It seems that Chris goes there quite a bit so he has tried several things on the menu and was able to let us know which dosas were tasty.

First, the three of us decided to share some veggie pakoras. The pakoras were obviously just fried and served hot. I really enjoyed the crunchy exterior and the curry seasoning, which went very well with the accompanying dipping sauce. It was a great meal starter and perfect for three people to share.

Since we went on a Monday, we got to take advantage of the Monday $5.99 dosa special, which applied to all dosas. Although the dosas are regularly priced quite cheaply between $6-10 for most, it was still nice that all the dosas were $5.99 on the day we went.

I decided to have the Lamb Vindaloo dosa. As you can see, it was quite large but only 1/3 of it or so had filling inside.

I wasn’t quite sure where to start but both our server and Chris instructed me to just start ripping the edge of the dosa and dipping it in the meat found in the middle. I decided to cut my dosa in half so I could get to the meat and started ripping away. The dosa itself was actually quite light and almost like a crepe but crunchy. My lamb vindaloo was slightly spicy and had a very strong curry flavour to it. My only complaint was that both the dosa and the lamb vindaloo was quite salty and Keith found the same issue with his dosa. All three of us tried out the accompanying dips that came with our dosas but found that the flavour of our fillings was so strong that the dips really weren’t necessary.

Despite the saltiness, I enjoyed my dosa and liked that it was different from the usual places I go to. Next time around, I think I will ask them to reduce the salt and my dosa will be quite tasty indeed. I definitely liked the veggie pakoras and would order it again the next time I go. Service was prompt and very friendly, which I think was aided by the fact that Chris was a regular customer.

Details:
1391 Kingsway, Vancouver
Tel: 604-875-1283

Summary:
Food: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Service: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Price: $

Gene, Christina, Mabel, and I went to Saffron restaurant to celebrate our last day of work together before some of us started our Christmas holidays. Saffron is an Indian restaurant located on Kingsway near Metrotown. For lunch, they offer a small but tasty buffet for $10.95. I had only ordered take-out from here so I was interested to see what was offered at the lunch buffet.

I must have forgotten to turn on my macro mode on my camera that day as some of my pictures are a bit blurry but I think you will get the general idea of what the food looked like.

The chicken biryani was quite tasty and packed with a lot of veggies.

Butter chicken is always one of the most popular dishes here. The chunks of chicken are quite big and the sauce is great to dip your naan bread in.

I don’t remember what this was called but the potatoes were a bit undercooked. The extra crunch of the potatoes did make this dish interesting though.

My favourite dish at Saffron is the Tandoori chicken. The chicken is always juicy and full of great flavour.

I don’t remember what this dish was called either but Christina recommended it to me. It is full of peas and lentils and went very well with naan because of its saucy consistency.

The fried dough was surprisingly light and was also good for dipping in the saucy dishes like the butter chicken and the lentil dish above. It is slightly sweet and very crunchy.

Finally, we were on to dessert. I tried a mango pudding that also had other types of fruit mixed in. It was very creamy and had a strong mango taste. I am not a big fan of creamy puddings though so this did not appeal to me very much.

I also had some rice pudding. I’m not sure what this is called but I have tried it in other Indian restaurants. It is slightly sweet and has a soupy texture with well-boiled rice. I found it lighter than the mango pudding and enjoyed the taste of this more.

Mabel is a big fan of the sweet cake balls offered at Indian restaurants. Again, I am not sure what this is called. It is the sweetest of the three desserts in this review so if you enjoy sweet things, this may be a dessert for you.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but the food at Saffron is very rich and will sit in your stomach long after you have stopped eating. Because everything was so tasty and I wanted to try a little of everything, I overate quite a bit. The important thing to remember at buffets like this is to know when it is time to stop eating! At $10.95 per person for the lunch buffet, this is a good deal, especially when considering the large selection of items to choose from.

Details:
4300 Kingsway, Burnaby
Tel: 604-436-5000

Summary:
Food: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Service: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Price: $$

A bunch of us went to the Chili Pepper House at 3003 Kingsway in Vancouver for Gene’s birthday. This is one of a few Chinese-Indian restaurants in the area…another notable one is the Green Lettuce just down the street on Kingsway. The owners of this restaurant are Chinese and grew up in India, which means that they have an interesting take on the food here. Because there were six of us, we decided to order a bunch of dishes to share. Gene comes here pretty often so he did all the ordering for us. For almost any dish, you can choose between 1-3 “chili peppers”, meaning mild, medium, or hot. We picked medium spicyness for everything.

First came the hot and sour soup. The soup was thick and spicy. It was a bit more sour than the Chinese-style hot and sour soup I was more accustomed to.

Next came some fried green beans. The beans were fresh and crunchy with a hint of spicyness. Just the way I like them.

The fried chicken noodles were next. Think of them as your typical soy sauce chicken fried noodles but with a kick of spicyness. The noodles had a nice bounce to them and were very tasty.

The haaji prawns are always a favourite and this time, it was no exception. If you like spicyness, garlic, and prawns, this is the dish to get. Even though we asked for medium spicyness, this seemed way spicier.

Next came another fan favourite, the Manchurian veggie balls. The best way to describe them is to imagine balls of chopped veggies (carrots, cabbage, mushrooms, etc) deep fried and then drenched in spicy Manchurian sauce. There is a lot of sauce with this dish though so it is best eaten with some rice.

And for our last dish, we had the Manchurian chicken. This was cubes of chicken deep fried and then drizzled in the same Manchurian sauce as the veggie balls.

It was a great meal and we were all sniffling at the end due to the spiciness of all the dishes. I normally find that they are heavy on the sauce here so if you are not into that, you may want to get some dishes that are “dry”. Another alternative is to make sure you have a healthy serving of rice to soak up all the sauce. This place is quite popular and by the time it was 12:30pm, the restaurant was packed.

Details:
1-3003 Kingsway, Vancouver
Tel: 604-431-8633

Summary:
Food: 3 out of 5 stars
Service: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Price: $$