Fishtail Buffet and Restaurant

After my spill in the last post about how buffets are good but I'd rather pay good money for one good meal rather than choosing from a whole bunch of different meals…  Guess what we did.

It was completely unintentional, well, not completely.  But we didn't realise that buffet was our only option and by the time we realised it was too late!  It was one of those nights where we walk around O'Connell Street and try to decide where we feel like eating.  Of all the glorious places on O'Connell Street we found our way to the Chinese buffet.  Don't judge!  

The place has recently been renovated or taken over or something of the like and were having their "grand opening".  Shame they did it on a finals weekend when Crows had a home game!  Out the front there was a board that had what I had assumed was the menu.  I assumed correctly but in the wrong way.  It listed all the meal options (without prices next to them) and had a buffet price.  The way it was set out made me think that we could have the buffet or one of the things listed.  Incorrect.  

It was a weird buffet, I would call it a westernised Chinese buffet with some Indian dishes too.  Because that's exactly what it was.  There was a bar marked "entree" which held your soups, salt and pepper squid, spring rolls and of course fries!  Soggy, saltless fries.   The bar marked "mains" held the classics to the likes of honey chicken, lemon chicken, some beef dish that I always see on menus but now cannot remember the name of, fried rice, butter chicken, lamb korma - the usuals!

 I wasn't actually as excited as I look...

To be honest, while the place looked amazing, the food was not anything to call home about.  It was overpriced for what I could stomach (although if you're a biiiiiiig eater then you'd probably get your money's worth!) and I left feeling full and a little sick.  The food didn't sit great with Paul either.  

Overall, I would go back to the Walker's Arms buffet before I went back to Fishtail because Walker's Arms is cheaper and… well the food (in my opinion) is better!

Tandoori Temptations

This post isn't about a particular date night.  It is however, about a place we go nearly every week.  By nearly every week I mean it's more often every week than it is fortnightly.  I'm pretty confident when I say we haven't gone longer than maybe 3 weeks without it (terrible, I know). 

Tandoori Temptations.  

It's a very small place out the front of the Salisbury cinemas that just looks like a standard little Indian place. It's not.  It should have chain restaurants around the country, or at least a couple of fancy pants places like Beyond India (fyi - Temptations butter chicken absolutely OWNS Beyond India's).

As much as we frequent there, I have not had a single bad, average or okay meal.  Granted, I have only tried the butter chicken, but it's a butter chicken that makes your mouth water after each bite.   I don't even have to be hungry to crave it, and since being there, no other Indian compares for me.   It's the type of meal that you can't stop eating, and in that respect its dangerous.  

Why I love the butter chicken so much.  It has this smooth melt in your mouth kind of sauce where the tomato flavour is present but not key and it's not too creamy but it definitely is creamy at the same time and there's butter in there for sure but oh my goodness I could eat it forever.  The sauce just goes so well with the tender tandoori chicken, not to mention the garlic naan!

Paul has tried a few others, he's a bit more adventurous than I am and has found favourites in the chicken tikka masala and spinach chicken, but he generally goes back to the butter chicken. 

I'm no pro on what constitutes the best butter chicken, because everyone has different tastes and looks for different things when it comes to a meal, but of the other indian places I've been, this is by far the best in my books.  If we do an Indian date night now at the end of the night its like "how was that?" "yeah really really good" "temptations good?" "haha! no". 

To top it off to dine in and get 2 mains, 2 drinks (of the fizzy variety), a large steamed rice and 1 garlic naan it comes to around $43 for dine in.  It's a bit cheaper for take away but still for us that feels like a ridiculously fair price, especially considering its something we both crave and always, always enjoy. 

If you're in the north or north east areas of Adelaide, give it a go.  The staff are friendly the food is amazing and the price is good!

The Snake Charmer

Well, the place certainly was charming. Another daily deal date night, $25 for two mains. After looking on their website and seeing mains were usually around $23 each, I was pretty pleased.

Now being in Unley, I understand that The Snake Charmer gets to be a bit overpriced.  Thinking about it now though, that much for mains is probably pretty standard, it's just the indian place we usually go to (which is still number 1 in my eyes) is only about $15 for a meal, we've been a bit spoilt.

So getting there it's a lovely little place on Unley Road, and I loved the interior… the lights had stained glass covers around them with snakes on the stained glass… just a lovely touch I thought.

After asking the waitress what had nuts in it (because of all the indian places i've been, a LOT put nuts in a lot of their dishes), she answered, just the cheese and almond naan, all the curries do not have nuts.

THE CURRIES DO NOT HAVE NUTS. I was a very very happy date nighter. So, I had my pick of the dishes. It was very exciting, so there was no way I could get butter chicken, and whatever I did get, I could try some of Paul's as well because it wouldn't have nuts in it! I chose the coriander chicken and Paul got the chicken tikka masala. 

we also ordered a garlic naan to share and 2 serves of rice (because I am a huge rice eater, I can't get enough of the stuff). Our mains were very quick which was great and they smelt amazing. I was so happy with mine it was delicious. It was honestly so new to me because I usually stick with the same dishes. It had chilli but wasn't too spicy (I don't like spicy) and was just a great flavour, very easy to scoff down :). Paul's tikka masala was near mind-blowing. Very creamy and almost buttery, but nothing like butter chicken, very hard to explain but very delicious. 

The service was great, checking to see if everything was alright with our meals. I really appreciate that little bit extra attention in a restaurant. 

So after stuffing ourselves full to the brim with our meals, we got the bill. One little mistake was they apparently had not realised or had forgotten that we had already paid for the deal, and charged it to us. One word to who appeared to be the head waiter and that was all fixed up.

Good food, probably a good price even without a voucher, and good service! And it's a good place to take sneaky pictures. 

Pride of India

I always feel bad when I can’t understand what someone is saying, and have to ask again what they said, or more so, when someone doesn’t understand English very well and I have to repeat myself 5 times to get my question across. Eating at restaurant that sells foreign cuisines like Indian and Chinese, and have waitresses/waiters that have strong accents from their respective countries usually poses an issue for me when I’m trying to find out if a meal contains nuts. Because me and my allergies are a huge pain in the ass. But more on that later.

Yet again, we had a trusty Scoopon that led us to Pride of India at Glenelg. We probably never would have gone there without it, and probably won’t go there again. It definitely wasn’t terrible, the service was good (aside from a slight language barrier), the food came out rather quickly, but unfortunately there is just a short list of Indian places I would rather go before going back there. I didn’t really take note of the prices. And also afterwards I had a mix between that sick “I ate too much” and sick “I ate something that’s going to make me be sick” feeling. I never was actually sick so let’s put it down to I ate too much. Moving forward…

With our deal we got entrée, 3 curries, rice and naan. Language barrier story: Butter Chicken is (like most Westerners I believe) my favourite dish. I am also aware that at a lot of place (and in the jars), butter chicken contains cashews/other nuts, so when going to a new place I always feel it necessary to check. So I did. After about 5 minutes (it felt like 20) of trying to explain that’s I’m allergic to nuts and cannot eat any, and the waitress not understanding, eventually through hand signals, slow talking and  the waitress nodded and went and checked with the chef what I could eat. Hello list of about 5 things that I could choose (it was a big menu so that wasn’t much). On a positive note this was a prime opportunity to try a dish I usually wouldn’t eat, so I did.

I can’t even remember what we ended up ordering, Paul got Butter Squid, which was apparently good. It just didn’t make me feel great eating it. I didn’t want to keep eating; I ate until I wasn’t starving and then stopped. I tried everything. I can say that. Paul liked it too but wasn’t really impressed. It wouldn’t be the first place I recommend to my friends, but if you’re REALLY hankering Indian and you’re in Glenelg (and you have no allergies)… then give it a go. I would love to hear from some people that live in the Glenelg area (or anyone that knows of any) better Indian places in Glenelg that we can give a try :)

We got ice cream after which was epically awesome. 

Note: it's upstairs... don't get confused like we did! :)

British India (the restaurant, not the band)

Definitely the “funkiest” place we have been to so far. It was kind of old school in a medieval type way (dark woods, big chairs and heavy tables). There was very dim lighting over our little candlelit table which made it feel nice and cosy, plus as it was harder to see the people around us (especially with my generally terrible eyesight) I guess it felt like we were more alone, which was nice.

British food with a twist. We had options like lamb shanks or shepherds pie – but they were spiced with Indian… spices. Then the other side of the menu was curries like butter chicken, tikka masala, vindaloo, and other things I cannot remember or spell (for the website to check out the menu here).

I went with the lamb shanks. I freaking love the lamb shanks my mum makes, they’re amazing, so why not compare them to restaurant quality? Plus their butter chicken has nuts in it so that was out.

So for those playing at home, I have really fun gastric reflux, so generally spicy things just do NOT agree with me at all. Also I’m allergic to nuts. Indian food isn’t really something that leaves me with a lot of choices dish wise. The lamb shanks seemed safe enough for me.

British India’s mild is not my mild, the lamb shanks were spicy and more Indian that British. Delicious. But too spicy for my poor belly. I ate them, I enjoyed them, I suffered the consequence of a very poor car ride home feeling very sick and sorry for myself. It happens. My reflux was quite bad when we went here, probably wasn’t the best choice for me BUT it was still all delicious! They were amazing and tender and fell off the bone.

I went back here recently and I will go back again.

Beyond India

ah, our first of many indian date nights.

now i'm pretty sure mostly everyone knows about beyond india, one of the most amazing indian restaurants out there i'm sure. i mean, i'm not reeeaallllyyy the best person to judge because the only indian i have is butter chicken (unless the butter chicken has cashews), because i can't eat nuts and spicy things make me feel sick BUT i can tell you, the butter chicken from this place is mind blowing.

Buttery, buttery sauce but not too much. Not spicy, perfectly tandoored chicken, fantastic service, busy but quick, great naan. just all round tip top. BUT because it is all that amazing and more, it is a little bit more expensive. it's the type of indian restaurant that you'd want to get a little dressed up for and you'd probably still feel a little underdressed (this is the o'connell street one, there's also a more relaxed one at clovercrest) but it's date night so huzzah! in saying that, they also do take away, and take home packs.