Alright, friday night and the curry bug strikes again.  After trying to go to curry joint number one and finding it too full we decide to try another place with the plan that we would stop at the first dodgy Indian restaurant we came across.  Well, that restaurant was the Curry House.  I kinda wish it wasn't. 

The location was dodgy, sharing a stripmall with a payday loans place and a pharmacy where none of the employees speak passable english  (i know, i've called there).  The interior decor was a mix of 70's basement and 70's disco.  Very stylish.  Even though there were about 20 tables in the place and only 2 of them occupied we were placed beside another group.  Any thoughts of asking for a different location were quickly put to rest by our server John verbally provoking a drunk into what I was hoping would become fisti-cuffs. No such luck. 

Matt asked John what the house specialty was and proceeded to get an earful of John simply explaining all of the various dishes.  He described the kalyo dishes as being particularly flavourful and tasty so matt had chicken and i had the lamb variety.  Our guest reviewer for the evening had a tiger-prawn curry.  I won't go into the details of each one but basically all the dishes seemed to be lacking in flavour and variety of taste, and the price was astronomical.  The entrees didn't come with rice or naan, and john wouldn't let you get away without an order of each.  So basically $20 per person for food.   Add on some bland "oven-baked" (oven burnt?) samosa's and a beverage each and we were looking at a bill over $100.  That was until we found that John and numbers are not so good together.  We got the bill down to the correct amount (still over $90 for 3 people...insane...i want a steak for that) after we found the calculator and had John re-figure it.   Overall very disappointing. On to matty and laura

The Curry House – August 12th, 2005 

This curry obsession is getting ridiculous. I eat, sleep and breath curry. It occupies most of my waking thoughts. Fantasies of snogging Dido in a bookstore in West London have now been replaced with fantasies of first chowing down on a plate of Samosas and then before getting down to business. It’s disturbing really. 

We loaded up the curry-mobile and headed to Puspa. For our review on Puspa, see our review on the Clay Oven.  

Disappointed by what we found at Puspa, we accidentally stumbled upon The Curry House. Basically, Gondola Pizza went out of business and the same owner opened the Curry House in the same restaurant, complete with 70s wood paneling and disco ball. The whole thing reamed of the Babu-Bot episode from Seinfeld. 

There were only 2 other parties in the restaurant and John (a traditional Indian name) the owner, sat us down immediately beside one of them. So much for respecting people’s personal space. I think John is probably the only reason anyone should ever go to the Curry House. This guy is a piece of work and you need to see him to believe it. John is basically like that socially awkward Egyptian Math prof you had in university crossed with “Al” from Happy Days. Immediately, after seating us, a drunk stumbled in and John proceeded to provoke him into a verbal altercation. I’ve never seen anything like that in an Indian restaurant. At least not in Canada. 

The food was boring. The oven-baked samosas were touted by John to be greaseless. Unfortunately for us, he forgot to mention they were also flavorless. Ren and I had the Lamb and Chicken Kalyo respectively, which apparently The Curry House won an award for at a festival in Toronto. In light of the fact that Toronto is the most multicultural city in North America and probably has one or two people from India who actually know how to cook, I find this hard to believe. At $13.00 sans naan, sans riz, it’s a rip-off. 

To top it all off John proceeded to over charge us on our bill. Score 5/10.Tip Left: 5%. 

Three people not seen at the Restaurant

Cyril St. John (Escape Artist)
2. Eric Tillman (GM of the Ottawa Renegades)
3. Don Vito (Viva la Bam)

The Curry House 

Well, this is my two cents on the Curry House on Centre Street in Calgary! My fine dining experience at the Curry House began on a late sunny Friday evening. I was privileged to be accompanied by two fine gentlemen; Ren and Matt who graciously allowed me to witness and participate in their Indian Restaurant dinning and review ritual! My trip to the Curry House was quite an entertaining affair and some of the bizarre moments of the evening proved to be spicier then my tiger shrimp curry! 

To appreciate our peculiar experience at the Curry House, an understanding of the ambiance and décor of the place is crucial. Flanked by wood paneling, the use of mismatched cutlry, and tables toped by paper place mats, the Curry House is reminiscent of a dark 70’s rec room. However, a highlight of the restaurant is an odd and painfully misplaced dance floor and disco ball in the centre of the establishment. One highlight for the restaurant is a bar somewhat reminiscent of a neighborhood watering hole! 

John, our waiter with extraordinary detail explained the offerings of the menu and the highlights Curry House bar. I decided upon a dry white wine for my beverage of choice, and was surprised to find it rather sweet and quite bland. As an appetizer we ordered a plate of vegetarian somosas that happened to be baked, not fried! Better for the waist line, but certainly not as pleasing to the taste buds! Our waiter, John, explained that the Curry House did not fry anything, nor did their dishes contain MSG or trans fats. 

Choosing a main dish was a slightly more challenging task as the selection of entrees was fairly extensive, but no dish contained quite the combination of ingredients I desired that evening. In the end I settled upon the mild tiger shrimp curry, plain naan bread, and saffron rice. The meal was presented in an affectionately named “hubcap” with a small container of the curry. Mixing the rice and curry together proved to be somewhat challenging. Overall, the curry was too mild, and non descript. The saffron rice was not fully cooked. However, the shrimp was quite plump and the naan bread was some the best I had tasted. Ren’s garlic version had enough garlic to scare even the most easy going partner away from a goodnight kiss! Overall the food was pleasant and satisfying, but still did not live up to its award winning claim to fame (at least John’s claim). 

Dinner lacked the spice I was looking for that Friday evening. However, other event’s of the evening including being squished next to a couple that looked like they were on a date, a drunken visitor to the Curry House, and an attempt to be stiffed of ten bucks on our bill spiced up our evening into an affair to remember, well or at least one to be laughed at. On the downside, the food, price, and décor of the Curry House left much to be desired. I won’t be back soon, but I wouldn’t discount it being crossed off my list of Indian restaurants in Calgary to visit.

Ren again.  Nothing more to add.   Overall 5/10.  Not as insidious as the forest lawn trip.  John was amusing.  Make sure to return BOTH of his pens.  And don't dare ask for separate bills, they're already written up.  

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