Having helped my sister move, she owed me a meal. At first she offered the gold standard of pizza and beer.  I decided on a different standard and convinced her to buy me curry instead.  We had heard a lot of good things about Tiffin and thought it would be an excellent place to take my sister.  Some of the frequent readers of this website are in fact big fans of this little place near Franklin station. This begs the question, “We know they can read (or at least have their monkeys operate a computer and translate for them) but are they good judges of curry?”. We would soon find out. (matt)

We also had an aborted attempt at a trip to Tiffin and ended up reviewing Apna Punjab so we had some extra incentive to go check it out.  With all the different places to go in town, its hard enough to keep track, don't need to add a “we went but didn't review it” column to the Reviewed/Not Reviewed database.  (ren)

 Tiffins are reusable thermal lunchboxes used most pronouncedly in Mumbai and the southern Indian provinces. They look very different from the large orange plastic Muppets themed lunchkit with mismatched Wayne Gretzky thermos that I had until Grade 3. Tiffin Curry and Roti House have a promotion where you buy a tiffin from them and then get about 15% off your take out order every time you bring it in. It’s probably well suited for anyone in nearby industrial/business parks who eats curry on the go.  Not to mention, its very environmentally friendly. (matt)

Tiffin is located across the street from the Short Pants Plaza.  I find that amusing and just wanted to make sure I remembered to mention it. (ren)

As always, the crowd in this part of the city is diverse. Case in point, the two dope selling gangsters who entered immediately after us, followed by an old Indian man with a walker. Isn’t it nice we can all live together? (matt)

The overall vibe of Tiffin is very food court.  If you'd transplanted the counter out of the light industrial park and into any of Calgary's malls, it would not feel out of place beside the Opa, Bourbon St Grill, Famous Wok and Edo Japan.  Unfortunately this isn't necessarily the vibe you shoot for with a stand-alone restaurant. (ren)

The set up at Tiffin is quite different. First you decide how many veg dishes and how many meat dishes you want. Ren and I got one of each.  My sister did a strictly vegetarian option. Meat choices included Butter Chicken or Beef Curry while veg curry options were Okra, Potato and zucchini, spinach, and the previously unseen Green Beans and peas curry.  Each serving is placed in a little steel bowl and then onto a prison style cafeteria tray.  Next, is the decision about which chutney you would like to add to your dish. Ren and I went with a “mango”chutney while my sister stuck with tamarind. They serve the meal with rice and 2 or 3 whole wheat roti. I had a mango “lassi” and Ren had a Fanta. (matt)

I was a little concerned when the writing on my Fanta was Arabic.  Not being able to read Arabic I could only assume it said “Fanta” and not “Why don't you drink real orange juice instead of this crap you corrupt, immoral, godless American pig”.  However, not being American I figured I was pretty safe.  (ren)

I’m not gonna lie to you. The food was poor. The butter chicken was mediocre. As was the potato and zucchini curry. If “buffet” is a flavour, then that’s what it tasted of. Freshness lacked.  I could almost forgive them for those two pieces of culinary mediocrity if not for the chutney and the lassi. The chutney may well have been made from mangos but unfortunately for us, no one mentioned that they were turpentine mangos.  It was like I was dipping my roti in Soju.  The mango lassi was equally as disappointing. While it did have the taste of mangos, it lacked the taste of yoghurt and was more of a mango nectar. The one item that was really well done was the whole wheat roti. If I was gonna buy Costco amounts of roti, this is where I’d do it. But since I don’t believe in joining cults (like Costco, Facebook, The Running room or the Branch Davidians) I’d probably just slum it and get them from the Jewish bakery down the street. (matt)

The food was poor.  I won't even talk about the butter chicken, but for some bizarre reason I decided to get the spinach dish.  WHY!!!????!!!!!   I dunno, I guess I was expecting something curry-tastic like the Saag Paneer I've sampled at other places.  Instead I got a dish of greasy, unspicy (definitely uncurry), shredded spinach and onions.  However the Fanta was great and the roti's were really good.  They save Tiffin from getting a 4. (ren)

At risk of insulting our faithful readers who love Tiffin, I can’t condone going back to Tiffin.  Not even to get the lunch kit.  Or the Fanta. We have few morals but one of them is not to sell out to our fans. If we think your favorite place is poor, we’re going to tell you. Please read this website. We love you.  Tiffin scores a very generous 5 (and only because Ren wouldn’t let me give a 4). (matt)

Rating:

This guy likes his mango chutney waaaaay more than we liked Tiffins.