On a Saturday night, I eagerly sit at home by the phone waiting for Ren’s call. Not because I have no friends, but rather because some jerk stole my cell phone this week thereby cutting me off from the world and unlawfully confining me to my house. I was under the impression that we’re skipping curry this week and doing shwarma. That is until, Ren phones saying he’s got a hot lead on a place call Surya.(matty)

Yeah...hot lead all right. I drove past it...and it was there. Not quite as random as our usual technique of picking names out of the phonebook, but its a close second. And poor matty...some jerk stole his cellphone and then hid it in his dirty clothes hamper...evil. I bet they're gonna steal that one for the plot of Saw 4. (ren)

The name Surya conjures up odd memories of my first days in India staying at the Surya Shelter Hotel in Karol Bagh, New Delhi. Sure, their website looks good. But in reality, the cement floor washroom is of no comfort when you’re deliriously hyperventilating (with a respiratory rate of 32 ) and you’re unsure whether you need to shit or puke. My thanks to Sanjay the night porter for the extra role of toilet paper and for watching over me as I lost 6 lbs in 23 hours. (matt)

Surya Restaurant is located near the downtown Co-Op at about 11th and 11th so we parked in their lot and walked over. For the second week in a row, a street vagrant hassled me for change outside the restaurant. (What is this? A Charity Blog? I think not. I need this money for curry.) Surya has only been open for 2 months and the word has yet to spread. Evenings are apparently slow as we were only the 2nd table of the night. (matt)

Place is nice enough inside. Some of the artwork and "flair" seemed to be carried over from the previous business (chinese restaurant i think, or else "great wall worship clan"). Nice enough though, not too dodgy at all really as befitting its near-downtown location. (ren)

Bevvies:

I ordered a beer while Ren went out on a limb and tried a Kashmiri Lemonade. Cheers to Ren for being adventurous but Jeers to the drink, which was crap. Cheers to my tasty Kingfisher but Jeers to the waiter who decide to remove it before the beer was empty and then proceeded to spill it all over the table. We both got lassis with our meals which we decent but not spectacular. (matt)

To make a Kashmiri lemonade it seems that you take a regular glass of lemonade, and them put a couple teaspoons full of pepper and spice into it. At first I thought, "this is nice, not too sweet"...then after a couple sips i though "i hate this". I can't complain too much though, at the end of the meal the waiter (owner?) didn't charge me for it. (ren)

Appies:

Even after a year and a half of restaurant reviewing and nearly 3 decades of eating experience, Ren still struggles with basic concepts. Case in point: Ordering Appetizers. Dumbass tried to convince me that instead of ordering an appetizer, we should just get a 3rd meal. At which point I had to remind him of the now-infamous Apna Punjab fiasco when he ordered a second dish instead of an appie and nearly died. Thank god they had a paramedic on staff. In the end, this time we chose the Paneer Pakoras. The pakoras actually looked like fingers. Tasty fingers of cheese, that is. Mmmmm…Finger cheese. Brilliantly done. (matt)

What the hell? Its not like I dislike appies, but really, you can basically sum up our appies with this nice little algorithm.

Select one word from each of A and B and say aloud.
A) Meat or Veggie or Paneer
B) Samosas or pakoras

Thats it. Thats all you need to order appies like a pro....or at least like a couple of goofy curry reviewers. (ren)

Main dish:

I had the Chicken Lababdan (not the same as Chicken Labrador). If you are like me and have devoted a large portion of your life to getting cilantro (or coriander) listed on the TSX or equivalent stock exchange, you will love this dish. I ordered it “hotly spiced” but it definitely wasn’t delivered that way. The naan was amongst the most bizarre I’ve seen yet. Basically looked like Queues Castor/Beavertales/Elephant Ears that you might get at the fair, married with a light pizza bread. Very tasty but untraditional. (matt)

Since I was limited to only one main dish to try I had the Butter chicken. It was good. If this was a buffet I'd say it was very good buffet butter chicken. Nothing special, but nothing really wrong with it either. The naan seemed to be burnt or dead. Well actually, just a little crispy. (ren)

Overall, we didn’t mind our experience at Surya. I didn’t find myself passed out on a cement floor at 3AM and we’re always glad to see more Indian restaurants open up. Please support places like Surya. They need your help. That being said, the prices were a bit on the high side and I fear that their massively large menu may get them in trouble. In the words of Gordon Ramsay: Do fewer and simpler dishes really well before going on to the complex. (matt)

If i was in the neighbourhood, maybe visiting the Co-Op pharmacy across the way and inviting a certain pharmacist out for lunch I'd try these guys again. There really was nothing major to complain about...just not spectacular. I wish the owners luck. (ren)

7 Elephantitis Feet/10

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