When signs about a new Indian restaurant went up near her house, my friend Natasha wasted little time informing me about it. To thank her, I promised to bring her along for an appraisal of the new place. Of additional note, Natasha happens to be the world’s biggest fan of Platinum Blonde. She’s seen them like 6 times. As further thank you for the curry tip, I will attempt to insert as many Platinum Blonde references into this review as possible. My other friends Joanne, Ang, Ryan Jones, and recent curry convert, Margo also joined in the fun to round out the group of 7. (matt)

I would call this one a hot lead except that its freaken 50miles away from where i live.  Oh well....always ready to answer the curry call I grabbed ang from her work and we made our way to the south end of calgary.  (ren)

Karma is located in “the Deep South”. This is to say, “half way to Lethbridge”. Seriously, it’s so far south, I swear I saw a guy speaking Creole and cooking crawfish in the parking lot. Bizarre. But that doesn’t really matter. I must say I was pleased to see an Indian restaurant go into a new subdivision of Calgary. While they also put a Keg and Wal-Mart there, it’s a glimmer of hope that perhaps suburbanites are learning to demand more than just Boston Pizza in their neighborhoods.  (matt)

India borders like 6 or 7 countries. You may be familiar with one of its’ neighbors. It’s a little country we like to call. “China”. We understand they’ve done quite well for themselves and have expanding worldwide influence. Sounds like a nice place really. Probably has an excellent human rights record. Part of China’s influence on India is found in Hakka cuisine, a fusion of the two countries dishes. Karma has brought in a chef from Toronto to cook Hakka dishes, something previously unseen on the Calgary curry scene.  (matt)

We may like to call the country china, but its really the People's Republic of China.  Not to be confused with the Republic of China which we like to call Taiwan.  (ren)

Ren ordered a mango lassi while Jones and I had Kingfishers. When Ren’s lassi arrived, it appeared to be void of yoghart and/or buttermilk. It was like they missed the concept of the lassi completely.  It made me wonder what he would have gotten had he gone with the sweet lassi. Maybe a giant glass of granular sugar. The girls stuck with water but dipped into some samosas, which were apparently quite good.  (matt)

The lassi was basically a glass of mango juice/nectar on ice.  While tasty in a mango juice kinda way it really was lacking in the lassi department.  I was definitely concerned about how it would stand up to the heat of my meal so I began to hoard the unused water glasses just in case.  (ren)

As for main entrees, the always-gregarious Ryan Jones, up for any challenge, had Lamb Vindaloo. When he ordered it, I told him he was crazy. I am certain his colon also told him the same later on, when he excused himself from the table and was found cowering on the bathroom floor by the staff hours later. Situation: Critical.   (matt)

Natasha, who spent a good portion of the meal discussing the difficulties in X-raying /CTing the gangrenous scrotums of cocaine addicts, had Chicken Tikka Masala. It was fairly bland. Jo’s meal of Pardesi (spinach, onions and mushrooms and tomatoes) was an insult and should be removed from the menu. Ang went with Chicken Labrador (we’ve now officially changed the name of this dish to reflect Canadian tastes) and seemed content. (matt)

I think i managed to sample everyone's meal except matt's.  I really wasn't impressed with the Chicken tikka masala either but I actually quite enjoyed my taste of the pardesi. Ang's chicken labradar was fairly spicy and quite tasty.  I'm starting to be impressed by her more adventurous spirit lately. Speaking of adventurous Jone's vindaloo was hot.  Not the hottest he's ever had (he claimed shortly before excusing himself to cry in the bathroom) but it was hot enough for me to not want more than a taste or two.  (ren)

I tried unsuccessfully to get Margo to order something other than Butter Chicken. The dish satisfied her but I get the feeling that she’d eat Taj Mahal’s Butter Chicken over Karma’s. After all, she had like 3 servings at the housewarming. Classic. Welcome to the dark side Margo!! You and Ren can continue sponsoring terrorism together by ordering the butter chicken. (matt)

From the taste I had the butter chicken was similar in flavour and texture to Pataks canned stuff.  This is to say very tomato-ey and relatively bland.  Also you would be better off donating it to the food bank rather than subjecting people who can afford to pay for food to its blah-ness.  (At least thats what I did with the 6 jars that we managed to stockpile in my pantry) (ren)

This brings us to this website’s version of Kenny vs Spenny…

We both went with Hakka (not to be confused with “the Haka”- that kickass Maori war dance). I chose the Chicken Manchurian. Ren went with Chili Chicken. The Manchurian Candidate turned out to be nothing more then sweet n sour chicken balls. It wasn’t until I belched something up that I could actually taste any Indian flavour in the dish. Chicken Manchu seemed to be that token menu option that gives the non-curry eaters, (who were likely dragged into the restaurant while kicking and screaming bloody murder) an out. Kinda like the Shish Kebab option. You might as well just order that hamburger off the kid’s menu and save yourself some dignity. (matt)

I was a little apprehensive about ordering Chili Chicken since at other restaurants it tends to be a smoking fireball of a dish.  Then when my lasii-less lassi arrived, i was sure I was done for.  Then my chili chicken arrived and it was all better.  Basically it was the same chili chicken as other places, spicy peppers, onions, tomatos and chicken, but the chicken was marinated/coated in this wonderful ginger glaze before being thrown in.  Imagine taking the best ginger beef you've ever had, converting it to chicken, and then adding a tasty indian dish around it.  Freaken awesome.  I would be willing to drive all the way back here to have this again.  The heat was up there but the taste was superb.  (ren)

As usual, Dumbass’ meal was better than mine. Chili Chicken is a notoriously hard dish to stomach. You have to have a gut and tastebuds of steel to fight off all the capsicum. With a yoghartless lassi in hand, I was certain Ren was destined to join Jones on the bathroom floor. But no. The Chinese influence on this traditional Indian dish (probably by adding a handful of ginger) actually made the dish very palatable. Everyone at the table agreed that this was a fantastic pick and that Ren was once again the winner and I was left standing in the dark, crying over my dish. (matt)

The rice was sparse. They brought out a small plate to share between two guests. I could have used a little more. The naan options were interesting to say the least. Ren’s Keema Naan appeared to be a tastier version of Spam flavored flatbread.  They also have a Chicken naan, which I’ve never seen. It’s not cheap though at $4.95.  (matt)

The waitress suggested sharing rice between pairs of us.  I actually ended up with nearly a full plate of unused rice on my end of the table because my dish came with rice.  Matt just needs to speak up and request we pass the rice and then he wouldn't have to complain.  My keema naan was very strange.  It tasted like an airport ham sandwich.  I can't say it was unpleasant....just a little weird. (ren)

I wanted to give Karma a 6. Ren fell in love with his dish and wanted to give it at 9. Karma has a great atmosphere and is a safe place to bring a date. The food, outside of Ren’s, dish was average.

We’ll compromise somewhere between 6 and 9.  Karma gets a 7.

Rating:

Postscript

Sorry for the delay in getting this up here (especially to our dining companions).  Our web-mistress was on vacation away from the net and matt and i are too dumb to be able to post these ourselves.  Here's a bonus review to compensate you.

Bonus Review (ren and chelsea) – YYC Curry – Dec 19/06

When chelsea arrived from Ottawa and I picked her up at the airport the only thing she wanted to make sure she did on her visit was see the infamous YYC curry house.  So I took her there.  After jaywalking across the airports main entry driveway we entered Taxi-man curry heaven.  No menu's or signs so we asked the man staffing the counter what was on the stove.  We were given the choices of goat or chicken curry, chick pea curry, lentils, or veggi curry.  We went with one order of chicken and one chick pea.  Each came with 2 naan and with a pop each our total was $14.  Not too shabby.  The dishes were along the same lines as the Wattan Sweethouse.  Served on paper plates we got a bunch of random chunks of chicken (mmm ribs) in sauce and a big pile of chick peas in sauce.  Both were very spicy and very tasty.  Atmosphere: dodgy.  It really seemed like everyone there was staring at us.  But we really didn't care cause we were absorbed in the food.  The naan was awesome, light, fluffy and poofy. (ren)

Yeah, that was quite the experience! I've been looking forward to that for a long time. It was definitely dodgy and uncomfortable, but still delicious. Highlights included the decor (various posters for long distance phone cards for almost every country in the world), being blatantly stared at by everyone the entire time and walking out with Ryan's leftover naan in hand :) The food was delicious, except for the little bones in the "chicken carcass" curry. I'm not sure Ryan and I ate the same naan, though - mine was delicious but really tough and chewy, especially on the bottom.Would I go back? For sure :) Would I bring my parents? Probably not, though I did point it out when they dropped me off at the airport for the flight home (chelsea).