Friday night and I’m dialed into BBC1 and the Chris Moyles show when out of nowhere they play a Bollywood soundtrack. I gave it my best “lightbulb screw and dog pat dance” until Ren phones to summon me out of my trance. It was time to review another dodgy Indian restaurant. (matty)

There is really no better way to pick out new restaurants than by going through one of those handy entertainment coupon books.  I mean...where else can you get 2 for 1 entrees at basically every not-quite-successful restaurant in town?  Yellow pages?  Nope...Bible? Nope....Owners Manual from a 1967 Citroen? Maybe....but I don't have a copy to confirm one way or the other.  (ren)

Ren and Ang wanted to eat at Passage to India in Inglewood cause they had coupons. But a common theme for us: The place was closed. More accurately, it had changed to a place called EAT-EAT. I’d like to take this opportunity to ridicule that name. Really. Why not call it something more original like “Food-Food” or “A Restaurant”. All we knew is that it wasn’t curry and chances are that Passage to India had gone out of business cause it sucked. (matty)

It really sucks driving right through downtown calgary, finding a parking spot in inglewood and walking right past the place where I got my tattoo (curry rating - 9/10....tattoos tickle the skin like curry tickles the tastebuds) - and finding your dodgy curry joint replaced with Eat-Eat!   Seriously....I've pledged never to consume food at a place named "Eats"....and this place basically breaks that rule twice.  (ren)

Post-mortem Rating of Passage to India: 1/10 (1 point for the coupon – 2 for 1 entrees. What a deal!

Feverishly, we flipped thru the coupon book looking for other curry houses. We pretty much had to use a coupon cause the curry account is running low (see the November review). Samosa Garden Grill has a similar deal so we made out way towards the Peter Lougheed Hospital in the NE to check it out.   (matty)

Ang and I have been to this place a couple times before.  They do a buffet pretty much all day that basically caters to the people working at the hospital.  You would think that with the emergency room only about 100yds away that they'd take some risks, crank up the spice a bit....but nope....they keep it pretty bland.  Good place for curry virgins though....lots of selection and everything is well labeled.  (ren)

Upon entering the Samosa Garden, we were greeted by photos of Ralph Klein opening the restaurant a few years back. Kinda interesting. You never picture Ralph Klein eating anything but maybe steak.  (matty)  .....and possibly baby kittens (ren)

We got a platter of appies. Having gone on a Thai food binge last week, I mistook the chili pickle for sweet chili. That made for a rather disappointingly hot pappadum. Ren followed my lead and was left with a similar distaste of burning.  (matty)

The pappadums were actually provided for free....kinda a nice bonus.  Seems like at some of the places we eat you pretty much have to cough up the dough just to get a couple icecubes in your water.  The appy was nairobi bhajia a deep-fried potato dish.  Very nice, not spicy at all but a nice intro to the meal.  Matty had a mango lassi and i had a mango shake....just to make them have to clean the blender in between.  (ren)

I ordered Kadai Chicken, which is pretty similar to Paneer de Piazza, a dish I disappointingly ordered last week in Australia (and vowed to avoid in the future). My meal was once again a flop. As usual Ren was smarter then me. He ordered a Thali and got a bit of everything. The evening was write-off for me, and I would score the Samosa Grill poorly (maybe 5/10) In the interest of fairness, I’ll let Ren score it.

The thali was very good.  I got the carnivore thali...not to be confused with the cannibal thali...which is kinda not so good.  It contained a beef curry, a lamb curry, matts kadai chicken and a butter chicken.  Beef curry....good...not too greasy.  Lamb curry...good...but i'd have prefered a rogan josh.  kadai chicken...it was not too bad...but i wouldn't want a whole meal of it....and lastly butter chicken.  The sauce was perfect but the chicken itself appeared to be those flash-frozen dodgy chicken breasts from costco.....very strange.   The naan was good all around and the thali also came with a rice pudding dessert....All I will say is that rice pudding is probably my favorite indian dessert....but you can find the true meaning of that statement by looking at previous posts.  (ren)

Overall.....for a curry virgin...i'd probably score it a 8/10.  Super-friendly staff.  Nice atmosphere.  Good menu descriptions. Very close to hospital emergency. 

However, for me and matty...its a bit BLAH....nothing is all that bad...or wrong...its just not that exciting.  I'm not sure if this is because they're used to pharang-ing the hospital staff or if they just make boring food.  Matts meal being crappy is kinda his own fault too....dumbass.  If you don't like a dish in australia you probably aren't gonna like it here . So finally....  7/10

Not at the Restaurant

1. Max Headroom
2. Ali Malin (The answer to my favorite trivia question: Who was the last person on the planet to contract Small Pox before it was eradicated)
3. Sting

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