It’s often been said that the time you need a vacation the most is when you just come back from one. Keeping this in mind, what better time than now for a trip to Ogden!! Forrest Lawn is the definitive leader in terms of sketchy communities but Ogden is not far behind. It may not have as many cheque cashing stores or pawn shops as Forrest Lawn, but with its endless sprawl of industrial parks and old oil refineries, it has classic charm. (matt)

Classic hydrocarbon-and-lead-tainted-soil ghost-town charm.... It's especially welcoming at night.  Which of course is the best time to head into a dodgy neighbourhood for a curry.  (ren)

Our original plan was to find a place called A Prego Pizza, BBQ and Tandoor House. It was located on Ogden Road. Problem being, even with the address, we struggled to find anything that looked like a take-out pizza and Indian food restaurant. Ogden is not well lit up at night and we couldn’t read any of the street numbers.  We seemed to do U-Turn after frustrating U-turn trying to locate the restaurant. In the process of looking, we did find a number of treasures, like Crossroads market, a nondescript Rona store and the Alberta Distillers Distillery. We were tempted to stop for a rye when we saw the Calgary Police and EMS attending to a group of Ogden’s finest. We suspected a stabbing or a shooting. Needless to say, we left quickly. (matt)

We probably should have asked for directions but the cops and paramedics seemed occupied.  And I don't the the stabber or stabbee were feeling very helpful.  Our next plan was to call Matt's sister to have her double-check the address.  She confirmed that we had the right address but it didn't really help since ogden road doesn't quite follow the normal numbering conventions of the city.  So we tried looking it up on mapquest on my cellphone and got the blip right on Blackfoot trail where Ogden Rd ends. Guess we should have tried that sooner. (ren)

We were just about abandon A Prego’s when we located it. Where did we locate it you ask? If you said “on the Off-Ramp to Blackfoot Trail”, not only would you be right, but I would have to either commend or reprimand you on your knowledge of Ogden Road. Not surprisingly, most businesses located on off-ramps do not do well financially. This one, no exception. A large sign indicating CLOSED. UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT greeted us. (matt)

I have to question the new management's business savvy when their first managerial decision is to close the business.  Generally businesses that are closed make less money than businesses that are open.  Except for Ford.  (ren)

Luckily for us, I remembered reading about Delhi Darbar, located in the parking lot of the Glenmore Inn (at the corner of Ogden Road and Glenmore Trail). And, as luck would have it, thanks to my pharmacy technician who gave me her Asian Pages Discount Card ( careful, the webpage is riddled with viruses, kinda like Ren), we would benefit from a discount of anywhere between 5 and 70 %.  We figured that getting seventy percent off our curry was probably unlikely but worth a go for kicks. (matt)

When matt told me the back-up plan was delhi darbar, I was really hoping it was actually a deli.  An Indian twist on Montreal Smoked Meat would probably be pretty freaken awesome.  Or horrible....either way, makes for a good review.  (ren)

We walked into an empty restaurant. There was a sign that said no public washroom and no public phone. I thought it was unbelievable to think that last month we ate a restaurant with a bathroom sink in the dining room. And now, here we were at a restaurant which refused to offer washrooms at all. Ren ignored the sign and went in the back to use their can. While he was doing that, I asked to use their phone. I hope they have a good long distance plan. Calls to Guam are often pricey. (matt)

I don't know why they'd have trouble with non-customers using their washroom....they're about 30 feet away from a hotels front door...and hotels always have public washrooms.  Also they didn't have any posters advertising discount phone cards so I'm sure matt's call was at full price.  Uh-oh. (ren)

We were impressed with the waiter at Delhi Darbar. Not often do you see a waiter in a bow-tie anymore. A nice touch for sure. We ordered our lassis which were very fresh and very cold (we could hear them grinding ice behind the bar). The taste was a little off but acceptable. “A little off” appeared to be the theme of the night because when we ordered some fish pakora appetizer, the tamarind sauce appeared to be laced with balsamic vinegar. Different. Not necessarily bad. But certainly different. The fish was very light and tasty. (matt)

For the main course I went with the butter chicken.  I can't say i was impressed.  It was the kind of butter chicken you expect when you go to a lunch buffet.  Too much tomato, not enough cream, and the chicken itself tasted like dark meat rather than breast.  It wasn't horrible....but I've had so many better ones.  The naan was ok, and the lassi was a bit watery.  I did appreciate the descriptions on the menu though.  They have a section labelled “Vindaloo Club”, so i thought we were getting some montreal smoked vindaloo, but actually it's a list of the 5 different vindaloo varieties they serve.  What was most impressive though was that instead of just listing the meats they actually tried to describe the sauce a different way for each.  We've got, “vindaloo”, “hot vindaloo” (twice...boo), “fiery sauce”, and “fiery gravy sure to tickle the senses”.  Hooray for words.  (ren)

The menu had a fusion section to it. I have had bad luck with fused Indian foods. Mixing the world’s tastiest food with say, French or Italian food has only resulted in a dilutional disaster for me. Nonetheless, I decided on a dish called Prawn Malabar. It’s a Honey Mustard Shrimp dish with vegetables (including carrot). It sounds like a bad Wendy’s invention but it actually tastes pretty good. Dave Thomas would be happy with it and would likely include it in the 99 cent combo options. After eating it he would probably tell you about his adoption and reiterate that he wasn’t in Strange Brew.  But he’s dead anyhow, so who cares. Ren had butter chicken which I would have hated. (matt)

I also tried their Chicken Naan. Much like Ren’s experience with keema naan, it tasted like very spicy sandwich meat. Kinda nice but I can’t see myself shelling out 4 dollars for it again. (matt)

Ren wanted to give them a score of 6 but since we got a 10% discount, we’ll give them an equal discount on the score and round it up. Delhi Darbar scores a 7.

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