Alrighty world. Curry review number one. So since this is dodgy curry reviews we decided to pick the dodgiest looking place we've seen (lately). I first noticed the restaurant when driving down 16th ave through Bowness/montgomery when I was helping matt move. I honestly thought to myself, "too bad this place is so dodgy looking, cause its so close to my house it'd be great". Well after some talk about how funny it would be to get food poisoning or have a rat crawl across our feet Matty and I decided to do our inagural Dodgy-Curry review at Nasim's Restaurant.

Well, first things first, despite the decidedly blah exterior in a decidedly shady neighbourhood, the dining experience was not dodgy in the slightest. The interior was clean and friendly with no rats or obvious bacteria breeding grounds. We decided to have appetizers followed by whatever main courses the waiter (and co-owner methinks) suggested. After a failed attempt at small talk with Matt asking our server us if he was Nasim and recieving a reply of "no, nasim is my wife" we recieved our recommendation and made our order.

We started with a mixed platter of samosas, maru bhajia, and deep fried cassava. Samosa's were a bit disappointing, mostly beef and batter without much spice or flavour. They use a really thin batter which we're not really used to either. Ther maru bhajia was good, but it always is. If you don't know its slices of potato with a thin batter coating then deep fried. Very tasty. And healthy I'm sure. The Cassava was the wild card of the platter. Neither of use knew what to expect because we're not familiar with the Cassava. What we got closely resembled a spicy homefry, but thicker. And the texture is like potato but not as mushy in the middle when cooked. We finally decided it was some kind of relative of the sweet potato and it turns out we were pretty close to being right. http://education.yahoo.com/reference/encyclopedia/entry?id=8836 So there.

Next onto the main course. Our server suggested the Jeera Chicken which Matt had and I had the Lamb Korma. We've never had a Jeera chcken before, but I have had Korma from other places. I must say the Korma was the best I've had from a restaurant. Mild-medium spicy with lots of flavour. A lot of places korma seems to separate into oil and not-oil layers...but this one was consistent throughout. The lamb was tasty too. It came with a free order of plain rice and I also got 2 naan to soak up the goodness.

Read below for matts take on the Jeera Chicken as well as the whole experience. My view....medium spicy with lots of interesting flavour. I would definitely order for myself, but maybe wouldn't recommend for the curry virgins out there.

Matt's take

They even have a large TV if you want to watch cricket while you eat. It’s always a good sign when the waiter to asks you how spicy you want your curry. All too often I walk into a place and am, as they say in Thailand, “Faranged” or given a bland curry because of my skin color. Call it culinary racism if you will. The waiter at Nasim’s did a great job identifying my need for spice. Incidentally, there are two types of cassava: sweet and bitter. The sweet cassava is tasty. The bitter cassava is poisonous.

The “Main Event” (Jeera Chicken): How many times have you left a restaurant disappointed because they didn’t use enough cilantro in your dish? Ok, probably not that often. But if you are in fact, a cilatro junkie, you won’t be let down by the Jeera Chicken (not to be confused with AL Jezeera TV Chicken, which is quite different). Maybe one of the best dishes I’ve eaten outside of India or Brick Lane in London. Plus you don’t have to order your naan or rice separately. Ace! I refuse to eat curry with anything but a lassi, preferable mango flavoured. The nutmeg on the lassi was a nice touch. For those of you not partial to yoghart drinks, try the Thums Up Cola. Thums Up was the most popular cola in India prior to being bought out by CocaCola in the early 1990’s.

3 people we didn’t see at the restaurant:

1. Mr Roboto
2. Back Alley John
3. Nelson Mandela

Overall review. 8 out of 10. Dodginess factor.....2 out of 10 (and only for the exterior and the location)....... Gringo friendliness 10 out of 10. Will definitely be back...and would recommend to anyone looking for a good indian meal in NW calgary.

The info: Nasim's Restaurant 4628 16th Ave NW, 235-9959

Hours: lunch buffet- Mon-Fri 11:30-2:30 supper-Mon-Sun 5-10pm

And don't forget Nasim is his wife ;)

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