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Ren and I get hundreds of requests
from people to dine out with them at selected Indian restaurants and
show off our culinary knowledge. When I say hundreds, I more
accurately mean 5 people have asked me. But that doesn’t sound
as cool. And so it was that I arranged an introduction to curry dinner
at Moti Mahal. After all, even to the trained eye, navigating an Indian
menu can be challenging if not unnerving. (matty)
Admitedly it was a very well written menu. Sorted into basic categories
of chicken/fish/veg/lamb/dhal etc. Very good descriptions of the menu items
and lots of pictures. I'd been here before and the menu wasn't as easy
to navigate then but the food was amazing. I went in hoping to have an
amazing meal. (ren)
We had the good fortune of dining with 9 other people (I hope they leave their
comments). I think this is what Indian food should be about. Good people
getting together to chow down on some tasty food while conversing about dentistry,
pharmacy and toxicology. Lacking a knowledge these subjects doesn’t mean
you can’t eat Indian food. It just means that you’re cooler then
the 11 people who were dining on this occasion. (matty)
The restaurant has a good reputation and I think it’s a good place to dip
your feet into the masala river (maybe not if you have athlete’s foot).
The layout of the menu is among the best I’ve seen with photos and simple
explanations of the dishes. Failing this, your waiter will be happy to show you
up. Which unfortunately for us, was the case. While waiting for half of our party
to arrive, he insisted on pressuring us into ordering rather than waiting on
the rest of the group to arrive. Not a good start. Then he proceeded to list
off 8 dishes that he recommends. While recommendations from a waiter are always
important, typically this should be done with more etiquette then that of say,
an auctioneer. (matty)
I had the same impression of the waiter as matty. I found him to be quite
pushy and condescending. Sometimes he even seemed to be annoyed with us
for taking up his time. These are things that I'm no longer suprised at
when I am being served by the 65yr old owner of an indian establishment, and
actually matty and I have often gotten a good laugh out of these kind of antics. However
coming from the hired-help...a white dude no less, who probably gets most
of his income from the tip that was being automatically added to our checque.... it
was pretty damned annoying and basically unacceptable. (ren)
As for the food: The mango lassis were spot on delicious. I resorted to an old
favorite, Chicken Tikka Masala that was also done to perfection. Our buddy Jeff
must have been reading the Nasim’s review because made a very knowledgeable
selection when he chose the Jeera Chicken. Other dishes, sampled on the night
were: Lamb masala, Fish Masala, a mushroom Paneer, Sheesh kebab, butter chicken,
rogan josh and my personal favorite: THE SIZZLER! (aka the Moti Special). Pretty
much all food in India looks the same (mush) except “the sizzler” which
looks likes like something you would order at Sizzler or at Kelsey’s. Nice
to see it on the menu. (matty)
This is where matty and I disagreed on our Moti Mahal experience. My rogan
josh was not very satisfying. The lamb itself was excellent, nicely spiced
and tender. However, the sauce was runny and relatively uninteresting. Every
rogan josh I've ever had has consisted of large chunks of tomato and meat in
a very thick tomato-based sauce. This was more like greasy tomato-flavoured
lamb gravy. Ang had the butter chicken and it too was off. Once
again the meat was delish.....but the sauce was off. If I didn't know in
advance what she'd ordered I'd never have guessed it was butter chicken. This
is not to say that it was unpleasant....it was delicious. But it was kinda
like ordering a steak and being brought out a wonderful slice of lasagna. (ren)
It was a good night out but the consensus between me and Ren was that our waiter
Faranged us. He noted a slight lack of experience and started telling us how
much naan we should order. The reason you don’t see that many Indian families
at Indian restaurants is for this reason alone. They hate being cut off in the
naan-ordering department. For the sake of Apu, let the people have as much naan
as they want! (matty)
The naan was definitely an issue for me. I was very glad I'd ordered 2
naan for myself because when the meal was over I'd only eaten 1 and the bowls
were empty. I had the garlic naan and it was good but I noticed that the
plain naan was possibly a bit too burnt. Also the rice service was horrible. When
a group of 11 people is sharing rice you need to bring more than one plate. No-one
that I saw at the table had taken very much by the time it came to me last and
I ended up cleaning off the plate giving myself hardly any rice at all. Also
one of our party was a bit late and ordered after the rest of us had recieved
our meals. Cheers to the kitchen for getting her meal out in record time. Jeers
to the serving staff for not checking to see if there was any rice left for her. Finally
when she was nearly 1/2 finished her meal they came around and brought more of
the fluffy white goodness. (ren)
Matty wanted to give the meal a 7 but after some discussion we lowered it a bit
to reflect the service and the unexpected variation from form of the rogan-josh
and butter chicken.
6 elephantitis feet/10. Next time, I bring $250 of business to your store, I
better freaking get all the damn naan I want and be able to take my time ordering
it.
Not seen at the Restaurant:
- Keith Moon
- Warren Moon
- Those stuffed animals from
the Quizno’s ad: "We
Love the Moon"
Rating:
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