Warning: Emulating the following curry review requires Mapquest or possible use of GPS technology. We have provided the Mapquest driving estimates in brackets. It’s also a freakin’ long review so make some soup, cancel your Good Housekeeping subscription and take your time reading.

Tonight we ate at Ganga. How do you get to Ganga? Most people would take a train downtown and walk to Stephen Avenue. We took a different route.

Route:

1: Ren met me at my house and we drove to Moti Mahal/Copper Chimmney in Midnapore. (12mins, 5.95 miles). We arrived at Moti Mohal (South) to find a Value Village furniture donation drop off next door. Since Ren needs a new/old couch, we debated scrapping curry and stealing some of the abandoned furniture, but in the end, it didn’t fit in my Altima. We entered the restaurant through what can only be described as classic LBS doors (Translation for Non-Saskies: Automatic motion sensor doors installed at ALL Saskatchewan Liquor Board Stores so you don’t drop the 60 pack of Pilsner. Well, maybe not in Yorkton. They are a “dryer” community.) Inside we had a good laugh about the circa 1980 mall-tile floors in the foyer. The waitress was clearly not impressed and told us we would have to wait 20 minutes sans reservation. Faced with the decision of waiting versus going somewhere else, we decided to leave. I hate waiting.

2: From Moti Mahal, we drove north on Macleod to Southland Drive. (8mins, 4.13miles) I remembered there was a place on nearby Fairmount Drive that had been recommended by John Gilchrist. I had Ren search Canada 411 via his cell phone for the address and phone number. Ren placed a call to them and found out that they closed in 12 minutes time. Clearly not enough time. We would have to drive aimlessly in the general direction of curry (in Calgary that usually means northeast).

3: Southland to Blackfoot Trail (8mins, 4.41miles). We debated driving through the Blackfoot Trail trailer park. I argued it would make for good writing. Ren argued that we were unlikely to find curry or other food there. And, that if a tornado touched down, we would be the first victims. Point conceded.

4: We decided to take Blackfoot Trail to A Prego Pizza and Tandoori House, to see if they were open. (15mins, 6.23miles). They were not.

5: We made our way towards downtown via mysterious Spiller Road (14mins, 5.10miles). While starving, we were not too hungry to admire or be disgusted by (we’re not really sure) the City of Calgary building overlooking the Stampede grounds. Part of us thought it was avant-garde architecture, while another part of us felt it looked like a giant metallic barn.

6: We crossed the LRT tracks, Macleod Trail and the Elbow River in hopes of going to a place called Coriander, an Indian-Latin fusion restaurant. (4mins, 1.29 miles) After all, Ren kept complaining I wouldn’t let him just eat at Taco-Bell. Unfortunately, Coriander has been changed back to a strictly Latin restaurant called Latin Corner. Sans Indian. We were S.O.L.

7: At this point we were tired of driving and figured it was best to carry on via feet. We parked the car at Nexen near the C-train (4mins, 1.32miles) in front of a group of skateboarders filming themselves doing tricks. Ren bought a skateboard a few years back. And when I say a few years back, I mean 3.

8: I remembered a place called Kabuli near the C-Train. Ren looked up the address. Unfortunately he mixed up the Street to Avenue listing and we end up at the Globe Cinema. (1min, 0.26miles)

9: Realizing our mistake, we walked back towards Kabuli. (1min, 0.37miles) It was closed.

10: Nature calls. Ren decides to chance urinating at the dodgiest McDonald’s in Calgary (the 7th Ave and 8th Street location- known for its drug dealing and also the site of Calgary’s most recent C-Train murder). I suspect “stage fright” may have occurred since he returned 30 seconds later still needing to relieve himself. We jumped on the C Train towards the Bombay House, a dodgy old restaurant near the Calgary tower. (4mins, 1.01miles)

11: We discovered that not only was Bombay House closed, but that it has also succumbed to the wrecking ball. It was lying there in pieces across from us as we stood on the CTrain platform. Clearly the curry gods did not want us to eat tonight. As a final ditch effort, we decide to walk down Stephen Avenue where we found Ganga Restaurant. (1min, 0.24miles)

Maybe we should have just waited the 20 mins at Moti Mahal.
(matt)

On top of the random wandering with matt. I additionally had to deal with getting to matt's place from mine. (27.4km) I don't know why matt is listing the distances in miles.Very strange indeed. I must say, its fairly difficult being matt's co-pilot, using google maps and the online yellow pages from my mobile phone and shouting out directions to him. Especially when we started heading west only to discover a combination of beautiful sunset and a windshield that matt has not cleaned since he bought his car. Very spectacular. Almost made me wish that I had a god of some description on my side for a few minutes there. Maybe Ganesh....the “remover of obstacles” . (ren)

Ganga Restaurant is located next to Flames Central on Stephen Avenue. It looks like a 4 seater, dive bomb of place. However, when you walk downstairs, you discover a cavernous basement full of curry goodness. We were greeted by a Thai hostess. I think she was married to the owner, who might have been Indian. She showed us to our private table, on the dance floor. Next to the buffet. It felt either like they had prepared a giant spread of food for the two of us or we were on display for the other patrons. (matt)

I'm still not completely sure how to say Ganga....is it like ganja.....the leaf of choice of the reggae revolution and the hippies? Or is it more like jenga.....where you pull a block from the bottom and you put it on top? I'm not sure....I tend to say it more like ganja....and matty leans towards jenga. This may reveal a lot about our mutual upbringings. Or it might say nothing at all. (ren)

The other patrons were about as diverse as the buffet options. In the corner sat a lonely man in his early 30s who obviously worked downtown. I know this because he carried one of those ubiquitous ID/security clearance tags which allow for entrance into office buildings downtown. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that it was 8 PM on a Friday evening and he wouldn’t need it anymore. Beside, I’m sure the crack smoking hooker he would no doubt proposition later in the evening would let him know. Closer to our table sat a family of Birkenstock wearing tree huggers.The debate at their table sounded like my Social Studies 30 course. Part of me secretly wished that my parents had raised me on ethnic food rather than at Arby’s. The more sensible side of me thanked my parents for not leading me down a path that would only lead to a degree in history or philosophy. There was also a younger couple. It looked like the girl had chosen the restaurant. She seemed opened minded and very “new age”. She refused to eat buffet. He wore a shirt from Subway. (matt)

The buffet had a pretty thorough spread for us to choose from. The usuals like tandoori chicken, butter chicken, Beef korma, yellow dhal, aloo ghobi.....different buffet...same menu generally. There was also a goat biryani, which i didn't expect downtown....and some coconut veggies that had lima beans in them. (ren)

The buffet also included a variety of salads and chutneys, some pretty decent samosas and pakoras. For me the highlights were pretty much all the dishes I usually dislike (ie. Butter chicken, lentils, tandoori chicken). They were all done very differently from the previous times I’ve had them. Very nice. The naan looked like pizza bread and the lassi was pretty mediocre. I passed on dessert but Ren tried some mango and cream dish.

I agree with matt that the butter chicken, and lentils (dhal) and tandoori chicken were very good. The goat biryani was mostly lacking in goat meat....and even goat bone was scarce. The other dishes were fine....not spectacular....but good enough for me. The naan didn't show up until we were nearly done with everything else so I didn't eat a whole bunch of it. On the dessert table there was the mangos and cream and also gulab jamun. I avoided the gulab jamun like a good little ren....but the mango/cream was pretty good. (ren)

Overall, we didn’t really mind Ganga. We debated giving it either a 7 or 8. The evening buffet is 15 dollars which is pretty good for downtown. Maybe not the kind of place you go for a first date but maybe a third date with an open minded, new age woman. I’m going to give Ganga a strong 7, getting close to an 8 (ie. Seven and half feet). Ren was into it more than I, but it might have been because he was starved from our long journey.

Legendary Curry Journey map (click for larger version)

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