Best Indian Restaurants in Melbourne

OK, I reckon there is a pressing need for this post! If there is a downside to the great variety of restaurants Melbourne offers, it is finding the great ones among the rest. This, is an attempt at making this a tad bit easier. Being a major foodie, I know I have wanted a list like this many a times !

My observation with Indian restaurants in Melbourne generally is that, there are very few who have got the whole package right. Many very well-located restaurants with great service does not seem to focus enough on the quality of the food itself, others that have a great menu often have mediocre service and so on.

1. Madras Banyan Tree

- Hampton East
This one is my personal favorite and probably the only south Indian restaurant I can think of that makes this list. Indian food is so much more than just curries and naan breads and this restaurant is a great place to start if you have never tried south Indian. Nice ambience and good service. Highly recommended.
www.madrasbanyantree.com (03) 9555 7170

2. Bala Da Dhaba

- Glen Iris, Elsternwick

Extremely professional, helpful staff and great food. They have 2 restaurants and the good thing is the quality of the food and service remains the same in both the places.
(03) 9822 5069

3. Gujju's Cafe and Chaat House - Malvern East

This is another sub-niche of Indian restaurants from the state of Gujarat. For first-timers I would recommend the all you can eat banquet meal, so you get to try a variety of dishes. The staff are some of the most helpful, which makes the who dining experience very pleasant. Vegetarian.
Address and business hours (03) 9571 1188

4. Cinnamon Club

- Cheltenham
Cinnamon Club is all ambience. With live music and dancing over the weekend, the atmosphere is unlike any Indian restaurant. The buffet on fridays and saturdays is highly recommended.
(03) 9584 4774

5. Nirankar - Melbourne

One of the classier of the Indian restaurants. Great city location, excellent ambience and all round great food, makes it one of my favorites.
www.nirankar.com.au (03) 9642 1995

6. Red Pepper - Melbourne

The only reason this restaurant is here is because, it has one of the best Indian food in Melbourne. The service on the other hand is below par, and even though the location is great, the small space leaves a lot to be desired. Good value for money.
www.redpepperindianrestaurant.com (03) 9654 5714

7. Namaskar India - Malvern, Melbourne (Lygon St)

Another restaurant which is great value for money. The food is pretty good, has a lot of variety, and the staff helpful. Make your bookings early, because this restaurant is virtually always full! In my experience, I have noticed that the food at the Malvern restaurant is much better. This is from some time back, and stands to be verified.
www.namaskarindia.com.au (03) 9500 9558

There, thats my list. The number one reason any of these restaurants is in the list is because of the quality of its food, everything else takes second place. The list is by no means comprehensive, feel free to leave a note if you have tried one of the restaurants.
What are your favorite Indian restaurants ?

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Shocking a culture - What NOT to do as an immigrant

It's 11 pm on friday night and the partying has only just started. She is tall, blonde and has had one too many slices of pizza from the dinner they had down at La Porchetta. She signals to her boy friend, who is waiting to get a drink. They will have to drive out to some service station to use the washroom, the one in the club being almost always occupied at this time.

By the time they drive upto the service station she is.. well, busting to go. Asking the boy friend to wait for her in the shop, she runs gingerly towards the washroom, throwing a side long glance to find a skinny Indian fellow behind the counter. Now, she hates to use these public washrooms and never uses them unless she definitely has to. As soon as she enters the washroom she is reminded rather immediately, why she hates them so much. Its very badly maintained, is over-used on friday nights by the many youngsters coming down from the club much like her and most frustratingly the tissues have been used up. Now she has to go all the way into the shop, ask for the tissues, wait for the guy at the counter to get them and... aaah, why today ??
As she awkwardly half runs towards the counter, the Indian guy smiles nervously at her, greeting. "The washroom has run out of tissues". A statement. She does not find the need to ask for some action explicitly.. because it is rather obvious. The guy at the counter does not go anywhere, doesnt grab a tissue from beneath the counter - he simply looks puzzled. Now, why would he look puzzled? She is pretty sure he heard her right, it is rather quite in the store. She repeats herself impatiently to be sure. The same look - if anything he looks a bit more puzzled now, and may be slightly alarmed. She starts to fear he might not speak any english at all, when he looks as if he might have had some new realization. "I have only just started working here, and I have no idea where the tissues are. so.. ", he looks around the counter, grabs a box of.. facial tissues, holds it out for her, rose flavored and all.
Now, she could shout, scream and throw a tantrum at the outrageousness, but for the little emergency she is in. She quickly evaluates her options - looks the other way at the boy friend, who is still getting a drink on the other side of the store oblivious of the whole scene, looks at the guy at the counter, grabs the box and runs away for the washroom... never to be seen again around the service station....

A Thousand Splendid Suns

For me, the first ten pages of a book are usually the most difficult to get past. I make too many evaluations, I try to grasp too much at that stage. I am not very tolerant of an author who is too indulgent, who does not try to capture all the reader's attention at the outset. In many ways, I am a very difficult reader to convince at this stage. But then again, once I warm up to the characters and the plot, I am hooked. I have caught myself visualizing scenes on numerous occasions, and I end up reading a book over and over again. I am sure I will read A thousand splendid suns again.
It becomes clear early that this is a book of strong characters. Its a story of two women - Mariam and Laila, so different by birth, rearing and ambitions, whose lives get intertwined by a twist of fate. There is another quintessential character in the story that makes it as gripping and heart-wrenching - Afghanistan. The wars that has ravaged the country for over two decades, makes for a tragic yet intriguing stage for the plot.
The story works, because I could relate to the characters, empathize with them. In Hosseini's words Afghanistan ceases to be an exotic foreign land. This is a story that makes Afghanistan real.
Its like the movie Titanic. It was a great movie, with great attention to detail, terrific plot and an impeccable cast. But, I loved the movie for the simple reason that it made me relate to the tragedy. It needed a Jack and Rose to make Titanic personal. They made the pain real; They made Titanic real. Mariam and Laila are the Jack and Rose of Afghanistan. Through them, a bomb is not just a news story - it is the death of someone’s parents, someone’s friend. A coup is not just a political event, its a death knell to a woman's dreams, ambitions.
PS: I have consciously tried to keep the spoilers that would give the plot away to a minimum. Do visit the author Khaled Hosseini's very well put together web page here

First things first

Hi everybody, 

For a person who writes as much as I do, I have jumped on to the blogging bandwagon rather late.  But hey, better late than never ! So, here goes.. 

I hope to write about things including but not restricted to - technology, gadgets, books I am reading/have read, sports, and all the other important stuff out there, that I am passionate about.  

When we communicate, we constantly receive subtle feedback from whom we are communicating with and fine tune in subtle ways, so that what we say actually makes sense and also to keep the communication more interesting.  This can be slightly more challenging though with a medium such as this, where the feedback is delayed.  So, help me keep this space better and keep the feedback coming with the comments section below.    

Thanks for coming.