Tandoori Village

Lively and light: Tandoori Village’s contemporary-style garlic chilli prawns.

Photography by Simon Bullard

Restaurant owner Jaswinder Brar, flanked by curry chef Sevak Brar and chef Inder Gill .

A family-run Indian restaurant at the base of the Blue Mountains saves the best for last. Simon Thomsen reports.

India has given the world many remarkable discoveries, including pyjamas, shampoo, the decimal number system, buttons, the game of snakes and ladders and - most importantly - the sticky date pudding.

Well, that last one I made up. Sorta, kinda, because tucking into balls of sweet, sticky gulab jamun at this simple Indian restaurant at the base of the Blue Mountains, it seems clear to me where England looked for inspiration for its pudding. And remember, the Queen's birthplace also likes to think of curry as its national dish.

But to give credit where it's due, gulab jamun was originally an Arabic dish popularised during India's 300-year Mughal reign. And to give further credit, the Brar family matriarch, Jaswinder, makes these delightfully light balls of deep-fried milk pudding, which she drowns in a cardamom and clove-scented sugar syrup.

They're some of the finest I've tried. Surprisingly, it doesn't contain any gulab (it means rosewater), making it more like an English dessert. My only criticism is that while Tandoori Village makes its own kulfi (Indian-style ice cream, ($6), the ice cream with gulab jamun, ($7), is store bought. Save $1 and have them without.

Tandoori Village is a family affair. The Brar clan came to Australia from India's Punjab region during the '80s. They have a cafe, Zest for Wellbeing, in Parramatta and took control of this humble Indian in the midst of the Hawkesbury food bowl about four years ago.

While Jaswinder busies herself in the kitchen and on the floor, sister-in-law Balvinder is also front of house and nephew Sevak makes the curries as another relative tends to the tandoor oven.

Tandoori Village is a modest yet comfortable space in one half of a '50s-style shopping arcade with the decor - brown-and-white double-clothed tables, paper napkins in wine glasses and polished pine floor - sitting somewhere around the late '70s.

The menu's 40-plus dishes cover the traditional bases. Think balti, korma, vindaloo, tikka masala and rogan josh. What I like is when the family's Punjabi heritage comes through on the blackboard specials, which include a spicier version of butter chicken ($17.90) along with the quirky modern appeal of dark chocolate naan ($5.90).

This is a solid, if mostly unadventurous, Indian although I like the contemporary style of garlic chilli prawns ($19.90) a generous special of several large prawns sauteed with onion, snow peas and crushed fresh tomato, plus chopped fresh coriander. It's lively and light, with plenty of chilli kick.

The vegetarian mixed platter for two ($12) is a hit, especially if you love a bit of a deep-fry up. The crunchy house-made samosa, stuffed with potato and peas, are not dissimilar in taste to the potato bonda, a Mumbai-style dumpling coated in chickpea batter with earthy cumin and floral coriander seed notes. The third component, eggplant pakora, is also well suited to the accompanying sweet mint chutney.

The curries roam the length of the subcontinent, from the fruity and creamy lamb panjum ($15.90), a mix of lamb leg and potato in a Goan-style coconut gravy, to the equally lush malai kofta ($11.50), four balls of potato and cheese dumpling adrift in a dairy-creamy, mildly spicy gravy thickened with almond. If you're vegetarian, Tandoori Village should be high on the list of options.

The Brar family's Tandoori Village is something every suburb or town wants: a solid, reliable, affordable and enjoyable Indian restaurant. You get the feeling if this family had been put in charge of organising the Delhi Commonwealth Games, we'd all be less worried right now.

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The food: 12/20
The staff: 6/10
The drink: 2/5
The X factor: 2/5
The value: 8/10

Total out of 50 - 30

Address: 16-24 East Market St, Richmond; ph 4578 7788
Food: Indian
Drink: BYO, $1 corkage
Hours: Dinner daily 5-10pm
Chefs: Sevak Brar and Inder Gill
Owners: Brar family
Wheelchair access: Yes
Parking: Free street parking
Price guide: Entrees $5.90-$14; Mains $11.50-$18.90; Desserts $5-7

Snapshot:
This reliable, family-run Indian covers all the traditional bases, and shines best when they let their Punjabi heritage come through. Well-priced and generous, we all would like a similar place in our neighbourhood.

Information in this article is correct as of 5 October 2010.

Simon Thomsen reviews NSW restaurants for the taste section every Tuesday in the The Daily Telegraph.

Taste.com.au - October 2010

Simon Thomsen

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