Taste of India, Siem Reap

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hanno
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Taste of India, Siem Reap

Post by hanno »

Name: Namaste Taste of India
Address: Sivatha Street, Suite 109
Telephone: 063969109
Opening hours: Not sure but open for lunch and dinner
Cuisine: Indian
URL: None
Reservation URL: None
Menu URL: None
Rating: 2

After being lazy, getting up late and desperate for an early lunch, I looked up a couple of restaurants and we set off. Business in Siem Reap must be booming as every single restaurant I had short-listed was closed on a Sunday!!! Running out of time, the Missus had to go to work, we stopped at the first open restaurant we saw, and that happened to be the Taste of India.

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Bog standard restaurant.

Indian comes right after Thai food as being the best in the world, at least in my humble opinion. I grew up with Indian food as there are lots of Indians in Mombasa and I consider myself to have a little knowledge of your curry and garlic Naan. There is a plethora of Indian restaurants in Temple Town, ranging from the excellent to the barfable, but I had never made it to this particular establishment.

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I am not a big fan of picture menus. More often than not, it denotes mediocre food.

Layout and appearance of the Taste of India are similar to many of the Indian restaurants here: big signboard with pictures of the dishes available outside, a narrow corridor of a restaurant, with an air-conditioned inside, and plenty of Taj Mahals and stuff on the wall.

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Still smiling, the food hadn't arrived yet.

We were initially greeted by the owner(?) who was a lot less jovial than most of his colleagues. Not necessarily a bad thing but we did feel a little unwelcome at first. The lone waitress was very nice but even for Cambodian standards here flip-flop shuffle was hard to bear. I guess at least she won’t be able to sneak up on you.

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Spend less time on wrapping cutlery and more on cooking.

The menu is very much your standard Indian fare with absolutely nothing to differentiate it from most of the other Indians here. They do have a small selection of Thai and Western food and we actually saw Chinese enter to eat hot-pot. Prices are average on the whole though I did think that USD 2.75 for a coconut juice is a bit of a rip-off. It was after I had ordered that I looked at the back of the menu and found out, to my horror, that the restaurant belonged to the same owners as “Curry Walla”. I ate at the Walla once shortly after I arrived in Siem Reap and it is one of the very few restaurants where I asked for the bill two bites in, as the food was inedible. The curries were rubbish and the Naans reminded me of the Oddjob. You know, the villain in “Goldfinger” with the deadly bowler hat? Not a good omen…..

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Advertising that you are associated with Curry Walla is NOT a smart move.

We started off with a couple of Chicken Samosas. They arrived quickly and were very hot; but the presentation left a lot to be desired. The restaurant did provide condiments in the form of Chutney, mint sauce, Tamarind sauce and sugar. I found the latter a little strange, who the hell puts sugar in their curry (apart from Khmer and Thai)? The Chutney was so-so and the mint sauce quite tasteless. The Samosas were OK though I thought the pastry was too thick and the chicken meat was dry. The waitress did ask how we wanted our food and we did say spicy but the Samosas were anything but.

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The Chef went all out to make the dish pleasing to the eye.

We ordered Indian Chicken Curry, (even if there is no such thing where I come from. India is a big country and Indian Chicken Curry is way too generic for me), Daal Tadka (spiced yellow beans according to the menu; they were neither spiced nor beans), and a couple of Garlic Naans.

My usual pet hate stuck out its ugly head again: I specifically asked for the Samosas to come first, followed by the rest of the food. And of course the mains arrived whilst we were only halfway through our Samosas. I am not trying to be a complete prick here but a) it is my day off and I want to have a leisurely meal and b) curries should be eaten hot; a curry going cold does absolutely nothing for either consistency or taste.

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As mentioned earlier we were asked if we wanted our food mild or spicy; we both opted for very spicy. Thus we were more than a little disappointed to get a chicken curry that was based entirely on tomato sauce with nary a hint of coriander, capsicum, cardamom, cumin or the myriad of other spices that go in a proper curry. If their definition of an “Indian Curry” is a tasteless, bland, watery sauce then they have certainly succeeded. I think the only thing good that can be said was that there was plenty of chicken floating in the dishwater.

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Looks better than it tasted.

The Dal was a little better. Also a very bland affair, it at least tasted of lentils (not beans, as advertised) though again no spices seemed to have gone anywhere near the pot they were cooked in.

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I am fishing for more good things to say and am happy to report that the Naans were not the consistency of concrete-covered cardboard (see my comments re Curry Walla above). Instead, they were undercooked in the thicker parts and with way too much garlic. I do love garlic but they were obviously trying to distract from the fact that all their other food was tasteless.

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Garlic overkill.

If you must eat here and if you fail to see the meter-high sign at the entrance, then the other option is to look out for the garbage marking the entrance. Failing that, follow the annoyingly loud pop music emitting from the “Flying Zebra” next door. I know that the music is not the fault of the Taste of India but it sort of rounded out a rather unpleasant experience.

Will we be back? Certainly not! No need for that sort of suffering with the likes of Dakshin’s, The Indian, or the Maharajah around.
Anchor Moy
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Re: Taste of India, Siem Reap

Post by Anchor Moy »

Thanks enjoyed the review, even if I'm not in SR.
That garlic bread looks lethal.
Is your rating 2/5 or 2/10 ?
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hanno
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Re: Taste of India, Siem Reap

Post by hanno »

Anchor Moy wrote:Thanks enjoyed the review, even if I'm not in SR.
That garlic bread looks lethal.
Is your rating 2/5 or 2/10 ?
2/5 as per the thread on how to post a review. Still on the high side, I think.
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