By Franz Scheurer
Near St. Leonard’s station, Nilgiri’s restaurant is
a large, yellow room upstairs with a few interesting touches, like statues in
little alcoves and plenty of colour. Although quite warm it just can’t quite
shake the ‘suburban town hall’ look and that is probably due to the lack of any
fixed seating. Carpet dampens the noise and comfortable chairs and good glass
and tableware help soften the slightly utilitarian feel.
The menu is short, changes regularly and tries to
highlight a different region with each change and the wine list is quite good,
with a reasonable choice of wines by the glass. BYO wine is ok and the corkage
is $6 per bottle.
We tried the ‘PANEER PASSANDRA, home made paneer
slices stuffed with dates, batter-fried and served with mint and coriander
chatni’. Paneer is a type of cottage cheese and these parcels had an
interesting, although very doughy, biscuity texture and a mild, sweet taste,
mainly due to the dates.
A portion of ‘HARA MASALA CHAMP, lamb cutlets in a
marinade of coriander, spinach, cracked pepper and lemon juice, slow cooked,
served with a fig and honey murabba’ arrived so quickly it was obvious they
weren’t cooked a-la-minute but kept warm in the kitchen and the lamb certainly
hadn’t seen its mum for a couple of years at least. Texture was a little too
soggy for my liking and the taste very mild and rather bland.
After the staff cleared our entrées they brought out
a ‘Strawberry Sorbet’. Apart from the fact that it wasn’t really a sorbet and
rock hard, all I can ask is ‘why’?
For mains we tried the ‘MACHILI GHATCOPER, fresh
fillets of silver dory, simmered in a black mustard, fresh curry leaf and
ground chilli flavoured tamarind sauce’. The fish looked flabby and soggy,
tasted and smelled like freshly thawed and spoilt an otherwise interesting dish
which had lots of contrast between savoury and sour flavours. There is no
excuse for serving fish of this quality in a city like Sydney! Our second main
course ‘MURGH KARHAI, thigh fillets of chicken slow-cooked in a fenugreek
flavoured tomato sauce with crushed coriander, cumin and black pepper’
presented well and was excellent. Lovely thick and juicy tomato relish, spicy
without being hot, it complemented the tender and succulent pieces of chicken admirably.
The selection of chutneys and pickles and the raita of the day (sweet potato)
were all above average with the date and tamarind chutney my favourite. We also
ordered plain ‘Naan’ and ‘Methi Parahta’. The naan was fluffy and light but the
parahta, which was spiced with fenugreek was excellent.
Just give me the parahta and the date chutney and
I’ll be a happy man.
The floor staff were very friendly and they did
their best. We didn’t think the meal was good value for money ($97 for two not
counting wines) as the food, all in all, was rather ordinary. We expected a lot
more…
Score: 5.5/10
For more information or bookings:
Nilgiri’s
81 – 83 Chandos Street
St. Leonards
02 9966 0636