Indian Curry Paradise
ADDRESS: 54 Bradshaw Tce Casuarina PHONE: 7915 0520 OWNER: Mr Matthew and Mr Adwal CHEF: Mr Sanni ENTREES: $10 to $19 MAINS: $16 to $20 OPEN: Every day 5 to 10pm STAR QUALITY: 4.6/5
By now you will know I have a weakness for oriental, exotic and spicy foods. So it is with absolute pleasure that I introduce diners of Darwin to the latest Indian offering in out ‘burbs. Paradise found indeed! In the Casuarina Village Centre, where the old Bi-Lo was, there is plenty of well-lit parking close by.
For a new place, I commend them for getting the acoustics, decor, lighting and overall ambience just right. Comfortable high back chairs, generous tables so you can place a proper spread of dishes down, soft lighting that melts away wrinkles or “life folds” and gentle exotic beats softly in the background.
Service is pleasant, casual and nothing seems like a bother. I spotted the place during the day, soon after it had opened. A work mate also nudged me to look further and report back to him. He is from India, but was keen on my opinion. Mr T, check out this score. There are only a handful of places in Darwin I have scored above 4.5 and this one was a no brainer.
As a duty to Mr T, I and a friend tried it out on a Wednesday night. We were both taken aback by the food — and quickly demolished a small mountain of amazingness. My sceptical foodie mate said “that must have been a fluke, they can’t be that good all the time”.
Bless his socks, he invited me back on the Friday to “prove” his theory.
To our delight and his credit card, he was so wrong, the food was so good and I was drunk with happiness.
Paneer chilli masala was one of a large selection of wickedly wonderful vegetarian and vegan dishes. The masala was a blend of dried and fresh spice, house made cheese that melted in your mouth.
What we will continue to go back for is the cashew goat curry. This is slow cooked so that the otherwise tough meat becomes tender and falls away from the bones. The goat provides a wonderful rich and deep flavour to the creamy nutty sauce and was really, seriously, very bloody good with exclamation marks to boot. This will be my go to dish for sure. I ordered it spicy, and it was heaven.
Chicken keema curry was also up there near the top of delicious mild but spicy curries I have ever had. The bread of choice was plain and simple butter naan. Generous, not expensive and so wonderfully fresh.
God bless Paradise for giving us a nice selection of sweets at modest prices. Mango kulfi, a yoghurt fruit ice cream was only about $6 and so homely and delicious.
Not overly sweet, just perfect. So were the gulub jamin — small and sweet.
The second night we had chilli prawns and the lamb saag, a spinach based curry. Mild, healthy and wonderful.
We lashed out and had the cheese onion naan and fell in love all over again.
There was a third visit within the week and this time I brought backup; eight of us, including three chefs and two seasoned hospitality professionals. The food simply got better. I think that soon there will be a long queue at the door. Welcome to paradise, lovers of good Indian curry!