Appughar

Rating: OK
Meal:  Lunch for 2
Price:  6000 yen
Payment:  Credit cards accepted
Dishes:  Chicken tikka, palak paneer, mutton shahi masala
English Menu:Yes
Smoking:No

Appughar is an indian restaurant in Hayama.  When I recently told someone at work about the amazing Royal Parasol, he said "Oh yes, I know about that place, it's my second favorite indian in this area."  To which I replied "And what is the first?"  He answered "Appughar" and proceeded to show me where it was.  Oddly, it's just up the road from Royal Parasol, but it fairly recently relocated there from the beachfront in Kamakura, where we had previously eaten at it once upon a time.  Our impression then was that it was a bit better than usual, but not much, and that it was overpriced.  It was time to see if that was still the case.

We were going to meet some friends at Royal Parasol this Saturday for lunch, but they cancelled on us and we decided to try Appughar out.  The drive out there is nice and pretty much exactly the same amount of time as it takes to get to Royal Parasol.  You can see we are setting up very similar places here...  The parking situation is quite difficult though.  You cannot park in front of the restaurant unless you have something size of a smart car.  For normal cars, there are two other parking areas kind of diagonal across the road from the restaurant.  After a bit of maneuvering and turning around we were able to find a spot.

The place itself is nice and cute, a bit tight inside though.  They are a bit "hovery" in their service, something we don't like much.  The menu was a bit disappointing, lacking in any good affordable lunch sets.  There were several "course" meals which were quite spendy and didn't have the main things we wanted to try on them, so we opted for ala carte.  The did have paratha on the menu, which is always awesome.  Any Indian place that has more than naan is on the right track.  They also didn't bat an eye at my request for a salty lassi, another good sign.

We ordered some chicken tikka, a palak panner (cheese cubes in spinach curry) and mutton shahi masala (a cream and cashew curry), along with some rice, naan and paratha.  The tikka was quite a shock, being all white meat, dry and covered thinly in some yoghurt and spices, but seemingly not roasted at all.  There were no strong spices or flavors.  Then the curries...again, there was no complexity of spices...hardly anything to speak of.  Both were very disappointing.  The breads were better, the naan being not as processed and sweet, and the paratha was made from whole wheat and was better than the naan.

So there you have it, the clear winner is Royal Parasol.  Appughar is only slightly better than the usual Indian food available around here, mainly due to their bread and salt lassi options.  The curries themselves are very disappointing and average.  What brings them down from a Very Good honestly is that for all that the prices are ridiculous.  For two people and not very much food we spent 6000 yen, while at Royal Parasol for 3 people and leftovers enough for a second meal we spent the same amount.  All that while being the best Indian food we've had in Japan by far.  No competition at all.  This one gets a high Ok.