Masala Indian Restaurant

Rating: Very good
Meal:  Dinner for 2
Price: 27 GBP
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes: Lassi, samosas, paratha, kofta with sauce, chicken saag, butter chicken takeaway

Finally!  Real Indian food in a small, low key restaurant.  This place seems like a local fixture as many people kept coming and ordering to go, seemingly on a first name basis with the lady running the place.  My wife and I enjoyed our first night out in London immensely after finding this spot.  We are staying near Earl's Court station, so many of the upcoming reviews will likely be in the same area.

As this is primarily a to-go counter, the food is all on display, but you can order from the menu as well if you want to sit down.  They had a salt lassi on the menu, as well as some meat and peas samosas, both delicious.  Of course we had to try the paratha, which was more of the whole wheat variety, but still full of ghee and fabulous.  I had a special dish with kofta meatballs and a curry sauce, while my wife had her preferred chicken saag curry.  We relished each bite.  We also ordered a butter chicken and rice dish to take home to our son for his dinner.

The only reason I wouldn't give them an Excellent rating is that we have had better Indian, but this is at last a return to the flavors we got used to in the middle east, and the price is great.  There are tons of Indian restaurants in London, but many of them are fancy sit down places which is not our favorite experience.  This place is relaxed and much less formal.

Himalayan Spice

Rating: Very good
Meal:  Dinner for 3
Price: 51.20 GBP
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes: Lamb and paneer starters, whiskey, bottled water, mutton biryani, lamb and chicken tikka
Smoking: No

Ironic, I know.  The first place we eat on our trip to England/Scotland is a Nepalese Indian restaurant!  But it was the evening of our first day, we were loopy from jet lag, and after wandering up and down the streets at about 4:30pm it was one of the few already open.

Still getting used to the prices, I didn't look at anything and ordered as usual, expecting small portions like in Japan.  However there was plenty per dish and prices are up there, so in future I'll be trying to be more careful.

However I'm happy to report that the food itself was quite good, with much stronger and complex flavors than the Nepalese restaurants in Japan manage to achieve.  My son's biryani was exceptionally tasty, though we wish we had gotten the raita instead of curry dish that came with it.  My wife and I got lamb and chicken tikka, which was quite good.  The chicken was boneless white meat, but still moist, and the lamb had a lovely smoked flavor to it.  They came with a reddish dipping sauce which was disappointing as it was like a slightly spicy thousand island dressing.

Overall I'd give this a very good, but mainly in comparison to our recent Indian experiences.  It is possible there is much better in town, but I don't know if we'll have time to get to them as we're only here two nights.

Khan Pina

Rating: Very good
Meal: Lunch for 2
Price: 4460 yen
Dishes:  Tandoori meat sampler, 2 lassi, palak paneer, mutton biryani, paratha
Payment: Credit cards accepted, but only for dinner
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

Our church is now meeting in a new section of Ueno, and that means new options for lunch!  The parking lot we used was very close to an Indian restaurant, so I knew we had to try it out afterwards.  At first I thought perhaps this was a true Indian restaurant, until I spotted the Nepalese flag on the sign.  Still, we had to give it a shot.  We ordered off the main menu, but there was a lunch menu with very affordable lunch sets.

I'm glad we did!  On the menu were at least 3 kinds of bread, always a good sign.  I asked for a salty lassi and they waiter didn't bat an eye, another good sign.  The salty lassi was clearly made with care, including fresh spices which tasted delicious.

I ordered the tandoori meat sampler with three kinds of chicken tandoori, all of which were quite tasty.  My son's mutton biryani was chock full of whole spices and flavor, and while a bit tomato-y, it was still delicious, with the mutton being of about medium tenderness and good flavor.  My palak paneer was suitable, notably not sweet.  The paratha was made with brown flower and pretty thick, but again, not sweet!  We were unable to finish it all, but they had no problem packing the leftovers up to go.

Overall, we were quite impressed and look forward to trying it again some day with my wife.

Aama

Rating: OK
Meal:  Dinner for 3
Price: 4700 yen
Payment: Cash only (at the moment)
Dishes: Chicken biryani, two curry set with naan, malai tikka, garlic chicken tikka, pork tikka
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: Yes (saw some ash trays available)

Yet another nepalese Indian restaurant opened up not long ago.  Of course, we had to check it out.

I am only eating meat at the moment, so I had to bring my son and wife along to try the other dishes.  The chicken biryani is their special, and its claim to fame is that it is made with actual basmati rice.  My son and wife both said it was very good, with whole spices and complex flavors.  Definitely the star of the show.

My wife tried a couple of curries which were about what you'd expect from this type of place, in other words, not that great and slightly sweet.  Same with the naan.

I had several tikkas, which were ok, but had some batter and the marinade was a bit on the vinegary side.  One interesting item is the pork tikka, quite unusual, and it was quite good.

Overall, while nice to have a real biryani option, there isn't much else to make this place stand out.  Sadly, we won't be surprised to see it close like several other attempts have done.  The fact of the matter is that Yokosuka is already over-saturated with mediocre nepalese Indian restaurants, and the better ones have already captured the best real estate.

Salma Tikka and Biryani

Rating: Very good
Meal: Dinner
Price: ? yen
Payment: Credit cards accepted
English Menu:Yes
Smoking: No

I met some friends at this Indian restaurant near Shinagawa station the other week.  It's related somehow to the other Indian restaurant in Ueno that my wife and I tried a bit back and enjoyed.  The menu format looks identical as well.  The flavors here are definitely stronger than you usually get at a Nepalese run place.

Hot masala chai

It was a while back, so my memory is a bit fuzzy.  I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves. 

Tandoori chicken

Lamb rogan josh

Halima Kebab Biryani

Rating: Very good
Meal: Dinner for 2
Price: 4200 yen
Payment: Cash only (credit card machine not working)
Dishes: Tandoori meat platter, lamb chop, samosas, paneer cheese sandwich, kerala paratha
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

Masala papdum

My wife and I were in Tokyo on Saturday and Sunday, so we spent Saturday night in the Ueno area as that would position us well for church on Sunday.  We had an enjoyable time traipsing all over the Ameyokocho market, identifying numerous potential restaurants for dinner.  We ended up at one closer to our hotel called Halima Kebab Biryani, which as the name indicates is a rare find in Tokyo:  an Indian restaurant run and staffed by actual Indians!

Samosas

The menu and font look very similar in many ways to our favorite Indian restaurant in Japan:  Royal Parasol, but the food tastes a bit different.  I am eating carnivore these days so I stuck with a tandoori meat platter and lamb chop and my wife wanted to just eat a bunch of appetizers so she went for samosas, a paneer cheese sandwich thing, and some kerala paratha.

Paneer sandwich thing

The meat was pretty good, although I found their tandoori sauce to be a bit high on vinegary scale.  But the malay chicken was nice and creamy, and the lamb chop was surprisingly hefty.  My wife said her dishes were pretty good too, although the paratha was a bit disappointing as it wasn't covered in ghee or butter, but oh well.

Tandoori meat platter

While eating, an Indian family came in and sat next to us and ordered biryani and curries and such, and I'm really looking forward to returning to try those dishes as well.  I may even change the rating up to an Excellent if they merit it.  But for now the rating is a Very Good as both of us felt Royal Parasal is a cut above.

Afghani lamb chop

Kerala paratha

Bombay Bungalow

Rating: Very good
Meal: Dinner for 5
Price: 376 AED
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes: Buna gosht, veg curry, fancy butter chicken, normal butter chicken, keema rice
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

Last night we ate at one of the fancy places along Jumeira Beach here in Dubai.  Even though we'd eaten Indian (ish) for lunch we were still up for some more at Bombay Bungalow.  The decor inside is quite nice and the food was absolutely delicious, though much more expensive than lunch!