Nilgiri’s Indian Restaurant
81 -83 Christie St Rd
St Leonards NSW 2065

Let it be known that Nilgiri’s offers the best and most authentic food in Sydney. I’m always on the search for spot-on Indian food, as the dodgy “Indian” food in foodcourts in Australia are.. uhh.. I don’t even know how to describe it. Kind of like how most people think “sweet & sour fish” is an authentic Chinese dish, I guess!

ANYWAY. This is my 2nd review of Nilgiri’s, I believe. Previously, in this entry, Chris and I went to their restaurant upstairs, which is all fancy-schmancy and priced accordingly so. Then they have their Nilgiri’s @ Home takeaway corner, which I often have as the food’s relatively cheap and oh-so-tasty. Recently, we discovered they also have a set menu cafe deal as well – it’s not advertised nor promoted, so we only found out when the waiter told us after our last visit. The seating area is downstairs and you choose a vegetarian or meat set, for $12pp.

Both of us got a meat set each. It arrived within minutes, much to our surprise and delight. We were a little nervous that the portions would be so small, considering it was only $12 for the set meal. But it came on a large platter and thoroughly stuffed us!

Served on a metal plate and bowls, Indian style, we were happy to see a selection of 3 curries and 3 carbs arranged neatly on each of our platters. The waiter rattled off the proper Indian names for the curries.. but there’s no way I could remember or spell them 😉 So they were:

1) Chicken in creamy curry – this curry was pretty watery, so I poured it over my rice. Lovely soft chicken but overall the curry was quite mild
2) Chickpea curry – a lovely tomato-y curry with a kick of spice! I’ve decided I love chickpeas now.. it was fantastic with the paratha bread!
3) Chicken tomato curry – my favourite one. Thick and creamy and full of flavour.. it was diiiiivine! So nice with the pappadums dipped into the curry or just with plain rice. Mmmm!

The rice was perfectly cooked and not soggy (most people don’t realise this, but Indian rice should be drier than Chinese rice), the paratha bread was huge once you unrolled out, and the pappadums were crisp and tasty. SO GOOD!