Mumbai - Paraguay 436

Decided to see if this place had just Argentine level of "spicy" or actual spicy Indian food.

Went Sat. Night around 9pm (I note this because like at any restaurant in any city, any country, sometimes the lunch time food is prepared by the day staff that tastes either nothing like or very different from the dinner staff)

Anyway, I ordered the chicken curry, basmati rice with chicken, and some nan bread. Nan was pretty much like nan everywhere except India - meaning decent but not quite as good as India if you really like Indian food.

The hostess / waitress asked how spicy I wanted it when I ordered and mentioned I wanted it "muy picante", and she explained they had two types of hot with varying levels in each. The first type was normal Argentina pecante, and the other was India picante. So I asked for India picante, and within that tier - to be "muy picante". She looked at me asked me if I was really sure because India picante was REALLY spicy, and if I ordered it muy picante it was going to be very spicy. I said sure, I'd travelled in India and wanted it muy, muy picante.

At this point, honestly, I sort of felt like backing down because at this point I was assuming I was going to get some flaming hot chicken curry of death but now that I'd made this big point I really wanted very very spicy food, I figured I'd go through with it.

The good review here is the chicken curry was very good - I wouldn't say top tier excellent, but a real nice change from normal not so spicy Argentinian food. Same for the basmati rice with chicken. Unforunately, the rice was a little bland, which the curry made up for but if you just ordered the rice separately, it's not really a dish by itself that it should be.

The bad part was that this ultimate top level spicy dish that I assume the waitress thought was going to sear my taste buds out was at best, mildly spicy, and as a spice eater I don't really think of myself as being way up there, just about average I'd say in terms of those that enjoy spicy Indian or other asian foods.

On a scale of authentic Indian spicy curry, it would be about a 1 or 2. Pretty mild stuff. On an Argentina scale, I'm sure the locals think it really ranks up there as flaming hot.

So I'd recommend the place for a change in cuisine, but not necessarily as a place to get your very spicy dish fix.

The owner's wife, Gladys (I think that is how you spell it) is Argentine. Its rather amusing to see an Argentine speak Hindi. Her husband is Indian.

I tried some of their desserts, the Gulab Jamman. It was pretty damn nasty. Now my mother is from south Asia so I know how this stuff should taste. I didnt dare try anything else. I didn't want to be dissappointed. Not to mention that the prices were a little higher than the other restaurants in that area.

But if you are there when gladys is there, say hi to her.

Giving this place another review and higher rating after a pretty long period of frequenting it since last report.

For one, you can get extremely spicy dishes here if you want. You just have to convince the staff you really do mean authentic "India hot" level of spicy. Usually I just order it as "hot" from their 4-tier level of not spicy, spicy, hot, very hot (including the supposedly insiders only india authentic hot if you really want to go full bore spicy hot)

Either eating there or to-go I order twice a week or so and depending on level specified it can be truly flaming hot to mild spicy (or none at all for your zero-tolerance argentine friends) ever since they changed chefs some while back.

Overall this place is now one of my favorite Indian places in Bs. As. I really like the chicken biryani rice dish along with their various types of curries, favorite being the murgh makhan masala or chicken curry.

Price got bumped from $25 an entree or so to $28/29 but personally it's still fairly cheap compared to equivalent decent dining in Puerto Madero or a lot of the nicer ethnic cuisine popping up all over in various palermo neighborhoods.

They also have a sister restaurant Kathmandu in Palermo but I've never personally been there.

Mongers,

The lunch special is a ripp off and I suspect all is the same for the whole menu.

Mat and I went there several months ago for the lunch special and received bird sized portions of evertthing. For 28 pesos we got 2 oz of chicken meat.

(may have been cat) and rice and beans and some shit green chutney.

Avoid!

Personally, I've found every BA Indian restaurant to be a ripp.

High prices Small portions. No mango chutney!

Jackpot

Not my kind of food but the service was excellent and personalized

Never tasted cat, so no comment to simililarity to their chicken.

If you're on a budget then I suppose rip-off might be a fair assessment. Like taste, I agree that's subjective.

Most better class restaurants around the world have one thing in common - smaller portions. Usually because (and not saying I agree with it, but it's just the way it is) the practice is to order and consume many smaller courses, not just one or two large ones. I suppose portion sizes are also very subjective, but I'm not a small or large person and I find the meal here quite filling - more than enough and usually never finish everything.

As for cost to your budget, the usual full lunch or dinner here assuming you order multi-courses is going to set you back around 18-20 for appetizer, 28-29 for entree, another 28-29 if you want a side entree (like a mixed rice dish to go with curry instead of white rice) 6 for the traditonal nan bread, and 5-20 depending on what your beverage habits are like.

Basically 90-100 pesos per person without desert and not too much alcohol.

Even at 120 pesos, the equivalent at a nice Indian restaurant in the states is going to be a lot more than $40 US so personally I don't object to their cost.

Now if I could find a nice California compatible Thai restaurant, I could mix it up more between going here and other places. The only Thai ones I've found, including the recent crop of asia-fusion type places opening up in the various Palermo districts are just too ethnic or very different from what I'm used to. I'm trying to find a CPK type place for Thai but so far no luck.

Place is now closed. Sad, number of spicy or attempting-to-be-spicy places are now one less.

Their indian food was pretty shitty to begin with. Their 'desserts' were flat out nasty. For someone who doesn't know better they might be ok. But I sure as hell didn't enjoy the food there. Was pricey too for the quality

Tried out Indian cuisine at "Mumbai" which BTW has shifted to a new place in Palmero Hollywood at Honduras 5684, Phone: 4775-9791.

Requested the owner's nephew to serve me fresh original Indian food. There is no point going through the menu as its too long and its impossible for them to make every dish everyday considering its low sales and low popularity in BA.

However, on the nephews advise I ordered " Kadhai chicken" " 1 garlic naan" and salad. Also had 2 beers. Total damage was 79 Arg$.

Garlic naan was v good an authentic.

Kadhai chicken was good / could have been better but was quite good.

Salad was basic Arg style.

But most importantly, the service was excellent. One pretty Arg girl wearing indian dress was serving. She looked a bit strange in the Indian dress.

Owners were having a private party at the restaurant and I was invited at their table, as well after I finished the dinner. Tried out some Indian desserts there. Must say they were v v bad! However both the owner and his Arg wife were v friendly & courteous.

Considering the lack of good Indian restaurants in most of South America, I will recommend this place for anyone who loves Indian food and can't survive without it in BA. Its v much eatable and ok. But if you are looking for the best Indian food, I doubt its available anywhere in BA.

Bon Apetit.