King's Indian - Parramatta

I have been terribly delayed with food posts :(

I have sooooooo much to show you guys but I've been so caught up with uni and work. I will try to update more regularly and display what I have in my tummy. Haha :)

So quite a few months ago the family decided to go have dinner at King's Indian in Parramatta. I've been complaining how I'm so sick of going to eat at a Chinese restaurant all the time so Daddy took us out for Indian (although my Mum was wholeheartedly against it...)

All four of us each got an entree and a main which we all shared

First up was the Hoshiarpuri Achari Kukar (mind you I had a hard time saying this to the waiter so I decided to say Hoshi...then started furiously pointing to the menu)

It is Chicken on the bone with aromatic homemade flavours of spices cooked in tandoor

This dish had a lovely array of spices. It wasn't too spicy either. The chicken was a bit on the dry side but it was alright. The mint sauce accompanied it well.

Next was the Fish Tikka - Marinated ling fillets cooked in a tandoor

There was no fishy taste to this dish at all...because it was mask by all that chilli :( The flavour was decent but towards the end I couldn't taste anything else but the chilli

Angari Prawns - Shelled jumbo prawns marinated in exotic yoghurt and cooked in a Tandoor

I don't think marinating the prawns in yoghurt made a difference. These prawns tasted exactly like the fish...and the spicyness of it kept building up in my mouth :(

Seekh Kebab - Chicken/Lamb Minced lamb, chicken infused with chopped chillies, ginger, garlic and mughlai spices, skewered and cooked in a clay oven

So by the time this dish came out...my mouth was already numb. Then this dish made it worse...However this dish was definitely a lot better than the Fish Tikka and the prawns. The ginger and garlic gave the mince a nice flavour. There was way too much chilli oil on this dish though. This was probably the spiciest entree out of all of them.

So here is where you guys must forgive me...At this stage I was so overwhelmed by the spicyness I have no idea which curry was which. We had some meat and seafood curries though. Even though in the picture each serving of curry looks quite small, there was actually quite a lot of meat in the bowl and the sauce was all quite thick and very filling. We struggled to finish all 4 curries. I liked how they put the curry into a heat-retaining bowl so that as the night went on our curry still didn't cool down! No one wants to eat cold curry...

Overall it was a pleasant experience. Service was very attentive and food arrived promptly. I wouldn't say the food is expensive, but nor is it cheap, however I do believe it is slightly overpriced for what you are getting.

Ratings

Food: 6/10

Service: 8/10

Ambience: 6/10

Value for money: 5/10

Kings Indian Parramatta

40 Phillip St
Parramatta NSW 2150

36 Levels Above

Yay for the long awaited food blog. I've always wanted to start one but I never brought myself to do it but here it is now! Yay!

There is no better way to start my first post than with a hatted restaurant. :)

For Jason's birthday we decided to celebrate it at Altitude Restaurant (well originally we wanted to go Sepia - unfortunately a Saturday booking was all booked out until March). I made a booking for 6pm. However what I didn't like was that all bookings from 6 - 6:30pm had a time restriction of just over two hours so that the table could be vacated for a later booking. Although in the end we went over by our time restriction by 15 minutes and we weren't hurried out which was quite nice.

First thing's first - once we arrived, we were amazed by the view from the five-metre high floor to ceiling windows overlooking the harbour.

The amazing view from our table

Now on to the food! We decided to order their degustation menu which they call Epi-curious. It was $135 per person for 7 courses.

Course 1 - Cured Hiramasa Kingfish

I loved the colours on this plate, however the flavour ended up being quite bland and tasteless - it lacked the WOW factor.

Course 2 - Rock lobster and baby mackerel

This dish was also quite boring and bland. The delicious and interesting part of it was the Saffron sorbet on top. Other than that the dish in itself was quite fishy (well duh it's fish - but you know that fishy smell, is there a word for it?). The crispy skin of the mackerel was quite nice though.

Course 3 - Roasted and braised Glenoth chicken terrin

We both agreed that this was the best dish of the night. The flavours were fantastic, the apple slices went really well with the chicken and foigras.

Course 4 - Crispy skin Suzuki Mulloway

I have no idea what type of fish the Suzuki Mulloway is but this tasted a lot better than the mackerel. However it was still a let down because we were told by the waitress that seafood was Altitude's specialty. The squid on top was too chewy and the rice on the bottom was bland. Overall this dish was just okay. It was quite interesting how they used squid ink to decorate the dish, I was a bit afraid to eat it even though it doesn't have much of a taste.

For the main course we had 2 choices, so we decided to get one of each and do a switcheroo of plates :)

Course 5 - Roasted Riverina Lamb Rack

Jason asked for the lamb to be cooked medium, and it was cooked just right. It wasn't chewy at all.

Course 5 - Confit duckleg

I must say the lamb was A LOT better. The duck was cooked way too dry, but the salad thing on the bottom which was made with raisins and some nuts was delish :)

Course 6 - Pineapple jelly and sorbet

I could have eaten a whole tub of that pineapple sorbet. It was sweet and very pineapple-y. It went well with the custard on top and the pineapple jelly on the bottom. If you're a sweet-tooth like me you'd love this dish!

Course 7 - Warm dark chocolate fondant

This was our final dessert for the night. The chef even personally took the time to write "Happy Birthday" on Jason's dish and the waitress wished him a Happy Birthday too :) Dark chocolate is actually not one of my favourites. The chocolate was too rich and bitter for my liking but that's just my personal preference, the pudding was lovely.

Overall our experience was quite pleasant. The waitress, Alicia, who served us for the night was just lovely and made sure we had a memorable evening. However I am sure you can get much better food with the same price.

Ratings

Food: 7/10

Service: 10/10

Ambience: 10/10

Value for money: 7/10

Altitude Restaurant

Shangri-la Hotel
Level 36, 176 Cumberland St
The Rocks NSW 2000

PS. Have you guys seen the latest Domino's ad. My dearest friend Jason is the star of the ad :)

Best face at 6 seconds.