Bhang — Restaurant in Melbourne

Well, where should I start.

I guess I'm to be blamed here for my own mistake. Probably should have read the reviews first, and then decided to go BHANG. As soon as you enter the place, it gives you a little bit of nostalgia (if you're from India) as you see a huge wall with the posters of old classic Bollywood movies which will set the expectation really high for anyone or if not high at least something to look forward to. We decided to sit upstairs, as it's two story place. The Ambience was good, low lights and looked like a perfect setup for a dinner experience. The attendants were really nice, they knew what they were doing, a 100% 5 stars for them, we also followed some of their suggestions while ordering. So, it was a Tuesday night, they generally run 'THAALI NIGHT' only on Tuesday. We started by ordering Crispy Palak Chaat, which I must was really nice, even my Asian peeps liked that a lot. Then, we went on ordering two Thaalis, one chicken and one goat, Thaalis comes with an assortment of one main dish (chicken or Goat) and remaining 3 side dishes (Lentils, Paneer, and chicken/goat curry). Based on what we had, here are my key takeaways:

1. Goat Curry, I don't think I have ever tasted something like that before or would have in future. It was nowhere close to any Indian food, I ran out of words at a point when I was saw half cut potato in a Goat curry.
2. Chicken Curry, It was average, I mean at least much better than GOAT curry. I have had better chicken curries than that.
3. Assortments, Paneer dish was literally Paneer (Cottage Cheese) served in a can of tomato soup. I mean seriously. If you ask any Indian what are the two things they cannot go wrong about. First they would say, re-enact 2011 Cricket World Cup, secondly, how to make any Paneer dish.
4. Chicken Tikka, as per my Australian mate 'a chicken covered in orange color, grilled on stove, and served'. It was dry and taste nothing.

The only thing we all enjoyed eating together was 'Chutneys', and 'Crispy...

There's nothing more unnerving than going to an Indian restaurant and seeing no Indian staff. Even the food had me slightly doubtful. The Chicken Rogan Josh wasn't even close to an actual Rogan Josh. It was a completely different masala. The specials board was very sloppily written and the word cardamom had at least 2 letters spelled incorrectly. The staff weren't busy and decided to lounge against some chair and have a chat right in the middle of the tables. I was a little shocked at the unprofessional behaviour as they did it more than once and stood there for minutes just talking. At least stand behind a counter and talk, don't do it amongst the customers whom are paying for atmosphere. The music also caught me off guard. With so many amazing classic Indian songs available (especially from the posters displayed on the walls) it was weird to hear music that sounded middle eastern. Would have loved for there to have been some actual Indian music in an Indian restaurant. The staff couldn't even pronounce Matar. Despite these oddities I really did enjoy the Thali. It's amazing how a humble dish people would eat in their comes has suddenly begun trending. And now has a price tag to go with it. The Rajma, the Dal and the Goat Curry were all outstanding. Though my friend griped about the odd flavour of the not-Rogan Josh. The momo and raita were both really wonderful. Its hard to find a Thali were all the elements hit the mark. I'm used to only 1 of three curries being anything to write about. Thought I'll tell you now I'd come back for that Goat curry alone. The Gulab Jamun was a great addition to the Thali, although sadly cold by the time we finished out savouries, still lovely none the less. The dim lightly created a wonderful ambiance and was a far cry from the hospital lighting you get in some Indian restaurants....

Bhang is a trendy little interpretation of a number of different roadside eateries in India but perhaps mostly a Dhaba. Our reservation for dinner at 9.15 pm on a Saturday found us seated after a 10 minute wait on the ground floor near the bar.

Our drinks were brought across fairly quickly - my haldi amigo could have used more tequila and haldi though it held the promise of a near concoction. We ordered the Chicken 65 wings and Spinach fritters for our first course. The chicken wings were far too shy to live up to their boisterous inspiration for a name. The spinach fritters were wonderfully light and were excellent. For the main we decided to share a chicken Kori Gassi. The namesake is a watery but potent gravy from Southwest India(Mangalore especially) called a Gassi into which brittle slivers or a crumbled flatbread(Kori rotti) are dipped and the resultant mess consumed with gusto. What's remarkable about Gassi is the kokum infused into the gravy. What we got was a really good gravy with chicken falling apart and very flavourful, in the absence of the usual flatbread accompaniment we paired it with naans and we're well satisfied though I would not consider the gravy(immensely satisfying as it was) anything that near resembles chicken Gassi.

Overall Bhang holds promise and is a pretty good place to scratch your itch for authentic Indian with - you will be more than...