Tandoori and Curry Club — Restaurant in Sydney

The Tandoori and Curry Club is run by Tommy and his wife. Tommy is a gentle and unassuming man that is a great example of quiet success. Starting out his restaurant career as a dish washer, he opened the Tandoori and Curry Club on the west side of Hornsby twenty five years ago and has remained at the same location for all this time, building a large and loyal following.

The menu has changed little since they opened. A tweak here, a banquet there. If you’re looking for something different, the interesting stuff is up on their chalk board which varies every day.

Chatting with Tommy who is Maître D’ and head chef, he says the greatest challenge they face is continuous, reliable supply of provisions. They have tweaked suppliers here and there, but know that their clientele expect quality and have worked hard to ensure they have a good group of reliable, quality suppliers.

Curry Club KitchenThe Tandoori and Curry Club have three parts to their business; a dine-in business, as well as a significant take-away and local home delivery.

This evening, we were looking for a light, quick meal. We started with the Pappadam Chat which is small pieces of pappadams covered with potato, yoghurt and sweet tamarind chutney. We also had the lamb cutlets (a specialty of the restaurant) which are cooked in their tandoor with garlic and crushed spices. Both were served promptly. The chops were succulent and tasty and the Pappadam Chat went with the chops perfectly.

For the main course we had two simple dishes; the Chicken Tikka Masala and the Daal of the day served with Garlic Naan, plain roti and a Kashmiri Pulao which is slightly sweet rice mixed with saffron and dried fruits. The daal and rice worked together really well, the strong favours of the daal rounded-out nicely with sweetness of the rice.

The Chicken Tikka Masala had large pieces of tandoori chicken in a good tomato gravy.

The origins of the Chicken Tikka Masala recipe are not clear, but it is rumoured to have originated in Glasgow in Scotland by a chef called Ali Ahmed Aslam. Ali ran the Shish Mahal restaurant when a local came in for a chicken curry and complained that the meal was dry – presumably chicken tandoori. At the time, Ali’s father had an ulcer and was eating tomato soup and Ali took some of the tomato soup, added Indian spices, covered the meet and Chicken Tikka Masala was born!

There’s a homely feel to the meals at the Tandoori and Curry Club (not that I could cook these dishes in my home!) but there is a familiar and comfortable to the food. Service is efficient and friendly and portions are a good size.

The Tandoori and Curry Club has a loyal following from the locals and I hope they will keep serving their brand of Tandoori and Curry for another twenty five years.

Expect to pay $30 – $40 per head.

The Tandoori and Curry Club 177 Peats Ferry Road Hornsby...

This is a strange restaurant to review. Judging by the huge, lovely, Chinese water colour art all down the wall on one side, this building once house a Chinese restaurant. According to their website, it’s been an Indian restaurant since 1990, which suggests that they have not bothered to give it a significant freshen up in the last 34 years. Some nice Indian artwork would seem more appropriate. Likewise the very dated, sad and disused bar at the far end of the restaurant. Clean it up, open it up and welcome people to come, sit and have a drink or get rid of the bar. The toilets are a mix of storage room and toilet. Cramped, a little dirty and awkward. You forget and forgive all that when Tommy or his lovely wife greet you and bring you their amazing food! The lamb cutlets are incredible, the Chicken Tikka is so moorish and it’s the food the we go there for. I just wish that with newer Indian restaurants (Mehmaan, O’Bombay etc) being all modern, stylish and fun that Tandoori Curry Club would at least have a fresh paint job and some lovely Indian Music playing softly in the background and some of their wait staff would grow a little personality. Food is very...

Went to this restaurant today with 6 others and this place was not worth the money spent. The manager (guy with the ponytail) is really rude and has no customer service skills. His only aim was to ensure that he was upselling everything on the menu. After deciding on a banquet menu we were given ridiculously tiny portions of food and were made to purchase additional servings of rice and naan due to them not giving us the correct portions to start with. Given that we were a group of 7, whilst attempting to settle the bill within a minute of being issue, a waiter came up to us quite rudely and requested the money. He made it seem like we were going to shortchange him when they were the people that didn't give us what we PAID FOR!!!! The food was average, the service was pathetic and the place is definitely not worth going to! There's a reason why your...