Curry Village — Restaurant in Peterborough

This was our first visit to the Curry Village. We have a lot to say, so here's a summary, for tl;dr purposes :).

Portion quantity: large Food quality: simply outstanding Authenticity: the menu is North Indian (the owners are from Bangladesh) but with hints from Tamil Nadu in the South as well. That makes it pretty authentic. Ambience: very nice place and well presented Staff friendliness: really nice people!

The bottom line: if you like Indian food, you just have to visit this place. You will not be disappointed. Next time we're in Peterborough, we'll go back to Curry Village again.

Now, down to business. If you really want to know more, read on.

We loved it thay they have a real tandoor oven, so their naan would not simply be pita bread or a supermarket product like many other Indian restaurants, and they could do real tandoori food.

We were offered a special dish (not on the menu) called Chicken Malai, so we ordered that. We also ordered their Lamb Madras, Tarka Dhal, Dum Aloo, two chappatis, one plain naan and some excellent mango chutney. I make Indian food at home twice a week, because it's difficult to find quality Indian food here in Eastern Canada after moving from Scotland in 2004, and I've been making Indian food for about sixty years. I normally do chappatis rather than rice, and they seem to be difficult to find in Indian resaurants here, so the Curry Village chappatis were definitely worth a look.

They were sheer perfection, much better than my own (pretty good) efforts, and the naan, lightly spread with ghee, was to die for. I think that these accompaniments are just as important for authenticity as the main dishes, and the Curry Village did not disappoint. Even their complimentary poppadum was great!

The Chicken Malai was just amazing. Not too spicy, with tandoori chicken finished with a rich sauce of onion, ghee and malai, with an impressive depth of flavour. Malai is long-cooked whole milk (I'm sure they make it in-house) and the taste and aroma is a bit like condensed milk, but not at all sweet and much more delicate. Spectacular!

The Lamb Madras had the spicy hit we crave from that dish, very substantial, with the heat tempered nicely by fresh lemon juice, making it a bit like a laid-back vindaloo. Very good indeed.

The Tarka Dhal was just right, the slighty nutty flavour of the masoor dhal cooked with cumin and garam masala, with some green coriander stirred in. Lots of protein, lots of flavour and very satisfying, which is what dhal is all about.

Dum Aloo is slow-cooked potato with favourings, where the potato cooks "in its own juices," a bit like a baked potato does, but the spices and a little tomato transform the dish. The Curry Village version is cooked in a pressure cooker and maybe it could have been cooked a little longer, but it still tasted good.

We will...

Ordered chicken dhansak and received a butter chicken by mistake, normally not a problem.

I asked to have it exchanged as my stomach is sensitive to cream, I was urged to just have the butter chicken except they would also add hot sauce to make it more like a dhansak. I refused and again mentioned my cream sensitivity.

What I received no less than 5 minutes later (cant cook a dhansak in that time) was my butter chicken with hot sauce reheated, which I couldn't eat due to my sensitivity. The cream had curdled from what I can only imagine was being microwaved and when I asked if this was certainly not butter chicken I was assured not and my server quickly walked off and never returned to the table until we signaled for the bill.

I'm assuming they thought I couldnt tell the difference between a cream based curry and a lentil and yogurt based curry (not to mention they have a distinct sliced chicken for the butter chicken that was clearly carried over as if the sauce wasnt obvious enough) and for that not only am I disappointed but also offended. Never...

I love the fact that this is a family run, not corporate owned or operated, restaurant. Spice levels can be customized. Visited with 9yr old daughter and friends, (1 friend is a veg and had lots of selection) and will definitely return! We ordered Veg Samosas, Onion Bhaji to start, came with yummy dipping sauce that wasn't overpowering but complimented the starters very nicely. Main dishes arrived at the table piping hot and fresh, the flavours are incredible. Great variety Ordered Mango Lassi, Veg Biryani and Butter Chicken for my daughter. She was very happy with everything but filled up on the Lassi, it was no problem packing up left over food to bring home. My favourite was Beef Dhansak unbelievably great flavour. My friend loves spicy food and ordered the Vindaloo to be super spicy, it was, and he was very happy, best he's had! Will return with...