Aashirwad — Restaurant in Kanazawa

Sensational. We ate too much but that was by design. Food, service, atmosphere all out of this world and most importantly - authentic. We jumped in a taxi as soon as we found this place and it absolutely delivered on a taste of home. All the staff from the owners, wait-staff, and chefs can’t do enough to accommodate you and make you feel welcome. They are an infectiously enthusiastic, friendly, and cheery bunch. Even if you don’t enjoy Indian food, come for the concentrated dose of happiness.

Drinks: The mango lassi was wonderful, it reminded us of Kesar mango. The salted lassi was delicately seasoned, refreshingly perfect.

Starters: Aloo (potato) - simple yet flavourful, just like home cooking.

Samosas - again spiced simply, delicately. Not too overpowering. Very wholesome.

Mains: Paneer butter masala - exactly what the doctor ordered. Creamy tomatoey goodness spiced to perfection. We had this with a very generously sized garlic naan. The garlic naan had a nice twist I’d never encountered before but I loved it and led to a fascinating conversation with the owners about running an Indian restaurant in Kanazawa.

Chana Masala - very nice, sort of a cross between a Punjabi chole and Gujarati channa masala. We paired this with a huge bhatura which was delicious and fluffy.

Chai: As a rule I don’t drink caffeine past midday but made an exception this 8pm and I have no regrets. The chai was perfect. Creamy, slightly sweet, perfect masala blend. Very soothing and tasted just like home.

Spice Level: We like our food to have spice but not enough to blow your head off or be in trouble on the loo the next day. They have a very nice and well explained 1-5 spice scale and we felt well advised towards choosing a 3. This was perfect for us, lots of flavour without any burn!

Reservations: To avoid disappointment you may want to reserve or get there early, otherwise there may be a (well worth it) wait. We turned up at 19:00 without a reservation and it was fairly quiet but by the time we left after 20:00 the restaurant was full with...

"Outstanding" "Outstanding" "Outstanding"! That's the only way to describe the food, quality, flavors, service, strong customer centric approach at Aashirwad Restaurant! I'm a North India (Delhi) born, raised & I'm telling you the food here is full of very authentic North Indian flavors. We ordered Butter Chicken , Tandoori chicken,Dal Makhaani, Saag Paneer (spinach paneer), Chicken do pyaza, chole & chokha for appetizers, Mumbai fish curry, naan, chapati, mango lassi, masala chai (at the end). Not one thing was less than perfect flavored! Perfect curry consistency (comparable to Delhi restaurants), perfect spices, perfect flavors. They have a proper tandoor (clay oven) so they roasted the thigh pieces of chicken in tandoor before putting it in butter chicken which is "exactly" how Delhi restaurants make it! Almost always restaurants use red color on tandoori chicken to replicate the color a chicken thigh gets when roasted in an oven. But since Aashirwad has an oven....they cook tandoori chicken in it...the way it's supposed to be done & ghus don't use colors.....& OMG ....it brought back flavors of Delhi for me! Their naan from the tandoor was picture perfect & perfectly soft & crisp. Service here is top class. They don't fast track a preparation....if your dish needs 10min...they will prepare it for 10min so they don't short change the flavors for speed. The owner is genuinely passionate about India food & that pours all over via his kitchen, his staff, restaurant's ambience & the overall hospitality. Mind Blowing experience! I 200% recommend Aashirwad! I'll go back...

This is the best curry I've ever had.

We hadn't been intending to come here whilst in Kanazawa but a few places were shut or further away from our hotel than we expected. This was a blessing though as I'm really glad we found Aashirwad.

I had the saag paneer, some bhaji and a garlic naan. The paneer can be made at any spice level and the '3' was a good level of heat for me. The spinach tasted extremely fresh and overall it was a really balanced dish. The naan was phenomenal, super crispy with lots of flavour. The next table actually ordered the same naan due to how good ours smelt. Finally, the bhaji were brilliant. They were really crispy all the way through with great flavour and not too oily.

I am vegetarian but my partner is vegan and I wanted to give a special thanks to the staff for how attentive and great they were in making sure everything was correct. They confirmed that everything my partner ordered was vegan (there are lots of options) and they also confirmed the dished I ordered that contained dairy. The waiter even double-checked when handing over the meals which ones my partner could and couldn't eat. This kind of service is really welcome and I really felt confident they were switched on and committed to meeting our requirements.

Absolutely recommend this restaurant for if you are in Kanazawa. Simply brilliant food with great flavour and freshness. I don't have a single negative thing to say about the place, if it wasn't half way round the world from my house I'd eat here...