馬友友印度廚房 - 大直 Mayur Indian Kitchen restaurant Dazhi (MiK-hi5) — Restaurant in Zhongshan District

Firstly, kudos for trying a vast variety of Indian food - Dosa, Pani Puri, Biryani, Momo! But then; If you know India: Went there first time, ordered North Indian. They have Idli & Dosa on the menu, waiters are from the Philippines, the chefs may be from there or maybe Tamil Nadu/Karnataka. I guess that’s all you need to know :-) It’s either localized or South Indians trying North Indian dishes.

For you non-Indians: North Indian food is special. It’s defined by a vast variety of spices, well balanced. Take sweet, sour, spicy, salty, savory spices and mix them. This spice mix is then called masala. Good restaurants employ a masala chef who does nothing else than grounding, crushing excotic spices, roasting them in oil and preparing them into a masala paste which is used by the other chefs later. Lower end restaurants use commercial masala mixes such as garam masala which are nowhere as flavorful. Good masalas are an explosion of tastes; which might me too much for the Taiwanese palate, I admit. I’m not so sure what this restaurant tries, maybe they mostly cater to local taste. In any case, I couldn’t even detect much of commercial masala in the dishes I ordered. But then, South India has a different palate and the chefs are possibly from that are; so that might be the other explanation. Finally, good quality spices are not easy to come by in Taiwan and are not cheap. Maybe the restaurant follows the local “CP” trend which is probably what seems to keep you afloat here...

I might go back one day and try their dosa and biryani. Until then, I give it 2 stars for failing on the flavors of North Indian food; Masala Papad was definitely missing lime juice, black salt and chilli powder. Butter Chicken was very sweet and only sweet — are they using sugar? Naan was not the chewy, creamy texture but rather floury, crumbly; garlic overpowering. Not sure what the dry Murgh Malai Kebab was seasoned with other than a little yoghurt, couldn’t detect much cream cheese, cardamom, garlic, ginger, green chilli, chat masala or koriander which is what I would put on it... But their yoghurt is authentic though, the lassi...

I rarely give reviews to anyone but this is truly one of the best Indian Restaurants in Taipei, Taiwan.

While I have been eating Indian food since the 1990s, I have visited India more than a dozen times, lived there for months at a time. I have eaten Indian food on every continent. Fortunately over the last few years, I witnessed Indian fare in Taipei, Taiwan become better and better at Mayur Indian Kitchen.

Recently I found Mayur Indian Kitchen on Tripadvisor & I was very happy to read some reviews praising by some patrons. That told me this might really be something. And once I tasted, I was so blown away by the real authentic tastes and massive portions. Perfect!

We asked for the food (we are strict vegetarians by the way) to be very hot, and it was perfectly spiced. As vegetarians, I appreciate not having to pay more to subsidize the meat-eaters. The very generous portion of Saffron Ghee-Rice and perfect naan, plus dhaba daal (again very good portion) and delicious Raita.

I will warn you of one thing, the Paneer is very traditional, home-style almost like a hard cheese - I love Paneer that way - and of course it is more expensive to make it, as it - like Greek Yogurt - requires three times the amount of milk to make.

If you love correctly spiced real authentic Indian food, this is the only place. If you want it hot, remember to ask for...

Visited the Dazhi location last night with a friend and we both agreed that it was some of the best Indian cuisine we have ever had. The staff were very friendly and attentive and were able to make some great recommendations as well. The menu is in both Chinese and English, which was helpful, and offers a wide variety of both vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes. The food was great and the portions were good for the price. One of the chefs came out after the meal and asked us how everything was and if the spiciness was ok. It was all delicious and we have already made plans to return this weekend for lunch. I read a few of the comments below saying that it was too expensive and that they spent over NT3000 and left hungry. I'm not sure how that's possible to be honest. My friend and I are both big guys with appetites to match and we ordered an appetizer, two curries, two orders of naan, an order of basmati rice and a couple of beers and our total for the two was less than NT1600 and we left full and satisfied. I highly recommend giving Mayur Indian Kitchen a try the next time you are craving some good authentic Indian cuisine. I haven't tried any of the other locations yet, but if they are anything like the one in Dazhi, then they will be...