Gurkhas - Indian And Nepali Cuisine — Restaurant in Millcreek

I’m an Indian food fanatic in the Salt Lake Valley. I’ve probably been to just about every Indian restaurant in the area, especially in the Holladay/Milcreek area.

This is hands down the most BLAND Indian food I have eaten…. Anywhere. It’s Bland and borderline gross.

The chicken tikka masala was dry and somehow had very little flavor other than tomato. It seems as if they took chicken grilled earlier and threw it in a gross soupy sauce and serve it to you.

The chicken tandoori was again….. dry and bland. Whenever I get a great chicken tandoori I get grilled/sautéed onion/peppers in a rich sauce. This was raw vegetables in an astonishingly bland sauce that was served…. Lukewarm. Again, seems like a dish put together with pre cooked ingredients. (Minus the veggies of course).

The aloo gobi was downright disgusting. The “sauce” was more of a soup and once again……. You guessed it: it was bland as can be. I am happy they decided to actually cook my vegetables this time.

To top it all off. I ordered it to go and had a coupon for 2 free drinks if I paid more than $30. The online checkout gave me an option to add 4 drinks. I received a note with my two drinks saying I didn’t spend $60 so they wouldn’t give me two additional drinks that most likely cost them less than 25 cents because of THEIR mistake. Talk about cheap. I suppose when your restaurant is this terrible, you have to save money somewhere.

Please do yourself a favor and go elsewhere. Salt Lake has amazing Indian food and you’d just waste...

We finally hit up Gurkhas last night for take out. Life has been too hectic for dining, and restaurants without a bar are often not fun and have low energy. Gurkhas is five minutes away, and thus a good choice for carry out. Besides, take out is a heck of a lot better than a warmed over buffet. Buffets aren't my "cup of tea." But again, I don't have to feed a family of ten or keep a kid happy, other than myself. Anyway, Salt Lake City has some surprisingly good Sub-Continent restaurants. Mexican and Indian might be the best of the city's culinary offerings.

Although I wouldn't label Gurkha's kitchen great, the food was very good. The true misses were an incongruously named "Lamb Chow Mein," a specialty of this Indian and Nepalese dining emporium. CHOW MEIN! Maybe it's Nepalese. What do I know, but it didn't taste very good. Also, the Nan was mushy, helped out by a few minutes in the toaster.

The rest of our dishes were well prepared and had the "explosions of flavor" I expect from Indian cuisine . My Curry Chicken had a perfectly seasoned, medium hot, creamy sauce. Our Paneer Tikka Masala was rich and delicious, certainly a good entree. We will do Gurkha's again for pick up. Unfortunately, unless you're in a group or on a date, dining often isn't fun when the ambience and atmosphere are subdued. When there is no bar scene, a restaurant becomes just a place to eat. Not everyone has big families or dines communally. The Theocracy...

I've only been once so haven't been deep into the menu yet. We tried our favorites of the cuisine like garlic naan, pakora, saag and such.

I enjoyed the pakora, a vegetable fritter bound with chickpea flour and seaoned well. Here they are flattened for quicker preparation. This requires a more shredded vegetable mix rather than chunky. I prefer chunky so the individual character of the vegetables comes through more. These are served with a tamarind sauce and a green chutney, i think it was coriander with a mild kick.

The sweet naan is good in small doses. Sweeter than I'm used to in the middle of a meal. I liked the onion naan better than the rest of the table did though none disliked it. plain naan was good and the garlic naan was quite good.

The saag was runny and lacked the unified richness of the dish prepared well. Flavor was weaker as well. It wasn't bad, it just didn't measure up to others I've had.

The Mango Lassi has rosewater in it. Many time when I've encountered rosewater i find it overwhelmingly floral. But they made this work well in the lassi just bringing a hint of something exotic to it without overpowering it.

I find the parking a bit limited for as busy as the area is.

The service was pretty good. We here helped by a number of different staff members over the course of our meal which is fine with me. But if you want continuity with your server, then that wasn't our experience.

I'll update the review as I eat deeper...