Naan N Curry — Restaurant in Vancouver

I have been living in the area for about a year and a half, and I think that one of the things we're lacking in this area is a decent Indian cuisine. Yesterday, I was once again craving Indian and surprisingly found this gem pop up on Google Maps - it is about 5 minutes by car from Vancouver Mall.

We arrived at around 1:40PM, knowing full well that the restaurant closes for a break at 2:30PM. The staff was kind enough to seat us for dine-in still, which we really appreciated as we planned to order foods that typically don't travel very well. The staff is pretty awesome for the accommodation. We also appreciated their warning when we were ordering food; the waiter looked at my wife (she's white) and advised her that the food here is real spicy. And honestly, that's was the first heads up that I'm in for a real treat.

When the vege somosas came out, fresh out of the fryer, they brought the mint sauce that I typically dip it into - and sure enough, my wife instantly tasted the spiciness in the mint. I honestly LOVED the sauce and need to go back to purchase a cup of it for regularly dipping veggies or something. But of course, Indian cuisine isn't all about the spiciness level but it has a lot to do with the spices themselves - and it was very obvious that the aroma of spices filled the room the moment he brought us the food.

The restaurant itself is very bland - there wasn't any posters, and in fact, the only decor was the tiny bicycle hanging on the AC. There were no distractions from the food and you'll find yourself fully indulged as if the food is the only thing that is there.

Not everything there is spicy, of course. For example, the tandoori chicken was very flavorful and was perfectly cooked - just the tips were burnt. That was not spicy at all, and might be a good option if you don't like spicy foods.

We then had the tika masala with chicken, which came with white biryani rice. You see, tika masala is like the dish that I like to compare with other restaurants because every Indian place offers this dish. It is similar to ordering the standard beef flat rice noodle at a Chinese restaurant, or ordering ribs/riblets at a BBQ place. This place by far has the best tika masala I've ever had. It is spicy, I won't lie, but the burn is extremely flavorful and not just there to destroy my mouth.

We got an order of the queso naan to dip into the tika masala and it was a fairly unique experience. To me, it tasted kind of like a pizza but my wife disagreed because there isn't a huge amount of cheese. I'm definitely going to try their other naans next time to see what other options we have.

The next dish to come was the goat biryani. I didn't expect such a large serving but there was a good amount of meat mixed in as well. It not only tasted great, but the value is also amazing. And yes, it is spicy but the flavors just blew up in my mouth.

I can hardly wait to go...

Ah, Naan N Curry. Such mixed feelings about this place...

We discovered it through its sister restaurant in Portland, Silsila. We loved the food and service there, and the waiter informed us that the owner had another restaurant on our side of the river. Wow, that's great!

We first ordered from Naan N Curry via a delivery service on a Friday night. The food arrived in a timely fashion and tasted very much like Silsila's. Unfortunately, they omitted any chutneys despite our order for three papadum. The menu specifically says that chutneys are included, and, personally, papadum is a hard pass for me without chutney. Oh well. I chalked it up to a bad night for whomever bagged up the food. No big deal. The food delivery service gave us a token credit for the omission. Whatever.

Fast forward one week, and the family wants Indian food again. I suggest Naan N Curry, and this time I will include a very specific note about chutneys. We placed our order, with the note, and really looked forward to our dinner. The food arrived, and not only were the chutneys omitted again, but two of the three entrees were completely wrong. Not even in the ballpark of what we ordered. We were left without a majority of our dinner order. I did not trust the restaurant to "fix it" through the delivery service or otherwise (fool me twice, as they say), so we placed an order from Abhiruchi, which always delivers accurate orders, to actually have dinner that night.

In sum, I really love the food at Naan N Curry. The chef/cook really seems like they know what they're doing. On quality control for delivery orders, however, they get an absolute F. You may luck into getting most of your order, but...

Loved the food and definitely worth coming by for a nice lunch or dinner.

While the place is small the flavors are bold and quite pleasing to the palate. The staff is very friendly, but a couple of times everyone was in the back so we did feel a bit forgotten, but that didn't really impact our experience. It was just noticeable. Could have just been that day or small staff at the lunch hour on the day we were there but I would no hold that against them at all.

I am not fully versed on Indian dishes but when I have had it in the past some restaurants are more focused on more a sweeter side and others are more savory & spicy. Naan & Curry, for the dishes we ordered, is more focused on the savory and spice. Medium level was a nice amount of heat that fades quickly if you aren't into spice but I think anyone will be fine with it.

Seasoning (salt, spices, herbs, etc) were all spot on and the garlic naan was nicely garlic covered. Samosa Chat was our favorite and so delicious! Tangy, spicy, savory, just good. Hits all parts of the taste buds just right.

We also had the Aalu Gobi and that was very good too. Much different that the ones I have had in the past, but a great version of it. Nice bit of spice as well.

We also added a vegetable biryani and that was a nice way to relax the palate between the other savory dishes. Very tasty, more mild flavors but they all blended so well that it was just a very pleasant rice dish.

Make it a definite stop on your lunch or dinner runs and make sure to try the Samosa Chat. That dish will make you want to call home and brag to momma about what you are...