Beyond India [2]

An extremely busy weekend saw me celebrating the 18th birthday of another one of my friends, as well as doing lots of driving, studying and eating!

First of all, a big happy birthday to one of my best friends, Sophie. It's hard to believe she's 18 when she is in fact the smallest (height wise) in our circle of friends! 

She celebrated with a lovely dinner at Beyond India, one of our favourite restaurants. (See my first review here.) She was kind enough to let us order whatever we liked! We ordered a lot more since there was one curry per person, however I could only snap a few photos of the curries around me.

Beef Patiala 

I ordered the Beef Patiala as it was something I had never tried before. I loved the rich flavour and the slight punch from the mild chilli, though I wish the chunks of beef had been more tender.

 Chicken Korma

 Butter Chicken

Chicken Tikka Masala

Naan basket

Absolutely delicious! I can never get enough of the cheesy naan. 

 Sophie's first legal drink, a Swirling Sari cocktail!

 Cutting her cake, a delicious Apple & Berry cake from Muratti's

We had such a great time, with the food and service being fantastic and prompt, as per usual. I'm quite sure that Beyond India is without a doubt one of the best places in Adelaide for Indian food!

Once again, happy birthday Sophie!

Beyond India

Hello everyone,

I hope you're all well and enjoying the week so far.

Last weekend, I went out to dinner at Beyond India before seeing the school production with a bunch of my friends. We chose Beyond India because it's one of our favourite restaurants - the food is always absolutely delicious and it was conveniently located not far from our school.

We decided to order 5 different curries to share on a table of 7 people (Shout out to the 6 of you if you are reading! :* and R... even though she wasn't there for dinner). We also wanted to choose a different curry for each type of protein to get a large variety of dishes, along with our usual favourites!

 Complimentary papadums

Not usually a fan of papadums to begin with, but I found these quite salty!

Mango lassi $4.50

This was something I was really looking forward to trying but I was actually quite disappointed. The consistency was insanely thick and it felt like I was drinking yoghurt through a straw. I also wish it was colder. There is also an alcoholic version of this in which there is an addition of Midori. 

Butter Chicken

Chicken fillet char-smoked in the tandoor, then folded through a cream based tomato and roast capsicum sauce enriched with crushed cardamon $18.50

During the week while we were discussing our menu options (we were excited, okay...), we vowed that we wouldn't order this because it wasn't authentic Indian. However, one of the girls loves butter chicken, and we're not people who'll deprive a best friend of something she loves! This was delicious, as expected. 

Lamb Korma

Tender lamb pieces simmered in a creamy cashew based sauce with lighter flavours of cardamon, ginger and fennel $19.50

This was also delicious - the pieces of lamb were so tender!

Mango Prawn Curry

Prawns in fresh smooth mango sauce embellished with ginger, turmeric, coriander and spiked with a dash of green chilli $22.90

Definitely a hit with all of us tonight! I loved the really subtle mango flavour in the sauce and I think it definitely suited the prawns, which were very well cooked. I'd recommend this for people wanting to try something a bit different to the usual curries. 

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Chicken Vindaloo

Our much loved hot chicken dish. Chicken pieces and potato in a clove and green cardamon tomato based sauce dish with sour flavours abounding $18.50

I'm actually kicking myself right now because I forgot to take a photo of this! Probably my favourite of the night because I loved how spicy it was. It was a beautiful deep red colour and really packed a punch. Definitely try it if you love really spicy food! This was great with the cucumber raita.

Saag Paneer

Our homemade cheese in a sauce of roasted mustard seed and fenugreek spiced sauce folded through cooked pureed English spinach $13.90

Definitely not one of the most visually enticing dishes I have ever seen, but looks are deceiving! We ordered this because we wanted a Saag curry and didn't want to order another chicken curry. I really enjoyed this, especially the delicious bits of paneer.

Aromatic Steamed Basmati Rice $3.00

 

 Zeera Pilau Rice

Pilau flavoured with cumin, clove and peas $3.50

Naan Basket

One piece each of plain, garlic and cheese naan $9.50

Our favourites! Sooooooo delicious. Look at that cheese oozing out of the centre - yum!

Mint Chutney $2.50

Mango Chutney $2.50

Loved them both. The mint chutney was delicious with the richer curries and the mango chutney was delicious with EVERYTHING!

Cucumber Raita

Our homemade organic yoghurt with finely sliced cucumber $4.00

Perfect accompaniment to the curries tonight, particularly the vindaloo. It added a lovely freshness which cut through the richness of the curries. 

This will definitely always be a favourite amongst my group of friends, and a place we'll be often returning to! Service was great - our waiter was very nice and asked us numerous times through out the night how our meal was. We had a little mix up with one dish but it was easily fixed without any hassle. The food is just divine and never lets us down. I'm sure it's one of the best places for Indian food in town! We actually ended up ordering another serving of rice as well as another garlic naan because we realised we hadn't ordered enough for the amount of curry we had. I think next time we visit, we might have to try out some of the entrees and desserts.
Also, how cute is the presentation? I love the look of the brassy little pots along with the matching spoons.
Altogether, we ended up spending just under $25 each, which I think is fantastic value! However, I think that for smaller groups, it would be a little pricier as the servings of curry are probably only enough for one very hungry person. The only fault in this place is I've noticed that the takeaway quantities are much larger for both the curries and the rice compared to dining in, yet the price is the same.
I still highly recommend visiting, though!