Palais d'Ajit

NOT my best pic

Every time I went to an Indian resto, I always went back to the same one: Bombay Mahal on Jean-Talon. Every.Time. And I call myself a restaurant blogger! Pfff! I've been eating lots of Korean food, Japanase food, Chinese food, but Indian food? Scarcely. Yes. I used the word 'scarcely'. And I LOVE Indian food. On top of it, it's really like I'm doing it on purpose to not eat at Indian restaurants, because I have two perfectly good ones about a two minute walk from my place. I really do try.

Alex from work has visited le Palais d'Ajit a couple times and suggested we went there so I was totes in. I had a MAJOR butter chicken craving. And that ain't a craving you shake off. As soon as you enter, you notice that A: there are too many tables and that B: they are understaffed. OH, they are staffed good (I can say that!) for now, but in 10 minutes, when it'll get busy, they'll be in sh*t. And I'm all for 'the more tables we have, the more money we'll make but there's a limit to the madness. It was so tight that I had no room to get out from behind the table at the end of my meal. It was either go under the table and play peekaboo with Alex (which, in hindsight, could've been fun :p), or put my ass in someone's plate. Let's face it, neither my ass nor the people eating would have appreciated that. Thank goodness our neighbours were nice enough to get up and let me pass on their side!

The place itself looks like a lot of the Indian restaurants out there: kind of run down, yellow and brown with some more yellow-ish tones on the walls, a tv or two and some quick and rather bad service. Elephants, and lots of Hindu type-o-things (let's face it, not sure what those things are) hung out on the counter at the far end of the restaurant where you pay. Oh, but this place. This place had somethin' else. This place had Bollywood. Oh yes it did! Alex was right in front of the tv and pretty much had her mouth opened in awe the whole time. Because of this, I almost had my head permanently turned, which is probably how I got this crick in my neck :p But seriously, dem peeps are skilled fo shizzle! That choreography! Those 150 backup dancers!

I had what I've had many times: the non-vegetarian tali. Which, I must point out, was about 9 bucks or something ridiculously cheap like that. Basically, a mix of Indian goodness. You've got le butter chicken (for me, the pièce de résistance), the tandoori chicken, potatoes in a yummy stock, rice, salad (oh-so not necessary), nan bread (hello!) AND papadum, my favourite new thing. Let's start from the lower left and make our way clock wise! They were heavy, but that's how I always feel 'bout potatoes. They were bathing in some kind of stock which made them quite tasty. The perfect level of seasoning was used. Tandoori chicken was tasty but was slightly dry. The butter chicken didn't really meet my expectations, sadly. I mean, I LIVE for butta chicken when I go to Indian restos. The chicken wasn't... buttery enough. Not rich enough. Not good enough, damn it! The nan was heavenly. OK, so there's heaven, right? And then, well, there's the nan bread. And THEN, you put em' together! I had to stop myself #carboverload. It was just so fluffy and soft and, well, absorbant! Hahaha! What's better than nan bread? Dipped nan bread! Oh, and there was papadum. It is crisp, very thin, made of flour and chickpeas. This one had fennel seeds in there. It was quite lovely. Especially dipped in shtuff like the butta sauce! The rice was a tad dry and since I was apparently going cray cray on nan, I wasn't gonna eat that much rice #supercarboverload. That salad was there for no reason, like most small, tasteless salads made of iceberg and cabbage. USELESS. OK, I'm OK.

Service was meh. So meh that Alex gave it a 2 but I thought that was a tad exaggerated. First of all they shifted us twice because they had bigger groups coming. Second of all, the waiter gave me my thali while the plate was f*cking burning hot. Thanks for that second degree burn. The wait staff was not  looking very happy. Understandably... they were two for, at some point, about 60 people. I would not be smiling either. As Alex put it: the experience could be summed up like this: awesome Bollywood, very precious water. Hahaha!!! We had to run after the waiter with our hands up to get more. I hate asking for water, and you know it!

And now, the scores!

Food: 6
Service: 5

I really enjoy Indian food. Not sure if I'll go back because as much as I enjoy it, I do NOT enjoy bad service.

Maison Indian Curry

Isa and I wanted to try a new indian resto after getting our eyebrows did on Jean-Talon. We always go to Bombay Mahal so it was time. Oh, it was time. So we decided on Maison Indian Curry, just a tad east of Bombay Mahal.

It's quite a big restaurant but it was pretty much already full at 7PM and got even more full after that with a big line up even going passed the front doors. They have huge tables and they don't even bother separating them so you end up eating beside other people which, I guess is an experience on its own. The place feels a tad retro with a multicoloured waterfall thang on the wall. Man, I should have smoked a good one before! Ha...haha...just kidding.

So, we were dying to compare this place to Bombay Mahal. Therefore, we ordered what we would normally order at the other resto: 1 vegetarian thali and one non-veg thali please! But since we were starving, we also ordered two samosas to start off with. Yum! They were soft, spicy and had two sauces to go along. One was prune-y and one was minty. they were excellent. AND huge!

Samosas!

The veg thali had cheese cubes in butter sauce. It was excellent and tender. Seriously and surprisingly, I think it was my fave out of the two plates. The veggies were spicy but not TOO spicy for Isa :p The nan breads were really good and soft. On the non-veg side, the chicken tandoori was really moist and tasty with just the right amount of spices. The butter chicken was, I thought, more tender than the one at Bombay Mahal but according to Isa, the sauce didn't taste like butter as much and wasn't thick enough. Then, on both thalis, there was this tapioca thang. I think we missed the point of that and pretty much left it all in the plate.

As for the service, well, they were really, REALLY busy... all running around! Good thing was that they gave us a pitcher of water from the get go so at least we did not have to bug them for that! Apart from that, they didn't really come and check if we liked our meal and were too busy running around.

And now, the scores!

Food: 7.5 (I think with all the elements, it's equal to Bombay Mahal)
Service: 6.5

A nice cheap dinner (cost me, with taxes and tip, about 13$), but don't bring a date there! The guy beside us had brought his and it was so loud, they had to repeat every sentence!

TA pies

Isa, who LOVES TA Pies, was nice enough to write this review! Yay! Merci Isa :)

TA stands for tourtière australienne (fun fact: it also means ‘’thanks a lot’’ in Australia!) They serve what they call ‘’rapid cuisine from Australia and New Zealand’’. They have between 15-20 different kinds of pies that you can order hot, cold or even frozen (to reheat at home, for those lazy nights!). 

The first time I went, I ordered the Butter chicken one because, well, hello!! BUTTER CHICKEN!!! And I wasn’t deceived one bit! As with all the pies, the crust was just pure fluffiness and butteriness! Love, love love! The whole thing actually tasted like butter chicken; the sauce was creamy, the chicken moist, tender, and the spices just right. 

Then, after ordering that one a few times, I decided that it was time to move on (fidelity is good but you know!). That’s when I discovered my second favorite: the Lamb roganjosh. What is roganjosh? What an excellent question! At the time I did ask but honestly I don’t remember anymore since it tastes soooo good. If you like lamb, then you definitely need to try it. From there, I couldn’t stop myself. I had to try the Ned Kelly (ground beef, egg, bacon, and barbecue sauce), the Curried vegetables and sweet potato, the Steak bacon and mushroom... The list goes on. I have not been disappointed once, though of course I have favorites. If you’re thinking that all this sounds a little... fattening, they do serve fresh salads made daily. On the other hand, if you think a pie is not enough, why not try the TA tower? A tourtière with a stack of mash potatoes, mushy peas and gravy! And of course, everything is freshly made at their Parc location with quality ingredients. You’ll never find a pie like this at your local grocery store, I guarantee it!

They also have satisfying desserts. I recommend the Pavlova (meringue, whipped cream, fruits), the Afghan cookie (dark chocolate cookie) and the Banofee (cookie crust, banana, caramel (was it dulce de leche, though?), whipped cream, shaved chocolate).  I’m keeping my fingers crossed for them to bring back the New Zealand donut (a big donut with whipped cream and jam). TA Pies people, I hope you’re reading this; I miss my donut A LOT! That thing was just pure bliss! (My intel is telling me that it should be back shortly though ;)

And now, service. It varies but I’ve generally had good service there. It is not the kind of place where you’ll sit down to order (but they do have something like 8 seats outside and 3 to 5 inside) so it can’t really compare to a formal restaurant. However, the guys and girls working there are mostly young 20ish; they’re always friendly and smiling. They know EVERYTHING about their products (seriously, not once was I left with an unsatisfactory answer!). One of the girls I’ve met is even from down under!

Scores!!!

Food: 8.5

Service: 8

I've been there, as you read above, many times! And I WILL GO BACK many more times :)

Ps: did I mention the great prices? One individual pie is between 5.25$ and 6.25$! You can also buy family sizes for 15.50-17.25$.