Ever had a restaurant you've walked by for years and never gone into and you don't know why, even though you know it is most likely excellent? For us it is Tandoori Hut in Enmore.
Tandoori Hut has all the right signs of a good street food restaurant: spartan interior, K-Mart lighting, it's Pakistani and most importantly, loads of Pakistani taxi drivers eat here. But when we walked in we were disappointed by the menu, it looked not much different to your standard Indian restaurant menu. We asked the boss lady what all the taxi drivers eat. Without a word she walks off and comes back with this handwritten menu, the taxi driver menu. It's always been a food nerdy fantasy of ours to ask for a secret menu and actually get one, well here it is, in biro.
We order from the secret menu then grab a couple of Kingfishers from Enmore Fine Wines across the road. These are fully imported too, not the locally brewed stuff. A lovely light 'with food' beer.
Even the pappadums are great.
The boss lady suggested we try this dish: Bhindi Gosht: lamb with okra. This one blew our minds. The lamb was melt-in-your mouth tender, the curry sauce had an earthy, sweet, smokey flavour from the slowly cooked onions, all nicely countered by the okra. Oh my god.
Also excellent was the Nihari: a lovely tender lamb curry garnished with strips of fresh ginger. Yum.
This place isn't just for taxi drivers and mug punters like us, the Pakistani Cricket Team are also known to drop by.
The boss lady seemed pleased that we were keen to try some Pakistani classics, so don't be shy and ask for the 'taxi driver menu' for something special.
Tandoori Hut is at 93 Enmore Road, Enmore. Opposite the Enmore Theatre. Phone 9519 8140. Open from 6pm.
I used to live around the corner from this fabulous place. Another bonus is it's often open super late so the taxi drivers knocking off at 3 am can get a feed.
ReplyDeleteOh wow, I knew Tandoori Hut was open late but I didn't know it was open LATE LATE - this is very, very handy information, thankyou!
ReplyDeleteThis inspired me to make Rendang for dinner...I live in whoop whoop, so now great restaurants open past 6pm in my 'burb. Looks yummy though.
ReplyDeleteBhindi Gosht is one of my favourite indian dishes. Have you had keema bhuna? Minced lamb in a tomato based curry sauce, my other favourite!
ReplyDeleteHoochiemama keema bhuna sounds nice!
ReplyDeleteThis place is seriously good. I lived in London for a while where the curries are fab and this is the only place i've eaten at in Oz that compares. It really is that good.
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