26 October 2010

Kammadhenu ~ Sri Lankan \ Malaysian \ South Indian - Newtown

The curse of the food blogger is that we rarely find the chance to re-visit our favourites, such as Kammadhenu, the best restaurant in Newtown in our irrelevant opinions. Kammadhenu does Sri-Lankan, South Indian and Malaysian dishes like nobody else in town.



Tonight a selection of Miss Chicken's brothers and sister-out-laws meet for a rare chatfest. Kammadhenu is the perfect venue with cheap, deliciously different food and a casual atmosphere. We start off with dosai as always, three types: a plain masala dosai with potatoes, lamb masala and a chicken masala. They fill the table and leave no room for the rest of the dishes. At around $9.00 each they make a great entree to share.



String hoppers, a generous lacy mesh of rice noodles serves with a sweet curry sauce and sprinkles of crunchy coconut. A great alternative to rice.



A little round of lacy noodleness ready for curry dunking.


Egg hopper, a crunchy lace bowl filled with a runny googie egg.


Devilled Chicken, a Sri Lankan special curry.


Palak Paneer - the universal crowd pleaser (next to butter chicken).



A serving of lovely plain dhal. Consumed too fast to photograph was a big bowl of fluffy white rice and another serving of tasty beef rendang.


I do have one complaint about Kammadhenu: the name rhymes with "Xanadu" which puts that godawful Olivia Newton John song in my head. Fortunately eighties pop psychosis can be cured with Kammadhenu's ripper selection of imported beers. Tonight we are drinking Haywards 5000. Haywards 5000 has the word "beer" on the label, always a sign of quality.



Our entire feast sets as back a mere $18 per person, excluding beers. It's so cheap I feel guilty holding up a table on a busy Saturday night as we linger over drinks.

Kammadhenu is at 171 King Street Newton. There's two Kammadhenus on King Street, we highly recommend the one at the Northern\City end of the strip, the other joint doesn't do the breads and dosai.



After the feast we squeeze in a quick beer at Soni's and then see one of my favourite bands, GB3, play at the Vanguard in Newtown. GB3 is put together by my guitar hero Glenn Bennie (ex Underground Lovers) and is fronted by the golden tonsils of two of Australia's most underrated singers, Steve Kilbey (The Church) and Philippa Nihill (Underground Lovers). Fanboy rant over.

We are trying to find a nice way to say that the Vanguard is a frustrating venue to see a band unless you book dinner thus guaranteeing a seat and a view. Otherwise you have to battle for one of the few standing possies in this narrow room where you can actually see the band. Sound is top notch though :-)

Heads are sore the next day so we return to Menya Mappen for tradtional Japanese noodle soup rehydration therapy.

3 comments:

  1. Haven't been here for a while. I think I over-did by going a few times in one week. Love the lamb masala dosai & the goat curry is a winner

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  2. mmm goat curry...sounds familiar

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  3. Yours would give them a run for their money Shanghai

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Thanks for your comment joy - please keep your musings happy - if you want to complain about a restaurant please do it on a restaurant review site (or your own blog) - we're all about celebrating cultural diversity and the great eats that come along with it :-)

Our ethics: We pay for all our own meals and travel (though sometimes Mum shouts us).