Cheapeats, Inc. Blog

Curry Hill is known as the mecca for Indian food. Walk the 5 block radius and you will hit about 50 – 60 Indian restaurants. But with so many options, where are the best places to go? I say the answer is easy, Curry Leaf.

Curry Leaf is one of my favorite spots in this area. It’s owned by Kalustyan’s, the specialty food and spice market. The place to go to find those rare spices and ingredients you can’t get anywhere else. What’s unique about this restaurant, is their food. Their menu serves up dishes from South Asia, not quite your typical Indian menu.  

When you are seated at a table, you are immediately offered a condiment tray of dips and chutneys and a basket of herb crackers. Their version of chips and dip.

Some of the dishes that I love here are Fish Tikka and Prawn Saag. Fish Tikka is cubes of salmon that are marinated and grilled in a clay oven. The fish is plump, moist and full of flavorl from a bounty of spices. Some that I think are cumin and coriander. Prawn Saag is massive prawns swimming in Sag Paneer, which is very similar to creamed spinach but withou the heavy cream. It’s rich, thick and spiced with chunks of their version of cottage cheese, that looks much like tofu. With a basket of Naan, you dunk, scoop and slop up every bit of flavor and sauce.

After an Indian meal, you really do need something sweet to calm all the spices. They are one step ahead of you. After every meal, you are served a small dish of rice pudding that is sweet and almost soup like but extinguishes the heat. The perfect ending to a perfect meal.

Happiness, $25 and under.

P.S. Don’t forget the doggy bag.

Tags: cheapeats, Cheapeats Murray Hill, Cheapeats New York, Curry Hill, Curry Leaf, Fish Tikka, Kalustyan's, Prawn Sag, Tandori

This entry was posted by Rosemarie on Wednesday, February 9th, 2011 at 8:44 pm and is filed under Gramercy, Indian, Manhattan, Murray Hill. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.