Curry Corner
This past Saturday, after doing our dreaded taxes, Jeff and I decided to try out a newly placed Indian Restaurant called The Curry Corner. Indian is one of our favorite cuisines and we wanted to see how this small restaurant compared with its competitors-Indian Cuisine in Portage and Saffron on West Main Street.
Jeff previously visited The Curry Corner for their lunch buffet on one of his Friday lunch hours. Then, On a separate occasion, Jeff brought home their carry out and surprised me with my favorite Indian dish of all time-Palak Paneer! This dish consists of Indian homemade cheese with spicy creamed spinach, naturally served over simple rice. The Palak Paneer at The Curry Corner was one of the best I have ever tasted. Come to find out, Nira, the owner and recipe- inventor makes her Palak Paneer with mustard greens instead of spinach. She says it gives the dish a stronger flavor.
Sambar
After tasting their carry-out, I was excited to dine in. Nira greeted us at the door and sat us at a nice table for two. They had several specialty drinks, but Jeff and I were content with water and tea, which were both included in the buffet price of $8.99. The tea was a fragrant orange pekoe tea from India, steeped with hot water, and milk. I especially took note of Nira’s high quality H20, she used in the tea, as well, as in our drinking water. When it comes to water, I can be a bit of a snob. I am not a fan of our well water or the city water of Kalamazoo or Portage, so filtering is key to clean cooking. It’s all in the details.
The buffet had six courses, three of which were vegetarian. We both started with the Sambar, which is described as a sweet and sour soup. I normally don’t care for the combo of sweet and sour, I am more of a spicy, salty kind of girl, but the soup was just that-spicy and salty. After the soup, I had a little bit of all three vegetarian dishes with fluffy rice with peas on the bottom. The first dish, Dal Makhani, had lentils combined with spices. I didn’t have seconds of this one because the others dishes were better. The second dish was Kadhi and I was surprised to see it was made of pureed chickpeas with curry. It was pretty spicy and had almost a lemon butter flavor that was one of a kind. My favorite dish was the Bindi Masala, which was made from baby pumpkin. I never would have guessed pumpkin was the main ingredient. The sauce was super spicy and delicious. Come to find out Nira invented that dish while sleeping one night and now it’s her husband’s favorite dish too.
Jeff's Plate
Jeff loved the vegetarian dishes, but his favorite of the meat dishes was the butter chicken. The sauce was a nice blend of cream and spice and he went back for seconds. There was one goat dish, but Jeff opted out of trying that one.
We definitely recommend trying the Curry Corner if you like Indian Food, or even if you are just looking for something new to try. Take out is a great option to; just call ahead and pick up your order on the way home from work. The food is made with care and love and it is really like a true Mom and Pop kitchen.
Curry Croner
7630 S Westnedge Ave
Portage, MI 49002
(269) 327-6325
#1 by Kj on March 20, 2010 - 2:03 am
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love this place!!! Anywhere they serve mustard greens is a plus!!
#2 by Amith on July 28, 2011 - 8:11 pm
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Nice to see you like Indian food. But however either they told you the wrong name or wrong recipes. Bhendi is hindi for Okra (Ladies Finger) and does not have any pumpkin in it. Sambar is not a soup. It is a south Indian dish which you would have to mix with rice and eat. And the chickpeas curry is called Channa Masala. I wonder why they told you its Kadai, which is a mix of all vegetables with the spices in a form of an almost solid curry. And panneer is Indian Tofu and the mustard green recipe has been there for centuries. I wonder why they lied to you about that.
Apart from that its a nice review.. I will definitely try it once based on the review you have given..
Thanks