| Bharat Restaurant (396 - 11th Ave. S.W., phone 262-2623) is the newest Indian eatery to join Calgary’s dining scene. Located next door to a liquor store and a burger joint in a mini strip mall, it’s a former doughnut shop that has morphed into a modest restaurant. With its funky red, yellow and blue ceiling light panels and track lighting (souvenirs from the previous business?), it could easily double as a disco.
Just a five-minute walk from the downtown core, Bharat serves a lunch buffet ($10.99) from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Monday to Friday. I found it to have a great variety of delicious dishes, including a good selection of vegetarian fare, although no single item was exceptional. A complimentary mango shake accompanies the meal.
The dishes change daily, and on the day of my visit there were beef and vegetable samosas, plain naan bread (they also make chicken, beef, onion and paneer naan, and several kinds of parathas), basmati rice and mutter paneer (green peas cooked with onion and spices). The black lentil daal was my favourite because it was the one dish with some kick to it.
All of the meat dishes were cooked to tender perfection, but again they needed more flavour, more punch. (I’ve always leaned more towards the mildly spiced side of Indian cuisine in the past, so perhaps my taste buds are maturing.) The chicken tandoori was tasty, if not as fiery as I would have liked, and there was a good selection of drumsticks, legs and chicken breasts.
There was also lamb curry, a great goat curry and delicious butter chicken, although the latter could be sweeter (my favourite butter chicken is at Namskar). Temperature-wise, I found the food to be warm rather than hot. A second counter offers various spices and condiments, one of which was the peculiar-tasting raita. Instead of yogurt, it tasted of sour cream with ground lentils in it.
The restaurant’s full menu features several appetizers, such as pakoras and aloo tiki (mashed potatoes mixed with spices and cooked on a grill), lamb, goat, chicken, beef and vegetable biriyani (meat or vegetables cooked in yogurt, onions, almonds, cashews and raisins and then added to rice), and several curries, masalas, vindaloos and vegetable dishes.
For dessert, I enjoyed the sweet sewian (noodles cooked in milk) with chai. With delicate, purple drapes shutting out the sights and sounds of 11th Avenue, Bharat affords a casual, relaxing atmosphere and a pleasurable meal. |
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