Little India Cherng Talay

Little India is a small, quaint, intimate, or however you'd like to describe it, with only a handful of tables, but the atmosphere is welcoming and unlike most of the drab interiors of most Indian restaurants with their typical photos and wall decorations, Little India has brought life to the furnishings and included cutlery on the tables as nice as what is found in many upscale hotel restaurants. This is my first visit to an Indian restaurant in Phuket although I have been to many others in Pattaya and Bangkok. I was asked to reviw this restaurant while on a free-lance writing assignment for a magazine, and since DininginThailand picks up the tab, why not?

I brought a friend to dine with me because it is always easier to get a real vibe of how the food taste if you can share numerous dishes and it's less conspicuous when trying to be a mystery diner. We started with drinks from a choice of Indian Lassi favorites and soft drinks my friend opted for a diet coke (it was nice to see that coke and diet coke was the same price. I never could figure out why only in Thailand that some restaurants charge more for diet. I guess because they think they can, and they do. Anyway, her diet coke was only 30 baht while I chose a Heineken. While on the subject of drinks, I noticed the menu offers 1 house wine (nothing special) by the glass along with a few other choices of wine by the bottle.

The food selection begins with the obvious starters of vegetable pakora, papardam, onion bajie, and vegetable or chicken samosa. Vegetable samosa is good but the chicken is the one to choose when visiting. The typical Chicken Tandoori is grilled chicken leg marinated in hot spice and yoghurt then roasted and served with mint sauce. Sure, chicken legs are cheap, but I wish these restaurants would realize that many people, such as myself, are less concerned with tradition or their cost, and would rather have a white meaty breast grilled tandoori-style. Other grilled items include Peshawari Chicken and some Tikka selections. We ordered a dish of Mixed Raita, this inclouded some nicely homemade yoghurt with chopped cucumber and tomatoes. Next were the Fish or Prawn Curry, Chicken Tikka Masala, about 4 different choices with Lamb, and a couple Jalfrezy dishes. For those interested primarily in vegetable dishes, the selection includes about 8 of the most common Indian choices. Such as, Aloo Gobi (potato and cauliflower), which is one of my favorites but also available with only potato (Jeera Aloo), Black or Yellow Dal, and a few Masala dishes. There are rice dishes and a choice of either Egg, Lamb, or Chicken Biryani. The menu choices are completw with about 7 different Naan brads from plain to Keema Naan or Stuffed Vegetable Naan.

Desserts were certainly on the menu but we had consumed enough food for all of Ali Baba's thieves and unfortunately had no room to even consider eating another bite. There is 1 set menu choice of vegetarian and non-vegetarian for two persons and both are very reasonably priced.

Dress: Casual
Buffets: No
Vegetarian Dishes: Yes
Use of MSG: No
Smoking Area: No
Mobile Phones: Yes