Gaylord Indian Restaurant

We were invited to this prestigious looking Indian restaurant on a breezy Melbourne night. Prestigious is hardly a word I’ve used to describe any Indian restaurant before, as none of the Indian restaurants in Clayton look remotely close to this. The interior made me feel like royalty, speaking of which are in complete shambles atm, but not here at Gaylords! I was so immersed in the place that I forgot to take pics, feel free to use your imagination, or a quick Google search will get you there.

Helen couldn’t make it with me on this particular night, she was partying it up at a hens party. Luckily I had an extremely keen +1. It was his first time at a food invite event, and I was really concerned he would not enjoy it. I felt this pressure I had never felt before, it was a lot more stressful than taking the photos and writing this blog post! I was so happy and relieved to hear that he loved the whole experience, and couldn’t wait for me to take him again! 

We started off with an impressive looking entree called Pani Puri (Crisp fried balls stuffed with potatoes, chickpeas and sweet and spicy tangy sauce). I had never seen this dish in my life and was fascinated by this magical green potion! The idea is to pour this sauce into the crisp balls and eat it in one go. It was delicious – loved it! As soon as the ball collapsed in my mouth, the explosion of flavours from the sauce was intense. I could picture this sauce being a great shot chaser, I suggested to the owner that he may want to consider putting a shot of vodka or something in the fried ball, he laughed and said that he considered it already. Guess great minds think alike!

Pani Puri – Crisp fried balls stuffed with potatoes, chickpeas and sweet and spicy tangy sauce

The Beetroot Tikki was advertised as a croquette, but felt more like a pancake to me. It was interesting but I was expecting it to be crispier. The peppercorn chicken tikka was more of what I was used to from other Indian places. This one was top notch, perfect flavours and the peppercorn was a nice touch.

Beetroot Tikki – Beetroot croquette with ginger, avocado salsa served with mint sauce
Peppercorn Chicken Tikka – Chicken marinated in house spice and grilled tandoor

Now onto our unanimous favourite dish of the night, the Methi Marg (Tender pan-seared free range chicken with curried fenugreek). I do not know what fenugreek is, tried to Google it and it’s a herb. Well that’s good enough for me! Putting tender on the menu is brave, it had to deliver, and it sure did. This was one of the softest pieces of chicken I’ve had, with a huge hit of herby flavours. The vegetable dumplings were also really special with the sweet centre. It had prunes, sultanas, and cashews for a bit of texture. I can’t remember the last time I ate prunes, 2020 is full of surprises.

I have to be honest and say that I wasn’t looking forward to dessert. Indian desserts are generally too sweet for me, along with traditional Greek or Turkish desserts. I was shocked to find that this was not the case at all with the Gajrella (Caramelised carrot pudding, pistachio & cashew nuts). I’m a fairly recent carrot convert, and hated carrots throughout my whole childhood. Maybe it’s the fact that I couldn’t taste the carrot, but this dessert was really enjoyable. Reminded me of a carrot yoghurt dessert I had in Greece years ago. 

Gajrella – Caramelised carrot pudding, pistachio & cashew nuts

All in all, a fantastic night with great food. Huge thanks to Gaylord Indian Restaurant for their hospitality. Their aim was to take us through an Indian food journey, and I thoroughly enjoyed the ride. If anything, we found the restaurant a bit difficult to find. A huge tip for you guys is to look for the hotel car park, and the entrance is through there. With our stomachs full of food, and a smile on our faces, my +1 and I decided to take a leisurely stroll around Southbank afterwards. The perfect ending to his first food invite event.


Gaylord Indian Restaurant
Approx $40 AUD per person
Address: 33 Spencer Street, Docklands VIC 3008
Phone: +61 3 9663 3980

Gaylord Restaurant Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato




Punjabi Curry Cafe

We were invited to Punjabi Curry Cafe which is located on the more quiet end of Johnston St in Collingwood so parking was easier to find than expected. On the outside the signage makes it look like any other Indian restaurant. However when you enter, you realise how spacious the restaurant really is! It’s a large modernised space with plentiful tables and chairs, and brick arches opening up to other dining areas.

Staff were very friendly and accommodating, allowing us to pick a seat where there would be ample lighting for our photos. After extensively reviewing the menu, we decided to order a range of dishes to share.

We ordered the Mushroom Chilli House Special from their entree list. This dish had mushrooms tossed with onions and capsicums in a homemade garlic chilli soy sauce. The dish was really flavoured and quite nice however the chilli kick was probably lacking. For a dish called Mushroom Chilli we were just expecting it to pack a bit more of the chilli kick but nonetheless it was a nice dish.

For mains we ordered the Butter Chicken, the Goan Fish curry, and the Aloo Gobi which had cauliflower and potato cooked with cumin and spices. We also ordered the Goat Biryani, a garlic cheese naan and a Keema naan which had lamb minced stuffed in the bread.

I’ve always loved butter chicken and so it’s one of those curries I just have to order every time we have Indian as a comparison to other butter chicken dishes I’ve had in the past. Although the dish looked beautiful, I felt the butter chicken here lacked the tomato flavours and was more on the bland side. Similarly both the Goan Fish curry and the Aloo Gobi tasted fine but it didn’t stand out specifically for us. It felt like they were holding back on the flavours. We expected a party in our mouths of flavours, spices and heat but it was very tame for Indian cuisine. It may be that they’ve had to tone down on the flavours and spices to accommodate for their customer preferences, I’m not sure.

The biryani was flavoured but was quite mushy. We haven’t had biryani that wet and soft before. The garlic cheese naan was flavoured quite nice however wasn’t crispy. Davin had the Keema naan which he didn’t feel was very nice so I stuck to my garlic cheese naan.

Overall the restaurant has a lot of potential as their customer service was very good. Staff were super friendly and efficient. The restaurant has great ambience and the layout makes it a really nice place for groups of people to catch up, or for couples to have a nice intimate meal. We just personally felt like the food could have a bit more of the flavours and spiciness we are generally used to as we think there should be no holding back! But that’s just our humble opinion!

Punjabi Curry Cafe
Approx $30 AUD per person
Address: 87 Johnston St, Collingwood VIC 3066
Phone: +61 3 9419 5307
Website: punjabicurrycafe.com.au

Punjabi Curry Cafe Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Curry Smuggler

We recently had the pleasure of being invited to dine at Curry Smuggler. In addition to the fact that I love their choice of name for their restaurant (it certainly made me giggle!), I love Indian cuisine and never get an opportunity to eat it as much as I would like to so of course we happily accepted the invitation!

Curry Smuggler is located on the business end of Brunswick Street in Fitzroy, a more quiet location away from the busyness that you would normally see and experience on a Saturday night. On the outside, the restaurant looks like any other, however upon entering, we noted how clean, spacious and modern it was inside.

We were warmly greeted and seated at a window seat which was perfect for us. Being a food blogger, great lighting for our photos is everything and nothing beats natural light! Menus were then provided for our perusal which got me quite excited because there were so many delicious dishes to choose from! It is also worth noting that they also have an extensive vegan menu for all the vegans out there which we thought was very considerate.

We settled with trying the Daaku Di Tangri (Smuggler’s) Drumsticks. With ‘smuggler’ in the title we assumed it must be one of their signature dishes so had to try it out. The dish had chicken drumsticks with a core of lamb mince, marinated in tandoori spices and yoghurt and the chef’s special sauce. This is a dish we’ve never had before and was very interesting. It was strange cutting into the chicken to find pieces of lamb mince attached to it. However the meat was tender and flavoured well. The creamy sauce also complemented it.

For mains we ordered the Butter Chicken (it’s one of those dishes I ALWAYS have to get because I love it so much), which were boneless pieces of tandoori chicken cooked with tomato, spices and a nut cream sauce, the Tawa Goat which was cooked in smoked flavoured traditional curry served with smoked onions and capsicum on a hot plate, the Biriyani Lamb which was lamb cooked with basmati rice, and two garlic naan.

The Butter Chicken was really good! The chicken was tender, and the sauce was cooked perfectly as it was not overly creamy and you can taste more of the tomato flavours in the sauce. The Tawa Goat however was probably the star of the show. The goat meat was SO soft! It literally just melted away from the bone and was flavoured really well with lovely spices and flavours.

The Biriyani Lamb was nice however probably didn’t stand out for us compared to the other dishes. Similarly, the garlic naan was just okay, and interestingly had a bit of salt on it which with some bites may have been too salty for our liking.

Overall it was a lovely experience and we enjoyed the food. The prices are probably more on the expensive side compared to other Indian restaurants we’ve come across, however the servings were quite generous and we were so full when we were done!

Curry Smuggler
Approx $30 AUD per person
Address: 223 Brunswick St, Fitzroy VIC 3065
Phone: +61 3 8597 0647
Website: currysmuggler.com.au

Curry Smuggler Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato