I'm Only Here for the Food!

All India – Bar & Restaurant
1256 Robson Street
Vancouver, BC

XG: Kim, do you have any plans for lunch today?
Me: Errr… No. Any suggestions?
XG: I was thinking Thai (read: Khunnai Chang).
Me: Wait, didn’t you go there earlier this week?
XG: Yes.
Me: And last week?
XG: Yeah….
Me: Want to try something else?
XG: Any suggestions?
Me: How about one of the many Indian restaurants in Robson?
XG: OK, how about All Indian – Bar & Restaurant. OA says it is great.
Me: Is that the one you have to take the stairs? OK, let’s go.

I will admit, one of the reasons I seldom go to Indian restaurants is because going by yourself is somewhat difficult. No, I don’t mind going by myself, I have done that previously (see here and here). The problem I have found in a lot of Indian restaurants in Metro Vancouver is that they are buffet-style. Translation, I will end up overeating. Of course, I could go to other a-la-carte locations; however, it just feels strange eating curry (being stereotypical here, OK?) by yourself. Bowl of noodles/pho/ramen by myself? No problem. Sushi by myself, no problem. Indian by myself? Now we have a problem. (That is a similar reason why I seldom end up going to Chinese restaurants). Anyway, having a volunteer here gave me the chance to do Indian. (On an unrelated note, I am almost sure somebody will mention House of Dosas. That is in my queue of to-visit places, OK?)

By the time we arrived, there was already a large group (10+) and had to re-arrange the tables in the middle of the dining room to accommodate them. Afterwards, they had to do the same for another large group (another 10+). As a result, we ended up seated in the booths. It was OK, I don’t really mind; however, the problem was that despite me being above average size for a Chinese person, the height of the table/booth was… disproportional. XG thought the same (she is not Asian but the same problem arose). Anyway… Keeping with stereotypes, yes, All India has buffet for lunch time and that was what we end up going for.

In the buffet itself (sorry, no pictures of that, partially thanks to the large groups), they have salads (including fruits), dessert (located oddly between the salad and the savoury items), rice, spring rolls (?!) and, from the savoury items, they had palak paneer (paneer with spinach), dahl, aloo gobi, tandoor chicken, chicken curry and butter chicken. After we can back with our plates, naan was given to us. I will start with the naan. While it was not cold, it was not that warm either. To make it “worse”, it felt dry. In fact, too dry for my liking. I had a piece to soak some of the curry sauce but that was about it.

This was my plate, in the first picture, from bottom right, clockwise, aloo gobi, palak paneer, rice and butter chicken. On the second picture, same plate, rotated to see the other side, again, from bottom right, clockwise, spring rolls (?!), tandoor chicken and the aloo gobi.

I don’t remember if this was my plate of XG’s but in addition to to the items mentioned above, it had chicken curry (left) and dahl (the yellow-y blob). How do I know it was chicken curry? Well, the butter chicken was made with white meat while the tandoor and the chicken curry was made with dark meat… ^_^;

I will have to apologize for the pictures as I did not do anything to adjust the depth of field…

Did I overeat? Unfortunately I did. Does that mean that the food was good? Well, that is a completely different issue. While some items had its ups and downs, I did my conversation during the meal was more interesting than the meal itself. For example, the palak paneer was quite good but the rice and naan that should have been the vessels to hold the sauce were disappointing. The butter chicken did not have that sweetness I would have expected and the curry did not have any kick either (read: I did not start to sweat). Overall, it was edible but not necessarily the best in any way. But, given the option (with so many Indian restaurants in the area), I think I would like to try somewhere else, next time.