Cuisine: Northern Indian Shortly after I reviewed India Today on The Strand I asked people to suggest their favourite Indian restaurants and the one mentioned most often was this particular branch of Great Spice. There are others in Mount Maunganui and Papamoa, four in all I think, but this one - which has also won various awards - kept cropping up.
So last Sunday we met up with the same regular dining companions at Bureta. The restaurant is clean and tidy and usassuming inside and looks like it would seat around fifty. We were lucky to strike a still-sunny lunchtime so the four of us sat outside, the BYO license allowing us to enjoy a stunning bottle of Rasteau from France's Rhone Valley. Corkage is a very reasonable $6 per bottle.
There is a large menu which merits much deeper exploration than just a lunch, but you gotta start somewhere. We started with chicken and prawns:
- PRAWN PAKORA - King prawns cutlets dipped in fried mildly spiced batter deep fried and served with mint sauce $14
TANDOORI CHICKEN - Full - Whole bone chicken overnight marinated in yoghurt, ginger, garlic paste and roast in clay oven $22
Both were top notch. The prawns, coated by a slightly spicy blanket of batter, inside were moist and tasty. Good generous serve too. The chicken was also more moist than it often is and the tandoori coating particularly flavourful. Everyone commented on how much better than the norm it was as we kinda devoured it. It also came with dipping sauces.
Then we all took advantage of one of their lunch deals:
Dine-In Combo 1 Curry | Rice | Plain Naan | Papadom $12 (each)
Most of the curries (except goat and seafood) are available as options and we chose:
BUTTER CHICKEN - Tender morsels of boneless chicken roasted in tandoori and finished in a mild creamy tomato flavoured sauce
LAMB SAAGWALA - Lamb cooked with lightly spiced herbs and fresh spinach puree
LAMB DOPIAZA - Tendered diced lamb pieces cooked with onion, capsicum and Indian herbs. Garnished with fresh coriander
BEEF MUSHROOM MASALA - Sautéed mushroom cooked with diced beef in medium spiced gravy
 |
| Butter Chicken |
 |
| Lamb Dopiaza |
 |
| Beef Mushroom Marsala |
 |
| Lamb Saagwala |
And, once again, damn fine. As
per usual we had them all medium which was just right except for Jan's
Butter Chicken which she would have preferred hotter. The lamb in both
dishes was unusually tender, as was the beef. I thought the spinach in
the Saag was particularly pleasing. Though the beef and Lamb Dopiaza
look near identical they were noticeably different, the lamb sweeter - I
guess from the extra onions - and with more whole spices lurking
(cardomom, coriander, etc) and the beef containing, of course,
mushrooms.
Although these were smaller portions than the evening mains (which typically cost around $22) they were surprisingly large. We all looked at them and thought them tiny till we actually started eating. Everyone shared everything and there was more than enough for all. The naan was fine and the rice - happily topped up for us - light and fluffy. The whole thing came to the princely sum of $22.50 each. And we ate like royalty. The service was faultless too.
My thanks to all you good folk who recommended the place. Anyone hankering for a fix of excellent curry for next to nothing - get on down to Bureta for lunch!
And let me mention again that the A Debt To Pleasure Facebook page
is up and running, with lots more (shorter) things than here, including
a Song of the Day. Come Like and/or Follow it - all sorts of groovy stuff
is in the
works!
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