indian restaurant

Restaurant Tibet, Gare, Luxembourg

~ Corie Bratter ~ Leave a comment

Were you missing my Indian reviews? I am not over them yet – still looking for the perfect Indian restaurant in town! – but in the last months I have to say I confined my passion to take-away delivery – mostly because I am running out of friends who like Indian food – (sad face)

Anyway, last Sunday I came back to the roots and after analyzing the “open” options – you know, even when everything else is closed, there is always an Indian restaurant welcoming you somewhere in town – and decided to visited Tibet restaurant near the Zitha Clinik, Station area. I have been there couple of years ago and I have frankly good memories, so I said, why not to refresh them and see how it competes with other Indian I have tried recently?

We arrived there without reservation and were accommodated to a nice spacious table on the side of the room – near a plug, so I could charge my mobile to take the pictures as after a full day around my mobile was off 😛

One of the reasons to like this place is the simple but colorful main room.
We had Indian beers to start with and ordered a mixed Indian starter, anticipated by offered papadam. I have to say that I am a huge fan of papadams and their sauces and I appreciate here at Tibet because the pots were really small, so you are given the possibility to finish your own sauce. In other Indian restaurants the pots are huge, so you ask yourself if you are actually handled the sauce that was not finished by another table… (better not to think about it, really!).

The mixed starter dish was nice, contained chicken tandoori, sesame scampi, samosa, vegetarian rolls. Even if I like pretty much everything, I have to say next time I will come back to my usual soup starter – except samosa and their sauce that were very good, the rest was not memorable.

To continue we had Murgh Timuri (boneless chicken cooked in a special Himalayan spice timur), Gosht Gulkhar (diced lamb with green chili, mushrooms, curry leaves and madras hot curry sauce) and Tibet Special Vegetarian Curry. The dishes were lovely presented and the portions were fair but not huge (still I took back home in a doggy bag small remaining of lamb). We accompanied with some garlic naan – that was delicious!

We concluded with a round of pan liquor (my favorite) and a second one (not my fault this time, it was offered, hands down).

Total bill, including two further large beers, read 130 Eur.

Let’s go for the pictures before talking about my impressions.

What I liked about Tibet restaurant:

  • The place is really nice and you basically feel at home. It is informal, but cared in the details, the atmosphere is lovely and the service is very friendly – like in most of the Indian restaurants I have been honestly.
  • The food choice is various and includes also a Tibetan menu – but I had it delivered online and it is too much on the creamy/sweet side for me, so I am not a fan. Anyway, the best things I had were definitely the garlic naan and the chef vegetables. I would order them again.

What I liked a bit less about Tibet restaurant:

  • I am a fan of spicy food – you should have learned it by now – and even if I asked to have my chicken hot spicy as it was indicated in the menu, it was not at all. Indeed the person who was with me is not eating spicy food and I suggest him to try and he confirmed me it was fine even for him. Unfortunately for me this is a big delusional point and one of the factor to choose one Indian on the other. If a dish indicated as hot spicy is not spicy at all, this is not the place for me. But I perfectly understand for someone it might be a great positive side 🙂
  • We ordered quite a lot of stuff and it was good. Still I will not categorize the place among the “cheap” Indian in Luxembourg. Quality was good, but still, slightly overpaid. I appreciated anyway they offered us the second round of digestif.

 

In conclusion: if you are looking for a colorful Indian place with as well Tibetan options, Tibet near the station might be your place. It is perfect as well as for a date and you should not be afraid of chilli, as dishes are definitely not spicy hot. Not the best Indian in town anyway if you are on a budget, anyway.

 

Discovering Indian restaurants: Swagat, Strassen, Luxembourg

~ Corie Bratter ~ 2 Comments

My search about the perfect Indian restaurant in Luxembourg continues. Couple of weeks ago, on a Sunday, we decided to try Swagat, in Strassen.I passed there in front several times and always been attracted by the bold decorations. Moreover, it is open on Sundays.

We got to the restaurant without a reservation around 7.30 pm and we were placed on a table on the corridor halley, just in front of the entrance.At the beginning the service was a bit too much invasive. We got our menu and the waitress wanted to take immediately our order. I understood this might have been because shortly after the restaurant got almost full and it became very difficult to attract the attention of the waiters.

I went as usual for a chicken soup as starter, while hubby had meat samosa, and as main we decided to share a Vindaloo Chichen, some Madras Vegetables and Jhaalfrazy Lamb. We also ordered some Garlic Naan.

Pictures of our dinner followed by my general impressions.

swagat1 swagat2 swagat3 swagat4 swagat5 swagat6

Things I liked about Swagat:

  •  I have to say, this restaurant failed to impress me. Our experience was not that bad, but at the same time, in consideration of all the other Indian restaurants I have already tried in the city, I would not feel motivated to come back here.
  • Indeed, the atmosphere and the decorations are cosy and the food presentation is interesting.

Things I did not like about Swagat:

  • Food was kind deluding for my Indian standards. Again, not bad in toto. but missing a sparkle. The chicken soup was a plain broth filled with boiled chicken pieces and cucumber. The Samosa hubby took were one totally without salt and the other one so salted it was impossible to eat. The Vindaloo was far from being spicy (even if I asked it to be very spicy) and the main dish portions were very small – never found an Indian restaurant where I was able to finish three shared main and still being hungry! While the pots seemed to be the usual size, both the chicken and the lamb were all full of sauce and had only 4 pieces of meat the chicken and probably 5 the lamb.
  • Service was very fresh and smiling when we arrived, but totally changed as soon as couple of tables more filled the main room. The waiters spent a lot of time to “usual clients'” tables, totally forgetting about us – had to remind for drinks and bill and they were almost annoyed to have to get to our table
  • It was a cold Sunday evening  but the restaurant was particularly hot and to refresh the air, they open the main door. The temperature of the room improved, but the open door was just in front of our table and I was shivering for the second part of the dinner.

In conclusion: Swagat was not my favourite Indian choice. Food without a sparkle and grumpy service, notwithstanding a nice atmosphere and presentation, are making it at the bottom of my preferences in town.