When you're travelling in a country with very small Indian populations, the Indian food is typically watered down a few notches in the spice/heat department. Y'know ... so that the locals can actually eat it. Not so in The Raj restaurant though - read on for the full disclosure!
The Raj is located in Nelson Mandela Square - pretty decent sized mall in the heart of Johannesburg's Sandton district. It's got a pretty upmarket look and design, and even has an open kitchen of sorts:
Does pappadum count as the Indian version of the French amuse bouche? Hmmmmmmmmmm ...
We start off with a Punjabi Samoosa - 4 pieces for R48.80. Stuffed with peas, potatoes and masala, it's delicious! And, according to my makan-mate, fairly authentic-tasting, too! Size is a bit on the small side for the price, though.
For our main courses, we split a Nizami Gosht Biryani (R118.80) and a Shai Murgh Biryani (R98.80). For those of us who don't speak tamil or hindi, these are Lamb and Chicken Biryanis respectively. Taste-wise they were absolutely delicious. Fragrant rice with just enough gravy mixed in so that it doesn't become too dry. However, the lamb was somewhat dry and tasted like it had been frozen for quite a while prior to being cooked. Oh, and we made the mistake of ordering "very spicy" - it turned out to be super pedas.
At about R300 (RM118.00) for two people it's not the cheapest place around to eat. Food's authentically delicious and the portions are huge, though - I could only finish half of my biryani and took home the other half to warm up for dinner.
Definitely recommended if you're in the area!
i glanced at the photos before reading the words, and i thought this was a KL restaurant at first! :D
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