Great India, Wellington

On Friday morning I got an email from a friend of ours asking if we wanted to go with him and his other half for curry that evening. I was starving at the time so leapt at the opportunity - not that I wouldn't have anyway, but you know how food seems so much more appealing when you're hungry?

Great India have $10 curries for lunch, and I've been there a couple of times with workmates for that. One workmate in particular maintains at length that their Gehtu is the best curry in the universe - I have tried it, and actually thought it wasn't anything special - but good for him that he's found his ultimate curry. ;-)

Anyway, Friday night it was dinner for the four of us. They do a great job of serving the table at Great India - if you're dining with a group you can choose to have naan and rice for the table, in which case you get an assortment, or choose your own. We had four different type of bread - plain naan, garlic naan, paratha (wholemeal bread), and onion kulchi - and three different types of rice.

Mr Cake ordered the rogan gosh (on the left) and I had the chicken masta masala. The rogan gosh was fantastic - he asked for it hot, and it was a good hot, not so hot you couldn't taste the flavours but definitely with a strong heat to it - not Kiwi hot! :-) The flavour was rich and and warm and the lamb was in big, tender chunks - much better quality meat and more of it than you'd normally get in a curry. I was quite jealous as this is possibly my perfect curry - I'll be lining up for that next time!

The masta masala was the same story with the chicken - generously sized pieces, and well cooked. The curry itself was once again well spiced - I asked for medium and it had a good amount of heat - in so many places I've found medium actually means mild, but Great India don't fall into this trap. Tandoori is not normally my pick but I thought I'd give it a go (since Mr Cake was covering my normal spicy-tomato-based curry choice) and it was good, though I did like his a bit more - it was maybe just a little less savoury than I like. It was good enough though, that I asked them to put the leftovers (I only managed to get through half) into a container to take home and had them for lunch yesterday. How's that for value for money?

Though I love Indian food I think Great India is the only Indian food I've tried in Wellington (our own kitchen excluded). My favourite haunt in Christchurch was Taste of Bengal on Riccarton Road - I don't know it fared in the quakes - it was in a pretty old row of shops, and the lovely gentleman who ran it lived above with his family, so though I very much hope for the best I wouldn't be suprised if it's no longer there. Can any Christchurch people enlighten me? Where do you go when you want a good curry?

Great India is located at 141 Manners Street, Wellington, ph 04 384 5755, www.greatindia.co.nz