Gurkhas Express

There have been so many restaurant vouchers available on various voucher sites like Our Deal, or Group On, but I always feel that the quality of the food or the service is compromised when you are a diner with a voucher. Nevertheless, when we saw a voucher for a great dinner deal at Gurkhas, we decided to take the risk, and it proved to be well worth it.

The Gurkhas Express branch, on the King St end of Flinders St has an unassuming shop front and we really weren't sure what to expect when we walked in. The interior is decorated with Nepalese Buddhist prayer flags, photos of the Buddhist eyes symbol which you see on their stupas, and the soft hum of Nepalese music fills the room. I felt like I was back in Kathmandu and I was instantly at ease.

The voucher we had entitled us to two entrées, two mains and a dessert to shared so whilst we munched on our complimentary papads, we quickly perused the menu to make some quick choices. For entrée we decided on a plate of momos, and a vegetarian dish called Gurkha's Special.

The momos were self explanatory; Nepalese dumplings, filled with meat (there is a vegetarian option too, but when eating with a non vegetarian, it's only fair that there is some meat on the table!), which were served with a tangy dipping sauce and a garden salad. I was informed that the momos tasted great, and the sauce was a particular hit.

Momos

My entrée, the Gurkha's Special, had little information about it on the menu, other than the fact that it was vegetarian, so I had no idea what to expect. When it came out, I was delighted to discover that it was a Nepalese version of an Indian chaat. Served in a papad and covered with yogurt, was a mixture or spicy potatoes and peas and crunchy chickpea crisps, or sao as us Bengalis call them. It was delicious, and such a clever idea to serve chaat in a papad!

Gurkha's Special

We then moved onto mains where we both opted for a thali type option. I went for the vegetarian thali called Dal Bhat, which consisted of a thick chickpea curry garnished with tomatoes and spring onion, a simple lentil soup, or dhal, and a Chinese style mixed veg with a strong pepper flavour. These curries were complimented with rice and a flaky paratha. The chickpea curry and the Chinese mixed veg were both full of flavour, but by comparison, the dhal seemed fairly bland. A slight blemish on an otherwise delicious main!

Dal Bhat

By this time we were already extremely full, and so sharing a dessert didn't seem like such a bad idea. We chose to have the rice pudding, which was similar to an Indian kheer. Unfortunately it wasn't nearly sweet enough and had way too much cardamom which mean the flavour was rather unbalanced.

Overall though, it was a great meal and gave us renewed faith in the websites which offer restaurant vouchers. Obviously you have to pick your restaurants well, and Gurkhas is definitely one of those restaurants!