Between and among the culinary richesse of Watton Street at Werribee and Barkly Street at West Footscray, there are lots of Indian or curry restaurants hidden away in all sorts of places.
In the case of this Hoppers Crossing find, it’s an offering – ostensibly – of Afghan food.
On a cold week night, Woodville Park shopping centre presents a rather bleak prospect, but the glowing lights draw us in.
The series of events that have brought us here – post-school volleyball, guitar lesson, traffic congestion – find us also with robust appetites, so we’re happy to be in a warm, cheap eatery.
Given the location and lack of research, it’s a throw of the dice, but we are not disappointed.
The place is done in typical, basic suburban ethnic, and we’re the only customers. But we are re-assured by the number of locals coming and going for takeaway – there is something worthwhile going on here.
While we await our meal, we are greatly entertained, not only by the Bollywood music clips on the telly but even more by the cornball old-school adverts that accompany them.
The pricing on the menu is attractive and there’s a range of the usual korma, kofta, vindaloo, masala and other curry dishes.
But we choose the breads and kebab offerings.
First, though, onion pakoras ($6) are rapidly devoured, a well-fried treat. Potato bolani naan ($5) is fantastic and almost a meal in itself.
Garlic naan ($3) shows scant traces of garlic but is good, too.
Instead of having to select from the kebab-tandoor line-up, we go straight for the “Sizzler Special” ($22).
The menu says it consists of kebab items numbers one through six and comes with salad and dips.
We’re not sure about that – and there are no dips. But we’re more than happy anyway.
We’re not about to pretend this is the best or best-cooked meat of this kind we’ve had, but it does the job for us.
The minced-lamb sheesh kebabs have a bit of a bitter flavour to them. The chunks of lamb kebab could be a bit more tender.
But the chicken tikka pieces and two chook parts of tandoori chicken are really good.
We’re happy to have paid only $36 for a satisfying meal.
