300 The Parade
Kensington SA 5068
Phone: (08) 8332 2788
Mon-Sat: 6pm till late, Lunch Mon-Fri 12.30 - 2.30pm
http://www.tasteofnepal.com.au

After another week off from the regular curry review, I thought it would be nice to try out some of what Nepal could offer us. Taste of Nepal is one of the fancier curry places to visit, with numerous reccomendations. We were given our own special eating area too, which was nice and quite unexpected. I knew we were in for the same kind of curries that all the other indian restaurants served, just renamed to sound more exotic. Special Guest reviewer Ken decided it was time to add his thoughts as well!

Our final score: 7.041/10

Yup, another goat dish, lamb has gone out the window! Looking at the ingredients of the sauce, including coriander, cinnamon and bay leaves, it was pretty close to what I have been having the past few reviews, almost like a Korma. Upon entering I didn't even have a chance to say that I was looking for my table, they somehow already knew who I was and were expecting me... uncanny, my curry reviews weren't THAT popular! Service time for mains was very slow, and they stuffed up a few of our orders. We ended up getting a few free curries because they brought the wrong ones out which was very nice of them, but no excuse for slowness. The goat curry (after getting a chicken curry!) was very tender, and the sauce very tasty just like what I am used to but Naan bread very small. Overall slow service, but nice napkin-on-lap waiters, OK value, and apologetic about wrong orders. A bit of a tough one to review...

Service: 6.0/10 -Napkin-on-lap service, very nice, free curries, but very slow and wrong orders.
Quality: 8.0/10 -No complaints, quite tender and tasty sauce.
Atmosphere: 8.5/10 -Private setup for us without request, fairly nice inside.
Value: 7.6/10 -Disregarding the free curries, mains were $18 with rice, not bad.
Final Score: 7.525/10

Hotness Rating:

Chow

Sekuwa (not pronounced sekuuwwaaaaah) is a traditional Nepalese dish made of, ummm, chicken. Based on the description I decided it didn't sound very filling. This appealed to me because I had eaten a whole bunch of Hummus and crackers before coming to the restaurant. Yet I still skipped over the entrée sized Sekuwa ($8.50, 5 pieces) for the main sized Sekuwa ($18.50, pieces unknown). I ordered from my handsome - perhaps Bollywood destined - waiter who provided nice service. But he was probably a bit too polite, as I noticed him often mishearing people's orders but not clarifying. Finally after a lot of complaining my Sekuwa arrived but there were only 6 pieces. Had I paid an extra $10 for one piece? I argued about this with two separate wait staff, but I eventually conceded that the main sized Sekuwa had larger pieces than the entrée sized Sekuwa and stopped contesting. I think I was mainly motivated to debate because I just liked saying Sekuwa. Sekuwa! Sekuwa is pretty plain and boring. I won't ever be ordering it again.

Service: 6.0/10 -The service was perhaps too polite, needed more assertiveness.
Quality: 5.9/10 -I've never had Sekuwa before but I can't imagine what I had was the best Sekuwa possible.
Atmosphere: 7.5/10 -It was clean and smelled like incense and... nothing remarkable. Bellydancers would improve this mark.
Value: 4.0/10 -Sekuwa is totally not worth $18.50 even with some weird sauce. And because of the wait I bought extra beers.
Final Score: 5.85/10

Hotness Rating:

Brad

I've been looking for a spicy curry that doesn't blast you into orbit but still gives you bang for your buck. The lamb version of Nepalese curry delievered everything I wanted in spicey-ness. The meat was moderately cubed and tender. The sauce offered much in the way of aromatic and spice complexity and when served with an ample side of rice provides an all round solid culinary experience.

Service: 6.5/10 -A long wait for the meal but they recovered well.
Quality: 8.5/10 -Exciting curry combination.
Atmosphere: 8.5/10 -Nice authentic Nepalese feel.
Value: 7.5/10 -expensive but the environment and mannerism of staff increased.
Final Score: 7.75/10

Hotness Rating:

Ken

People are still scared of the chili roulette, especially now with the new rules! If both dice rolled have your number you must eat double...and what do you know, I get to be the first person to be hit! And they were hot this week!

Chow's Roulette Hits: 1 single 1 double 1 Quadruple
Ben's Roulette Hits: 1 Triple
Josh's Roulette Hits: 3 singles 1 double
Daniel's Roulette hits: 1 single 1 double
Gus' Roulette Hits: 1 Single 1 double
Dan's Roulette Hits: 1 double
Eli's Roulette Hits: 1 double
Lara's Roulette Hits: 1 single
Brad's Roulette Hits: 1 single
Wiser's Roulette Hits: 1 single
Lauren's Roulette Hits: 1 single
Byron's Roulette Hits: 1 single
Taryn's Roulette Hits: 1 single

Newcomer Taryn plays beginners luck like all newcomers seem to.

Yup, two times two equals four chilis...I actually cried.