Dhoom Restaurant & Bar

A restaurant named "Dhoom"? Really? So I guess it is alright to say that the restaurant is Dhoomed? Well, other than being some sort of TV show in India, I'm not sure where the name Dhoom comes from. Maybe it has something to do with the owners which is the Dhaliwal Group. In fact, they run several businesses and restaurants. So as you can see, they are most certainly not Dhoomed... Now as for the restaurant itself, it is a tricky one to find. Hidden within York Centre on the corner of 128th and 80th in Surrey, you really must know where you are going. If you have ever heard of Afghan Chopan, then you'll find it only steps away. I did not eat alone this time since a bunch of co-workers joined me on this adventure. Good thing too. Indian food is best when shared. Eating an entire Butter Chicken is neither great for ones' health nor for the afternoon since it is so heavy.

Upon walking into the place, the decor was actually quite pleasant and unique. The restaurant is expansive while being noticeably dark. They did turn up the lights; yet it was not exactly bright. Marymac, who is quite the food expert, did the ordering. She suggested an order of the Boondi Raita, which I personally have never tried before. It is essentially raita mixed with tiny balls of fried chickpea flour. It was interesting for sure; however, I'm still impartial to the plain raita. Don't get me wrong, it was good, I just want it smooth. Since everything arrived at the same time, I'll just randomly talk about each dish. The Tandoori Chicken consisted of 4 drumsticks which were relatively moist. Due to the nature of the tandoor oven, the chicken will never be juicy, so this was as juicy it was going to get. I found the flavours to be mild; yet present at the same time.

Hey, a visit to a Northern Indian restaurant isn't complete without trying the Butter Chicken right? Well, I'm sure there is an Indian person laughing at this statement right now... Anyways, this particular version was heavy on the tomato paste. So much so, it was no longer really creamy, even though there was a good amount of cream in it since the sauce was quite thick. Hence, there was an obvious level of tartness and a bit of spice. The biggest problem wasn't the tomato paste; rather it was with the salt content. Man was it salty. Lastly, they used dark meat here and although I personally like dark meat, it probably would've been better with white meat especially with the saltiness.

I love lamb and when Marymac suggested we have a Lamb Rogan Josh, I did not object. I found the lamb to quite tender while the curry had the flavours of the usual spices such as cumin and coriander. Yet again, the whole thing was tainted by the liberal use of salt. Even the lamb itself was salty. If they used less salt, this would've been a very good dish. Now what was probably the best of the bunch was the Palak Paneer. This was very creamy with large chunks of cheese. Unlike the other dishes, this one was not as salty. I found there was a good balance of flavours and once again, the usual spices were evident, particularly the cumin.

Instead of ordering plain basmati rice, Marymac suggested we get the Pulao Rice (which is basmati rice cooked with onions and bell peppers). Again, call me boring or predictable; but I usually get plain rice because I want it to be a blank canvas for the sauces. With that being said, the Pulao rice was good in the sense it had some flavour of its own and different textures. Lastly, we got the Garlic Naan instead of plain naan. Now, in this case, I would've ordered garlic naan anyways since it adds an extra oomph to the bread. I found this one to have a good amount of fresh garlic on the outside which in turn made it fragrant and tasty. With an abundance of colour and charring, this tandoor-cooked naan was quite crispy in parts. Maybe I got the end pieces because I found it too crispy. However, when I tried a middle section later in the meal, it was exactly the texture I prefer which is slightly crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside. The naan went well with all the sauces. And about those sauces... If they just let up on the sodium, it would've been a completely different story. Obviously too little salt or too much can greatly affect the final product. In the end, we all agreed that the food was decent, just like many other Indian restaurants in the area. So for me at least, I'm willing to return if someone wanted to eat here.

The Good:
- Large portions
- Spacious dining space
- Pricing seems reasonable considering all factors

The Bad:
- For us, the food was too salty
- Dining space is rather dark