Sherman's Food Adventures: Tasty Indian Bistro

Tasty Indian Bistro

When I thought I had finally tackled all the Indian restaurants along Scott Road, there have been some openings and closings as of late. Tasty Sweets decided to close up shop at their old location and move into a swank dining space along Scott Road. Walking into the place, one would confuse it for Joey or one of the Glowbal restaurants. Very impressive. Now, I won't lie. I wasn't the biggest fan of Tasty Sweets when I visited the place 2 years ago. Maybe it was an off day? People swore the food was good, including my Indian friends. For me, it was just plain salty. So when a bunch of people wanted to go for lunch, it looked like a good time to tackle quite a few items for a re-evaluation of sorts.

Although we had all picked one dish each (which we were going to share), Snake Eyes let the "eyes-bigger-than-his-stomach" phenomenon get the best of him (maybe change his nickname to that?). He decided to have an order of the Veggie Samosas all to himself. Well, clearly by the picture, it was quite a bit of food for an appetizer. Accompanied by a chickpea curry and chutneys, he struggled to even finish one. I gladly helped him with it and they were pretty good. I really liked how they were not greasy while still crisp on the outside. The inside was mildly spiced and flavourful. Loved the chickpeas too, really nice texture (soft, yet not mushy) and flavourful once again. For our mains, the first to arrive was the Chicken Tikka Masala. This was very flavourful bordering on salty, but without the sting. There was a decent amount of spiciness to go along with the smooth curry. The abundance of onions and green peppers added another layer of flavour. The only weak part of the dish was the chicken. It was a bit stringy.

Since a few people at the table didn't prefer lamb nor goat, we had to settle on more chicken dishes, such as the Chicken Korma. Lately, I've had a few kormas which were bordering on bland. This was not such the case here. In fact, it was aggressively seasoned much like the tikka masala. It was very creamy with a touch of spice. The familiar flavours were there such as cumin and coriander. Not sure about the nuts though, I didn't really taste any (could be the aggressive seasoning). Moving onto some more poultry with the ever-so-standard Butter Chicken, it was
unlike my previous visit at their old location. It was not stingily salty. However, that didn't mean it was bland either. Once again, it was bursting with flavour. It was more creamy than tomatoey, which suited me fine. The entire dish was quite mild in terms of spice while the chicken was very tender and plentiful.

To break the monotony of eating chicken, I suggested we order a Fish Curry. Buried beneath the curry was a generous helping of moist fish pieces. It appeared to be Basa. I really liked this curry since it was a departure from the 2 previous creamy offerings. Rather, it was more spicy and had a rich flavour from all of the ingredients. Once again, it was aggressively seasoned. Surprisingly and probably the most popular item was vegetarian. The Mutter Paneer was a lot creamier than some of the other versions I've had lately, but that didn't detract from the dish. I'm not about to list out all of the ingredients in this curry because I probably couldn't pick them all out. But what I can tell you is that there was a nice balance which went really well with the rice and Naan. And about that naan, well, it was much better than my visit to their old location. There was a nice char on the the one side while the bread itself was soft with some elasticity.

Based on the dishes we tried, we were satisfied with our visit to Tasty Bistro. We were probably more impressed with the decor than anything. The food was definitely better than the last time (at their old location). However, one thing that only changed slightly was their aggressive seasoning. Obviously there was a good amount of sodium used (in more than one form I'm speculating). According to the amount of salt I use when I cook at home, for something to taste that flavourful, there must've been no holding back here. To be fair, most restaurants use salt and fat liberally because it makes the food taste good. And why do we eat out? So we can eat tasty food right? So I don't blame them here. In the end, the food was very tasty (as their name suggests) and since it goes with rice and naan, it's alright to have flavourful sauces.

The Good:
- No lack of flavour here
- Oustanding decor
- Good amount of parking spots

The Bad:
- Pretty aggressive seasoning (if you don't like that)
- Pricier than other Indian restaurants nearby

Tasty Indian Bistro on Urbanspoon

6 comments:

Simon Leong said...

gee you certainly eat out a lot. good to hear the flavours don't disappoint at this place.

thesweatlife said...

Why are you always in surrey!! mwahaha I barely read any food bloggers that eats out in surrey as often as you do =P not that I dislike it but just interesting

Anonymous said...

I get so sick of eating in surrey, it's crazy how you always find new restaurants to try!

Jade said...

Since I live in South Surrey, I REALLY appreciate your Surrey blogs. I don't have much opportunity to seek out restaurants in the area, so your blogs are very useful for guiding us to new and interesting places (especially the hole in the wall places). Many of them I'm sure not many people know about and would be difficult to find otherwise. Thank you for being a guinea pig and testing them out!

Sherman Chan said...

@Simon Leong Yes, I do eat out a lot. This has got to stop sometime in the future... LOL...

@tilahuynh Well, Surrey happens to a forgotten place when it comes to food. All the good food doesn't necessarily need to be all in Vancouver. LOL...

@fatpanda LOL, I get sick of eating in Burnaby.

@Jade Thanks Jade! Long live Surrey!

Anonymous said...

I meant to go to Northern Tadka, which is now closed. So I headed to Tasty expecting an hole in the wall decor. Boy was I wrong. The decor blew me away, it was so gorgeous and luxurious. I don't normally frequent places like this because I prefer budget food, but for a few extra dollars, you get amazing ambience and good food. I can't turn that down.

Besides the delicious butter chicken and coconut chicken curry, we also sampled the plain naan, bhatura bread and the garlic naan. Since I love bread, these were outstanding. We were full and only meant to sample the garlic naan, but we almost inhaled the whole thing.

The mango lassi was smooth and not overly tangy, like some I've had.

Too bad this place isn't closer to Vancouver, or maybe that's a good thing.

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