Sherman's Food Adventures: Maurya Indian Cuisine

Maurya Indian Cuisine

Darn those Groupons...  I got sucked into buying a whackload of them a year ago only to see them expire before I had a chance to use them.  Call it the "need reservations" effect where you cannot merely show up with your Groupon.  Hence, last minute plans with the hockey or softball team don't work.  However, with the face value still valid, I enlisted the help of Whipping Girl to use the one I bought for Maurya a long time ago.  Yah, I could've used it earlier in the Summer, but who thinks of making a reservation while playing a softball game?  Well, it should've been me I guess...

After circling around trying to find parking since their lot was full, we finally settled in. To the surprise of our server, we went ahead and ordered enough food for 4 starting with the Fish Pakora featuring nuggets of halibut.  Lightly crisp on the outside while moist and flaky on the inside, these were prepared nicely.   There was enough flavour in the batter, but served on the side was a sweet and tart tamarind chutney that was balanced and appetizing.  Next up was the Garlic Mussels simmered in a creamy garlic sauce.  The sauce was thick and more clumpy than creamy.  It was mildly flavoured where I could taste garlic, cumin and green onions.  As for the mussels, they were unfortunately overcooked where they became somewhat rubbery.  We were not fond of this dish.

Onto the mains, we started with Whipping Girl's favourite being the Butter Chicken.  It was chock full of chicken tikka pieces that were sufficiently moist.  We asked for spicy and there was definitely a kick.  However, it wasn't overly spicy, hence we could taste the other flavours such as the mild sweet tomato and garam masala.  Since there was very little tang, it appeared they used fresh tomatoes.  For myself, I had to get the Lamb Vindaloo and it turned out to be a great choice.  The plethora of lamb was tender and moist.  The sauce had body where the spice was clearly evident.  I could get pronounced hits of ginger and tang.

Lastly, we shared the Aloo Gobi which was pretty decent.  There was also a good level of spice combined with a good balance of sweet and savoury.  The cauliflower and potatoes were nicely textured being soft while maintaining a certain firmness.  Naturally, to go with our meal, we had rice and Naan.  In fact, we got an order of regular Naan and another of the Garlic Naan. We felt these were charred nicely in the tandoori where there was a crispiness on the outside.  However, being quite thin, the inside was not as chewy and fluffy as we would've liked.  The whole thing was pretty crispy.  Overall, we though the meal was acceptable considering we were pretty far from Surrey and Main Street.  There is definitely better though.

The Good:
- Acceptable considering the area
- Fairly good service
- Big and spacious

The Bad:
- A little pricey
- Modest portions

Maurya Indian Cuisine on Urbanspoon

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