Restaurant: California Chutney Tandoori Kitchen
Location: 45 N Raymond Ave (Pasadena)
Type of restaurant: Indian
We stipulated: Looking for a quick bite in Pasadena, we had heard good things about Chutney and wanted to give it a try.
They stipulated: "Our favorite cooking technique is roasting in the Tandoori Oven. We considered offering a variety of Indian curry dishes that you can find in many restaurants, but decided to focus mainly on Tandoori Cooking and do it with integrity. By offering a variety of chutneys we really wanted to encourage people to explore new flavors and have fun with it."
What we ordered: Chicken Tikka Naan Duo ($8.75), Mixed Naan Trio (1 Braised Chickpeas Naan and 2 Paneer Tikka Naan, $12.95), Tandoori chicken rice bowl ($7.50), two individual naan ($3)
High point: The sauces (aka the chutney bar) offer up a wide variet: Cinnamon pineapple, mango ginger, tamarind apple, roasted chili, cucumber yogurt.
Low point: The duo and trio pricing is confusing, and not necessarily a better deal when you're ordering the cheaper veggie naans.
Overall impression: It has promise. The idea is essentially Indian tacos, but naan may be too thick to do it. That's a bit too heavy and overpowers the other flavors. Also, getting chicken tikka wasn't a good idea in hindsite. The idea of California Chutney is adding your own sauce -- but tikka is already so saucy. (We should have stuck with tandoori chicken). The Paneer was good, as was the tandoori; skip the tikka.
Will we return:If I'm nearby and need a quick, fast meal.
4 comments:
We had lunch there a couple of weeks ago and we really enjoyed it. The tandoori chicken was excellent. I had it on top of salad greens. My husband had his chicken on top of rice. We don't eat bread (we're kinda Paleo-ish)so we skipped the naan.
Let me say that the pineapple cinnamon chutney was, in my opinion, amazing. Like Christmas on a plate. All the right spice notes without being overwhelming. I also enjoyed the cilantro/parsley/lemon chutney.
We will for sure be going back there. My advice would be to skip the naan and go with the greens or the rice. It makes a nice meal. I thought it was a good value for the generous amount of chicken that you get. And very very tasty!
Rotis are better than naan if you want to do the taco kind of thing. They are called kutty rolls. I haven't been to this place as I can cook my own Indian food, but I may try it since you're so high on it.
Hey Shali! I wouldn't say I'm that high on it, but I didn't hate it... I wanted to like it more than I did, and am going to try it again.
These look delicious. The culinary creativity in Los Angeles never ceases to amaze me. The melting pot is always serving something good.
I need to check out those Indian inspired tacos!
Post a Comment