Aryan

July 2010

What arrived was simply enormous. The food piled before us was of a magnitude no diner had surely ever experienced before. We had to check that we had not accidentally been served the order of a coach-load of invisible tourists. But no, the several paddy fields worth of rice and buckets of curry before us were the orders of just we three people.

The end result was that the rice – both plain steamed white rice and a spritely, spicy vegetable biryani that held its taste and complemented the meat curries very well – left on the table after we’d finished was still plentiful enough to have been given to several charitable hospices, despite a super-human effort on the part of our trio of dedicated eaters. Seriously, ordering one portion is ample for three people (or indeed families of 12).

The same went for the mains. Taking as a given that no one was able to complete their meals and focusing on quality, the butter chicken was one of the better examples of its kind in the city. Light, tender barbecued meat doused in a tomato and butter gravy that was just the right level of creamy. Much better Indian restaurants do a much worse job than this elsewhere in the city.

The do pyaza was also very good. The chicken, onion and capsicum were suitably spiced and the gravy – apart from being a little too oily – was beautiful. I would want to try more seafood before casting a full and final judgment on that but the prawn kadai curry we had was not so spectacular. Indeed, thanks to tough prawns and an imbalance in the flavours of the gravy, it was pretty ordinary. The paneer masala was better but – having been recommended as a speciality – was still a little disappointing.

Before all that we had shared a few papadums and credit must go to Aryan for a genuinely outstanding lime pickle, surely one of the best in KL, but I wonder whether we would have indulged in those with quite as much gusto if we had known just how much food was still to come. YP Lee