Do a search below using the city or postal code search box if your city is not listed above.
Get dining news including restaurant closures and qualify for giveaways.
"At The India Chef Cafe, we believe in an active and well-balanced lifestyle, which is why we provide you with a delicious, well-balanced meal to re-boot you for your day."
Reasonably priced Indian food, mostly vegetarian, to eat in or take away. All day lunch and student specials.
It's a tiny place, looks like family run and they state the "chef" is the owner. Okay. It was kind of a last resort place as our original plans didn't pan out so we thought we'd have a go.
Inside is a typical "take-out" joint. A few creaky tables and that's about it. Not much for decor, menus and pictures just kind of taped up. It doesn't look too dirty at least.
The menu is pretty straightforward, a lot of your usual things you'd expect from a small Indian joint (I would guess more mid or south-ish, not northern type, but I'm no expert). We picked a butter chicken, lamb curry, palak paneer, pakora's, naan. Just to try. The chef (very friendly & helpful guy) told us 20-30 minutes. What?? There was only 1 other customer there already eating. Maybe some large takeout order? Or they're incompetent? Or the most unlikely option .... he was making it from "scratch". Turns out the reason seemed to be, yes, indeed, he was going to make everything. It wasn't just scooped out of a giant vat on a warmer somewhere. Amazing!
Yes, it was certainly a surprise. The downers, the naan (no tandoori oven there, so they are compromising with a regular oven) and pakoras. Maybe they're a different style, but they're much more dense and carbo-loaded than I prefer. The rest of the stuff was really, really good. The palak paneer, one of the few times I can test the spinach, and the whole thing was very rich, vibrant looking. I saw him also take out what look like a container of paneer that may have been made in-house. Definitely wasn't a regular sized block in a pre-packaged wrap. That at the curry were both quite spicy (to my limited spicy skills), but surprisingly, no torture. Spicy, but tolerably and tasty. All 3 had the unique characteristic of looking rich and fresh (vibrant natural colours), a trick for typical Indian dishes of this type.
We were thoroughly satisfied and as my usual measure of success, I felt great afterwards. Full, but not bloated, which is not always the case with many Indian places for me.
I would definitely like to try again and if you're in the neighbourhood and need a quickie take-out, there's no better place. It is not 2nd rate food there!
We were waiting for this restaurant to open for a while since this is the only Indian restaurant in Kerrisdale right now.
The cafe has about 6 tables and is probably intended more for a take away but we ate in and have a pleasant experience.
We had two main courses each as part of their all day lunch special. I had Butter Chicken, Channa Masala, Nan, rice and a Mango Lassi all for $13. The portions were generous.
The food was good, it wasn't over spicy, just right for my tastes. They gave me a mountain of rice and decent size main courses, actually I was really stuffed after it!
We had intended to try this place at lunch time but there were a lot of students waiting from the school opposite so we tried it for dinner where there was less of a scrum.
The owner and other member of staff were very friendly, keen to do business and knew other customers names even though they had only been open a couple of weeks or so.
I would definitely recommend the restaurant if anybody is in the area, its certainly more welcoming than the awful White Spot nearby!!
| 1. | Toonie Pizza (8 m) |  |
| 2. | White Spot (10 m) |  |
| 3. | Sushi King House (19 m) |  |
| 4. | Mac Shack, The (45 m) | |
| 5. | Tokyo Thyme (73 m) |  |
| 6. | Fresh Slice (144 m) | |
| 7. | Cabin 5555 (206 m) |  |
| 8. | Secret Garden Tea Room, The (210 m) | |
| 9. | Subway (250 m) | |
| 10. | Kitchen, The (251 m) |  |
