It was the evening of Earth Hour and we have sort of made it a habit to go out for dinner with friends.
We decided on somewhere fairly close to home, at a place Iron Chef Alana highly recommended.

I called during the week to make a booking with no problems. I then called up again 1 hour before we were due to be in to make the booking a bit later as a member of our party was running late. When we arrived at the restaurant we were left standing around whilst staff members hurried about. Another group of 4 walked in and were immediately seated, whilst we still stood there. We were then told our table was being cleared and we waited, and waited.
When we were finally seated it took a short while to receive menus. When we did receive the menus our papadums where plonked on the table without the usual condiments.

Iron Chef Alana took care of the ordering, and drinks were promptly delivered.
Nerdy Rob had this Rose Lassi, and for me it tasted like pot potpourri.

We were delivered our vegetable samosas shortly after which were delicious! Definitely home made, with chunky vegetables and delicious with the mint riata.

Then Tandoori chicken arrived promptly after finishing the samosas and it was amazing! Juicy thigh fillets, cooked to perfection! The best part about it was the chicken was boneless.


Then we waited a little. Our plates were cleared. We waited some more, them some more... then about 30-40 minutes later after seeing some staff members possibly arguing over noticing our table hadn't had any service for quite some time our mains arrived.

We clearly over ordered, despite the fact that we were all starving. But it was worth the wait. Everything was delicious.

This pumpkin masala was served in a pumpkin! Pretty spicy, but nice!


The butter chicken was a little tomato-y than what I'm used to, but it was still nice. I still think the best butter chicken I've had is at the Curry Club in Richmond, but this one is a lot closer to home. With rice and garlic naan, I was in heaven!


We also had a Chicken Malabari (boneless chicken cooked in mustard seeds, coconut, curry leaves with whole red chillies). I didn't take a photo as we were all too hungry and got right into eating. It was just as good as everything else, and the coconut really helped to mix things up. It tasted more Thai than Indian in a way as I'm not used to coconut cream in an Indian curry.

Apart from the service, or perhaps it was just lacking on that particular night, this place is great. I really enjoyed the food, and we weren't crammed amongst other diners.
Bookings are a must, the place is always packed when I'm driving past. Just perhaps don't go if you are seeing a movie in case your food gets delayed like ours did!

Tandoori Den - Camberwell
261 Camberwell Rd
Camberwell, VIC 3124

Tel: (03) 9882-5353
Fax: (03) 9882-8266
Web: www.tandooriden.com.au


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