We went back to Nilgiri’s on Friday night with a friend of ours, Jana, to try their new menu. We have been wanting to do that and catch up with Jana for some time, too. She is a huge fan of Nilgiri’s as well as the sister restaurant: Tellicherry.
Because Jana doesn’t have any problems with eating vegetarian with us, we all opted for vegetarian tasting menu. It’s $46 per person and you get a really good variety of dishes. Here’s the menu for vegetarian tasting menu:
PAPPADUMS & DIPS
lemon pickles, raita of the day, sweet mango & nigella marmalade
ENTRÉE
ALOO PANEER ‘SIKKA’
‘paneer’ & potato pattie, mung lentils crust, oven-baked, lemon honey chutney
POORI AUR CHANA
chickpea & rice flour cocktail pooris, ajwain-spiced chickpeas, date chutney
GREEN PEAS & POMEGRANATE SAMOSA
tamarind tomato chutney
MAINS
LAHSOONI PALAK PANEER
house-made fresh ‘paneer’, garlic tempered spinach purée
TANDOORI GOBHI TAMATAR TARI
cauliflower, mustard oil kashmiri chilli rub, tandoor-cooked, ginger-spiced tomato ‘tari’
ALOO SHIMLA MIRCH
chat potatoes, baby capsicum, fennel-flavoured green herb sauce
TADKA DAL MAKHANI
slow-cooked trio of lentils, cumin & coriander ‘pepe saya’ ghee tadka
ZEERA PULAO & SELECTION OF BREADS
Here’s what we had:
Pappadums and Dips of the night:
Lime pickle, raita of the day was a delicious eggplant one and sweet mango & nigella marmalade. Of course, they all come with pappadums to die for.
As for the starters, we had:
ALOO PANEER ‘SIKKA’ (below)
‘paneer’ & potato pattie, mung lentils crust, oven-baked served with lemon honey chutney.
POORI AUR CHANA (below) chickpea & rice flour cocktail pooris, ajwain-spiced chickpeas topped with date chutney. We couldn’t stop eating the chickpeas even after the pooris were gone. It was so delicious!
GREEN PEAS & POMEGRANATE SAMOSA (below)
Samosa is one thing that you get pretty much everywhere these days. However, these were different. They are served with tamarind tomato chutney.
As for the mains, we had:
TANDOORI GOBHI TAMATAR TARI (below) cauliflower, mustard oil kashmiri chilli rub, tandoor-cooked, ginger-spiced tomato ‘tari’ and it is one of the best cauliflower dishes I have ever had in my life, including my Mum’s bake. A total triumph, if you ask me!
ALOO SHIMLA MIRCH (below) chat potatoes, baby capsicum, fennel-flavoured green herb sauce. This is an incredibly well-balanced dish with subtle yet interesting sauce.
TADKA DAL MAKHANI (below) is a slow-cooked trio of lentils, cumin & coriander ‘pepe saya’ ghee tadka. No one does dhal like Nilgiri’s. However, this was by far their best! The tempering was also incredible.
Zeera Pulao (below) Yes, you get zeera pilao instead of plain rice.
Naan Bread (below) I don’t know about you but I could live on naan bread.
