Curry Corner

Ever since One Dollar Curry House opened on Oxford in Berkeley I have found myself regularly craving Indian curry, so when I noticed that there was a curry place across the street from Rue de La Course I promised myself I would check it out sometime. After passing by several times I finally decided yesterday that I had gone too long without curry and I caved. The restaurant is new so no one I talked to had tried it, so I went in hoping for the best. Unfortunately, I was not impressed and the food only made me crave more curry, better curry, rather than appeasing my appetite. The two workers were friendly and nice, and to be honest I felt bad for the business because I was the only person there. For all I know they could have had a really big lunch rush, I went at an awkward time of 4:20pm so it does make sense that the place was not overflowing with customers. Nevertheless, when I entered the restaurant and the workers immediately offered me assistance I felt compelled to buy. I looked at the menu and cringed when I saw the prices, $8.95 for Chicken Masala! I know that curry is generally expensive, but I am more comfortable with paying around $6 especially since I will need to buy naan. But, for $8.95+tax I got rice, chicken masala, and something with spinach, plus a small side salad. The rice was fine, the chicken masala was spicy and good, and the spinach stuff was a good combination. The side salad was small and the leaves were reddish, and over all the portions for all the food was small. I also purchased a naan for an additional $1 and the total came out to be $10.85. Now, that sounds like a reasonable price to some and as I said the food was alright, but the quality of the food was comparable to one dollar curry house where I pay less than $5 for curry and naan and even though the food is not near Naan ‘n Curry quality, atleast the quality matches the cost. As I said the portions were really small and the naan was so small, it was about the size of a medium flour tortilla which even for the small servings they provided was not enough to finish my curry. The place is set up like an express Chinese food place, where they have the food already cooked so you can grab and go. This is convenient, but it means you are paying for food that is of a lower quality because it is not fresh. The menu at the restaurant is constantly changing, so this means if you try something you don’t like chances are the next time you go that item will not be on the menu, so variety is a plus.

Here is a picture of the food. Indian curry, I think, always looks bad in pictures but maybe you’ll think it looks good.