Little India, HCMC

Not very promising from the outside.

Whilst not quite as refined as Thai food, in my opinion anyway, good Indian food comes in a close second if well prepared. Regrettably, the "Little India" is not the sort of restaurant that does anything for the reputation of Indian food.

Located at 121/23 Bui Vien, the restaurant is in a tiny alley and easily overlooked. This probably explains why the owner was very surprised, no, outright shocked when I waltzed in. He recovered quickly though, kicked out the dog, woke up the Chef and brought me the menu. He was actually the nicest thing about the whole restaurant as he genuinely tried very hard to please.

Minimalistic design.

Before ordering food I ordered a Banana Lassi but they had no bananas. This is becoming a real trend for me around Pham Ngu Lao; see my previous post. I have no idea how they could not have any bananas, there was a lady selling them just outside the lane. Anyway, I took the Mango Lassi instead which turned out to be undrinkable. There was hardly any Mango in it, however they did out lots of grated, dried coconut; first time ever I have had that in a Lassi. The worst part however was that the yogurt had gone sour and was just plain nasty.

Cheap and all the usual items.

I was seriously getting worried about the quality of the food now and I certainly had enough time to worry as it took a good 50 minutes for the food to arrive; and I was the only customer! Not the owner's fault, but the restaurant is a corner of this very narrow lane; this means that there is a lot of honking as motorbikes navigate the turn and all engine noise echoes off the walls. Forget a romantic dinner in the Little India; though even without the noise the decor is not really inclined to encourage any tenderness.

The decor is so bad it is almost good.

When the food did arrive, it was what I had feared. I had ordered Chicken Pakora as a starter, and specifically asked that they be served first, but everything came at once. Presentation of the Pakoras was non-existent, as was any semblance of taste.

Tasteless Pakora.

The chicken "curry" I had ordered was swimming it what appeared to be ready-made tomato sauce with a couple of spices thrown in, the Jeera (Zeera) rice was tasteless and it was only the Butter Naan that was half-way edible.

Not very inspired.

I guess the prices are outright cheap, with starters from USD 2.00 - 4.00, curries below USD 4.00 and a Tiger beer going for less that USD 1.00. However, it is still piss-poor quality for money; it would be if the feed was free. I think the final straw was when nobody seemed to notice that the Lassi went undrunk and most of the food uneaten.

The curry sauce was heated tomato sauce.

Yet another place in the back-packer triangle of Pham Ngu Lao-Bui Vien- De Tham that manages to disappoint and is not worth a second visit.

Service: ***
Food: *
Ambiance: *
Value for money: ***

Recommended: No

Looks better from the outside.