Mumtaz Indian Restaurant, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Mumtaz Indian Restaurant

226 Bui Vien Street, District 1

Ho Chi Minh City

Tel.: +84 8 371 767

I have tried a couple off Indian restaurants in the Backpacker Zoo that is Pham Ngu Lao; with varying results. The Little India was crap and the Punjabi fluctuates a fair bit.

More by accident then design I stumbled into the "Mumtaz Indian Restaurant" today; at the far end of Bui Vien Street but still close (too close) to the dreadlocked banana pancake-eaters that throng this area. Luckily, these hordes tend to go to the "real" local restaurants because they are a) cheap and b) local (except that the only Vietnamese in there are the staff). The clientele at the Mumtaz appeared to be mostly Indian expatriates; never a bad sign.

Pretty big menu, 20-odd pages.

Admittedly, the Mumtaz and I got off to a rocky start. Well, not quite: I was greeted by a very friendly waitress that promptly brought the menu, a brass mug of water (I don't know why not more restaurants can offer some water in a boiling place like HCMC; costs nothing and is much appreciated), and a face-towel (regrettably of the plastic-wrapped kind which I abhor).

It was when the waitress, who spoke little English, passed the ball to the Indian owner(?) that things got unstuck a little. I ordered a Non-vegetarian Thali and a Mango Lassi.

The Mumtaz is not the cheapest Indian in the Pham Ngu Lao area but I still think prices are reasonable. Starters go from VND 19,000 for Pappadam to VND 70,000 for Fish fingers (at the time of writing USD 1.00 ~ VND 20,2000). Items from the Tandoori oven are from VND 75,000 for "Chicken 65" to VND 190,000 for the full Tandoori Chicken. Vegetable curries will set you back around VND 55,000 with meat curries priced around the VND 80,000 mark.

There is a fairly big selection of Indian breads. Apart from the usual Chapatti and Garlic Naan they also have Parathas and, for example, Rogan Naan which I do not recall having seen in HCMC before.

Beers start at VND 22,000 for a Bia Saigon and the Lassie are VND 35,000. Why an Indian Restaurant would promote a Japanese Beer and not, say Kingfisher, beats me; but if you must have a Sapporo Beer than it is yours for VND 33,000. Probably better than the "French House wine" at VND 280,000 a bottle; I very much doubt that at that prize it is anything else but plonk.

Why Japanese Beer?

Back to what I ordered: the Mango Lassi arrived after 5 minutes or so and turned out to be a Mango Smoothie more than anything else. A very good frozen Mango Smoothie mind; but certainly not a Lassi. The Thali was not quite what I ordered, either. I was looking for the meat in the curry; it took me a little while to realize that what I got was actually the vegetarian Thali. Now I have been accused of many things over the years, but being a hard-core vegetarian was not one of them. It might not be healthy, but give me meat, lots of meat!!!!

I therefore surprised myself by actually really liking the Thali. The presentation was nice and it came with plenty of condiments; something most Indian restaurants in Vietnam do not seem to do. The only condiment that disappointed was the pureed Mango; I do not know if that was supposed to be Mango chutney, but it was certainly tasteless.

Something that cannot be said about the rest of the food. For starters, the food was really hot. I am a bit particular about the temperature of my food. Hot food should be served really hot; I find that Indian and Chinese foods in particular suffer if they are served lukewarm.

Good enough to turn me into a vegetarian (almost).

The Paneer was on the spicy side; a good thing for cottage cheese that tends to be on the bland side. The Daal was maybe a tad on the thin side but that is really nit-picking here. The vegetable curry was excellent, and everything was rounded off with good rice, Raita, a Pappadam and some plain Naan. Actually the Naan could be improved; it appeared as it had been prepared quite some time before and just quickly re-heated.

But overall the restaurant has shot up to my list of "Best Indian Restaurant around Pham Ngu Lao". Admittedly the competition for that title is none to fierce but the food is great. Actually, I am planning to go back tonight and see what their meat dishes are like.

Not much of an interior...

Like most (all) restaurants around PNL there is no need to talk about decor, design, atmosphere; there is none. Doesn't bother me none; I am there for the food. And at least they refrain from putting cheesy pictures of the Taj Mahal or piping in Bollywood sound tracks.

or exterior for that matter.

They do home delivery and they also have a restaurant in Da Nang; if somebody could check it out?

Service: *** Difficult this one: fast and efficient, but maybe they should make a habit of repeating the order.
Food: ****
Ambiance: **
Value for money: ****

Recommended: Yes

Punjabi, HCMC, Vietnam

Located on 40/3 Bui Vien Street, this restaurant sits right in the middle of the Pham Ngu Lao backpacker area; an area where cheap food is more important than good food. My expectations where therefore not exactly high when I entered the place; a feeling not exactly helped by an interior reminiscent of a airport waiting lounge.

Typical Pham Ngu Lao Charm

Upon arrival, I was greeted by a friendly waitress who very promptly took my order of a Mango Lassi that turned out to be pretty good. The menu is fairly extensive and I decided to order dishes that I had never eaten before, apart from the Chicken Samosas I ordered as a starter. Said Samosas took 35 minutes to arrive, which I thought a bit long, and were pretty tasteless. As there were no condiments apart from a very thin mint sauce, there wasn't much I could do about it, either.

The Samosas tasted like they were presented: dull

For the main course I ordered Chicken Karahi (with tomatoes, onions, and ginger), Mutter Pilao (rice with green peas and spices) and a Methi Nan (Nan with Fenugreek). These dishes came considerably faster than the Samosas and turned out to be pretty good. The chicken curry had plenty of meat in it, from what I saw at neighboring tables all the portions were pretty large. The Nan was very good though I realized that Fenugreek is not my thing, especially as most of it was blown all over the table by the fan under which I was sitting. Only the peas in the rice tasted like they had come frozen, but I might be wrong. Once again, I would have liked some Chutneys or pickles to spruce things up a little, but I guess at those prizes one cannot ask too much.

Again zero points for presentation, but actually pretty good

Whilst not the best Indian food I have ever had, it is good value for money. Starters range from VND 18.000 to VND 40,000, a whole Tandoori chicken is VND 140,00, and mains start from VND 65,000 for curries. Drinks are also more than reasonable, with the Mango Lassi at VND 30,000 and Beers at VND 18,000.

But very good value for money

I ordered another Lassi after the meal which took 20 minutes to arrive. I took a look at the kitchen under the pretext of looking for the bathroom and understood why some dishes took so long: the kitchen is minuscule and there is only one blender. Hats off for providing food to the 20 or so persons that were eating when I was there. Speaking of bathrooms: would be nice to have a towel or tissues and a decent soap; I eat my Indian food with my hand and do not really like wiping it on my shorts once I am done. Total bill for more food than I could eat was VND 225,000.

Service: *** Friendly service, but let down by poor organisation
Food: ***
Ambiance: *
Value for money: ****

Entertainment value: ***** The long waits are made bearable by watching the zoo that is Pham Ngu Lao pass outside.
Recommended: Cannot fault the place for decent, cheap food.

Zero condiments though