Burlington’s Charminar is a pillar of South Indian cuisine
With several locations of this franchise in the GTA, Charminar's Burlington location opened in September, declaring itself to be the best Indian restaurant in town - a favourite for South Indian cuisine.
The restaurant's logo and artwork remind you that Charminar is the 16th-century monument, featuring four pillars/minarets, situated in the South Indian city of Hyderabad.
Charminar's menu has a few things one doesn't always see - perhaps because of regional differences. The history of Indian cuisines encompasses thousands of years of cultural interactions. As with most countries there are regional differences and in this case the cuisine is described as South Indian.
In an oversimplified generalization, the North has more curries and the South uses more rice, lentils and stews and, according to the Burlington location owner Satish Kalla, is known for Dosas, Idli and Biryani - the only restaurant in Canada to cater 30 varieties of Biryanis and Dosas."
Their online menu lists vegetarian and non-vegetarian offerings, describing each dish under categories that include Tandoor and Indo-Chinese (Hakka) specialties. Once in the restaurant, the menu lists only the names of each dish and while wait staff are extremely helpful, some home study of their online menu may guide your dining adventure if you are not an expert in this cuisine.
My own menu study focused on my need to avoid hot spicy food. While only a couple of dozen dishes were marked as spicy, the staff offered much appreciated counsel as to which dishes may be too spicy for me if my tolerance threshold was indeed low.
To counterbalance any heat, a fresh Mango Lassi (yogurt-based beverage) was first on order. Raitha can also reduce heat. Somewhat similar to Greek Tzatziki, both are yogurt-based. Raitha can be savoury or sweet, mild or spicy. In this case it was a pleasant condiment.
Beautifully-plated food came out of the kitchen quickly, somewhat in the sequence ordered, and there was a lesson in this for next time. Rice would have enhanced every dish, but it was served close to the end. Next time, I will request that the rice comes first and perhaps even ask that most dishes be served at the same time. We tended to fill up on the first two dishes with less appetite left for the later ones.
From the Appetizer section we chose Paneer Majestic. Paneer is a cheese of compressed curds and in this dish, battered paneer strips were to be deep fried until golden and then tossed in spices and sauce. This mistakenly ended up as Chicken Majestic, but we declined the offer to replace it. The chicken had indeed been deep fried to the point of having a firm exterior texture and gorgeous golden appearance.
It offered up some heat but was tasty. Also somewhat spicy but with a totally different and delicious flavour profile were the Chicken Lollipops - drumsticks marinated and tossed in a masala based sauce.
Our server presented the Tandoor-prepared Malai Tikka Kabab as the mildest dish on their menu which it was indeed. The mouth-warmth did not interfere with the flavours of the tender chicken breast marinated in creamy garlic sauce, served with red and green peppers.
Around this time we got our order of scrumptious warm Butter Naan and our rice. Add herbs and other goodies to rice and you have Biryani. Kalla explained that the cooking process is hours long and Charminar promises to serve you the best biryani - an exotic blend of rare spices infused in meat, fragrant thin and long grain basmati rice, which is a complete meal in itself."
The Paneer Tikka Biryani was a sight to behold with multicoloured fluffy basmati offering up a bit of heat and mixed with chunks of paneer. This rice dish, along with some plain rice, was a great accompaniment to the Butter Chicken which had been marinated in yogurt and spices, before being cooked in tomato puree and cream.
Kalla said popular dishes include Butter Naan, Biryani and Idli. As it turned out we forgot to order Idli but the savoury rice cake sounds interesting.
Not available in every restaurant, Dosas are a crepelike dish that requires special equipment to prepare. The thin, slightly crisp pancake was rolled up and the Paneer Dosa was lightly filled with spiced shredded paneer. This was a treat with respect to flavour and texture and came with several sides - Sambar Soup (lentil/vegetable), Coconut Chutney (grated coconut with curry leaves) and Tomato Chutney - a traditional south Indian condiment.
Kalla suggested we add to our next time" list - Gobi Manchurian (cauliflower), Andhra Chicken Fry, Chicken Curry, and Gongura (chicken, goat or dal). Any way you stack it, a delicious meal awaits.
No surprise that we'd left no room for dessert or the tempting Indian tea or coffee. Charminar offers a children's menu, lunch special and combos.
Diane Galambos is a food writer who shares stories and recipes at her blog kitchenbliss.ca. Follow her on Instagram https://instagram.com/kitchenblissca
Charminar
1940 Appleby Line Unit 4, Burlington
905-332-0999
charminarindiancuisine.com/burlington
instagram.com/charminarburlington/
Hours: Monday to Sunday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
What I paid: Paneer Majestic $11.99; Masala Chicken Lollipops $14.49; Chicken Malai Tikka Kabab $14.49; Paneer Tikka Biryani $13.99; Butter Chicken $14.49; Paneer Dosa $10.99; Butter Naan $2.99; Plain Rice $2.99; Mango Lassi $3.99
Wheelchair access: Yes