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For sheer chutzpah, audacity and brazen lying, it’s hard to beat Mirch Masala on Street Road in Bensalem (near Philadelphia), PA.

Yeah, Hitler Loved Jews Too

Monstrous Liars.

We’ve heard too many lies in a long life but one of the biggest of ‘em all, a monstrously hideous one, is Mirch Masala calling itself a restaurant that offers “Fine Indian Cuisine.”

Ha ha ha ha. We haven’t stopped laughing. Make that crying.

Kinda like Hitler saying he loved the Jews after he gassed and burned 6 million of them in his ovens at Dachau, Treblinka, Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen and other concentration camps or Saddam Hussein discovering love for the Kurds after he unleashed chemical weapons against them. :(

When you sport a name like Mirch Masala, the least you should do is add enough chillies to your curries.

Alas, much of what we ate at Mirch Masala was plain awful, so horrible, so bland that we wouldn’t offer it to our dog, raccoon, guinea-pig or cat.

Well, that is if we had one.

Mirch Masala Bensalem, PAMirch Masala – Inviting Misery

Murder Most Foul

Appetizers, vegetarian or non-vegetarian entrees or desserts, Mirch Masala spared no effort to heap agony on top of misery to our meal.

Tandoori Chicken, an eternal favorite for us, was disgusting, a poorly marinated travesty that yielded no joy.

A common dish found on the menus of most Indian restaurants in the Philadelphia area, preparing Tandoori Chicken is not like finding a cure for cancer or building a car that runs 200-miles on a gallon or helping Sarah Palin win the White House.

Yet, most Indian restaurants couldn’t care to deliver on a palatable Tandoori Chicken. The lazy bozos just can’t be bothered to take the trouble to do a proper job on the marination.

But that was not the end of our agony.

As Winston Churchill would say, merely the end of the beginning. Of our ordeal, that is.

Mirch Masala Bensalem PATandoori Chicken (orange-red) – Awwwful

More grievous pain was inflicted on us before we could escape from these wretched, cruel shaitans at Mirch Masala.

With its hard Chicken pieces in a not-thick, not-buttery gravy, Chicken Makhani was nothing less than a stunning act of cruelty. An assault on our taste-buds.

How one human can stoop so low as to serve such garbage to another is beyond our ken. Is the Mirch Masala (mis)management head of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Torturers Anonymous club? We wanna know.

Chicken Kadhai was not in the least spicy. Where’s the heat, schmuck?

Vegetarian Food – Dante’s Inferno

To get a glimpse of Dante’s Inferno, all ye need to do is take a leisurely stroll through a bunch of Mirch Masala’s vegetarian items.

Sambar was way too sour with the texture of a sauce while Coconut Chutney was cold and smelled bad!

Say, were any green chillies added at all to the Coconut Chutney?

Mirch Masala Bensalem PAYou Call this Shit a Dosa?

As if to prove to us that Mirch Masala’s kitchen was equally bad at North Indian fare too, Punjabi Saag turned out to be a green monstrosity with the unpleasant raw flavor of the greens coming into the mouth.

Rajma was a watery mess and tasted like we were served Rajma boiled in warm water.

Mint Chutney was cold but, mercifully, flavorful.

The Spinach Pakoras were a bit high on salt and the Medhu Vada hard and tasteless.

Hey, the small Masala Idli Pieces were nice but sadly its traditional accompaniments Sambar and Coconut Chutney were not.

Samosas were another rare exception to an otherwise depressing meal.

Alas, the Mutter Paneer was too sweetish and watery to offer any comfort.

Mixed Vegetable Curry was so badly bland that Idi Amin wouldn’t have thrown such garbage to his prisoners. Surely, even Pennsylvania prisons must offer tastier food!

Forget tasty. Forget palatable. The Masala Dosa and the Onion Dosa were not even edible.

The only thing missing on the Dosas was the label – Not for Humans.

Masala Dosa was sour, not crisp and the garlic flavor dominated the potato filling inside. Sick.

Spoiled Desserts

Among all the venal sins humans are capable of, serving spoiled food to paying diners ranks high in our not so humble opinion. Very high.

Mirch Masala Bensalem PAHell, Spoiled Rasmalai Syrup

The milk syrup in the Rasmalai was spoiled. Are these Mirch Masala folks even human?

We silently hurled vile curses upon the kitchen staff for such despicable crimes against paying diners.

Gulab Jamun is a common Indian dessert. If not 100% of the Indian restaurants, at least 99% in the Philadelphia region offer it.

But the clueless jokers in Mirch Masala’s kitchen couldn’t even get that basic sweet right. The syrup was low on sugar and the Jamun was not cooked/fried properly. It had the taste of raw flour in the middle.

Rice Kheer was alright but nothing to get us wet down there.

Awful Service

Poor service often accompanies bad food at Indian restaurants.

And Mirch Masala was no different in this respect!

It took an eternity for our Naan Bread to arrive, even after we asked for it.

Our water glasses were not replenished and we had to hold our glasses high in the air for sometime before we could catch the attention of one of the lazy waiters.

The waiters do not bring the check to your table and they don’t tell you either. Upon seeing other diners waiting at the counter, we realized that we were expected to do the same.

Bottom Line, Mirch Masala is a disgrace, a stain on the reputation of Indian cuisine.

If there were any justice in the world, the management of Mirch Masala would be handed down long sentences and hauled off to prison with no possibility of parole for duping customers into believing they’re being offered Indian cuisine.

To visit this crappy Indian restaurant a.k.a. Mirch Masala is to hand a whip with sharp iron spikes to Marquis De Sade, pull down your pants and invite him to make merry on your bare flesh. :(

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When it comes to con jobs, it’s hard to beat our desis.

No one comes anywhere near Indians when it comes to ripping off others.

Take for instance Mumbai Bistro in Philadelphia.

The rascals at Mumbai Bistro position the restaurant as offering Fast, Fresh, Home-Style Indian Food.

Folks, Fresh and Home-Style, Mumbai Bistro’s food definitely is not.

You see, our suspicions were aroused when our order of Naan and Kulcha came out in a jiffy.

We wondered how the Naan and Kulcha could be made so quickly but we kept our unease to ourselves.

A little while later, as we were exiting the rest-room opposite the kitchen our eyes fell on the frozen Naan packets piled in the restaurant’s tiny kitchen.

The game was up with these charlatans.

Fresh, Home-Style Food?

Balls (more on this later)!

Food by the Pound, Tiny Place
Located on Locust St between 9th and 10th Streets, Mumbai Bistro is a small place that mainly serves north Indian vegetarian and non-vegetarian fare. More like a take-out place with about six tables. You pick up a plastic plate or box and fill it up with the choice of your items at the steam table (again, hardly the touted fresh), take it to the the cash counter, pay for it by the pound (@ $4.95/lb), grab a table, chow down your food and get out.

If you are looking to have a leisurely meal in a nice, comfortable ambiance, then Mumbai Bistro is not for you. Continue reading »

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Being South Indians, Idlis, Dosas and Medhu Vadas have been part of our lexicon and our menu (both at home and at restaurants) for several decades now.

Never, never (not in Asia and not in the U.S.) have we previously encountered an Indian restaurant where they charge you for the Sambar when you order a Dosa, Idli or Vada.

Not even the Pakistani Dosa Cart in NYC charges extra for the Sambar. It’s kinda like ordering Coffee and and paying extra for the sugar and milk.

But the greedy SOBs at Philadelphia Chutney Company in Philadelphia (where else, schmuck) charge you nearly a buck for a measly 1/2 cup of Sambar (93 cents to be precise). And, boy, was the Sambar bad.

Yuck.

Low on Tamarind, low on Sambar spices and just one forlorn piece of drumstick in our cup.

Not surprisingly, we felt like throttling the kitchen-staff.

Shun the Impostor on Sansom St, Philadelphia

Cold, Bad Chutneys
And the Chutneys that give the restaurant its name come in tiny containers.

As if that were not bad enough, the Chutneys were icy cold (as in just lifted out of the cooler).

How lazy can you be! How greedy can you be!

When your name includes the word Chutney, shouldn’t you be serving fresh, flavorful Chutneys in reasonable quantity.

Hell, no. Not at Philadelphia Chutney Company on Sansom St in Philadelphia

Of the five Chutneys we tried at this dump, the Coconut and Cilantro Chutney were not meant for humans. Most certainly not.

The cold, cold Coconut Chutney showed no evidence any chillies had been used in its preparation while the Cilantro Chutney had a weird taste and flavor.

Tomato Chutney was no big deal either.

Mango Chutney was kinda interesting being sweet instead of spicy as Chutneys usually are while Curry Chutney was slightly flavorful.

Jaundiced Idlis?
Idlis had a weird yellow color. Continue reading »

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An abomination.

Yes, even by the bad-ass standards of Indian restaurants in the U.S., King of Tandoor on Callowhill Road in Philadelphia is a leprous sore, a pustulating herpes boil sullying the fair reputation of our magnificent Indian cuisine.

But for folks visiting from India and staying at the nearby Sheraton Hotel (on Race St & 17th St), we’d never have stumbled upon this shit-hole oops King of Tandoor.

Since a lot of Indian restaurants on the East Coast serve a bastardized, spice-less version of Indian cuisine to shamelessly pander to effete American palates, at the time of our order we gently requested that the food be Indian-style spicy.

Mon dieu, with that request we fell into the shaitan’s hands.

Satan’s apprentice in the King of Tandoor kitchen, nay, Satan himself took our request as a generous invitation to inflict his most gruesome torture on poor us.

Horror Show
What came out of the kitchen was insanely hot, chili-drenched food with chili powder disproportionate to all the other ingredients and completely ruining our dining experience.

Ah, the sadistic monsters at King of Tandoor.

No sir, no.

A few days earlier, we’d made a similar request (i.e. Indian-style spicy) at the Palace at the Ben on Chestnut St in Philadelphia and, Inshallah, the folks there delivered the goods even if the service at the Palace is now a little sloppy compared to our prior  visits.

Vegetarian food or non-vegetarian fare, it was all the same to these ugly King of Tandoor fiends. Merely, an opportunity to practice their vicious, vile arts on hapless diners.

The watery Chana Shaag (yeah, Shaag is how these bozos spell it) was a nasty piece of work with a surfeit of red chili powder. Virtually inedible, its only saving grace was that the serving size was small.

Mixed Vegetable Curry should more appropriately have been labeled Red Chili Powder Curry given its horrid taste, enough chili powder for an army and lack of enough salt and other spices. A horrid mess, if you ask us.

Chicken Achari was a total disaster. Just boiled chicken thrown into a watery gravy of red chili powder.

Hell, even the Vegetable Biryani was a calamity given the liberal sprinkling of red chili powder on top of the rice.

The Raita we’d ordered to go with our Vegetable Biryani was no better. You see, it had no flavor because it came to our table without the seasoning that adds the magic to this Indian yogurt dish. Just some cut onion pieces flung into the yogurt.

Garlic Naan was low on garlic but mercifully, at least, soft.

By now, we concluded that the King of Tandoor chef was a complete novice better suited to cleaning the cages of wild boars at the nearby Philadelphia Zoo. Continue reading »

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Of the scores of Indian restaurants in the U.S. that we’ve sanctified with our presence, Mallu Cafe (a restaurant specializing in Kerala cuisine) on Verree Road in Philadelphia is easily the most amusing and an endearing one too.

Almost each time we’d try to order a Kerala specialty, our friendly, sweetie pie, harried waiter Anoop, who hails from Thodupuzha near Kochi, would extend a sheepish smile and decline our request.

Here’s a snapshot of our conversation:

SI: We’d like to have the Weekend Thali.

Anoop (Mallu Cafe waiter): Soree sir, de kitchun veri bizi duday.

SI: We’d like to have Appam.

Anoop: Soree sir, de kitchun veri bizi duday.

SI: We’d like to have Theeyal.

Anoop: Soree sir, de kitchun veri bizi duday.

SI: We’d like to have Kadale Curry.

Anoop: Soree sir, de kitchun veri bizi duday.

SI: We’d like to have Semiya Payasam.

Anoop: Soree sir, de kitchun veri bizi duday.

SI: We’d like to have Fruit Salad.

Anoop: Soree sir, de kitchun veri bizi duday.

Mallu Cafe Philadelphia ReviewDe Kitchun Veri Bizi Duday

Mallu Challenge
Guess what?

Although we have a short fuse, we never got irritated with de kitchun veri bizi duday refrain.

We swear. Not in the slightest.

Not at Anoop.

And certainly not at Mallu Cafe, a hole in the wall operation that seemed to be doing a brisk business, both with takeout orders and the crowd inside.

We just found it too hilarious for words.

Mallu Cafe has a rundown look inside with just four booths and a couple of tables.

Now, we’re throwing down a challenge to all ye schmucks.

Find a funnier and nicer Indian restaurant in Philadelphia and we’ll take you out for dinner and pick up the tab as well. Continue reading »

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Show us one desi who doesn’t love Chaat, that yummy, tangy, spicy, savory, orgasm-inducing Indian street food.

So when we heard of Desi Chaat House in Philadelphia, we turned on our Garmin 265WT GPS and made haste to the place.

Located at the intersection of 42nd St and Baltimore Ave in Philadelphia, the Pakistani-owned Desi Chaat House is a sibling of the nearby Desi Village, owned by restaurateur Ali Bukhari.


Samosa Chaat

Although the Chaat House has been around for several months now, the place still has a work-in-progress feel to it.

When we went there the other day and asked if Andhra Chaat (listed on its web site menu) was available, the Pakistani fellow behind the counter responded with a quick ‘yes,’ headed to the line of boxes of crispy bits, stared at ‘em all and returned saying that he had run out of the crispy mixture for the Andhra Chaat. :(

A little miffed, we ordered the Samosa Chaat and Mumbai Chaat and followed it up later with Paapdi Chaat.

Our single major grouse against Desi Chaat House is that the Chaat here is way too cold since freezing cold yogurt is used in the preparation.

Such cold yogurt robbed the Chaat of some of its magical flavor and left us extremely irritated. Plus, the weather was also a little chilly and we were not in the mood for such cold stuff.

Well, if it’s a desi eating place you have to be prepared for all kinds of shit.

Even cold shit. :( Continue reading »

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