La Maison de Cari/Curry House - A Montreal Restaurants Review

Canada's quasi rock star ex-prime minister, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, was a regular. Sir Ben Kingsley, best known for his Ghandi interpretation, swears it's the best Indian grub he's tasted in Montreal. And yours truly, who hasn't let a week go by since 1997 without digesting at least one curry dish, can't help but agree. With freshly cut flowers adorning the tables to owner/chef Ben's winning personality, the Curry House works in all sorts of contexts, from romantic dates to casual lunches alone to supper with friends. A one word sum-up? Outstanding.

You'll never feel like a number at La Maison de Cari, better known as the Curry House, just footsteps away from Concordia University's main campus, in the heart of downtown Montreal. In operation 35 years and counting, chef/owner Ben is typically manning the restaurant with a smile.

Persuaded by a weekly regular to give the Curry House a go, our evening's foursome started off with a mix of appetizers: seekh kebab, onion bhaji, samosas, chicken and lamb tikka. Delicious and faultless in their unassuming presentation, serving staff cleared the dishes with just enough breathing room for us to begin salivating for the main courses as we downed Cheetah beer, an Ontario lager specially brewed to complement Indian dishes. And the prelude, oven-warmed plates brought in by Ben himself, was a nice touch.

We opted for a series of meat dishes starting with chicken malai, a mildly spiced coconut milk based sauce slightly reminiscent of butter chicken but more often served with shrimp. Lamb methi was the red meat dish of choice, bathing in a medium-hot reddish brown sauce. I insisted on chicken kashmiri, a personal creamy favorite of mine served with raisins and almonds (even litchi in this case). The Curry House addict of our group recommended the vegetable bhaji, a show stopper of some of the freshest vegetables I've had in a Montreal Indian restaurant.

All in all, the meats were tender and the sauces conservatively spiced, in the sense that Ben let the freshness of the ingredients come through in the mild-to-spicy sauces, instead of counting on excessive cumin to hide any flaws. Also, the rice was good and the naan, even better.

Finishing off with gulab jamun ("rose plums") and the best mango I've tasted in town, imported from Haiti, the critic in me is at a loss in finding a weak point. Thank you Ben!

UPDATE: Note that Curry House has no longer been under the management of its original owner, Benedict Alves, since June 2011. Thus, I can no longer vouch for the restaurant unless I return and re-review the experience.