Urban India

Went out to dinner last night at a lovely little restaurant called "Urban India" on Henley Beach Road. The original plan was to have Thai, but when we got to the place, it was all booked out. They offered us a seat outside, but it was pretty cold, and besides, we didn't need their charity. So we ended up with our second choice, Indian, although I was pretty pumped when I remembered that they're the ones with naan bread.

Mirjana was first to order, and she ordered a chicken dish from the menu. Our waiter nodded, then said "If you like that, we have a special, with blah blah blah" (I have to be honest, I didn't understand all of the words he said). At the end Mirjana agreed that sounded good, and ordered it.

Me, my mind was made up, butter chicken all the way. Except when I ordered that, the waiter repeated his routine - "If you like butter chicken, how about blah blah blah" (I understood a little more this time, as he was talking about my meal). I couldn't really argue with his logic - what he was describing did indeed sound delicious, and so I ordered that. It was definitely weird - how often do you go to a restaurant, order with confidence, and have the waiter talk you into having something else? I wasn't quite sure why he was doing this, although when I got our final bill it was a little higher than I expected, so perhaps they were using the word "special" to mean "unique" rather than "discounted".

I can't complain though, the meal was very tasty. We ordered a side of naan bread of course, stuffed with garlic (I'm starting to enjoy this food stuffed with other foods concept).

When it came time for dessert, our waiter asked us if we would like to see the dessert menu, and we said no. A few minutes later another waiter came and offered us dessert and coffee, and again we refused. Less than a minute later, a third person came and just put the menus on our table. We didn't get anything, although I was a little curious to see how "Indian Ice Cream" differed from regular ice cream.

All in all not a bad little restaurant, if you don't mind being told what you're going to be ordering.