I have a complicated relationship with Indian food. My first time to try it was in London and since then I was spoilt. Nowhere else did I have better Indian food. I loved the most the various little bowls full of savoury sauces from mild to spicy. Something the Viennese Indian restaurants are all lacking. In-Dish restaurant is sadly no exception to this.
This new Indian restaurant has opened right down-town and I quite like the modern feel to the place. No more stuffy interior but rather an open and inviting atmosphere. Lots of posters from Bollywood films enhance the impression to sit in an American Diner. This is mirrored in the menu which promises Indian fusion cuisine and has such fancy names as “When the Indian got lost in the streets of Toyko”.
dining room @In-Dish restaurant
In-Dish serves an amuse gueule which must have been really good because it was all gone by the time I had arrived. My friends are glutton. I was happy though since it boded well for the rest of the meal. Not true though.
The menu offers a variety of appetizers and a lot of main dishes. Most of these can be ordered in a smaller size. I was not the only one who decided to forgo an appetizer and just order a regular main dish.
The onion Bahji was one of the few dishes which came with extra sauce. The taste was fine and the Bahji crunchy. Both who ordered this starter liked it and mentioned that.
Onion Bahji @In-Dish restaurant
The soups, daal soup and soup of the day, didn’t get a laudatory mention. So I must assume they were just okay. The were served in individual soup pots which I liked.
spinach soup @In-Dish restaurant
The main dishes didn’t fare so well. I ordered meatball in spicy spinach curry. I even asked before how the spice scala worked and was told that it is European standard, so I went for hot. What came was mild though, not a hint a of hotness somewhere in this green sauce. Overall it was fine, the meatballs a hint to dry but with the amount of curry quite palatable.
spinach curry with meatballs @In-Dish restaurant
Dryness seems to be a problem here. Also the Ceasar salad with chicken tikka had the same problem. My friend had about half the meat still on her plate when she was done.
Ceasar salad with chicken Tikka @In-Dish restaurant
The butter chicken got the ‘bland’ verdict from a fair judge. And from me as well. Almost unbelievable since butter chicken is one of the best-loved Indian dishes and so tasty. Not here though.
butter chicken @In-Dish restaurant
What was really well received was the vegetarian dish ‘Navratan Korma’. These seasonal vegetables in coconut-korma sauce with self-made Indian cheese was delicious and got rave reviews.
Navratan Korma @In-Dish restaurant
The Navratan Pulao Biranyi, a vegan saffron rice dish with cashews and raisins might have been great if we could have actually tasted something. Here hot was really hot. So hot in fact that my taste buds felt burned after one bite. That’s why it was probably served with a lot of yoghurt sauce. Still not sure though how it works with the hot or not factor.
vegan Biranyi @In-Dish restaurant
A really big miss was the last dish. The Daal Makhni was ordered in the vegan version and was pronounced boring. The Too (healthy) Fu Masala was just icky. It said on the menu that the vegetables were served in a hearty tomato-onion-chutney. The problem here was though that there were no vegetables inside this dish except onions. It went back almost uneaten. Not a great choice.
Daal and Too (healthy) Fu Masala dish @In-Dish restaurant
My overall impression was ‘try’. That’s what the service did all evening. They were friendly and did there best. That the kitchen was not up to this is a whole different problem. Personally I also find the black plates unappealing. Yellow curry just gets such an unappealing shade of sick on them. If there is one good thing to this whole evening, I have decided to cook butter chicken myself again quite soon. Yours, Pollybert
In-Dish – Indian Kitchen & Café
1010 Wien, Schwarzenbergstraße 8
Tel: +43 1 94 12 801
Email: reservations@in-dish.at
Mon-Fri: 11:30-14:00, 17:00-22:00, Sat: 17:00-22:00
https://in-dish.at/
UPDATE: By chance I had dinner again at In-Dish, just one week after the review dinner. Most of the food is still so-so and didn’t really convince me to come again. I ordered Navratan Korma which was the only dish that had gotten a whole-hearted recommendation the first time. I ordered it spicy and my friend in medium. Too bad that the grade of hotness was the same for us and that it was so hot that it was almost unbearable.
The owner noticed our discomfort though and both of us got a fresh plate, this time slightly milder. It was delicious, my friend hadn’t exaggerated. The Navratan Korma is really a great dish.
