Having not had Tamil food for more than a week now, Angie and I decided to go for a good Banana Leaf meal.With that said, most of the good places that we know of are in Brickfields and we wanted to go to some place closer. I searched around in the internet and came across this restaurant called Curry Leaf which is located in Damansara Utama. Being close by, we decided to head there for lunch today.
 |
| Restaurant Curry Leaf in Damansara Utama |
 |
| Write Up Put Up At The Entrance |
I believe that this restaurant is a branch of a restaurant located in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan. From the write up pasted on the glass walls at the entrance, I was made to understand that this is a third generation restaurant and boasts of good home cooked Tamil food. They are open daily from 7 am till 10 pm and breakfast is served from 7 am to 10.30 am. This restaurant is quite easy to locate. To those that are familiar with Damansara Utama, this is just a few doors away from the Satay Kajang outlet and it is a Halal restaurant. When we arrived here, we realised that most of it's customers are from the Chinese community and the second largest group are the Indians. I guess the locality must be a big contributing factor to this demographics.
 |
| Food Counter |
 |
| Food Counter |
As we walked in to the restaurant, we were greeted by the waiters who seemed shy yet friendly. I usually like to head on to the food counter to see whats available and place my orders from there. Most of the dishes seemed good. They also had a number of rare items that are not commonly found in other Tamil restaurants. That being said, their menu is not limited to this as they have a number of other South and North Indian dishes which can be cooked to order. We then decided to have the Banana Leaf meals and ordered our sides at the counter itself.
 |
| Simple & Clean |
Beside the good variety of food available here, I must say that their restaurant is very clean. This impressed me a lot as most Indian restaurants out there are not spick-and-span like this.
 |
| Banana Leaf Meals + Vegetables @ RM 6.00 |
Here, the basic Banana Leaf meal set is sold at RM 6.00 . Now this again varies with the type of rice. Angie had the normal rice and it was priced at the above price. I had Par Boil Rice and that set was charged at RM 6.50 . It also comes with four good vegetables and I would write more about them below.
 |
| Bitter Gourd |
In most restaurants, they would just serve three or four simple vegetables like Cucumber, Cabbage and perhaps another vegetable but here, they vegetable dishes were of good quality and not the cheap vegetables. The first one as per the above photograph was the Bitter Gourd Kootu. This was pretty well done, not spicy and just about the right taste. I would rate the above preparation at 8.5/10 .
 |
| Potato & Onion Kootu |
This above dish is a mixture of Potato and Onions. I liked this preparation very much. Usually this would be very oily but here the oil was well under control. It was also fried to the right level. I would rate this at 9.3/10 .
 |
| Snake Gourd Kootu |
This is another rare vegetable that we usually do not get in Indian restaurants. I am surprised that they serve quality vegetables here and at an almost competitive price compared to most restaurants out there. This vegetable was also well done and I would rate it at 8.5/10 .
 |
| Fish Curry |
As for the curries, we had an option to choose from Sambar, Fish Curry, Venthayam Curry and Chicken Curry. I decided to try the Fish Curry first. Gosh, look at that colour. It was near perfection and the spices were perfectly balanced. I would rate the above Fish Curry at 9/10 . Subsequently I also tried the Sambar and that too was good.
 |
| Pineapple Kootu |
The fourth vegetable that was served with this meal was very unique. It is basically Pineapple Kootu and it surely shows their creativity in bringing out new dishes and their commitment in providing the best to their customers. The sour taste of the pineapple and the spices blended very well. I would rate this dish at 9.7/10 .
 |
| Chicken Varuval @ RM 6.00 |
I really liked their Chicken Varuval. Though light coloured, it was excellently prepared and is slightly on the spicy side. I would strongly recommend this dish to anyone. I would rate this at 9.3/10 .
 |
| Mutton Varuval @ RM 7.00 |
Just like the above Chicken Varuval, this Mutton Varuval also comes in multiple sizes and this is the small one. I must congratulate them in providing lean mutton cuts and not the fatty parts like in some other restaurants. Taste wise, it was nice but could have been better. I would rate this dish at 7/10 .
 |
| Rasam |
Their Rasam is provided complimentary to those who order the Banana Leaf meals. Their Rasam was just above average. I think, with a little more work it could be perfected easily. Nevertheless, I would rate this at 6.8/10 .
 |
| Us Having Lunch |
On the whole, this is definitely a great place for good Indian food in Damansara Utama. They also have a private dining hall upstairs. Most of their dishes are good except for a few that could have been better. Our total bill today came to RM 29.50 including the drinks which is quite decent for the number of dishes we had and the locality of the restaurant. Apart from improving one or two of their dishes, I would say that they are doing an excellent job here. Definitely a good neighbourhood Indian restaurant.
Address: 75, Jalan SS 21/37, Damansara Utama,
47400 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.
Telephone: +6017 337 7880
Opening Hours: 0700 - 2200 Daily
Facebook: www.facebook.com/restaurantcurryleaf
