Blue Ginger Club

There's a new kid on the block (on my block at least), called Blue Ginger Club.
With 4 different Indian restaurants all within a minute's walk from each other (or a 3 second drive if you must) means 2 things: competition is strong and the smell of delicious aromas in that vicinity is even stronger.

I noticed this new (to me anyway) restaurant and went to grab a takeaway menu when a man eagerly gestured me to go inside, even though the restaurant was already closed.
"No worries, I'm the boss, go in!" he shouted at me, while shouting to the staff that there was one more customer for the afternoon.

"Next time!..." I lied.

This was a crap lie, because I came back just 2 days later and actually went inside this time.

Complimentary Papadams

Once seated, we were provided with menus, water and a basket of crispy plain papadams, accompanied by a minty yoghurt sauce and a sweet, fruity chutney.

Masala Lassi - $5

A stuck to the safe (but boring) option of Coke ($3.50) while my friends ordered a Mango Lassi ($5, not pictured) and a Masala Lassi to try the untried. It looks deceptively like a banana smoothie, but the savoury smell makes its way up your nose fast. It smells immediately like a savoury, spice-laden yoghurt.

Sad to say, we were definitely not accustomed to the taste as both the strong scent of spices and thickness of the drink made us think it is more suitable as a dip than it is as a drink.
And dip our papadam in it we did.

After all 4 people's efforts to drink, sip and dip our breads into the cup, we only managed to conquer 1/5 of it.

Steamed Basmati Rice - $4 per person

The all important rice, to go with all the curries, comes at $4 per person. I surprised myself by finishing more than half of this "4 servings" rice bowl by myself, since 2 of my friends did not touch this.

We had expected to be charged $16 as there were 4 of us; however, the charge for rice on our bill was $12. Perhaps the staff noticed that 2 people did not eat it, so decided to not charge 1 person. Still, an odd thing to do.

Lamb Rogan Josh - $21.50

We waited very impatiently for our dishes to arrive, which actually arrived really quick.

The bowls are deceptively small, but have quite a lot of substance within them! The boneless lamb cubes were really soft and tender to bite, and the traditional masala curry sauce it was cooked in was beautiful to spoon over plain rice.

With the spice mixture permeating through each mouthful, it was a unanimous agreement that this dish was the night's favourite one.

Beef Madras - $21.50

The Beef Madras was quite similar to the Lamb Rogan Josh in terms of both looks and taste, but perhaps with a milder flavour. It is a bowl of just-as-tender beef cubes in a creamy, coconut based gravy with a just as addictive sauce.

Butter Chicken - $22.50

I was happy to see that all chicken dishes use boneless chicken thighs instead of breast meat :)

They couldn't go past ordering the Butter Chicken at an Indian restaurant, which arrived with a velvety, buttery sauce in a vibrant shade of deep gold with succulent, marinated chicken pieces. The dish also has a touch of fenugreek - a plant with aromatic seeds used as a spice.

Initially not knowing what fenugreek tastes like and after eating this dish, I still do not know what fenugreek tastes like. I couldn't taste the flavour.

Butter Naan - $4.50

We are very aware of the fast stomach filling properties of bread, but I am a firm believer that you could never overdose on bread :) There was a bit of confusion when we asked how many slices of naan bread each serve was, and were told that you get 1 piece.

Perplexed, we ordered 2 "for now". Each basket was 1 big piece of bread cut into quarters, so essentially there are 4 slices to each serve. The bread was warm from the charcoal clay oven, golden, looked absolutely delicious and the buttery smell was divine.

It did taste disappointingly bland though, and lacked the strong flavour that was expected.

Garlic Naan - $4.50

In the same boat was the Garlic Naan, which only had a very subtle garlic flavour despite being encrusted with a small amount of golden garlic specks. The naan breads served as very useful serviettes to wipe clean our plates of curry sauce to eat haha.

The "Before" shot; always extremely hard to capture! (Due to "Hunger Impatience Syndrome" present in most humans)

A big spacious dining room and polished furnishings turn it up a notch from casual dining; and the menu has quite the variety, with around a $5 price difference between takeaway and dine in prices.

Had we taken away, we could have devoured a whole other mains dish!

Blue Ginger Club is another player on the field and sandwiched between Punjab and Anghiti, both already brimming with their Best Indian Food awards. The atmosphere in this Innaloo eating strip is being saturated with a yummy curry fragrance, I can't get enough of it!

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(08) 9445 1979
Open for Lunch & Dinner

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