Karma Fine India Cuisine

Try Tasty Korma at Karma

Dan Healing

Karma

4600 130th Ave. S.E.

257-4977

Price range, entrees: $7.95 to $15.95

Hours: Lunch buffet, Monday to Saturday: 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Dinner: Monday to Thursday, 5 to 9:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 5 to 10 p.m.; Sunday 5 to 9:30 p.m.

Wheelchair accessible, including washrooms

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There are many excellent East Indian restaurants in Calgary, but few offer their traditional robust dishes with the style and grace of Karma Fine Indian Cuisine.

Located just off the Deerfoot, Karma offers tasty, mainly northern Indian fare with an enviable attention to detail.

The professionalism is obvious immediately upon entering this 56-seat restaurant. Karma uses pot and track lighting, sculpted walls and dark wood furniture to create an intimate and modern setting. This ain't your mata's kitchen, after all.

My wife Wendy and I were with her sister who was looking for something a little different while away from her kielbasa-and-perogy-loving husband.

Karma's menu is loaded with the usual East Indian clay oven items and savoury curries and stews but also offers four Hakka-style dishes which blend Indian and Chinese cuisine, a style very popular in Toronto eateries.

We started out with appetizers -- a platter of delicacies for the girls and mulligatawny ($4.95), for me.

The platter ($7.95), composed of excellent kabobs, crispy light pakoras and samosas (the latter a bit dry and hard), came with three contrasting chutneys, chili, mint and tamarind.

The mulligatawny I order from the Herald cafeteria is deep yellow, thick and loaded with rice and chunks of chicken. This was red, with no rice, but still thick, salty, loaded with chicken, and packing enough heat to make my cheekbones sweat. A superb variation on the theme.

Our main courses came with a stainless steel, candle-powered warming plate to keep everything bubbling. What a great idea!

We shared a Hakka dish, chili chicken ($15.95), which is a sweeter version of Indian boneless chicken stew cooked with plenty of biting spices; coconut chicken curry ($12.95), like butter chicken with a distinctively coconut twist; and korma lamb ($12.95), mild curry with almonds, cashews, saffron, cardamom and some of the most tender lamb bits ever.

The stews, all excellent, were accompanied by garlic nan ($2.95) and tandoori roti ($1.75), both hot and tender and crispy at the same time -- and an order of basmati rice.

For dessert, we shared a bowl of kheer ($3.95), a traditional Indian rice pudding, and a piece of mango-and-cream-cheese pie ($4.95). Both were satisfying without being too sweet.

Washed down with a half-litre of Madfish Shiraz ($21), the total tab came to $94.71, before tip, not bad considering the quality of the food and the top-notch service.

My sister-in-law plans to return whenever she tires of Ukrainian fare.

dhealing@theherald.canwest.com

© (c) CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc.

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Breakfast Television Calgary Awards Karma #1 out of 117

Best of Indian Food Karma - October 26

Andrew Schultz continues BT's "Best of," by finding the best Indian Food in Calgary out of 117 restaurants.

Karma delivers happy returns

The Calgary Herald

If you love good food, if you crave the rich, warm, often spicy-hot flavours of curries . . . really, if you have any sense at all . . . it is your karma to head as quickly as possible to Karma, though you almost can't get there from here. You can easily get there from McKenzie Towne, from Lethbridge, perhaps even from Medicine Hat. But not easily from north of the Bow River.

I am having you on a bit. To reach Karma on a recent Friday eve, we battled the traffic heading south on Deerfoot Trail at 6 p.m. until we reached 130 Ave. S.E., then we headed east to the lights that let you into giant shopping areas both to the left and right of you. Turn into the left one and follow the road around to the left until you reach a grouping of restaurants and a Marble Slab ice cream joint. You are there. And when you enter Karma's charming, contemporary digs and the seductive odour of garlic, ginger and a tandoor oven wraps itself around you, you will know the effort to get there was worth it.

If you live in the neighbourhood, which many of the restaurant's diners apparently do, you are the chosen. The owner's business card reads: "Enlighten your soul to a spiritual level with Karma." Well, we can tell you that enlightenment here has less to do with soul and more to do with stomach. This is some of the tastiest East Indian food we've ever had, we concluded.

And Karma offers something new: Hakka-style food, a blend of Indian and Chinese. (Chinese Hakkanese live in a town just outside Calcutta.) This is a bit of a different take, and worth trying: we had the Prawn Chili, marinated in soy sauce, deep fried to a candified crunch, sweet-sour and garlicky ($14.95). Our favourite dishes were the straight-up Indian: tender chicken in a sweet and spicy coconut curry ($12.95), paneer in a creamy tomato butter sauce ($9.95), light vegetable dumplings bathed in a rich, sensuous cashew and pistachio sauce ($9.95), tender lamb and spinach, mild and succulent ($12.95), and an array of some of the best naan you will find in the city. Peshwari naan is sweet with coconut, sugar and cream; Karma special naan is stuffed with paneer, potato, mushroom, onion and chiles; plain and garlic naans are perfectly puffy and light.

But in true Heralding fashion, this wasn't all we ordered: an appetizer platter was an ideal assortment of veg samosas and pakora, plus beef kababs ($10.95). Delicious chutney accompaniments: hot mint, cool tamarind and fiery chile.

Karma's food is beautifully prepared and portioned generously: the three of us had enough to take home for another complete meal. Take your vegetarian palates too for lots of good vegetarian dishes. Owner/manager Rav Hundal is a charming man who just didn't want to have his restaurant downtown where everyone else was. Oh, pooh! We'll go back. Karma allows BYOW for a $7 corkage.

Karma

309, 4600 - 130 Ave. S.E.

257-4977

- Food: very good

- Service: charming, attentive

- Specialty: East Indian

- Prices: $8.95 to $15.95

- Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., lunch buffet, Monday to Saturday; 5 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., Sunday to Thursday; 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday

- Credit: Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Interac

- Reservations: recommended

- Parking: lots in adjacent lot

- Wheelchair access: yes

- Washrooms: spotless, wheelchair accessible

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New restaurant has gained loyal fans

The Calgary Herald

If you have a desire for Indian food, there are countless restaurants in Calgary specializing in this style of cuisine.

That's why Rav Hundal was thrilled to have his growing new restaurant, Karma Fine Indian Cuisine, recognized in this year's Readers' Choice Awards as a winner in the Indian Restaurant category.

"It's a great honour. We haven't even been open for a year and people are already choosing us as one of their favourite Indian restaurants," he says.

"There's a lot of competition in this city, and for us being so far south (at Deerfoot Trail and 130 Avenue S.E.), it's great to be recognized."

Once you've eaten at Karma, you'll see why diners are giving the restaurant an enthusiastic nod.

Karma has a different atmosphere, with a highly diverse menu that is designed to accommodate mild tastes as well as spice lovers.

It is a casual fine-dining establishment that specializes in traditional clay-oven Indian dishes and meat specialties like tandoori chicken, butter chicken, prawn coconut curry, lamb kashmeri, and for adventurous palates, a spicy vindaloo chicken tikka.

These traditional recipes and spices are enough to entice diners, but Karma is set apart from the competition by the five hakka platters that appear on the menu. Hakka, which merges Indian and Chinese cuisine by combining Indian herbs and Chinese marinades, gives diners meals with an incredible and unexpected flavour.

The service is also excellent, as Hundal and his staff focus on the details, both in the food and the atmosphere.

"We really try to key on service in our restaurant, and make it a really nice place for people to come and eat," he says.

Reservations are recommended, as the extensive menu and intimate, delicious, and unique eating experience make for a busy 58-seat dining room.

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A diverse range of unique Indian dishes

The Calgary Herald

The first restaurant in Calgary to serve Hakka-style food continues to satisfy customers' appetites with unique and traditional Indian dishes.

At Karma, three talented and dedicated chefs - two of whom hail from northern India - have created a diverse menu that sets Karma Fine Indian Cuisine apart. It includes Hakka dishes, a fusion of of Indian and Chinese cooking.

"We provide an extensive menu with unique tastes," says Rav Hundal, owner of Karma, this year's Readers' Choice Gold winner in the Indian Restaurant category.

"Dishes are tailored to our customers. We always ask if you want your meal mild, medium or spicy. We want our customers to leave with a smile, and return for consistency in the food and service."

Hundal's mother manages the kitchen, and helped craft Karma's menu.

"My mom's home-style recipes are the key to our success," Hundal says.

The chefs work as a team to provide a flavourful experience. Hundal praises the dedication of head chef Bhuwinder Singh, who has worked at the family-run eatery since it first opened.

From its signature butter chicken to prawn coconut curry, Karma has something to please every palate - including 18 health-conscious vegetarian options and a menu for those with food allergies.

Karma also has a high standard for service. An in-depth training program ensures the staff is friendly and knowledgeable about the comprehensive menu.

The intimate 56-seat restaurant is routinely revitalized with new artwork and music.

Karma's Gold status has Hundal as motivated as ever to continue offering delicious meals and great service to patrons.

"I started five years ago always wanting to be the best Indian place in the city. I want to maintain that."

Karma Fine Indian Cuisine is located at Bay 309, 4600 130th Ave. S.E.

Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald

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