Indian Indulgence

Rating: 2

We ate dinner here in January 2025.

Malai kofta
Plain naan
Garlic naan
Onion bhaji

On New Years Day in Palmerston North, dining options were limited. Our first two places we randomised were closed, and we then drove the streets looking for bright lights. We weren’t the only people to have found Indian Indulgence, with 5 other tables plus some people getting takeaways. Despite this the service was prompt and friendly.

The onion bhaji was acceptable. It looked like it had promise, it was at least individual bits of fried onion rather than those big gross onion cakes with the floury bits that you sometimes get. And the tamarind sauce was a good consistency, sometimes they can be too thin.

Naan wise there was a high high and a low low. The plain naan was too thin and crisp, it wasn’t a poppadom but it was thinking about it. On the other hand, the garlic naan was quite exceptional. The Fee-Rex doesn’t usually rate garlic naan, believing them often to be an added expense for no added flavour. But this one was soft and super garlicky with a bit of herbs on there too, so different to the plain naan you wouldn’t think they’d been made by the same person.

We are in a transition period from mild to medium curry. After years of eating mild curries we have been finding a lot of unpleasant sweetness, so we are experimenting with going medium. However, this can make it a little harder to judge our familiar favourites as they don’t taste like we are used to. Overall, the sauce was good but not great. The koftas were pretty plain but at least were nice and soft as opposed to rubbery.