Recently opened Garnish of India, overlooking Garema Place, is serving some of Canberra’s best Indian dishes at good value prices.
Located in former site of Canberra City’s Flavours of India, it has a similar décor and feel, but a new menu with great promise.
Service is friendly and efficient and there is a warm generous hospitality that seeks to help diners understand and enjoy regional Indian cusines.
Five dishes, three naan and 4 serves of rice and a raita is more than enough for six mixed sized appetites. Four dishes, 3 naan, 3 rice and a raita would be perfectly sized for 6 medium appetites.
Ask for recommendations/specialities as these are the often best options.
Dishes are listed here in order from best pick:
BEEF HARA MASALA $16.50
Diced beef cooked to perfection in a spinach based gravy & flavoured with
fenugreek leaves.
KUMBH MAKAI PANEER $14.50
Fresh mushroom, fresh corn, and dices of paneer a medium spicy preparation (really very good with fresh ginger too)
ERACHI VARATHADU –LAMB (KARNATAKA) $16.00
Tender lamb in a thick gravy made with the spices special to the region of Coorg.
CHETTINAD (TAMIL NADU) $16.50
A Spicy treat from the Chettiyars of Tamil Nadu.
MURGH ZAFRANI KORMA $16.50
Morsels of boneless chicken cooked in cashew gravy & flavoured with cardamoms,
mace & Saffron.
SQUID PEPPER & COCONUT FRY $18.00
A Speciality from Southern India that has a flavour of coarsely ground pepper, coconut
& fresh curry leaves.
ALOO – GOBHI $14.00
Flowerets of cauliflower &diced potatoes cooked with onions , tomato, & ginger juliennes.
MEEN VEVICHATHU –FISH (KERALA) $19.00
Fish in red hot chilli curry flavoured with kodampuli (Fish Tamarind) (not great at all, flesh is too firm, lacking flavour and overwhelmed by chilli).
Sides:
The plain ($3) or garlic ($3.50) naan is excellent and the plain rice is probably a better accompaniment than the saffron rice or even the coconut rice.
GARLIC NAAN $3.50
Indian garlic bread that is baked in Tandoor
2 serves of ZAFRANI PULAO $3.50 per serve
Steamed basmati rice with saffron in milk & garnished with roasted cumin.
2 serves of SAFED CHAWAL $3.00 per serve
Steamed plain rice
THENGAI SADHAM (COCONUT RICE) $3.50
Steamed rice mixed with fried grated coconut& garnished with curry leaves &
mustard seeds.
MIXED RAITA $4.00
Plain yoghurt mixed with cucumber & cumin (good).
Recommendations to try next time include:
PANEER MUSSALAM $14.50 Paneer pieces cooked in red medium spicy gravy with cashew nut paste in it garnished with grated paneer.
TAVA DHINGRI (MUSHROOM) $14 Fresh mushroom and sweet corn cooked in red gravy with more of chilly pepper & coriander
DAL MAKHNI $14 A traditional Punjabi black dal preparation.
DAL TADKA $14 A moong dal delightful preparation with seasoning of garlic & dry red chilly & mustard seeds.
MURGH KAALI MIRCH $16.50 A speciality from Southern India that has a flavour of coarsely ground pepper & fresh curry leaves.
MALABAR LAMB CURRY $16.50 Diced lamb cooked in a medium spicy curry.
BEEF COCONUT FRY $16.50 A Superb medium spiced dish of diced beef that is flavoured with desiccated coconut & curry leaves.
…and the samosas looked yummy too!
Corkage is $8 per bottle and a 25% discount is offered to Canberra Entertainment Book holders.
Fine Eating 
I wish that, while doing a great job, that you are a tad more critical with your comments. One point which you may want to highlight is that most Indian restaurants and takeaways provide much smaller portions than most Asian or Turkish restaurants. For this reason, they are invariable not s good value compared to say a Vietnamese Mel of similar quality. Another point us that they often charge for condiments and papads which are provided free in many Asian food places. The corkage is often hivher too.
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I think that you are right overall. Asian meals are often cheaper in that serves sizes of mains are larger and you just need rice not rice and breads. I’m not sure I’d agree about Turkish or corkage, but it does vary firm place to place.
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