Little India in Beijing

As we walked down Nanluoguxiang hutong, my friend and I saw a small Indian restaurant, Mirch Masala. I'd heard it was not bad and as my friend likes eating Indian cuisine we thought we'd give it a shot.

The interior is exotic, with wooden couch-like chairs softened up with cushions, and wooden tables, music prominently filling the atmosphere and sharply dressed wait staff at the ready.

The menu looked pretty extensive, but for some reason the number of the dishes was completely out of order on the pages, making it a bit difficult to suggest dishes to your dining companion. However, it was good that the descriptions hinted how spicy hot they were.

First came a small appetizer of deep-fried chips, more like sticks, in a green slightly spicy sauce. Refreshing and whetted the appetite.

Then the rest of our order came -- chicken curry, with huge chunks of meat that should have been diced up a bit more, cooked in a coconut-based sauce. We also had a delicious eggplant dish, braised with cumin and coriander. And then the naan which was a bit on the oily side. We ordered the one with nuts and raisins, but the filling seemed to congregate at the edges rather than throughout the bread.

For drinks I had a lime soda, my friend hot cardamon tea, which was really heavy on the sugar. Apparently it was pre-made this way so she had no choice but to add hot water to it.

Nevertheless, we enjoyed the meal overall and the bill came to 102 RMB ($14.73).

Mirch Masala Indian Cuisine
60-2 Nanluoguxiang
Dongcheng District
Beijing
6406 4347