Gdansk Group Trip – Day 2 (Shanti Indian Restaurant)

Long ago I had a policy of always having an Indian meal in every city that I visited and I can’t recall having done that in Gdansk, so we decided to go to the best reviewed Indian restaurant that we could find.

I’d never heard of the Kamasutra beer, so I fearlessly opted for that one.

Some free pre-meal snacks. The surroundings were suitably under-stated, sometimes the internal decor of Indian restaurants can become just a bit too exotic for my liking with flashing lights, brightly coloured fountains and a seemingly random arrangement of stuffed tigers. This restaurant was clean, functional and the tables weren’t overly packed into the space that they had.

The Kamasutra transpired to be a slightly generic lager of the kind that Ross likes drinking, but it proved sufficient for my needs.

We had tried to order the same starter and I don’t think the server was very impressed at Ross’s lack of originality in copying my correct choice, so we were corralled into having different starters. In fairness, this was probably quite a good idea, here’s the first wave of chicken.

And more chicken, I’m not sure that it’s quite what we ordered, but it was still most agreeable although those sauces were a little too watery for my taste.

And the main event, chicken madras, peshwari naan and lemon rice. The latter was delicious, suitably packed with lemon flavour. The peshwari naan didn’t have the depth of flavour that I would have ideally liked, but it did feel more authentic than the versions that are served in British Indian restaurants. The chicken madras curry was fine, but again lacked a depth of flavour in the sauce, was devoid of heat-adding spice and the chicken was a little overcooked so it wasn’t as tender as it could have been. It gave me the impression that they were using a limited range of base sauces and were just throwing the chicken in at the last minute, as it hadn’t really picked up any flavour from the curry in which it sat.

However, although I wouldn’t say that the meal was exceptional, it was filling and was still an enjoyable experience. The service was attentive, polite and conversational with the staff speaking fluent English, which was not entirely surprising as most of the customers were either British or speaking English. I’d still say it’s worth a visit for anyone wanting an Indian meal in Gdansk, but probably worth booking a table on weekend evenings.