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Thursday, December 31, 2009

Raviz - yummy Indian food!

Happy New Year's Eve!!

Can't believe that today is the last day of 2009, time really flies by! Food King & I had a fantastic year, filled with lots love, care and food :)

Have you written your New Year's Resolutions yet? Are you excited about 2010? A new year brings forth new memories and new adventures. The slate is wiped clean and we all get a fresh start in life. Frankly speaking, 2010 sounds so foreign to me... It's been 2007, 08, 09 for so long and suddenly it feels like a whole new era.

When Food King visited New Zealand, one of his favourite cuisine is Northern Indian food, so we have decided to blog about Raviz. Note that Singapore has loads of South Indian food at hawker and food courts but Northern Indian food are mostly found in restaurants and are more expensive.

This is what Food King wants to type on today's entry,"I would like to thank Food Queen for planning such a beautiful trip for me while I was in New Zealand. It was the best trip I ever had in my life. Hee hee."

Aww, that's so sweet :P

Anyway, one of his favourite Indian restaurants in Auckland is Raviz! We actually discovered this place by their leaflets that were sent to my house. Upon seeing their good lunch deals, we decided to patronise the outlet in Queenstreet and ever since we've tried their food, we thought it was superb and have gone back many times to different outlets.



Entrance to the outlet at Botany Junction



Raviz - Botany Junction ambience



Raviz - Queenstreet Ambience


Overall I like the atmosphere at Raviz, they have a soothing ambience and their chairs are really comfy. They can accommodate lots of people yet the tables are not too close together so you can enjoy your meals in peace without hearing conversations from other tables.

Raviz is generally clean and tidy and I like how customers are allowed to sit wherever they want without complaint - some places insist on customers sitting near each other whenever the restaurant is not busy and so far, Raviz has not done this.

Service in both outlets was good and the waitresses and waiters were generally friendly and did not seem impatient when we were discussing how spicy we wanted our food to be however, we think the service is a tad bit better at the Botany Junction outlet as the waitresses there seem to be more attentive in serving us and refilling our water jugs.

After ordering, you'll be served with Poppadoms, which were crispy! (Free)





Rice


Basmati rice is served with every main dish ordered and the portions given are decent. I like the fact that when you order more main meals, you are also entitled to more servings of rice - unlike some places, who claim that rice is limited to the number of people at a table, regardless of how many main meals were ordered.


Kachumber Salad ($3)


This was served as part of the lunch special that we had however, Food King & I did not appreciate this as we felt that it was too sourish for our liking.

Naan ($2.50) - Indian flatbread that is usually baked in a oven




The naan was served hot and the top and bottom were crispy, while the insides were moist and fluffy. It was not overly burnt and they were not stingy with the portions too.


Garlic Naan ($3)


Ooh, garlic naan is one of my favourite naans! I love the garlic taste and smell, as it adds extra flavour. Good enough to eat on it's own!


Raita ($2)


Food King calls this Briyani Yogurt, as it was served together with our Chicken Briyani. Quite a few of us enjoyed eating raita together with the briyani as it tasted both sweet and sour.


Chicken Briyani ($17)





Ooh, I'm salivating as I'm looking at the briyani pictures - they look so yummy! When we first saw the portion, we were shocked as we did not expect it to be so huge! Our high hopes for this dish were fulfilled once we took the first spoonful of the fragrant rice. The spices made the rice really fragrant and adding the raita gave taste. I personally like the briyani without the raita as I find it too sour however, Food King, Dad & Korkor prefer it with the raita and they said it was a unique dish.

The rest of this entry is written by Food King:

There was also huge chunks of chicken and it was marinated well too. The briyani in Singapore and that in New Zealand is totally different. In Singapore, the meat is served separately from the basmati rice with some curry on it. In New Zealand, the meat is mixed together with the basmati rice and it can be quite dry when eating without the raita. A really tasty dish and it's one of my favourites =)


Butter Chicken ($16.90)




This is my all-time favourite Indian dish... The first time I tried it was at Raviz and after doing so, I declared it is one of the best things I've ever had. The creamy and smooth sauce together with the tender chicken practically melts in your mouth. Although it's one of the most fattening dishes in Indian history, it's also one of the most delicious.

It's a sweet dish, which explains why it appeals so much to Caucasians. One of my Indian friends from Bombay said that Butter Chicken in NZ is very different as compared to the ones served in India. She said that the butter chicken in India is not sweet at all, which surprised me.

We feel that the Butter Chicken at Raviz is one of the best in Auckland because the curry is not overly sweet - when we visited some Indian restaurants down in Wellington, quite a few of their butter chickens were much too sweet and had a strong nutty taste which made us sick of the taste after awhile. This certainly was not the case at Raviz. In fact, the curry was so good that after we ate loads of rice and naan with it, we slurped the remaining spoonfuls of curry at the bottom of the bowl. Extremely yummy and a must have.

Since butter chicken is generally not a spicy dish, we did not order it spicy and it turned out perfect!


Chicken Tikka Masala ($16.90)





Next is Food Queen's favourite Indian dish and that is Chicken Tikka Masala. This dish is totally different from the butter chicken and it's also a must have at Northern Indian Restaurants. The gravy is not as sweet and creamy as compared to butter chicken and it brings forth a stronger tomato and green pepper taste. We ordered it just a little spicy and it tasted marvelous!

When we eat at Ravis, Food Queen and I will usually order both butter chicken and tikka masala without fail. The challenge and the excitement only comes when we order the third dish to spice up our dining experience! Greedy, huh? =P

Tikka Raviz ($17.90)


This dish tasted similar to Tikka Masala, I couldn't really tell the difference although the waitress said that there was a difference between the two dishes. We ordered this spicy as well and it was yum!

Googley Korma ($17.50)


This dish is similar to butter chicken as it is very creamy but it is not sweet. It is a really mild dish that has light flavours and is not very spicy. If I were to order butter chicken, I don't think that i will order this dish because the butter chicken taste will overpower the taste of the korma. Food Queen loves this though, she said it was unique because instead of just lamb or chicken, this Googley Korma is a mix of both chicken and lamb!


Prawn Calcutta ($18)



We had this dish when we were dining together with Food Queen and her family. Although the dish sounds nice, but it was way below our expectations. The number of prawns served were little and the gravy was very bland.
Worst still, the prawns were tasteless and did not seem fresh at all - they definitely lacked flavour. When we enquiried about this dish, the waitress told us that it's 'satisfaction guaranteed'. Well, it certainly was not. Food Queen's mum later informed the manager that the prawns were not fresh and we were really disappointed. We will not order this dish again.


Lamb Rogan Josh ($16.90)


This spiciness of this dish is of another level as compared to butter chicken and chicken tikka masala. I'm not really a lamb lover because of the strong smell and taste that lingers but this dish turned out quite well. The strong curry gravy covered the taste of the lamb and it tasted quite similar to the mutton curry served in Singapore. We ordered it Indian spicy as well and it was yummy! Good portions of lamb served too.


Beef Vindaloo ($16.90)


This dish... was seriously a killer. You can already feel the heat just by looking at it's colour. Food Queen and I didn't know that Vindaloo is spicy by nature and we asked for the dish to be spicy. Just imagine this... Spicy + Spicy = VERY SPICY!

This dish is really for the chilli lover. As soon as both Food Queen and I took our first bite, we began drinking lots of water. I even had to use the creamy butter chicken gravy to soothe the numbness on my tongue. It was too much to handle and we eventually gave up. We didn't finish the dish but instead finish drinking 3 big jugs of water that was served on our table.


Our love for delicious Indian food at Raviz




Whole Set Picture (2 Diff Occasion)





Lunch Special


The lunch special is a good way to promote Northern Indian Cuisine. It is reasonably priced and definitely worth the money. During my stay in New Zealand, I learnt from Food Queen that Northern Indian Cuisine cost more in Singapore and that is why I was on a Northern Indian Cuisine Rampage! ATTACKKKKKKKK!!!!

We have really enjoyed the food at Raviz and although I am now back in Singapore, I still miss their food and would like to thank Raj, the manager of Raviz at the Botany Junction outlet, for making our meals such a memorable one. He was friendly and attentive and we certainly had a pleasant dining experience there.

Tasty food, friendly staff, warm ambience - what are you waiting for? Let's head over to Raviz!

Visit www.raviz.co.nz for their location (as they have many outlets) and opening hours.


With this, I would like to end the post by wishing everybody a Happy New Year and may all your wishes come true! Let's move ahead to the year 2010!!!

Lots of love from your dearest food bloggers,
Food King & Queen
xoxo

5 comments:

Rachie said...

Happy New Year girl! Thanks for wishing me on my birthday too, FK. See you soon(:

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Heyyy Food Queen!

Please check your entire handbagg the pink and grey one .. there's a surprise there for youu !! =]

Hope you received it & arrived safely in Singapore !

<333 Always
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