Dining At India Gate Restaurant
written by John Chow
The India Gate restaurant has been at its location on 616 Robson Street for over 30 years, long before the street became famous. The restaurant has seen its surroundings changed greatly in those 30+ years. However, the restaurant hasn’t changed much. It’s still among the best India restaurants in the city. Let’s face it, you can’t stick around for this long if your food is no good.
Our reservation at India Gate was for 7:30 but we showed up about 10 minutes late because of parking. Michael Kwan and his girlfriend, along with Teipal from 1234Pens.com were already there. It is best to dine with a large group at an Indian restaurant so you can sample more dishes than if you dine with just two people.
If you never dined at an Indian restaurant before then the “don’t ask, just eat” rule apply. The owner of the restaurant, Gurmeet, asked me how spicy I like my food. I told him to make as hot as he wants. However, Michael is a wimp when it comes to spicy food so we ordered everything mild. That was OK because I got a better taste of the food instead of just a burning mouth. Here’s a sampling of what we had.
Vegetable Pakora
The vegetable pakora is made from spinach and onion dipped in a mild spiced batter and fried to a nice crisp. It’s served with mint chutney. It tastes a bit like onion rings without the greasy side effects.
Meat Samosa
Take some minced beef, wrap it in a patty and then fried it to a golden crisp and you’ll have meat samosa. I like this dish very much. Even though it was deep-fried, it wasn’t greasy at all and the dip gave it a nice sweet taste.
Mango Lassi (Yogurt Shake)
The Lassi is made from yogurt, sugar and rose water. It was very sweet. This is the kind of drink Stephen Fung would be scare to order because he thinks it’s a girly drink.
Garlic Nan
Nan with garlic baked in Tandoor. This was one of the better Nan I’ve tasted. However, it didn’t match up to the Nan I had at Maurya, which is in a class by itself when it comes to Nan.
Vegetable Biryani
Rice cooked with mixed vegetables, spices and vegetable sauce. I’m not much of a vegetarian but this dish works well when combined with the other meat dishes.
Tandoori Mixed Grill
When I saw this sizzling hot dish land on our table, images of Kam Do popped into my head. The India Gate mixed grill looks like the India version of Kam Do American mixed grill. This is a meat lover’s delight. It’s a good thing we had five people or we’ll never be able to finish it.
Lamb Korma
Boneless lamb cooked with ground coconut and almonds in creamy sauce. This was one of the better lamb dishes I’ve tasted. The lamb didn’t have any aftertaste and the sauce added quite a kick to it. The reason the dish is drenched in sauce is so you can dip the Nan into it.
Butter Chicken
This was the best butter chicken dish I have ever had. The chicken was super tender and practicably melted in your mouth. Again, the dish is drenched in sauce so you can use it as a Nan dip. We liked this dish so much we ordered extra plate.
Kheer
This was the first of our two desserts. Kheer is made with rice, cooked with milk and served cold with almonds. This is the first I’ve seen rice used as a dessert. Sarah liked it a lot because it wasn’t that sweet.
Gulab Jaman
The second dessert was Milk balls in sugar syrup. I preferred it to the Kheer because it was sweeter. If you ever wonder where Tim Horton’s got their Tim Bit idea from, this is it.
Dinner lasted nearly three hours from start to finish. The India Gate is an extremely reasonably priced for a Robson Street restaurant. India Gate’s owner, Gurmeet, was a fantastic host and we look forward to dining there again.
Who Wants Some $20 India Gate Gift Certificates?
Before we left, Gurmeet gave me four $20 India Gate gift certificates. This was very unexpected and I thank him for it. If you live in Vancouver (or planning to visit Vancouver in the next week or two) and would like to try out India Gate, send me an email with your address and I’ll send a gift certificate. Tell them John Chow sent you and they’ll give you 10% off your bill as well (that goes for anyone who wants to dine at India Gate).
Find out what I am doing right now by following me on Twitter! If you like this post then please consider subscribing to my full feed RSS. You can also subscribe by Email and have new posts sent directly to your inbox.
Make Money Online with John Chow's Ad Network - Join TTZ Media Now!
(10 votes, average: 3.7 out of 5)
Loading ...
Here's A Few More Related Posts
Mmmm…I love Indian food. That tandoori grill looks great.
Hmmm, butter chicken. Here in pakistan we call it chicken MAKHNI! It is awesome!
http://www.youtubedownloads.info
It looks good, but it’s a little too spicy for my taste
damn that food is good. sounds like i need to stop at my local Indian restaurant.
I hate how people who like spicy food see it somehow as being macho that they like it, and those who don’t are considered ‘wimps’.
Some people just prefer less spicy food, because spiciness usually just masks the other flavours.
This is especially the case with Indian food, which has a lot of ingredients, each adding subtle flavours.. If you’re not used to ridiculously spicy food, then those flavours will be masked, and you won’t enjoy the food as much.
It’s even worse when you’re trying to be macho, and end up injuring yourself or others… I still remember when Sarah literally had burns all over her lips because you asked them to make your food spicier than usual… That is just mean!
Yeah I’m one of those folks that likes spicy WITH flavour. Pure hot sauce is a waste, but some garlic chile lime hot sauce has a nice mix of flavours. Thai sauces are the same way. Indian food is at the top of the list with the symphony of flavours that play out on your palette, and actually you’ll find the same thing in spicy foods from the Carribean (Trinidad and Jamaica specifically).
Dude,
Indian food = Spicy food.
If you cant stand the heat, get out of the kitchen!
I used to love spicy food, my stomach can’t take it anymore.
Hi i have been following your blog since past 4-5 days since i made my first blog.
And i wanna say ur blog rocks
Also am an Indian Living In India so the stuff you ate at the restaurant i eat daily
So try sometime visiting India there are lots of more delicious dishes you should try and i bet you’ll love all
I love curry, mutton curry. Indian Rojak too, anyone?
Isn’t Rojak Chinese? Or Malaysian or something?
Eh, whatever…I’m starving.
I like the look of that Yogurt Shake and also the Tandoori Mixed Grill
Yum
The Mango Lassi looked awesome. I love mangos
I always assumed the “Tim Bit idea” was just your average copy of “donut holes.”
Yeah, I think they just didn’t know what to do with all the middle of donuts they poked out. Decided to sell em instead of throw them out
They turned garbage into profit. Good business lesson there :p
Dam John, could I ask you what you budget is on food per month. I’m so jealous, you eat good!
Going out a lot, even to reasonably priced restaurants adds up
My GF and I go out 2 - 3 times a week and I cringe at the end of the month when I add up all the bills 
No kidding. That stuff adds up fast!
John eats out quite a bit, but he writes it all off as a “business expense”
LEARN TO COOK. It has never been easier. Women adore men who cook for them.
Indian food always looks so delicious but I never know what to get!
hehe, guys thats nothing… You should try to have some South Indian food,
yup did you people from west try eating a Chilli curry.. No not the chineese chilly ones.. This one is a green chilly curry.. Tastes yummy.. one needs guts to have it..
Btw none needs to be macho kind to eat it.. even girls in india eat super spicy food.
John if you get a chance to land in a south Indian (andhra to be specific) try having Guntur Chicken Curry, and also Hyderabad Dum Biryani..
thanks john to remind me, i am going out for luch now to have it (i got to taste more dishes as i am in India)
You said it bro, Hyderabadi Biryani is Da Bomb…of course you need to have the stomach for it.
Now you know why Indians dance so much in their movies, it’s all that spicy food we eat. It just makes you want to get on the dance floor.
Haha, never heard it put that way before!
So that’s why you all dance so much?!
I love Indian food and curries in general. Butter chicken is one of my favorites. There is an awesome Nepalese place in Seoul that I will be visiting tomorrow night. Expect a review to come your way soon!
Being a Indian myself.. made my mouth water. I have eat all the things mentioned.. and I know they taste good!
Hi John,
I do envy you and your celebrety status. You get to go to good restaurant and get free vouchers and discounts too. But more important I do love your knowledge about Indian food.
I really really LOVE Bryani…can I have some?
That looks delicious. I want to eat my monitor. I’m going to find an indian restaurant, and go there
…and get the Monitor Curry or maybe the Mouse Jalfrezi. Ok, I’ll stop.
Your article make me get hungry… I have to go to the University Restaurant!!
I bet that’s not nearly as good as what John and Kwan ate.
yeah..JC needs to start a separate blog for just food review…soon, he be traveling the around the world trying new food for free.
Not being funny John, but I don’t come to your website to hear about Indian food!
I’m sure you must agree when a blog is continuously off topic readers become frustrated and leave.
Oh come on now. Lighten up! You know that within in a few hours, John will have another post about something you will find relevant. Give the guy a break! That’s what makes him unique and remember, it’s his blog - not yours!
the miscellaneous ramblings of a dot com mogul.
It started as the miscellaneous ramblings, but now it’s “Make Money Online with John Chow”… though making money online could be all about miscellaneous ramblings. John has proven that the rambling business model works
Indian food is amazing. Those picture really made me hungry even though I just ate my lunch!
Wish we had more Indian restaurants here in Turkey
Maybe I should move to Vancouver?
We’ve got several in San Antonio. Maybe we should have a JohnChow.com banquet down here. You guys can all stay at my house.
John, I’m from Bangladesh, a former state of India and I eat that type of food all the time at home. Lolz, I hope you hate a lot of Gulap Jaaman and drank a lot of Lassi cz I know you most likely felt something in your stomach after eating the biryani.
nice looking indian food, i’m hungry….
Seems like the owner of the India Gate is a savvy businessman too
You’re passing out the gift certificates and he’ll get more people trying out his restaurant.
Man, all those pictures of food is making me hungry. Love Indian food, but never ate Indian food in Vancouver before. Toronto has lots of Indian restaurants.
Thanks for this review, I will mark this down so the next time I’m in Vancouver my wife and I will know where to go.
Das Brain
Geez, John. More food? And at lunch time…again. I’m on my way to have some Thai after that last review.
Hey John. When you come down to So. Cal. next time, I’ll show you what real Indian food is like. The pics look good, buy you have to try my mom’s food!
the food definitely looks good. Too bad I like 4 timezones away, in Atlantic Canada.
hook me up with a coupon PIMP.
Do you ever cook yourself?
John’s too busy being a dot com mogul
.
John like fine cuisine, why would he attempt it for himself when he can afford to dine out?
Hope you liked it. I personally dislike many Indian cuisines.