Tulsi

By EWAN MCDONALD for viva

You can't turn your back for a minute. It was only a few weeks ago that we went back to Bolliwood and noted that perhaps its greatest success was still being in business in Ponsonby Rd after three years.

"Plenty of restaurants with pretensions to international class have come and gone from the strip in those years," we wrote, recalling Naresh Solanki's philosophy of recruiting chefs from five-star hotels in India to create a top-notch restaurant and also to push the boundary of people's perceptions of Indian food.

Well, delete that one from the nzherald.co.nz/restaurants website. The curtain has come down on Bolliwood. Yes, no more of that end-of-meal ritual when the tea-makers brought around their copper bowls, swinging the scalding liquid from one to another from above the shoulder to below the knee in a dramatic finale. Guess the Ponsonby set preferred latte to high tea.

But the more things change, the more they stay the same. The vultures didn't have time to pick the bones before Tulsi sprouted in Bolliwood's place. It's another Indian restaurant, but here's a switch. Bolliwood opened in Ponsonby Rd and then Solanki started a little brother around Wellington's Courtenay Place a year or so later.

This time it's gone the other way. Monty Patel opened the first of the chain in downtown Wellington a few years ago, was so successful that his buttered chicken was voted the best in the capital by the noted gourmands of Breeze FM, and has now ventured into Ponsonby Rd.

Ah well, the MP for Courtenay Place will recognise one menu next time he comes to the metropolis. And Tulsi has been a success in the south: there are three more branches in foodcourts around the suburbs of the Windy City, and a full restaurant in Christchurch.

However, we are interested in Auckland, up and running so quickly that Patel and his team haven't had time to alter the decor, the black with signature fluorescent pink pillar, but we're told they will. In Cuba St, Tulsi's look is all coppers and browns and dramatic lighting.

The menu is pretty much what you'll find all the way from Bangalore to Birmingham. While they call it "contemporary Indian cuisine", all the Tulsi restaurants use the same menu with that familiar range of dishes such as a spicy vindaloo or a mild buttered chicken or a vegetarian malai kofta.

We shared and enjoyed a vegetarian platter, particularly the onion bhajia - spicy, deep-fried onion rings - and spiced potato and green pea samosa.

Jeera chicken was subtle and aromatic, the chicken in the chef's special gravy and flavoured with cumin seeds. Like the chicken, bhola balti is described as a new dish: is that because balti means British and this is one of the many traditional recipes invented in Birmingham? It seemed a rather confusing muddle of tastes based around boneless lamb and chicken pieces cooked together with assorted vegetables in gravy.

Service is quick and confident, and $59.40 buys you more than two can eat, plus a couple of Kingfisher beers, so this style of dining often works best for groups, such as the 16 or so at the next table who were enjoying a birthday party and passing around dishes from one of the three banquet menus.

Perhaps it's too early to judge Tulsi but there are some worrying signs: "$5.95 Lunch Specials" is stencilled on the front window, and the Wellington version is pleased to inform us, on its website: "All important rugby games played on our new 50-inch plazma tv screen!" Hey, it's worked in Porirua. But in Ponsonby?

Owner: Monty Patel

Open: 7 days, lunch 11.30am-2.30pm, dinner 5pm-late

Food: Indian

On the menu:

* Murgh chaat - barbecued boneless chicken in spiced sauce $8.50

* Mango chicken - boneless diced chicken cooked with mango puree and thick gravy $16.95

* Fish madras South Indian - boneless fish prepared with grated coconut, cream and curry leaves $16.95

* Tarka dhal - red and yellow lentils pan-cooked with spices, cumin, mustard seeds, flavoured with curry leaves $12.95

Smoking: No

Wine: Supermarket selection, marked up. We'd go with beers or soft drinks

Disabled access / toilets: Street entry, easy access

Noise: Spice boys and girls

Parking: Street (except outside our place)

Bottom line: Monty Patel brings his successful chain north of the Bombays to the site that was Bolliwood, calling it "contemporary Indian cuisine" but offering the familiar range of vindaloo, buttered chicken and vegetarian dishes. Service is quick and confident, the prices realistic, but you're unlikely to go wow! even after the hottest curry.

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