ShangriLa, The Curries of Suwon part 6

The newest addition to the Curries of Suwon series is ShangriLa, located on the main road leading to Ajou university. If you read my review of Kasam then you know that I think it’s quite good. It seems that they are the owners/operators of ShangriLa…so good news!

Basically, ShangriLa is like a nicer version of Kasam. Kasam tends to be very utilitarian and the decor isn’t much to write home about. The food, though, is excellent. I asked if the recipes were the same as Kasam and they told me “it’s a different chef,” but at least what I ordered (Butter Chicken Curry) tasted very similar to the same dish from Kasam, maybe just a bit less spicy, and the naan was identical…so yeah, I think the recipes are probably the same. The menu is a good bit smaller than Kasam’s and resembles a sort of “greatest hits” version. You won’t find some of the less popular curries. Instead, they’re offering 5 vegetarian, 5 chicken, and 5 lamb curries. The prices are the same as Kasam and you can get a curry and a naan for about 11-13,000won.

While Kasam is super delicious, it’s not exactly the kind of place you’d want to go on a date or anything. In this way, ShangriLa is a big improvement. The restaurant’s interior is much nicer than Kasam’s. There are booths! It just seems like a nicer restaurant in general and sort of meets the standard of a normal mid-priced restaurant in Korea.

Anyway, I am a diehard Kasam fan, but thought ShangriLa was quite good as well. I think it’s definitely worth a visit and encourage you to support awesome Indian/Nepalese cuisine in Suwon. I also like it because they gave us free stuff.

Directions:

On the main road leading to Ajou University, look across the street from the KFC. It’s above the Tom n Tom’s coffee and the GS 25 on the 3rd floor.

Swoyambhu, The Curries of Suwon part 5

I’m continuing my Curries of Suwon series. Today I’m going to give my thoughts on the most popular Curry place in the city, Swoyambhu. To check out the other places I’ve reviewed so far, check out the links here: Dheli Dhaba, Ayesha, Kasam, and Taj: A Taste of India.

So here’s a bit of background about why I have been really critical of this place in past posts: Three or four years ago, Swoyambhu was one of only 3 or 4 curry restaurants in the Suwon area and now we have something like 15 by my count. I used to go to Swoyambhu several times a week with my friends because it was great and a lot of my friends at the time were vegetarians. At one point, Swoyambhu was better than Kasam, but there were problems. We used to wait close to an hour for our food, but that was fine because we knew that it was actually being made to order. So a long wait was forgivable…but then it seemed as though they started using bad cuts of meat and so you’d get a gristly/boney mess in your curry. The last and worst change that they made was that they changed the recipes themselves. I don’t know if they got a different cook or what, but it went from a proper curry to a thick paste and it’s stayed that way to this day. So by this point, my friends and I have almost completely quit going.

Anyway, I decided to go again for the blog. I went last week because one of the regulars at curry night™ (a real thing, mind you) couldn’t make it and he had outright refused to go to Swoyambhu again. The thing that is most striking about the place is that it’s the nicest Indian restaurant you can go to for the price. Taj, of course, is the nicest, but it’s also incredibly expensive. Swoyambhu has put a lot of money and effort into making its interior much nicer. It used to be a very practical/utilitarian place that sort of said “You came to eat, not look at stuff.” They’ve made it much nicer, for sure. Their menu is massive…too massive. When you sit down, you get a 12 page menu. You can think of this as a good chance to try a lot of things, but the truth is that if a menu is 12 pages long then a lot of the stuff is going to taste the same and they’re not doing justice to the individual dishes probably. You can choose from biryani, chow mein, veg curry, prawn curry, lamb curry, chicken curry, some potato dishes, etc. I think the Aloo Achar is really nice (it’s a spicy potato dish with cumin, peppers, turmeric, etc) and I suggest you try it.

I ordered a standard chicken tikka masala, not very Indian, but it’s sort of the litmus test now for meat options. It was indeed a thick paste, but I thought about it more and I think the flavors were nice. You can taste each individual ingredient since it’s a bit chunky and the vegetables are roughly chopped, whereas some places put their stuff through a blender first to make it smooth. I still don’t like the texture, but I thought the flavor was fine. They were still using less than good cuts of meat, but I didn’t get any bones and it wasn’t too gristly this time. My friend ordered a vegetarian set, because he’s Irish and is all about value (take that, Ireland!). I tried some of his…man, it wasn’t good. It was all pretty bland, with the chana being the best thing about it. The mixed veg curry that came with the set was obviously made from canned vegetables. No one should have to eat canned vegetables. Mine was much better and was an appropriate amount of food. It wasn’t as bad as I remembered it, so maybe I had built it up in my mind and was too harsh. It is maybe not the worst curry in Suwon, but it’s not the holy grail either. It’s fine.

The prices are a little more than some of the other places in the area by 2,000-4,000won, so it’s not terribly overpriced. You can expect to eat there for 14,000-17,000won. They also have a nice little market area where you can buy all the spices necessary to attempt your own homemade curry (good luck, you’re going to need it). It’s pretty easy to find. If you are at Suwon station, walk up the road away from the station (the main drag) and take a right after you pass the Maesan Sijang/매산시장 bus stop. It’ll be on your left after about a block on the second floor above a norebang. I put a picture of the shop front so you can find it. Here’s a map just in case.

Ayesha, The Curries of Suwon Part 3

Here is my third installment in “The Curries of Suwon” series, in which I am attempting to give every Indian/Nepalese/Pakistani restaurant in Suwon a fair shake. In part 1, I reviewed Taj A Taste of India in Yeongtong. It was nice, but a bit over-priced for the common man. In part 2, I went to Kasam at Suwon station. I asserted my belief that it was the best curry in town and brashly implied that all the people who like the big curry joint wouldn’t know a good curry if it smacked them in the mouth. Now we’ve come to Ayesha.

Ayesha is one of the under-appreciated curry options in Suwon and I think it’s poor location could play a part. Most people I know didn’t even know it existed. I’ve only been a few times and it’s always been good. Even 10 Magazine gave it a positive review a while back. I went last week with a couple of friends and we were the only people there. The decor is pretty minimal and it can only seat about 12-14 people, but the food is amazing (probably because it can only seat 12-14 people). One of the Kasam diehards said that he believes it to be better than Kasam, but I just think it’s number 2. The menu is pretty standard and has an equal number of vegetarian and meaty options. I got the Chicken Makhani and asked them to make it a bit more spicy for me and boy did they. My friend got the mutton curry and said it was great. The food is really nice and the flavors are more complex than most of the other places in town, but the downside is that it’s a bit greasy and the portions are a bit smaller than the other places as well. One of the best things I liked the most is that they avoid the pitfall of making their curries sweet. You can have sugar in a curry, but it shouldn’t taste like candy. The naan that you get is massive and has a nice char that really sets it apart from some of the other naans I’ve had. We split a basmati rice, which was really cheap, but you really don’t have a lot of curry left over to mix it with. The price was definitely right though. You could have a curry and a naan for 10,000won which is not bad at all.

As other places will mention, you can also buy some dry goods from their little mini mart that takes up a side of the restaurant. So you can get your basic lentils, ghee, microwave meals, spices, and even lamb. I really intend to go here more often. The more popular places will be open indefinitely, but it’s the little hole in the wall places that need to be frequented in order to preserve uniqueness and variety in the city. Three years ago, the restaurant I now loathe was pretty crummy and no one ever went, but eventually it grew to be “the” curry place. Anyway, you can go to those big places any time you want, but help out the little guy too and be glad you did, because the food is great.

To get there, you can cross the street on the bridge from AK plaza and go right. Take a left at the U+ shop. It’s also the alley behind the bus stop. The 10 magazine article also has directions, so check there if I’m not being clear enough. I’m putting a picture of what the street looks like and the shop front. Ayesha also has a blog that hasn’t been updated since 2009 if you want to see some pictures of the interior. I highly encourage you to try this place and preserve the uniqueness of Suwon’s curry scene.

Kasam: The Best Curry in Suwon

Here’s my 2nd installment in the “Indian Restaurants of Suwon” series. Part 1 is here. To be fair, most of them are not “Indian” food, but many are Nepalese or Pakistani. So I’ll now refer to my installments as “The Curries of Suwon.” The restaurant I’m talking about this is Kasam, the BEST curry in Suwon. There’s another curry place in Suwon station that many people view as the “good” curry place, but they are wrong. There is nothing to discuss other than their wrongness. Kasam doesn’t have the nicest interior, that’s for sure. The other place has spent a lot more effort trying to transport you to another place, but I suspect this is to cover up for their pasty and bland curries that all taste the same.

Kasam has a completely utilitarian interior. The menu is about the same as you’d find anywhere else with the exception that they have some Nepalese sets (which are quite cheap) and they cater to a lot of the migrant workers. When questioning the goodness of a curry restaurant in an area with a large migrant worker population, always be sure to count what percentage of their clientele are white people. Should I not say that? Is that bad? The one thing that puts Kasam in the number 1 position for me is the quality of the meat. Most of the other places serve you strange mystery meat. Sometimes you’ll bite into a bit of chicken and wonder what it is, but Kasam is free from gristly bits.

Typically, you can get a curry, naan, and a coke for 13,000won. I personally like the chicken butter, but some people think it’s too spicy. The kali mirch chicken curry is also really nice. Be sure to try out the jeera rice too if you’re going with another person, it’s the best I’ve had at any of the places. Maybe I’m a bit biased because this was the first restaurant I ever ate curry at (it’s not a big deal back home, go figure). After exploring though, I think it’s still the best. The only thing I’ve had there that I didn’t like was the chicken korma, so just avoid that.

Directions: Go out exit 3 and go straight like you’re going to the brothels (seriously). It’s about a block on the right immediately after the Sejin Bronzeville building. It’s on the 2nd floor in the same building at the gun shop (?) and the love shop. So it’s not in the best neighborhood, but it’s the best.

Below: A shot of the interior, some shots of the outside so you know where you’re going, chicken butter and garlic naan (12,000won), and the Nepalese set (10,000won).