freakZspeaks: Thalis and curry @ Masala Zone, Earl's Court, London, UK

L: Dahi Puri; R: Papadum & Chutney

So, I've heard that British loves Indian curry and there are lots of curry houses around. Strangely, not all are authentic Indian curry. Masala Zone is a casual Indian dining chain restaurant that boasts an array of authentic Indian street food and Thalis, the cornerstone of their menu. It was a rainy day in London, so we decided to just hang out around Earl's Court, where we were staying. We passed by this restaurant a couple of times previously and were always tempted by the Indian dishes that people were eating, so we decided to try them out ourselves. Good description of each item in their menu so no worries on that. For starters, we had dahi puri which was puffy hollow biscuits filled with chick peas mash with a splash of yoghurt and chutney. It has a really refreshing taste although I did not really like how the hot item with yoghurt topping gave you a weird hot-cold sensation when eating it. More to our liking, was the side of papadum (like huge chips made with some type of flour) and chutney.

Grand Thali

Regular Thali

For mains, Panda and mum had their Thali, which is a unique authentic Indian item on their menu. This is probably the largest meal offered by them. Thalis are complete, balanced, traditional Indian home food served on stainless steel platter with a couple of side dishes The Grand Thali is actually equivalent to a starter and main course and consisted of a canapé (bite-size item), a choice of curry, two veges, salad, dal (lentil), yoghurt, papadum, a piece of chapatti (indian bread) and rice.

Mum had the regular Thali which is basically the same as Grand Thali without some sides and chapatti. The rice served with regular Thali however was almost double the amount of rice came with Grand Thali. So for big-eaters, this regular Thali actually is quite enough. Panda and mum had nothing but good comments of the thick, flavorful chicken curry they chose. The HOT level was actually quite spicy which was just nice for spicy lovers like us.

Chicken Briyani

Since both of them had Thalis, I decided to give their Chicken Briyani a try. This delectable briyani did not look as tempting compared to the usual briyani in claypots that I have back home, but surprisingly it tasted pretty good. The portion, level of spiciness and amount of spices were just nice, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We also had Masala milk tea, which was brewed black tea with milk and aromatic Indian spices (you've gotta love spices to drink this though). Overall, we had a nice lovely lunch at this place. We were there slightly after lunch hours so there weren't many customers around. Well-decorated, modern siting restaurant which would be perfect for meet-ups and if you're looking for good, comforting Indian food.