Indimex Cafe Bar Restaurant

I'll tell you two secrets. The first is that the email I created for people to contact me on thatseriousgirl@gmail.com is not actually the one that I use for my mobile phone/ gmail account or the one I use for my blogger account. As a result, I had to set up a forwarding protocol with gmail that never seems to forward on important stuff to my more commonly used hotmail account.

The second is that my two least favourite cuisines are Mexican and Indian food. I've had bad experiences on multiple occasions with upset stomachs or food poisoning not soon after eating them so I tend to avoid it. It doesn't make any sense because I eat a lot of spicy food from other cuisines like Thai or Korean without any problem. Not to mention the fact that I love every other countries version of curry beside the original Indian one.

I received the email inviting me here in early January but didn't see it until almost the end of January when I was manually checking my gmail account. I accepted the offer and dragged along Mr W., as my plus one, since he enjoyed both cuisines and it had been a while since we had had a date.

I was absolutely livid when I realised my camera wasn't in my bag for the third time eating out that month. I ran back to the car and couldn't find it anywhere. I was desperately hoping I had lost it as I had remembered to bring my Kindle along and it had been sitting on that when I left. Lo and behold, it was on my kitchen bench when I arrived home. The following pictures are taken on my mobile phone as a result.

Watch out for this bright red place!

I loved the decorations here. From the loads of mustachioed man cushions.

So manly

To the kooky Indian/Mexican artwork!

OLE SUP

To this gigantic spice? wall. I missed a few photos though. They had a really interesting mural of people who changed the world such as John Lennon, Martin Luther King, Ghandi, the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, Che Guevera and then oddly, what looked like James Brown? I coudn't get the entire mural in one shot, so I let it be.

What does it even say?

Here is a link to their extensive menu, it completely changes from meal to meal. I got the gorgeous Brisbane Sunset as my drink, orange, pineapple and cranberry juice with grenadine syrup! I had a huge mouthful of grenadine syrup to start with so make sure to give your drink a good stir. I loved the balance between the sweet, sour and refreshing flavours of the juices used. Good mocktails are hard to find!

Delicious

I picked their holy guacamole as my starter! Pulverised yet still textured avocado, onion, tomato, jalapeno pieces and a fair whack of garlic. Mr W., and I both felt like there could have been a bit more lemon or lime added to give it a bit more zestiness but we both still enjoyed it. I particularly like that the guacamole didn't have a smooth paste texture and still had noticeable piece of avocado to break up the texture. The fried tortilla chips were great, can't go wrong with freshly fried tortilla chips, crunchy, salty tastiness!

Mmm guacamole

Mr W., and I had a long discussion about what we would order on the menu. He pointed out that as a food blogger and someone who goes out a lot, I would order the weirdest thing on the menu or a chef specialty to show off the place. He was right though, because I had been eyeing off the Bombay Pizza a la Naan or getting one of the fusion dishes. 

Mr W., tended to go with safe options or the most popular option, he's traveled a lot overseas and wisely pointed out that you can't go wrong with chicken, seafood is the thing most likely to give you food poisoning. I think this was the second or third time we had gone out for a meal together, so I reminded him that he couldn't order the same meal as me!

Anyway, after much deliberation, we reversed our opinions! I decided to try one of their curries for a classic option. I initially wanted goat but they told me that wasn't available for lunch, so I picked a lamb madras with a heat rating of super hot. Their menu actually carries a warning that they use Trinidadian Scorpion Butch T Chillis, widely regarded as one of the spiciest chilis in the world. I think they only use that for the vindaloo haha,

Oh god, the curry was so good. I love that strong coconut fragrance as it hit the table and the huge chunks of lamb. The lamb was delectable, huge chunks of lamb that were so tender I was able to cut through it with a spoon. My spoon just hit the plate and the lamb fell apart with a sigh, they used a wonderful cut with ribbons of fat throughout the meat. 

The curry was so spicy, I nearly cried. It wasn't a bad heat, it was instantly noticeable but it didn't linger for too long and you could continue eating. I'm not sure if I got used to it later on or it was because when the physical heat abated, I felt like the curry spice was more bearable.

We ended up begging the waitress for some of their raita which I forgot to take a photo of. It's a very strong minty raita that was quite sweet, but it did the trick to cool off my poor mouth.

Delicious lamb

I tossed up between naan and rice for a while too. I love naan but I love how rice soaks up all the sauce. I was wearing a white dress as well so I couldn't risk the sauce dripping onto my clothes! I always think long grain rice looks odd. I'm very used to short or medium grain rice and so the length of long grain rice, which loops in on itself is just odd to me.

Odd rice

I got a few pappadums as well! They were super crunchy and little cumin seeds as well.

I had fun eating these

Mr W., got the very interesting bacon, cheese, garlic, oregano and chili naan which was nearly a meal in itself! I really enjoyed this naan and I'm pretty sure I ate at least 3/4 of this by myself. It had a huge amount of garlic on the surface, lots of little bacon pieces, the oregano scent wasn't too discernible and I found the chili flakes weren't too spicy either. I loved the flakiness of the naan and the cheesiness too, I'd gladly go back here again for the naan bread.

Mmmm naan <3

Mr W., got the sizzling chicken fajitas, there was a lot of onion and sweet capsicum pieces mixed in as well. There was also a pile of salsa on top as well as a wedge of lime. The smell when it hit the table was amazing! I love the theatre of having sizzling food bought around to your table, the sound, the smell, the spitting sight of the stuff and the steam rising off the food! I love how the sauce becomes a thick caramel, coats the meat and gives it a great charred flavour. We were both very surprised when we tasted the chicken as we were both unsure what the spices used were, I had a second and a third piece before I realised what it was. Tandoori chicken! After that, it all made sense and we were able to finish the meal in peace haha.

See the steam!

We also received a basket of sour cream, guacamole, black lentil dal makhani and a pile of tortilla shells on the side.

Mmm lentils

Mr W., got the iced coffee and he remarked that he didn't like it since there was no ice, it had no ice cream and was still quite warm. The coffee flavour itself was quite good.

Indimex Cafe Bar Restaurant

Atmosphere: 7, super cute restaurant with interesting artwork, great decorations and lots of different seating arrangements. 
Service: 7, pretty good service! The two waitresses seemed busy but were always easy to find. We had a slight hiccup where fajitas were placed on the wrong docket, and we had to wait a bit longer for the food to arrive. It was very quick service all in all and they came up to us multiple times to ask if we needed anything else. That being said, we were invited there as guests so there's that too.
Food: 8, really excellent food! Huge portions, well cooked food, a great explanation of what everything is on the menu and reasonable prices for a main. I would happily go here again for lunch with friends especially as everything on the menu is easily shared between a group of people.